Missing Link TERM 2 2013
PRINCIPAL’S REPORT Although this has been a very short term, it has been a very productive one. One of the highlights for the deputy principals and myself was the opportunity to participate in the Principal Australia Institute Student Principal for a Day on 6 June. As part of their work leading the school on that day, our student principal and deputy principals prepared the principal's Missing Link Report for this term. Please enjoy reading it and thanks to Beau, Ashleigh and Tye.
10 work experience, the successful start to LEAPS (run by Ms Andrews), mock trial and debating. It’s fair to say we have had a busy start to 2013.
Almost all senior students are approaching their HSC (Year 12) and the new ROSA, (Years 10 and 11) very well. Year 10 has completed half yearly exams and Year 12 have worked hard for their Trial HSC examinations. The Junior School has also had half yearly testing this term and Years Missing Link Report: Prepared by the 7 and 9 did the NAPLAN tests. Student Principals for a Day- Beau Hardy, Ashleigh Hanshaw and Tye Delaney. The Uniform shop has been a roaring success and is now open Mondays and What an amazing end to Semester 1 we Thursdays 8am-12pm. It has been lovely have had this year. With the student seeing everyone in their new winter principal for a day, personalised learning uniforms. week, work experience, leadership programs, sporting events and many other Next term we have students looking opportunities to have students taking part forward to the ski trip, more knockout in the life of the school. sports, preparation for the China trip in the September/October holidays and many This term we have seen new staff other events. members get greatly involved in the school. We welcomed Miss Millgate to And of course on the 6th June, we had the the learning support staff as the aboriginal successful completion of the PAI Student education officer (AEO). We have also Principal for a Day program where Year 10 seen outstanding work from existing staff students Ashleigh Hanshaw, Beau to connect more with the students. Hardy and Tye Delaney stepped up to replace Ms Cawsey, Ms Mattimore and Some of the involvements of students Mr Pesle. What a great job! include the successful completion of Year Rooty Hill High School Learning, Leadership & Achievement North Parade, Rooty Hill NSW 2766 P.O. Box 70, Rooty Hill NSW 2766 Phone: 02 9625 8104 Fax: 02 9625 4208 Find us on: Web: www.rootyhill-h.schools.nsw.edu.au Facebook: www.facebook.com/rootyhillhs RHHS Alumni Network: www.linkedin.com (GROUP: Rooty Hill High School)
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A message to parents & caregivers, from RHHS Parents and Citizens Association As we reach the end of term two and our kids and teachers take a much earned mid-year break, it is a good time to reflect on the values our children embrace in attending Rooty Hill High School. These values are emphasised in the school’s PERSIST motto, that all students agree to on enrolment and live by in their school lives. This states that they will “Respect the rights of others, themselves and the school in an environment of harmony and personal responsibility”. As parents and carers, we also need to set an example for our children and abide by these same values when attending Rooty Hill High School. This means treating all students, parents, teachers and admin staff at the school with the utmost respect. Please remember this when dealing with the school and treat our school community with the respect that they always show us and our children, and deserve in return. All parents and carers are encouraged to come to a P&C Association Meeting to discuss this, or any other topic. Meetings are held on the third Monday of each month during the school term starting at 7:30pm in the Professional Learning Centre at the school. The next meeting is Monday 19 August. LEAPS RHHS has been participating in this program for 8 years now with our partner Law firm Ashurst. LEAPS, Law Firms Encouraging and Assisting Promising Students (LEAPS) is an innovative school student workplacementoring program for Year 9 students. The LEAPS mentoring program establishes a structured, appropriate relationship between a volunteer mentor and student. The mentor encourages and guides the school student, offers support, advice, friendship, positive reinforcement and sets a constructive example for the student. The program has had a successful start this term with 20 Year 9 students taking part.
UBS FINANCE SELECTION Congratulations to "our" Breayla Harding for being selected to attend the UBS Finance Academy during the first week of July. This is a prestigious and much sought after opportunity from NSW best and brightest students. 2
Students participating in the LEAPS program at King St Wharf with Mrs Sarah Andrews
LEARNING NEIGHBOURHOOD YOUNG WRITER’S COMPETITION T h e 1 0th a n n u a l L e a r n i n g N e i g h b o u r h o o d Yo u n g W r i t e r ’ s Presentation was held at RHHS in May. We have invited a renowned author each year and this year we celebrated our decade of Young Writers by inviting our very first speaker, author James Roy, to return to the school. We have had fantastic speakers in the past including Jane Caro, Ursula Dubosarsky, Debra Oswald and Irini Savvides. James was happy to speak on the occasion and all were impressed with his remarks on writing, witty integration of exotic foods, and the respect paid to our own writers efforts. This year student writers were asked to write a persuasive letter on the theme “Our Neighbourhood”. There were book prizes for the 4 major prize winners and certificates for the other participants. The overall school winner for RHHS this year was Chloe Chua for her work, a letter to the editor entitled the “Lungs of Western Sydney”, decrying the destruction of parkland in favor of industrial development. The afternoon was a celebration of the efforts of student writers from the four schools in our Learning Neighbourhood group which comprises Eastern Creek Public, Minchinbury Public, Rooty Hill
Public and Rooty Hill High. With the audience made up of K-12 students from the four schools, teachers and parents. Music was provided by Chloe Chua and Erica Eluna. As always, this was a great afternoon of celebration, thanks to all the staff from the Learning Neighbourhood community who helped to make it a success.
GELP VISITORS IMPRESSED BY WHAT RHHS HAS TO OFFER RHHS was selected as 1 of 3 schools in the State to showcase the quality leadership and programs on offer as part of the recent GELP visit. The Global Education Leader’s Program is a partnership of leaders and consultants from world-class organisations, collaborating in a global community with teams of key education leaders who are seriously committed both to transforming education in practice and to developing the personal skills they need to lead the changes required. The team of educational leaders from South Korea, China and the Bill Gates Foundation in the US, visited RHHS to look at the various educational programs we are delivering and they reported back their findings that we are at the cutting edge of providing a quality 21st Century learning environment for our staff and students.
UNIFORM SHOP AT SCHOOL Open every Monday & Thursday 8am-12pm WINTER UNIFORMS AVAILABLE NOW if you need financial assistance please call the office to make arrangements
MOCK TRIAL The RHHS Mock Trial team has progressed through to the fifth round of competition this year, making it the second consecutive year to do so. Congratulations to students Seilala Latai (Year 11), Jaydon Carling (Year 11), Breayla Harding (Year 11), Payge Harding (Year 10), Caylan Bowring (Year 10) and Sasha Vucicevic (Year 11).
YEAR 11 CROSSROADS Crossroads is a compulsory program for all senior students in NSW high schools. The rationale behind the program is that because adolescence is marked by increased exposure to a range of risks to health and well-being, including mental health problems, death or injury from road accidents, and exposure to drug use, there is a need to address these issues with students in a forum different to that of a normal classroom. Students in Years 11 and 12 are a diverse group because of differences in cultural background, personal experiences, geographic location, gender and values held by the local community and the family. They vary in their levels of maturity and in their ability to face challenges of this time of life, such as exam pressures, learning to drive, decisions about the future and the pressure to use alcohol, tobacco or illicit drugs. The way in which they cope with these issues in late adolescence can have a significant impact on the rest of their lives. For the first time in the school’s recent history, we offered Year 11 students the opportunity to attend a Crossroads camp at the Great Aussie Bush Camp in Kincumber. Over 70 students attended and participated in activities such as Rock Climbing, High Ropes, Survivor Wa t e r C h a l l e n g e , G i a n t S w i n g , Commando, Battle of the Sexes, Lost Island Mud Challenge and Crossroads Workshops. See back page for photos
We are planning to send teams of students to participate in the Junior Robocup Soccer Challenge which is held every August at the University of NSW. Students are working hard to build and program both defence and attack robots for the competition. For further information regarding the Robotics Club, contact Ms Graham in the Technology staffroom.
ABORIGINAL EDUCATION RHHS is pleased to welcome Ms. Stacey Millgate who has been working with our junior indigenous students for individual learning support through the Learning Centre. Stacey has also been assisting with the AFL Indigenous Academy and the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience.
Bangarra Dance Group at the Opera House on Thursday June 6. They enjoyed the opportunity to meet star students from Academy schools with Ms. Millgate and AFL Academy leaders Luke and Matt. We have also been lucky enough to enjoy a Question and Answer session with players from the AFL Indigenous Academy on June 17. Indigenous students from Years 7,8, 9 participated in this session and the Giants players then ran a skills workshop with selected students from PD/H/PE.
Reconciliation Week was marked in the school with two of our Year 11 students launching a Reconciliation Taskforce. Jay Edwards and Jaydon Carling spoke to students at assembly about the importance of working together as a student body to raise awareness about Reconciliation in our local community.
AUSTRALIAN INDIGENOUS MENTORING EXPERIENCE Our involvement with the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience has started with bright enthusiasm from students in Year 9,10 and 11. The first day at the University of Sydney was on May 24 and Session 2 was on June 21. Years 9 and 10 have focused on sessions related to identity, subject selection and leadership. Year 11 have focused on managing demands of the senior school, identity and social justice issues.
AFL INDIGENOUS ACADEMY This term has seen our involvement with the AFL Indigenous Academy grow deeper with more students participating. Students have participated in sessions on Reconciliation, Racism, The Darug Language and commemorate the life of the lead singer of Yothu Yindi. Kyle Pont of Year 7 has been a star student who won a research exercise on families and took home an Aboriginal painting and a backpack for the best attendance. Blake Cannon and Kyle Pont were also lucky enough to be invited to a Premiere event for the
UNSW NULGIRI INDIGENOUS WINTER SCHOOL We are very proud to announce that both of our students who applied for the highly competitive UNSW Indigenous Winter School were successful. Mikielah Finn of Year 12 and Jay Edwards of Year 11 have secured a place to live on- campus for the second week of the July School holidays and experience a ‘taster’ of university study. Mikielah will be studying Social Work and Jay will be studying Business. We look forward to reporting back on their experiences next term.
ROBOTICS CLUB This year we have a number of keen students who are meeting in their lunch breaks and after school on Wednesdays to learn more about programming with Lego robots. The group are constructing robots and then learning to program these robots to participate in soccer games. Year 7 students from the Robotics Club 3
IT’S ALL HAPPENING IN MATHS Term 2 was rather short but full of excitement in Mathematics. After Half Yearly assessment period, your maths teachers worked tirelessly to complete marking, work sample collection, grading and preparation of verbal and written feedback to students. We are proud to announce the following students achieved the highest assessment marks in their year groups: Year 7: Lathuksan Subakaran Year 8: Lisa Vu Year 9: Jason Ma We also wish our Year 12 students success in their Trial HSC Examination. A U S T R A L I A N M AT H E M AT I C S COMPETITION The Australian Mathematics Competition will be held next term on 1st August. Currently about 40 students will represent RHHS to participate in this mind-challenging event, and there are still places available for year 7 and 8 students. The cost for enrolment is $5.50 and permission notes can be collected from the Maths staffroom. MATHEMATICS OLYMPIAD The following student Olympians c o m p e t e d i n t h e fi r s t 2 M a t h s Olympiads held on 22nd May and 12th June. These Olympians showed a high level of skill and insightful mathematical thinking. A great day was had by all. Three Olympiad sessions still remain and will be held in July, August and September. If you are interested in becoming an Olympian please come and talk to Miss Edney in the Mathematics staff room. Congratulations to: Luthuksan Subakaran, Andrew Birmingham, Morwarid Faiz, Chaithra Sumesh, Jason Ma, Lara Ferri, Renee Panis, Angel Domingo, Tarynn Cooke, Ky Staal, Kopal Gupta, Helen Liang, Samantha Lazaro, Victoria San, Sydney Lavaro, Sabrina Zaman, Maelody Gevero, Harash Yaqubi.
Here is a chance for you to solve a question from the Mathematics Olympiad: (6 Minutes) In a stationary store, pencils have one price and pens have another price. Two pencils and three pens cost 78c. But three pencils and two pens cost 72c. How much does one pencil cost? 4
Mangahigh Game: “Pyramid Panic” The object of this addictive maths game is to help a mummified prince to escape to freedom, by solving mathematical puzzles and building a path across the voids of the pyramid's burial chambers. Unfortunately, the pyramid contains many evil characters such as skull bats, skeleton thieves and a ferocious mystical Egyptian demon called Ammit, all of whom are intent on preventing the escape. Stay ahead of Ammit and zap other enemies with your Ankh Sceptre while you select shapes and build a path out of the tomb. Please let your maths teacher know if you are keen to join this adventure, and improve your problem solving skills at the same time.
MANDARIN MOVING FAST AT RHHS R H H S h a s o f fi c i a l l y s i g n e d t h e agreement with DEC Confucius Institute to have a Confucius Classroom established on campus. It enables us to provide a wide range of Asia literacy and culture education activities, including:
first time RHHS have been involved in a world language competition. The competition was held between 20th to 30th May. RHHS answered a total of 91,437 questions in 10 days. Our school is ranked 87th overall in Chinese (out of 505 schools), 541st overall globally (out of 1054 schools) and 4th for Samoan in NSW (out of 22 schools). The following students are to be congratulated on their amazing effort: Gold Awards: Jason Ma Bronze Awards: Morwarid Faiz, Ky Staal, Frances Amurao, Chaithra Sumesh, Crystel Bandul, Jaeda Ziomislic, Caitlin Puckeridge Credit Awards: Sonia Soliz, Lisa Vines, Rotsen Villegas, Arizo Aghdar, Manita Sila, Christine Gamsby, Sharon Rogers
• Conducting Chinese language and culture education programs and Chinese language proficiency test for young Australians • Providing professional learning for Chinese language teachers • Organising cultural exchange programs between local and Chinese primary and secondary schools.
Successful LOTE Students
We will receive additional support from DEC and Chinese Language Council International (HANBAN), including a large teaching and learning resource donation and a full time language teaching assistant from China. In term 2 the Confucius Classroom has offered a Chinese language and culture program to students from Rooty Hill PS. These students participated in language and culture lessons to enrich their knowledge in Chinese language. Year 9 students from the Chinese language elective class also played a lead role in this OutReach program, supporting and guiding the year 6 students in their language learning. P E R F E C T E F F O R T: 2 3 1 L O T E students from year 7 - 9 participated in the 2013 Language Perfect World Championship (the biggest online language competition). This was the
JAEDA REPRESENTS RHHS AT SYDNEY WEST DANCE FESTIVAL Year 7 student Jaeda Zlomislic had the honour of being the Master of Ceremonies at the recent Sydney West Dance Festival. The festival was held over a whole week at Evans Theatre at Panthers and involved performances from many schools across the region. Jaeda certainly did the school proud as she showcased her quality public speaking skills to the hundreds of people in the audience.
FROM THE CAREERS DESK…. Many students have taken advantage of the opportunities being offered to them through the Careers office at RHHS. As well as many one-to-one careers interviews, the following careers activities have taken place this year: • “What’s uni all about” information session for senior students with the Mt Druitt University Hub Adviser • White Card training for Year 10 students • Defence Force Recruiting presentation for senior students • UWS Day for Year 11 where students visited UWS and attended seminars of their choice highlighting various course and career choices. • ‘Worlds of Work’ – three of our Year 10 students were successful in gaining a place in this selfdevelopment course (see student comments below). • 18 senior students have now been signed up as School-Based Trainees with organisations such as Qantas, The Commonwealth Bank, McDonalds, City Beach and the GWS Giants AFL Club. • Year 10 Work Experience from 17-28 June. The quotes below are from students commenting on their experience in the ‘Worlds of Work’ (WOW) program: “The leaders have taught me many new things that I applied these allowed me to change into the confident person i have always wanted to be. They have effectively encouraged me to pursue my dreams and my desires”. Jessica Franco “This program was to teach us how to succeed in the working world and the real world but it also gave me a confidence that I never really knew I had. It also gave me an experience I would never have dreamed of and I am so thankful I was able to take part in the program”. Caitlyn Rough “I was pushed to exit my comfort zone, take initiative and take every opportunity. I developed confidence I never thought I had. WOW created an environment where I could be myself without being judged. I could see the change in everyone at WOW especially Jessica and Caitlin as they continuously grew”. Sandra Evangalista
LEARNING NEIGHBOURHOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY DAYS Year 5 students from our Learning Neighbourhood Primary Schools came to RHHS to participate in a range of science and technology activities with our enthusiastic science and ICT teaching staff. The activities were a taster for what is to come for the excitable groups of students when they enter high school.
YEAR 10 VISUAL ARTS Ms Zeibots’ and Mr Krawiarz’s classes have worked on their portrait skills this semester. This year’s subject was our Deputy Principal Mr Pesle. Below is a portrait drawn by Nicole Delos Santos.
RHHS GRANDMASTERS – CHESS 4 members of the RHHS Chess Club took part in the Sydney South West Chess Competition this term and two have won their division championships. Sanjar Sarwar Year 8, Winner of Division 4 and Ky Staal Year 7, Winner of Division 5. This is the best result we have achieved over the past 5 years. Our congratulations to all the chess players, in particular our chess coach Mr Kumar. Please let him know if you are also interested in chess and plan to join our school team. The chess club meets every Thursday at Lunch. Currently we are participating in the NSW Junior Chess League Competition. Our students have been travelling to schools such as Girraween High, Baulkham Hills High, Quakers Hill High, and Terra Sancta College, and our rivalry is strong.
ONE55 The ONE55 Student Health and Fitness Program is up and running again this Students helping with the BBQ on the term with 30 new students taking on the Science & Technology Day. challenge of improving their fitness levels and making a lifestyle change. There has been a lot of sweat and a lot of hard work but the students have had some fantastic results.
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www.rootyhill-h.schools.nsw.edu.au 5
TERM 2 SPORT HIGHLIGHTS May. This included 6 boys teams and 3 girls teams. Although the boys had more teams it was the girls who got the gold with both the under 15s and opens girls teams achieving this fantastic result. The under 16s boys A team took home a silver medal. The NSW volleyball Schools Cup tournaments act as great preparation for those students who will be making the trip to Melbourne for the Australian Volleyball Schools cup in December. They also provide an excellent opportunity for year 7 students to try a new sport and develop their skills so they too can become champions of the future. RHHS BECOMES THE PREMIER VOLLEYBALL SCHOOL IN STATE The RHHS Open Boys and Girls Volleyball teams have made history by being the first teams to take out both titles of Sydney West Champions.
The girls beat Quakers Hill, Castle Hill, Cumberland, Colyton and Baulkham Hills High Schools to take out the title. To this point the girls have not lost a set. Both the open boys and girls knockout teams have now both qualified for the CHS top 16 knockout tournament. The The boys beat Pendle Hill, Kingswood, tournament will take place in the last St Marys Senior and Baulkham Hills week of term 2. High Schools to take out the title. The boys managed to win all games NSW VOLLEYBALL SCHOOLS CUP convincingly and only dropped 1 set in 4 MAY 2013 matches played. A record 9 RHHS teams were entered into the NSW volleyball schools cup in OPEN BOYS SOCCER TEAM The open boys’ soccer team made it to the semi-finals this year where they lost a tough game to Colo High School 3- 0. The boys should be commended on their commitment and sportsmanship. OPEN GIRLS SOCCER TEAM The open girls’ soccer team made it through to Round 3 where they lost a tough game to Glenmore Park HS. A big thank you to Ms Coleman in PDHPE for taking the team this year. GWS GIANTS CUP Our U/16 team were undefeated at the carnival beating St Agnus and St Dominic’s College, Jamison HS and Glenmore Park HS. They are now through to the Sydney West and South West Finals to be played in Term 3. BUCKLEY SHIELD RUGBY LEAGUE Our U/14s team made it through to the Sydney West final losing narrowly to a very big, strong and physical Merrylands HS. If the boys won this game they would have flown to Glen Innes to contest the NSW Quarter Finals. 6
SYDNEY WEST DANCE FESTIVAL RHHS were represented at the Sydney West Dance Festival by our brilliant young dance ensemble consisting of students from Years 7, 8 and 9. The performance was choreographed by Year 11 student Katelyn Osborne. WESTERN SYD WANDERERS CUP RHHS entered 2 teams in the Wanderers Cup Carnival. The teams consisted of boys and girls in Years 7 & 8. The Western Sydney Wanderers were there to cheer our boys on in defeating Mt Druitt 8-0. Coach Mr Krawiarz was full of praise for the boys team and indicated Blake Ford, Rhys Steward and Jackson Overton are future Socceroos.
STATE VOLLEYBALL SELECTIONS Congratulations to the following students who were selected in the following state volleyball teams. NSW CHS boys Mark Torzar NSW CHS girls Bentonina Laurenson, Charlotte Laurenson NSW All Schools Under 16s Jodeci Tukuitonga Denilson Pereira Noa Mafi
WHAT’S ON........ KEY EVENTS FOR TERM 3 Monday
July 15 Week 1
Week 2
STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAY July 22 SYDNEY WEST NETBALL GALA DAY
Tuesday
July 16
July 17
SCHOOL RESUMES FOR ALL STUDENTS July 23 CONCERT FOR KIDS
July 29 July 30 EDUCATION WEEK EDUCATION WEEK Week 3
Wednesday
SKI TRIP
Thursday
July 18 YEAR 12 CAREERS MARKET
Friday
July 19 NAIDOC ASSEMBLY
July 24 THEATRE EXCURSION
July 25 July 26 YEAR 8 INTO 9 YEAR 12 ANCIENT 2014 SUBJECT HISTORY EXC SELECTION PRESENTATION YEAR 9 LEAPS
July 31
August 1 August 2 EDUCATION WEEK EDUCATION WEEK
EDUCATION WEEK SKI TRIP
SKI TRIP
SKI TRIP
ART ON THE HILL
August 5 Week 4
August 6
August 7
August 8
STAFF PLT MEETINGS
August 9 YEAR 9 LEAPS AIME WORKSHOP
August 12 Week 5
August 14
August 15
August 20
August 21
August 22
August 16
LEARNING NEIGHBOURHOOD MEETING August 19
Week 6
August 13
SCHOOL COUNCIL P&C MEETING
August 23 YEAR 9 LEAPS
August 26
August 27
August 28
August 29
August 30
September 2
September 3
September 4
September 5
September 6
Week 7
Week 8
YEAR 11 EXAMINATIONS START
YEAR 11 EXAMINATIONS
YEAR 11 EXAMINATIONS
YEAR 11 EXAMINATIONS
YEAR 11 EXAMINATIONS YEAR 9 LEAPS
September 9 Week 9
YEAR 11 EXAMINATIONS
September 16 Week 10
PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS SCHOOL COUNCIL / P&C MEETING
September 10 YEAR 11 EXAMINATIONS
September 17 9 ‘Z’ ELECTIVE EXCURSIONS
September 11 YEAR 11 EXAMINATIONS
September 18 REACH CONCERT
September 12 CYBER SAFETY FORUM YEAR 11 EXAMINATIONS September 19 THEATRE EXCURSION
September 13 YEAR 11 EXAMINATIONS YEAR 9 LEAPS September 20 YEAR 12 GRADUATION
REACH CONCERT 7
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