Newsletter 13

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

PO Box 780 - Wollongong NSW 2520- Ph 4229 4266 - Fax 4226 5104 www.smithshill-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

September 1st 2014

Coming events Week 8 Beginning Monday 1st September

Monday Final exams commence- 2 weeksSchool council meeting - 7.30pm

Tuesday Legacy Week Badge DayThursday State Country Chess K.O.Week 9 Beginning Monday 8th September

Monday Year 10 Leadership training and ca-reers excursion - 2 days

Tuesday Music 2 HSC performance examsU/15 basketball at Beaton Park

Wednesday Music 1 HSC performance examsYrs 8,9,10 year meetings period 2

Friday Japan study tour

PRINCIPAL’S REPORTIn addition to developing the academic talent of our students, Smith’s Hill High School has a proud tradition of providing a wide range of extra-curricular opportunities that develop the whole student. As such, Smith’s Hill High School has continued its support of Southern Stars and the opportunity it provides students from across southern NSW to perform and be part of a quality, large scale production.The 2014 performance (#webelieve2014) brought together about 2800 students from 92 schools and included an inspiring and energetic mix of outstanding dancers, vocalists, musicians, actors and acrobats. Students of all ages, primary and secondary, combined to create a two hour visual extravaganza that showcased the unlimited talents and excellence in performance and creativity being nurtured in our public schools. The kaleidoscope of colour, sound and movement with mass dance numbers and intimate solos was absolutely breathtaking.

The performance was themed around the journey one takes from childhood, through the teenage years to adulthood. Throughout each of the three segments, there was a particular focus on the exploration of the development of belief systems throughout life and the things we value as

individuals, as a community, and as a global society. The concluding segment was very powerful in its message with a broader examination of the things that we as people believe in including themes of social justice, standing together and compassion. Inspiration was drawn from the life experiences of Malala Yousafzai and her activism for rights to education and for women. The Malala Yousafzai quotes delivered by students (including Helenna Barone-Peters from Year 9) amidst the background of poignant lighting effects and reflective music was a moving reminder of the struggles faced by others and the benefits we enjoy as a society, including education. “Dear brothers and sisters, we want schools and education for every child’s bright future. We will continue our journey to our destination of peace and education for everyone. No one can stop us. We will speak for our rights and we will bring change through our voice. We must believe in the power and the strength of our words. Our words can change the world. Because we are all together, united for the cause of education. And if we want to achieve our goal, then let us empower ourselves with the weapon of knowledge and let us shield ourselves with unity and togetherness.” - Malala Yousafzai

We would like to acknowledge the support and hard work that so many Smith’s Hill High School parents, students, ex-students, staff and ex-staff provided to ensure the success of Southern Stars. Our students were involved in every aspect of the 2014 performance including back stage operations, orchestra, school group dance, choir, vocalists and feature dancers. In particular, we would like give special recognition to Mrs Jan Rojas and her tireless efforts and continued support of all students involved in Southern Stars. The countless number of costumes that she has created and the catering needs met by Mrs Rojas have been greatly appreciated by so many over the past 15 years.

David C. DeitzPrincipal

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

DEBATINg AND PuBLIC SPEAkINgSouth Coast Public SpeakingSmith’s Hill high school (SHHS) completed a very exciting week of debating and public speaking last week with many significant achievements.

On Tuesday evening, 12 of SHHS’s public speakers competed in the South Coast Public Speaking competition at Holy Spirit College. There was a record level of schools and speakers entered with over 150 students from 15 schools represented.

Our students were a little nervous when they saw that Mr Dietz was a member of our support crew, but they didn’t disappoint. Every single SHHS speaker placed in their respective groups, which gave SHHS a cumulative score of 33 gaining them first place for the seventh consecutive year.

Once again the comradery displayed by all Smith’s Hill high school speakers and supporters was simply beautiful.Following are the results:L. Thompson – 1st PlaceC. Turner – 1st PlaceG. Mahon – 1st PlaceA. Hedges – 1st PlaceL. McAneny – 2nd PlaceA. Yang – 2nd PlaceU. Jith – 2nd PlaceS. De Mayo – 2nd PlaceV. Recinos – 2nd PlaceH. McClure – 3rd PlaceT. Behl-Shanks – 3rd Place

Congratulations team!

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

Year 8 DebatingOn Thursday SHHS’s Year 8 debating team travelled to Wollongong High school to compete in Round 1 of their Premier’s debating competition.

SHHS were the negative for the topic, ‘That we should ban junk food advertising’. SHHS won the debate and will now proceed to Round 2 of the competition. Well done and good luck to uditha, Vanessa, Isabella and Simon.

Lucie has represented SHHS for the past 5 years…SHHS commitment!

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

CHS STATE TRAMPOLININg AND TuMBLINg CHAMPIONSHIPSCongratulations to Zac Ashby, Year 9, who received a NSWCHS gold medal for winning the 13 years boys tumbling at the NSWCHS Trampolining championships which was held in Gosford on the 25th and 26th August. A great effort!

Congratulations Zac

YEAR 12 LAPTOP gRADuATION guIDE 2014Congratulations to all Year 12 students that have made it this far.... and your green laptop has survived!!! The laptop graduation process is now open and we encourage all Year 12 students with a green laptop to graduate and "unlock" their computer. For more information on graduating your laptop please visit the Smith’s Hill High School website and download the Laptop Graduation document. When you present your laptop to Mr. Necovski for graduation it should be accompanied by a signed copy (page 1) of the laptop graduation document. Laptops will not be accepted without page 1 signed and accepted. PS: DONT FORGET TO BACKUP ALL OF YOUR PERSONAL DOCUMENTS BEFORE LAPTOP GRADUATION. Good luck in your exams.

SCHOOL CAPTAINS 2015A week ago the MPU was a hive of activity as students voted for our School Captains for 2015

Over 90% of the school population, students and staff voted at lunchtime. The nominees were required to submit an application, present a speech to the school and attend an interview in front of a panel.

All of the nominees would have made excellent Captains and should be commended for the time and effort they put into this process.

The Captains for 2015 are Danika Adamski and Hugh McClure. Our Vice Captains are Rosie Simmons and Wil Farrar.

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

BOOk WEEkThe Book Week display started off well focusing on the theme Connect to Reading with many students writing their favourite book on a paper cog. While the cutting out of the cogs was arduous the decision surrounding the favourite book was even more difficult. Most students fell into one of two categories : the ones who knew instantly which book had made a lasting impression on them or those who simply could not decide. I fell into the last category and only decided when it was pointed out that the librarian should have one cog on display. What did we choose? Books ranged from popular current tomes like Harry Potter to childhood favourites like Grug . It was interesting to see the range and very few were repeated… which says a lot for the diversity of the students and their interests.

The Reading Club held a literature trivia quiz at lunchtime and this was a great success. Thanks to Lucy, Elizabeth, Louise and Max there were plenty of questions that tested our knowledge. Congratulations to all teams who braved the storm and entered the spirit of the quiz. As we didn’t finish the rounds we have decided to hold another trivia quiz next term.

Winning teams… it was a tie… were The Lilay McMayhems featuring Ronie (Lucy Passlow, Lily McMahon, Ronan Skyring and Emma Ballinger) and The Wind Rises (Acadia Babister, Brooke Eager, Lillian Reeves and Penny Chadjinicolaou). Congratulations to those teams and the challenge is on to retain your crowns next term. Many thanks to all those who helped, particularly the staff and Readers’ Club.

Premier’s Reading ChallengeCongratulations to all those students who completed their Premier’s reading challenge (PRC) last week. Many students started off with enthusiasm but fell to the wayside as their time became filled with other enterprises. It was good that we had so many students reading and taking the time to update their data entries. Congratulations to Joshua Bannister, Macey Crane, Arayana Ghose, Georgia Green, Grace Mahon, Bianca McAven, Jessica Mcdonnell, Cormac Onsman, Justin Quinn, Cooper Walker-O’Loughlan, Emma Ballinger, Grady Harland, Uditha Jith, Erin Maltby, Stephanie Lam and Alice Yang for achieving their PRC goals.

This term we have had the chess and draughts challenge continue for moments of stress relief. It has proven to be such a success that it is sometimes hard to guide the students back to their studies. Nevertheless, the students have appreciated the opportunities offered and thanks to Mr Farquhar for making the chess board to fit the larger pieces.

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

Some new books have been very popular with a trilogy from Angie Sage , the new Diana Gaboldon book, the James Dashner series and Kate McCaffrey taking precedence over other authors. If you want to know the latest acquisitions look on the school web site for current library purchases

Maths and Stats by Email is a free fortnightly email newsletter featuring maths news and activities.

Maths and Stats by Email contains:• the latest news from the world of maths• hands-on maths activities to try yourself• curious and interesting maths websites• puzzles to tease your brain• news about the latest maths events• occasional competitions.

Explore maths through experiments and activities you can try at home or at school. The activities:• use easy-to-find, everyday materials• explore maths in a hands-on way• are explained using everyday language• are tested, so you can be sure they work.

Follow the link to this fortnight’s newsletter- Short paths win Fields medal

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

SOuTHERN STARS CHOIRFirst things first, Ms Jones-Sweeting is a realist! “I don't dance very well, nor is my singing fantastic, but what I lack in skill I make up for in enthusiasm.”

Last week Ms Jones-Sweeting had the pleasure of spending four days with a lovely group of girls from our school who were part of the Southern Stars choir. They had an intense time learning our song lyrics and dance moves and were “a lot more coordinated and in tune than I was.”

Ms Jones-Sweeting would like to thank Eva Lin, Helen Soukhavong, Olive Cullen and Katerina Katakis from Year 7 and Ruby Adams, Zara Anastas and Jesse Tran from Year 10, for making her job so much easier, for being so adaptable and cooperative and for being such lovely ladies to spend time with. Well done girls!

Southern Stars “selfie”

TOuRNAMENT Of MINDS 2014 – THE TOMINATORS gET TO THE STATE fINAL!It required the skills, the brains, the hearts. It required the blood and sweat of every single one of its victims. Under the gruelling scrutiny of a panel of three judges, eight teams of seven battled out against the clouds, the sun, the other schools, and above all, themselves, in the ultimate competition of wit and creativity. It is of course, Tournament of Minds.

This year, the amount of people who auditioned for Tournament of Minds was overwhelmingly large in comparison to the numbers of previous years and so this year, Smith’s Hill High School alone sent eight separate teams into the competition to reach Melbourne, with two teams competing in each of the four disciplines: Applied Technology, Language Literature, Maths Engineering, and Social Sciences.

With a new venue this year at Corpus Christi Catholic High School, we said goodbye to our old venue at Saint John the Evangelist High School in Nowra, as all fifty-six competitors (along with our very own Mr Cutler) started afresh in Oak Flats from eight to nine in the morning on the beautiful day that was Sunday the twenty-fourth.

It was a demanding day as each of our teams presented their own ten minute presentations to the judges before rushing off to the spontaneous challenge which, I have no doubt was the cause of every single one of our distress.

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

Smith’s Hill High SchoolPROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN A SPIRIT OF TRUST AND CO-OPERATION

uOW RESEARCH STuDY DuRINg SCHOOL HOLIDAYS - REDuCINg ADOLESCENT SEDENTARY TIMEDo you have a child in years 7 or 8 at High School?Would they be interested in participating in a research study for 2 days of the school holidays? If you think they would be interested in participating in our study aimed at reducing adolescent sedentary time please read on.

The Early Start Research Institute at the university of Wollongong is seeking volunteers for a new study examining the acute effects of reduced sitting time on adolescents during a school day. Adolescents will be compensated for their participation in the study with 2 x $20 vouchers and parents will be given $20 for travel costs.

What does the study involve?• You and your child will visit the University of Wollongong three times.• On the first visit they will be familiarised with the study and on the second and third visit they will

be involved in mimicking a school day in our state of the art whole room calorimeter so that we can measure the energy the expend.

• During the activities your child will wear several activity monitors while in the calorimeter.

If your child fits the following criteria and are interested please contact us:• Aged 12-15 years• Does not suffer from: Prader-Willi syndrome, Bardet-Biedl syndrome, diabetes, coeliac disease, PKU

or other metabolic disorders, cystic fibrosis, multiple food allergies, significant physical disability or developmental disability eg. restricts age-appropriate play or any other diseases where the primary conditions or syndromes are associated with obesity, or other chronic disease.

• Has a Body Mass Index (BMI) which is above the healthy range for their age and gender. Participants who do not meet these inclusion criteria will be asked if they would be willing to participate at a later date if further funding is gained for a study among adolescents with a lower BMI.

If you would like more information, please call Anisse Penning or Anne-Maree Parrish on the study hotline: 4221 5098 or email:acp177@uowmail.edu.au This study has been approved by the University of Wollongong Human Research Ethics Committee( HE14/069).

At the end of the day the results were as follows:

Honours to our Applied Technology team (Rose) Honours to our Maths Engineering team (Black) Honours to our Social Sciences team (Pink)

And the team going to through to State at the University of New South Wales on the 14th of September is… Our Language Literature team (Olive)! That’s right; Ashlynn Davies, Stephanie Lam, Elinor Stephenson, Lily McMahon, Saskia Cook-Knowles, Olive Cullen, and myself will be going through to the state finals in two weeks’ time and hopefully, we’ll be able to make it through to the Australasian-Pacific finals in Melbourne and bring back gold for Smith’s Hill! A.Yang