PRINCIPAL’S REPORT

TERM 3 WEEK 8 2021

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

06 - 10 Sept

13 - 17 Sept

20 - 24 Sept

School Upgrades We have tried to find as much of a silver lining in the current situation as possible. While the current LGA restrictions have made things even more difficult, we have navigated these to continue our plans for upgrading the school. We have tried to get some projects up and running to use this time to our advantage. The most exciting of these is the commencement of ground works for the construction of our brand new state of the art oval. Safety fencing is up and the construction of a ramp to allow heavy vehicle access is being created. While is this is an extremely large project which is scheduled to take several months, it is great to see that lots of the works will happen when the boys are still off site.

We have also has a number of classrooms freshly painted. The most dramatic difference of these are the two Visual Art rooms which were pretty dark and uninviting. They are now bright white and just waiting to be covered in the paint, clay and charcoal of the boys’ artistic endeavours.

Reading Targets It has been great to see that the majority of boys are still engaging in the Accelerated Reading Program. This is an expectation of every boy 7-10 even while they are learning from home. There were a large number of boys who had already exceeded their Term 3 targets by week 6. If your son has exceeded his reading target, he can expect to receive a congratulatory letter – and a special something extra from me – in the mail over the next few days. Wellbeing Online This is the current week’s self-report on how the boys are feeling. It would be great if you could have a conversation with your son about safety online. Unfortunately there are a whole lot of dodgy emails and social media posts doing the rounds at the moment. Millions of kids across the country are currently spending extended hours at home online and the people who operate online scams know this. Please remind your son that he should not click on a link that he does not trust. If it looks too good to be true it probably is – the world is not full of people offering teenagers $10,000,000 for nothing, offers of free goodies or super models who want to connect with 15 year old boys at school.

Dwayne Hopwood Principal

PARENTING WEBINAR

On Wednesday September 15 at 6.30pm, the ABHS P&C is hosting a free webinar with one of the stars of parenting education in Australia – Maggie Dent. Commonly known as the ‘queen of common sense’, Maggie Dent is one of Australia’s favourite parenting authors, and also the host of the ABC podcast ‘Parental As Anything’. She has a particular interest in adolescence, and is an undisputed champion of boys. Maggie will be talking about the ways we can communicate better with our teenage sons and how we understand the changes they are going through as they grow into adulthood. If you would like to submit questions in advance we will be taking them on the Ashfield Boys High School P&C Facebook page so make sure to sign up to be part of that discussion. Ironically given the times we are living through, Maggie’s presentation will be called ‘Adolescence, Unplugged’. We will send you a link out next week to join in the conversation with Maggie.

7SHELLEY CHALLENGES 3 AND 4

The competitors are trying really hard to stay in the “I want an EB voucher challenge”. The last two challenges have seen the boys take out the garbage with crazy hair and making a loved one a cup of tea or coffee. As we can see from that caregivers faces, they are also enjoying these challenges, thank you for your support of the boys and creating a little bit of fun in our weekly lessons together. 7Shelley and I are really enjoying the images they are creating and look forward to seeing their submissions. I suspect the next challenge of cleaning the toilet might knock a few more competitors out, but you never know! Well done boys on your participation and sense of fun!

Ms Morris - Visual Arts - Teacher

9MAA- INFOGRAPHIC POSTER

This contribution prepared by Nathan Soo

Mr W Tyler - PDHPE Teacher

This contribution prepared by Oliver Crescitelli-Gregg

This contribution prepared by Jack Kellington

Ms M Thomas - HT Computing/Mathematics

HORROR POEMS

7D was given the task after reading the poem ‘The Lane’ to write their own poem based on a similar idea and incorporating a rhyming pattern. Students needed to think of a normal event or situation and slowly transition that activity into a HORROR experience.

The Disappearing Sleepover Chad walked up the stairs into the bathroom Jack waited downstairs in his bed. Chad didn't come back soon So Jack scratched his head. He followed chad and knocked on the door Some strange sounds caught his attention He thought his friend was on the floor So he pushed the door with immense tension. When jack opened the door His friend wasn't on the floor He looked around the room But his friend was no more Jack turned around to see a shadow He walked closer when he saw a body ripped in half From around the corner a monster appeared With a vicious growling laugh by Vincent Mazur

By Bowie Poskitt

The Party The party is loud But it isn’t in my mind The people singing proud All the parents are kind Suddenly one gone After playing guess who No one even notices Another one gone, that’s two While we’re playing UNO One goes to sleep A while later, he’s gone His parents start to weep All of us are here but more start to go WE get startled so badly just from a loud crow WE look in the room and then more have disappeared

by Narwin Chuatrakul

8Florey is currently working on a unit titled Visual Worlds. Our first text has been ‘Woolvs in the Sitee’ by Margret Wild and Anna Spudvilas. After reading the book and various resources that reviewed and analysed the ideas represented by the illustrations and language, students chose their own double page from the picture book and deconstructed it using a jamboard. Once they had completed their own analysis they recorded themselves using flipgrid to present their response. Q: 'What is the purpose of your double page in developing the ideas of the text? How have both Wild and Spudvials done this?' Page 5 and 6: On this page we catch the first glimpse of our main character, Ben and we begin to see how the woolvs affected him on a personal level. Let's start with the imagery of the double page. Ben is shrouded in darkness, what we see of his face is concerned and the background is distorted. It gives the viewer a sense of dread and unsettles them. The background also ties into the story. The paragraph talks about how Ben lost his family due to woolvs and while reading this, you can see photos of said family on the wall behind him. The text describes his living conditions, too. It tells us that he lives in a one room basement and is hiding from these woolvs. Overall, this double page is simple yet effective in expanding the world and making the reader sympathise with Ben. By Harry Tucker

PICTURE BOOKS

David Temperley Presentation

By Charlie McQueen

Archie Chandler-Lee

Alex Egana

Ms A Whitting - English Teacher

Mr T McCusker - Teacher/Librarian

STUDENT ADMINISTRATION UPDATES Dear families, Hope you are staying safe during this challenging time. Over the next few months, we may need to mail out books and or paperwork to our students. Can I please ask that you make sure all contact details we have here at school are correct. If you believe that your contact detail need updating, please use the “Change of Address” form on our website to update and return the form to the school via email or post. Reminder Change of Address and or details Late or Absent Forms Travel Exemption Forms Are available on our website to download, hard copies are available at the Student Service Desk. Emails If you are not receiving emails from the school, please check your SPAM/JUNK mail folder as emails maybe going into this folder.

Thank you for your understanding. Poppy Sotiriou School Administration Manager

https://ashfieldbo-h.schools.nsw.gov.au/