Penrith Selective High School
September/October Newsletter 2021
From the Principal
Welcome back!
After 13 weeks of learning at home, an enormous effort by the staff, students and families it was just fantastic to see students and staff back onsite last Monday.
Two images below show the school nearing completion in 1949 and the Friday before school returned - 71 years apart, book ended by the end of World War 2 and a world still dealing with a pandemic. It is a comforting reminder that the school is strong and that we will come through this latest chapter stronger as a result of the care and compassion shown and through the commitment to the school’s motto - Altiora Peto - “Striving for the Highest”.
Thank you to every single member of the school community.
World Teachers’ Day
Australia celebrates World Teachers’ Day on the final Friday of October as the global day falls in our school holidays.
Students express their gratitude every lesson, almost always saying thank to the teacher for the lesson taught and in so many other ways.
The staff appreciated the video and written messages and we took the chance as staff to have lunch in the Alumni Garden. The first time many staff have seen each other in person since Term 2.
The lunch also celebrated recognition events for our SASS (School Administration and Support Staff), school cleaners and our Science Laboratory Technician, Mrs Eaves.
Congratulations to four staff who were awarded Excellence Awards by the NSW Teachers’ Guild for their work - Jaclyn Cush (Literacy Project), Brian Ferguson (Young Experts Enrichment Program), Dimity Scardanas (Stage 6 Academic Adviser and HSC English Teacher) and Anthony Vassallo (CAPA Enrichment Programs). These awards recognise outstanding staff from across the state in all 3 sectors and will be presented at a dinner next February when COVID cases allow.
Halloween and more student led events to come.
It was wonderful to finish the first week back catching up on events that aren’t also available when learning from home. Thank you to the SRC and their teacher coordinator, Mary Xiberras, for adding so much to school spirit with everyone back onsite.
We are very hopeful of having a number of events missed between now and the end of the year and I know that planning is underway for the 12 days of Christmas later this term.
Well done to all involved.
7-10 Yearly Exams - This week
Best of luck to all students in years 7-10 who will complete their yearly exams this week. My thanks to the P&C for supporting our request to run these assessments using the model used in the senior school as a one off. This breathing space will give students flexibility to travel outside of peak periods as we better understand the impacts of increased mobility and COVID.
Students are reminded that we want them to do their very best, but that teachers are also using the information diagnostically to identify gaps so that they can adapt their teaching this term and faculties can plan carefully for 2022.
Year 12-2022 (Assessment Block 1)
Our Year 11 students, now Year 12 2022 are very close to their first HSC assessment block.
Every lesson, task, practice paper and assessment counts moving forward.
A large team of experienced staff support Year 12 each year and details of the HSC Information Session will be sent later this week.
All families should attend this important session.
2021 HSC - Begins next week
Finally, my personal best wishes for all students sitting the HSC next week. It has been 2 years like no other, but you have done very well and it is essential to stay together and work all the way until the end.
I look forward to meeting with all HSC families on zoom this Thursday night to share final details. Information about this event has been emailed.
Sincere thanks once again and I hope it won’t be too long before we can have families back onsite.
Warm regards,
Mark Long
Principal
Main Quad 1949 (colourised by Derek Thompson) and 2021 on the Friday before students and staff returned from Learning at Home.
7 and 10 Deputy Principal Report | Ms Cush
I would like to personally welcome back all of our Year 7 and 10 students to face to face learning! It has been such a long time and there is no doubt that so many of you have changed.
I hope you have all been preparing well for your upcoming Yearly Examinations and I hope the luxury of flexible attendance will maximise that preparation.
As with everything at Penrith Selective High School, we keep pushing forward and looking to the future. In this report I’d like to explain a few things Year 7 and 10 have to look forward to upon their return to school following their examinations.
Year 7
It has not been the smooth start to high school but for the remainder of Term 4, you can look forward to reconnecting with your peers during our remaining wellbeing sessions and participating in your first ever end of year Recognition Assembly where students will be recognised for their outstanding effort and performance in 2021.
Year 10
Mrs Wallace and I have been busily planning and preparing for your Year 11 camp next year! This term, you can look forward to hearing more about this but it is scheduled for Week 3 of Term 1, next year. We expect permission notes and payment information to be released mid to late November.
To finish off this year’s Wellbeing Program, Ms Scardanas will be presenting on the mandatory All My Own Work Program and external organisation, Sleep Connections, will be visiting to discuss all things sleep as you begin thinking about embarking on your journey as a Senior Student in 2022.
Jaclyn Cush
Deputy Principal
REMINDER - POSTPONEMENT OF THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY LUNCHEON
Penrith High School's 70th Anniversary Reunion is to be postponed to Saturday 26 March 2022. Tickets already purchased will be transferred to the new date. If the new date is not suitable for you, a full refund will be made.
Venue: Penrith Paceway.
Years: 1950-2010
Time: 12 noon, for lunch at 1:00 p.m.
Tickets went on sale on Monday 21st June and will continue until 4th March 2022 or all sold and will cost $75 each.
Tickets are only available from Eventbrite
Penrith Perception Podcast
The latest episode of The Penrith Perception is out!
This episode is Part Two of Lockdown Diaries: The Light at the End of Lockdown. Last episode was a Day-in-the-life of learning from home. But now that there’s some light at the end of the tunnel, we thought we’d ask a number of students what the roadmap out of lockdown looks like.
You can listen to the episode here or search for us on Spotify.
Happy listening 🙂
Dimity Scardanas
Mufti Day for Halloween! Staff enjoying their World Teachers Day!
Press below for a thank you from the students!
Congratulations Sinduja and Nicholas!
A big congratulations to Year 12 students, Sinduja Sureshkumar and Nicholas Whelan for being awarded the very prestigious, Minister's Award for Student Achievement.
These awards are normally presented at Sydney Town Hall in a very special ceremony, but that is on hold at this time.
Copies of the awards will be placed in the A block hallway with other recipients from our school.
Thank you to you both for how well you have represented and served the school and wider community.
Thank you to all of the staff that support students every day and particularly to Ms Pipio for coordinating so many submissions and programs in her Head Teacher Co-Curricular Program role.
We are very proud of you both.
Mr Long
Below are copies of Sinduja's and Nicholas's transcripts in the program of the Minister's Award for Student Achievement
For the full program:
Australian Science Innovations
The Australian Science Olympiads are a national enrichment program for secondary science students. It provides rewarding opportunities for students to extend themselves way beyond school science.
Some students from Penrith Selective High School participated in the Olympiad Examinations. The examinations were conducted online during Term 3 due to remote learning.
Congratulations to the following students who achieved a Credit, a Distinction and High Distinction.
BIOLOGY
Distinction
Victor Qin (Yr10)
Dismitha Maha Baththanaralage (Yr11)
Credit
Supreethi Kanta (Yr11)
Daming Wang (Yr11)
Pavithran Thushiyendra (Yr11)
CHEMISTRY
Distinction
Gurveer Khalsa (Yr11)
Dismitha Maha Baththanaralage (Yr11)
Credit
Victor Qin (Yr10)
Supreethi Kanta (Yr11)
JUNIOR OLYMPIAD (NEW)
High Distinction
Victor Qin (Yr10)
Credit
Shubham Avrani (Yr7)
Adish Kuthyar Supreeth (Yr7)
Sukhmandeep Singh (Yr7)
Srivya Beknalikar (Yr8)
Arunabh Ganguly (Yr8)
Ishaan Khan (Yr8)
Mihin Rajasooriya (Yr8)
Simran Kaur (Yr9)
Madhav Tiwari (Yr10)
Unfortunately, due to technical issues the Physics Olympiad was not completed properly and the results could not be determined for our students.
Last year, Victoria Heath and Jamieson Berida achieved High Distinction in Chemistry and Physics, respectively. Both students were invited to attend the Olympiad Scholarship Program which took place during the summer holidays, earlier this year. A valuable and rewarding experience for both.
We look forward to having more students participate in the future, in the hope of celebrating more successes of our gifted students here at Penrith Selective High School.
Miss Trang Lam
Head Teacher Science
Mathematics Update
This Term we welcome back Mrs Norman from Maternity Leave. She will be working Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Ms Mikhail has left us for a permanent job at Epping Boys High School and we wish her lots of luck in her new role.
The results for the competitions we held are now in:
The Australian Informatics Olympiad was held on Thursday August 26. The 3-hour Olympiad Competition was run from 9am until 12am. In total 456 students from 89 schools competed in the Olympiad. This year we achieved our best results ever, with the incredible students earning 3 Silver Awards and 5 Bronze Awards. Although the 4 Year 7 students did not win an Award, they did gain valuable experience and will certainly be back again next year!
The Silver Award Winners are: Kirk Murillo Year 10, Gurveer Singh Khalsa Year 11 and Jamieson Berida Year 12.
The Bronze Award Winners are: Vedang Purohit Year 10, Prabesh Ojha Year 10, Prabin Ojha Year 8, Anaf Sayed Year 12 and Beonrik Pascual Year 12.
The Australian Intermediate Mathematics Olympiad, AIMO, was a 4 hour Olympiad held on September 9. It is a high level intense Mathematical Olympiad and requires many hours of training to be successful. Over 1615 students from 147 schools participated in the Olympiad this year.
This year Kirk Murillo of Year 10 earned a Credit and two students were almost there; Hazel Malhotra of Year 9 and Vedang Purohit of Year 10. Congratulations to Kirk, you will receive your Credit Certificate on an assembly this term.
The 59th Annual UNSW Mathematics Competition was held in the hall in Term 2 on Wednesday June 9. It is a 3 hour Olympiad Style Competition. Years 8 to 10 sit the Junior Paper and Years 11 and 12 sit the Senior paper. The students can use their own resources but no computers or anything with an internet connection. Around 700 students in NSW participated and prizes are only awarded to the top 60 students in each Division. We had our best ever results with a student achieve a Distinction and 5 students achieve Credits. The students are:
Jamieson Berida Year 12 – Distinction Award and $50 winner.
Gurveer Singh Khalsa Year 11 – Credit Award
Eric Ruan Year 11 – Credit Award
Harrison Shi Year 11 – Credit Award
Beonrik Pascual Year 12 – Credit Award
Marc Mumford Year 11 – Credit Award
The AMC – On Wednesday August 4 our students sat the Australian Mathematics Competition, AMC. The AMC is Australia’s premier problem-solving competition. The AMC is made up of 30 questions that help students explore and develop their problem-solving skills, all of which are solved without the use of a calculator. This year we did the AMC online for the first time. The school achieved 8 High Distinctions, 153 Distinctions, 311 Credits, 146 Provisional and 7 Participations. Every year the AMC awards a Best in School for the student who has achieved the best results for Penrith High school. We will award this at the next school assembly, so stay tuned to find out who the recipient is!
The students who achieved the High Distinctions are:
Niall Stewart Year 7, Avaneesh Alajpur Year 7,
Satvik Warrier Year 9, Jai Wadhwa Year 9,
Tanesh Patel Year 10, Tamiz Rumey Jiffrey Year 10,
Gurveer Singh Khalsa Year 11 and Harrison Shi Year 11.
The best of the Distinctions are:
William Kulcsar Year 7,
Aditya Surana Year 8, Jireh Cho Year 8, Maddox Ferguson Year 8
Alex Gange Year 9
Eljohn Mercado Year 10, Samin Syed Year 10, Timothy Quinn Year 10, Umar Anwar Year 10, William Chen Year 10
Eric Ruan Year 11,
Rana Singh Year 12 and Victoria Heath Year 12.
The Year 9 ESSI Financial Competition – was held during Term 3 this year. I published the winners in the last school newsletter, but we just found out that our overall school winner, Dinel Perera (pictured at the beginning of this article) was placed 9th in the National Competition! On behalf of the whole Mathematics staff and Penrith High School we would like to congratulate Dinel for his magnificent achievement. Best result ever for our school.
eThe APSMO is a problem solving Olympiad that all of our students in Year 7 and 8 compete in over Terms 1 to 3. We are still waiting the results for this competition. The fortnightly problem solving lessons will continue only for Year 7 in Term 4.
The Euler, Gauss and Noether Enrichment Programmes- Your sons/daughters should be coming home with the application to do enrichment for 2022 in Week 6 of this term. Please bring the completed and signed applications to the Mathematics’ staffroom in Week 7.
All classes are conducted before school from 8am until 9am. 95% attendance record is an expectation. These programmes are for enrichment only, they do not contribute to the students’ grades. The cost is $130 per student, this covers the tutors fees, cost of materials and resources, marking etc. If you are experiencing financial difficulties, then please contact Mrs Ryan, the School Business Manager.
We run the Euler Enrichment Programme for the Year 8 students. (No pre-requisites).
We run the Gauss Enrichment Programme for the Year 9 students. (Completion of Euler preferred and/or good results in Year 8 2021).
We run the Noether Enrichment Programme for the Year 10 students. (Must have completed Gauss).
Formal Olympiad Training is by invitation only and run by Mr Stephen Tan at lunch times on Friday. It will run for the duration of Term 4.
Peer Tutoring: If you are in Years 7 to 11 and need help with your Maths class work or would like help before the yearly exams, please email Juveena or Anuja at mathspeertutoring@gmail.com and they will match you with a peer tutor who will help you with your Maths for free.
Mrs Sue Briggs
Head Teacher of Mathematics
Peer Tutoring Coordinator
Kirk Murillo Year 10
Credit in AIMO
Gurveer Khalsa Year 11
Credit n UNSW Mathematics Competition
High Distinction in the AMC
Jamieson Berida Year 12
Distinction in UNSW Mathematics Competition
REPORTS from the PREFECT INTERNS
Social Justice and Equality Prefect Interns
In Week 9 of Term 3, the Social Justice and Equality Prefect Interns organised a Wellbeing Week consisting of Mindfulness Monday which included Bring your Pet to School Day, Tournament Tuesday, Win Big Wednesday, Screen Free Thursday, and R U OK Day on Friday. Designed to promote mental health and encourage both students and teachers to make time to take care of themselves. Being in lockdown for so long can be stressful and impact our wellbeing, which we often neglect.
It was great to see everyone participating in the challenges.
Just a reminder to keep checking in with your friends, teachers, family and of course look after yourself!
Alisha Ahmed
Andre Dubier
Gabriel Cant
Halis Rishamsulkumal
Samantha Buda
Seniru De Silva
The Prefects' favourite photo from Bring Your Pet to School Day!
Academic Prefect Interns
Over the duration of online learning, the Academic Prefect Interns hosted Zoom ‘Study With Me’ which occurred twice a week, on Monday and Thursday 4:30pm-6:30pm. These sessions were a great success, and created in order to motivate students to keep studying during this difficult time, with students across Year 7 to 12 joining to collaborate with their peers and older students. The point system followed a format where points were accumulated by active participation in the study session for a minimum of 30 minutes, with a minute of participation equating to one point earned, and easy collaboration in breakout rooms. With the conclusion of Term 3, the leaderboard is as follows:
1st place - Kashika Muhunthan (Year 7)
2nd place - Grace He (Year 11)
3rd place - Heer Panchal (Year 7)
These students will receive their prize once school returns to on-site learning.
Thank you to everyone who participated. All points will be announced and added to your respective houses at the conclusion of online learning. The Academic Prefect Interns hope they were able to support the school in their academics during this isolation period!
Athena Xin Tian Auw
Veerja Patel
Zoe Adrienne Elizalde
Rachel Mathew
School Functions Prefect Interns
We hope everyone has been doing well throughout quarantine for what seemed like ages! The School Functions team have been collaboratively working on school events despite the difficulty that comes with being in lockdown. We would like to warmly welcome the staff and students back to face-to-face learning. This term may have been disrupted by lockdown but nevertheless, let’s hope that we can enjoy the rest of the year off Zoom for a while!
A few weeks back in term 2, the School Functions team set up a short but sweet video to truly thank all the work that our generous SASS and Admin team put in for our school! SASS Week is usually a time to celebrate and recognise all the hard work and dedication of the SASS staff with morning teas and heartfelt thank-you messages passed on physically. Although COVID definitely proved to be an obstacle and unfortunately forced us to cancel our usual plans, we created a compilation of thank you videos both from students and teachers in appreciation of the SASS staff. We apologise that we could not follow through with this important recognition event, and on behalf of the school we truly thank the SASS staff for continuously putting in all their effort especially throughout these tough circumstances.
A few weeks ago we had the Prefect Handover meeting. There were many discussions between the 2020/21 and 2021/22 Prefect Body about how we could further improve issues throughout the school to make it a thriving environment for its cohort. Much advice was provided and thanks to this we are all eager to confidently lead the school as prefects. We would like to thank the 2020/21 Prefect Body for their great service and wish them all the best for their HSC examinations!
We’ve been continuing to collaborate with other prefects for events such as World Teacher’s Day, but as we transition back into on-site learning, we will be working harder for exciting events like the Prefect Afternoon Tea and Year 12 Graduation. We hope that everyone stays safe during schooltime and thanks for all your support towards the School Functions team!
School Functions Prefects
Olivia Lee
Shivangi Agnihotri
Luke Byun
Faculty Prefect Interns
The Faculty Prefects are a part of the Prefect Body for 2021/22, and our key focus is on organising a range of activities involved with the 9 school faculties, including the upcoming Halloween Day, Remembrance Day Assembly, National Science Week and Presentation Night. Throughout some past weeks, we have been focusing on assisting teachers with faculty-targeted programs and activities as well as providing support to students for assessments through peer tutoring. On Tuesday 12 October, we held our Virtual Open Night where teachers and students showcased the wonderful opportunities Penrith Selective High School offers, along with our extensive co-curricular offerings. Alongside the SRCs, the Faculty Prefects are holding a Halloween Event on Friday 29 October where students will be able to dress up and engage in fun and interesting activities! World Teacher’s Day is also coming up on 29 October, and to thank our wonderful teachers, the Prefects along with the SRC are creating some small gestures that we hope will show our gratitude to these amazing people. We can’t wait to meet everyone face-to-face next week and continue planning for some fun activities for the remainder of the term!
Rionne Bondal
Christopher Kwon
Shreya Patel
Arya Chavan
Riya Jain
Enrichment Prefect Interns
As Enrichment Prefects, we have been involved in preparation for the upcoming Da Vinci Decathlon that will take place next year. Meetings are held every Thursday lunchtime in Lab T.1.8. Those who are interested from 7-10 are welcomed to attend these sessions. This event is a great way to challenge and stimulate your creativity and skills. With the theme being patterns, we aim to form teams of eight from years 7-8 and 9-11.
As face-to-face lessons resume, peer tutoring and study sessions have ceased to exist online. Thank you to all who have participated in these sessions as these have been a large success. As we come back to school physically, we aim to slowly return to activities such as peer tutoring across the faculties and look forward to organising other events.
Stay tuned for the events that we are planning.
Enrichment Prefects
Joshua Gange
Eric Ruan
Papri Mallick
House Captains Update
In Term 3 Week 4, the new House Captains were announced, and over the past term we have been busy planning a number of new initiatives and activities for the upcoming school terms. Unfortunately, due to the term being online, the activities we had hoped to offer were limited to those online. However, after finalising a point system (30 points for 1st, 20 points for 2nd, 10 points for 3rd and 1 point for participation), we integrated these points into Prefect run activities to increase house-spirit and the chances of students gaining points. These activities were the Study with Me program which has been an ongoing event throughout the term, allowing students to accumulate points for every minute they spent in the zoom study sessions. The second event was the action-packed Mental Health Week, which featured an array of activities, many of which fed into house points. Congratulations to Mitchell, who accumulated the most points over the week with 135. Wentworth followed closely behind with 124 points followed by Blaxland with 109 and Lawson with 104.
The finalised points system will be used throughout this term and next year for competitions aimed to boost students' enjoyment and foster house spirit. Although the houses have often been associated with sporting events, with the carnivals accumulating the most house points, as the new house team we aim to create new non-sport competitions to broaden participation. This idea will also be applied to the sport-focused swimming, cross-country and athletics carnivals, where we hope to introduce novelty events. This is not to say that house competitions will not be going ahead, next year we will be hosting the popular Interschool Sports Competitions, alongside new tournaments we have been working on (if restrictions allow).
To allow students to see how their involvement influences the house points, we have created, with help from the Prefects, an electronic scoreboard that will be put on the student Sentral portal each time the points change. This is regularly updated, and therefore shows an accurate position of where the houses stand, allowing students to compare house standings. Finally, we are happy to announce the current standings of each house, as of week 3, Term 4. Mitchell sits in fourth place with a total of 2185. In third place is Wentworth with 2421 points. Between first and second place is a mere 5 points, however, in first place sits Blaxland with 2486, with Lawson close behind with 2481 points. Congratulations Blaxland and good luck to everyone as we return to face-to-face learning. Remember to continue to participate in activities to earn points for your house, it’s anyone’s game right now!
SRC 2021/22
The newly elected Student Representative Council (SRC) have collaborated during online learning to identify individual strengths and are learning how to cater that towards executing successful events. As SRC, our main goal is to strengthen the student voice, bring initiatives to broaden community spirit and build on the school’s vision. Through teamwork and communication, this year will thrive on creativity and innovation. As a team, we will strive towards working alongside the school executive, parents, student body and wider community to work towards a common goal. Milvia Mathew; SRC President and Iman Dirron; SRC Vice President look forward to incorporating our passions and skills into the 2021/2022 SRC Body.
Year 7:
Charvi Voola
Elijah Freeman
Riyanna Bandara Lokuge
Sardip Guha
Year 8:
Arunabh Ganguly
Rachit Kapoor
Hanami Yamaguchi-Alam
Joanne Kim
Year 9:
Angelo Varghese Paul
Mehra Monsur
Hilary Gosal
Akash Godiyal
Year 10:
Iman Dirron
Milvia Mathew
Tanish Patil
Pranavan Prakash
We have collected individual SRC profiles in which you can get to know each one of your Student Representatives. The details include, their hobbies, favorite foods and their aspirations for the future.
Charvi Voola - Year 7
Hi, I’m Charvi! I am in Year 7 and have many different hobbies, including making clothing items. I wanted to be more involved in our school community and help make a positive social change for both students and teachers alike, therefore I wished to be part of the SRC. It was a direct way to help around our school but also learn more about our school. My vision for the upcoming year is to transition back to school safely, but also remind everyone that we are still in a pandemic and should be cautious. Yet we should also become more aware of the issues happening around the world, and find what we can do to take a stand for injustice, or help others. I'm here to listen to you and amplify your voice.
Elijah Freeman - Year 7
Favourite foods: Pad Thai, Fried Rice, noodle/rice stir fries in general, Chili Con Carne, Lasagne.
Hobbies: Playing cards, reading, playing piano and percussion, bike riding.
Goals/Aspirations for the coming year: Organise and run some fun and cool events with the SRC and going out to catch up on things I couldn’t do with COVID.
Riyanna Bandara Lokuge - Year 7
Favourite foods: Sushi, Fries, Boba
Hobbies: Reading, Bullet journaling, Drawing
Goals/Aspirations for the coming year:
- To plan and carry out usual events in school both for spirit and awareness
- Enhanced communication with the school through social media and announcements to get suggestions and promote activities.
- Plan more and new events within a wide range of themes/topics
- Adjust to current circumstances and work hard to provide suitable events.
Sardip Guha - Year 7
Favourite foods: Pizza and Pasta
Hobbies: Sport and Chatting with the Mates
Goals/Aspirations for the coming year: Get Good Grades!
Arunabh Ganguly - Year 7
Favourite foods: Lasagna
Hobbies: Soccer and Cricket
Goals/Aspirations for the coming year: As an SRC member, my goals are to help portray the variety of ideas the many minds of our school can think of. Being an SRC member, is a great way to help influence some of the decisions the school makes for the variety of events such as Christmas, Halloween and more.
Rachit Kaopor - Year 8
Favourite foods: Pizza, Burritos, Chicken
Hobbies: Exercise, Play Games, Art
Goals/Aspirations for the coming year:
- To maximise student voice
- Encourage others to participate in all activities to raise school spirit
Joanne Kim - Year 8
Favourite foods: sushi, ice cream, wafers
Hobbies: sports, playing with animals
Goals/Aspirations for the coming year: to run lots of enjoyable events, for a good cause.
Hanami Yamaguchi-Alam
Favourite foods: Miso soup and pasta
Hobbies: Reading, playing games and listening to music
Goals/Aspirations for the coming year:
-good grades
-make more friends
- get more involved in school activities
Angelo Varghese Paul - Year 9
My name is Angelo, a student from Year 9 recently elected as an SRC member 2021/22. This is a very big privilege and I intend to serve the post very enthusiastically. As a leader in this school, I enjoy working cohesively with a team to bring all the signature PHS events to the school and be a voice representing my grade. Having previously worked with the SRC one of my goals would be to continue to partake in the work we do but also try to beat the standards set from before. It is always about the school and how we can fuel school spirit through the work we do. Another goal is to be a voice for my grade leading up into senior school where things change substantially. In those times of increased workload and responsibility it is important to stick together. For the next year I am excited to work with my peers to my full potential.
Mehra Monsur - Year 9
Favourite foods: Pad Thai and Boba
Hobbies: Playing instruments and watching Brooklyn 99
Goals/Aspirations for the coming year: To increase students’ feeling of connectedness with the school community and to help create a positive environment with greater school spirit.
Hillary Gosal - Year 9
Favourite foods: Macarons, carbonara and croissants
Hobbies: Piano and reading
Goals/Aspirations for the coming year:
- My goal is to organise and execute many fun events for the school
- I also hope that we can work with the student body to incorporate the things that you guys suggest too.
Akash Godiyal - Year 9
Favourite foods: Dumplings, Pizza, Noodles, Butter Chicken
Hobbies: Cricket, Soccer, Piano, Drums, Swimming, Pokemon
Goals/Aspirations for the coming year: Have a fun year with my sports, friends and family, eat well and aim for high studying goals.
Pranavan Prakash - Year 10
Hi, I'm pretty excited to be part of the SRC this year (first time!) and I'm representing Year 10. In the coming year, I hope to help my fellow students learn more, enjoy themselves and have fun through all the homework and assessments, given the constraints of COVID. I'm looking forward to talking and socialising with everyone else face-to-face again once we return to school proper. I'll see you guys around!
Tanish Patil - Year 10
Favourite foods: Lamb Chops
Hobbies: Rowing, Piano, Tennis
Goals/Aspirations for the coming year: I wish to improve the school with the help of the Student’s voices.
Hi everyone, My name is Tanish Patil, and I will be one of four Year 10 SRC reps. I believe that with more input from the student body, we can improve many aspects of schooling, such as emotional, physical, academic and extra-curricular, by involving a greater amount of student voice.
Meet the Teacher - Lisa Roberts
Name: Lisa Roberts
Previous School: Castle Hill High School
Subject Area: Teacher Librarian, English, History
University Education: Bachelor of Arts, Diploma of Education, Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship)
Interests: Reading, cooking, music, sewing, enjoying nature.
Favourite Sport: Reading- that’s a sport, right?
Favourite Food Dish: It depends on my mood, but I love anything with pumpkin in it and I am partial to a neenish tart.
Anything Else? Students and student voice have always been the most important part of the library, and I am really excited to see where that takes us as we move ahead. I am also looking forward to meeting the school community at Penrith Selective High School.
"Fixing the education system", the Federal Government invites Victor Qin to influence the Youth Policy Framework.
Victor Qin, a year 10 student, was invited to a program called Your Voice which took place on the 31 August. The meeting was held online with participants located all around Australia, from high school to university students. The purpose of the meeting was to gather youth experiences to advise on the development of the up-coming National Youth Policy Framework. The report covered five sectors including the education system.
He said in response to the invitation, "I am so excited to have the opportunity to help the education system finally get its long sought-after update."
Our Youth Parliamentarian continues his political journey by contributing a policy called, “The Education Overhaul” which advises on changes to the education system's priorities, test taking methods, and emphasises a necessity to build foundational life skills rather than forcing a rote memorisation of crystallised knowledge for young Australians.
The policy was forged together by Qin’s team for the common purpose of, ‘Fixing the Education System’ from the perspective of the Youth. It touches on a curriculum change; differentiating between the essential content in subjects that would be useful later on in life versus specialised knowledge which remains only useful to students seeking niche employment fields.
Most importantly, it mandates a priority within the education system that was vitally absent but in high demand by employers: skills that improve the wellbeing of and subsequently career success for every Australian including stress and life management, confidence development, and socialisation skills. A survey done by his team confirmed that 95% of youth interviewed acknowledged the importance of developing these vital skills and are keen to see changes in the education system.
Effective communication skills are usually honed on-the-job thus moving forward, if the Federal Government accepts the policy advice, the education system will finally accomplish what it should be intended for which is to prepare and develop young people for the challenges of life.
NOTE
Victor Qin represented the electorate of Chifley as one of more than 100 passionate young people from across NSW selected to have the opportunity to participate in the Y NSW’s 2021 Youth Parliament program.
Youth Parliament consists of a seven-day camp where participants are split into committees and develop bills on issues important to them ahead of debate on the floor of NSW Parliament. At the end of camp, all pieces of youth legislation are presented to NSW Members of Parliament for consideration.
Since its inception in 2002, YNSW’s Youth Parliament Program has played an instrumental role in shaping public discourse and policy, with around two thousand participants and approximately half a dozen pieces of Y NSW Youth Parliament youth legislation being passed into NSW Law, including the recent Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme.
For more information on the Y NSW’s 2021 Youth Parliament program, visit: https://www.ymcansw.org.au/community-services/youth/youth-parliament/
Year 11 Business Studies Success!
The following Yr11 Business Studies students - Sophia Gonzales, Meeya Chang, Akanksha Ponaboina and Riddhima Pandit Bhasin with their Business Name of Aesthete - became:
NSW finalist in the Plan Your Own Enterprise Competition (PYOE) [2021]
- There were 263 entries (179 Division 1 and 84 Division 2) from 434 students across 39 schools in NSW.
- There were 10 division 1 finalists, and 5 division 2 finalists.
- They were invited to attend the 2021 Plan Your Own Enterprise Competition NSW Awards Ceremony.
- Date: Thursday October 14, 2021
- As part of the awards ceremony, they had to present a 90-second speech about the business plan submitted.
Videos for Change Competition
We are excited to announce that our students Sudesh Arunachalam, Dev Kapadia, Christopher Artwoeger, Sean Kim and Proteet Foisol from Year 10 Photographic and Digital Media class are finalists in the national Videos for Change challenge with their amazing video on the impact of online learning on the mental health of teachers(see link below). Their video was selected from hundreds of entries which have gone through two rounds of initial judging and is now with the external judges to decide the winner!
The students created their video during Term 3 in Photographic and Digital Media class where they built a skill set within Adobe Animate. Students worked collaboratively in groups to create a short animation that centres on a social issue they are passionate about. Videos for Change empowers Australian high school students to create a one-minute video to raise awareness and inspire change on a social issue they are passionate about and gives them a platform for their voices to be heard.
Laura Clarke
Visual Arts Teacher
Congratulations Atharv!
Atharv Saraf of Year 7 took a Tour-de-Kids Challenge during the month of September and successfully completed it. He targeted to ride a bicycle 300km and raise $500 but in due course he rode 356km and raised $737 for sick kids. This was an initiative by Starlight Foundation and you can visit his fund raising page on the below link.
https://tourdekids.org.au/atharv-saraf
Well done Atharv!
Congratulations to all participants in our Solo Music Night!
Second place went to Bianca Zhang of Year 8, a flautist, who is a valued member of our Concert Band.
Bianca's performance can be heard here.
Third place was awarded to Eva Motti Abraham of Year 7, also a flautist, who joined our Band Program this year.
Eva's performance can be heard here.
Debating Update
Over the last few weeks, we have had a couple of Penrith Debating teams competing in an online Debating Competition organised by the University of Sydney Union Debating Society. We had a team in both the junior and senior divisions of this competition. It was a great opportunity for students as debating this year has been limited due to lockdowns. Our year 7 team consisted of: Riyanna Bandara Lokuge, Elijah Craig, Mitali Garg and Charvi Voola. Our year 10 team consisted of: Christopher Artwoeger, Himani Bhandari, Krish Gupta and Pranavan Prakash. This competition was held over 3 weeks where our students had 30 minutes preparation time to an unseen topic and then over Zoom competed against other schools from around Sydney and NSW.
The junior competition consisted of teams from students from year 7-9. Our team won 1 of their 3 debates, which was a very pleasing outcome considering that all the teams they were up against appeared to be from older grades, which bodes well for their success in the future as they are already able to compete against more experienced teams. In round 1 the junior team were the affirmative against Edmund Rice College with the topic ‘That students should never be allowed to bring junk food to school.’ Penrith narrowly went down in this debate, though got constructive feedback, which they implemented for the next debate.
Round 2 saw Penrith as the negative against Emmanuel High School with the topic ‘That we should only allow good role models to play professional sport.’ Penrith won this debate building off their previous debate.
Round 3 saw the junior Penrith team once again as the affirmative against Sydney Girls High School with the topic ‘That we should ban students wearing makeup to school’. In this debate we lost, though the students learnt a lot from the adjudicators' feedback and from their opponents.
Overall, the junior team has learnt and grown significantly from the experience and will continue to improve as they go up against quality opposition.
Our senior year 10 team were in a competition for Year 10-11 students. Our team won 2 of their 3 debates, which is a testament to their continued growth as a team and the students should be congratulated for their improved results. In round 1 Penrith was the affirmative and were up against a highly skilled team from PLC Sydney with the topic ‘That people should have to attend parenting classes before becoming a parent’. In a very close debate Penrith was victorious in this debate
In round 2 Penrith was the negative against Brigidine College ‘That we should punish sports teams for bad fan behaviour’. Penrith had a comprehensive win in this topic, and it was serendipitous that they had practiced this topic at Debating Enrichment the week before.
In round 3 Penrith was the affirmative against Emmanuel College with the topic ‘That we should ban cosmetic surgery’. In a very close debate Penrith lost this debate.
Overall, the senior team have continued to improve with more debates and experience. They will be a highly competitive team moving into the next two years of high school.
Tim Bates
Debating Coordinator
Duke of Edinburgh Update
After over a term of meeting online, which included a lot of planning, the Duke of Ed meetings are finally back to face-to-face. Both the Silver and Gold groups are planning and mapping out the routes they will take on their practice and qualifying Adventurous Journeys. Although there is no set date for these journeys at the moment, they will be going ahead soon after restrictions are lifted. Restrictions have also presented many challenges for the other three sections of the Duke of Ed Award: skill, physical recreation and voluntary service particularly. Many students have had to adjust how they complete their one hour a week per section, but despite this, everyone is going strong. A number of Bronze students are on track to be finished later in the term!
On another note, the Duke of Ed information board in the Drama corridor (above the Duke of Ed paperwork) has been updated with a new handmade board that includes information on the different levels and sections of the Duke of Ed Award.
Mela Hoffman
Year 11
Penrith Valley Performing Arts Festival
In addition, our Drama Ensemble Leaders, Pranavan Prakash of Year 10 and Bailey Bass of Year 8, were to MC the event and Cassidy Lauguico of Year 9 was to sing the National Anthem.
Thank you to the CAPA Faculty for coordinating these opportunities and we will look forward to performing in 2022.
School Captains' Book in Celebration of our 70th Anniversary
At the time of this edition being produced the first edition of the school's Captains' Book has gone to the printers.
Nonetheless, we would still like to hear further from the Captains listed below.
ICYMI
The school is gathering information about all of our past captains. The plan is to create a book which has the male and female captain for each year on a double page. There will be the name and year on each page. Each page is intended to have a school photo of the captain (when actually the captain) and a more recent photo beside it.
Underneath this will be four questions:
1. What is your best memory of Penrith High School?
2. What did you think you would be doing after you left high school?
3. What are you doing now?
4. What is the best advice you could give to current PHS students?
We may be able to get some of these responses from the profiles in the back of The Towers but would enjoy hearing from as many former captains or their families as possible.
If you were a past captain or family member could you forward a suitable photo and your responses to the four questions. This will be passed on.
If you know the contact details of any past captain could you pass this information onto the school via the school email penrith-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au and mark it attention to Cathie Fayle in the library
The intention is to present the First Edition of the Captains' Book to the school late 2021 in celebration of our 70th Anniversary with copies for sale and one to be placed in the school foyer.
We still need to hear from: Please note the asterisk means deceased
Robert Smyth 1951
Pat Parkinson 1951
Dennis Harrison* 1953
Margaret Eckford* 1953
Brian Bowles 1954
Margaret Schubach 1954
Vida Vladickaite* 1955
Kenneth Smith 1956
Suzette Brown 1956
Doug Taylor 1957
Noelene Neville 1957
Lee Carroll 1958
Aina Alnis 1958
Greg Nicholls 1960
Barbara Crossing 1961
Rex Kinder 1964
Kim Longmore* 1965
Christine Borec 1967
Darryl Honeysett 1970
Margot Jensen 1970
Anic Vasic 1972
Stephen Cowan 1976
Joanne Wickes 1976
Elizabeth Doyle 1978
Gary Smith 1979
Elizabeth Jones 1979
Glen Bootle 1981
Michael Wholohan 1983
Carol Harris 1983
Andrew Thompson 1984
Nancy Thonton 1984
Colin Gardiner 1985
Marina Marjanovic 1985
Debbie TaylorVC 1986
Amanda Gibbons VC 1986
Grant Healey VC 1987
Robert Blair-Hickman 1988
Elizabeth Gyler 1988
Adam Haines 1989
Daniel Connolly 1990
Joanne Everingham 1990
Timothy Smith 1991
Karen Miller 1991
Qinton Single 1992
Alessandria Bosso 1992
Elizabeth Marchant 1993
Chantelle Vella 1994
Erin Reimer 1996
Michael Wong 1997
Anil Mishra 2000
Rachel Rowe 2000
Jonathan Freeston 2001
Vanessa Onden Lim 2001
Renee Yates 2002
Kieran Colreavy 2003
Sarah Walker 2003
Dillon Anderiesz 2006
Matthew White 2010
Emily Stone 2010
Angelica Manlangit 2011
Jonas Thomson 2014
Grace Shalders 2014
Simone Ferreira 2015
Deaundre Espejo 2016
Abirami Raveendran 2016
Janindu Kumara-Devage 2017
Manasa Bhatt 2017
Ethan Shackley 2020
Sophia Hadjimichael 2020
Those Captains who will appear in full in the First Edition of the Captains' Book:
1950 - James Smith*, Ann Combet
1952 - John Day, Jill Fraser (now Farnsworth)
1954 - Margaret Schubach
1955 - James Short*
1959 - Brian Lewis, Diana Stewart (now Van Der Zande)
1960 - Barbara Fretwell (now Piirsalu)
1961 - Robert Munro*
1962 - David Henderson-Smart*, Juliet Clark (now Lloyd)
1963 - Peter Coburn, Penny Wensley
1964 - Christine Roberts (now Walker)
1965 - Gillian Anderson (now Kahl)
1966 - Ian Coleman
1967 - Ian Coleman
1968 - Paul Hansen, Prue Charlton
1969 - Gary Nelson, Linda Carr
1970 - Margot Jensen (now Legosz)
1971 - David Dunbar, Jane Reffell
1972 - Rodney Morphett
1973 - Peter Jackson, Sandra Warn
1974 - Patrick Shiels, Ann Hardy*
1975 - Michael Rosier, Kim Chandler (now Whealey)
1977 - Merrick Spicer, Manuella Pusic
1978 - Trevor Williams
1980 - Colin McDonald, Alison Monk (now Adams)
1981 - Tracey Aldred (now Lawson)
1982 - Michael Trist, Bronwyn Chalmers
1986 - David Dawson
1987 - Stephen Keens(VC), Madeleine Pusic
1989 - Donna Healey (now Fletcher)
1990 - Tara Van Dyk (now O'Connell)
1993 - Donald Frost -Last Comprehensive
1994 - David Tucker, Chantelle Vella (now Barber- photo only) - First Selective
1995 - Rajan Thangavelu, Dawn Harrison (now Comber)
1996 - Isaac Kuruvilla
1997 - Corryn McKay
1998 - Matthew McCarron, Angela Tillot
1999 - Mark McCartney, Amy Richardson (now Munro)
2002 - Anthony Samson
2004 - Nicholas Brenner, Emma Woods
2005 - Jude Holroyd, Georgina Fuller
2006 - Kirby Bryson (now Atwood)
2007 - Martin Robinson, Meg Ebelt
2008 - Stuart Bryson, Vashti Maynard
2009 - Alvin Tan, Elizabeth Cameron
2010 - Emily Stone
2011 - Geeth Geeganage
2012 - David Stone, Imogen Clark
2013 - Ross Penninkilampi, Grace White
2015 - Simone Ferreira
2018 - Adam Evans, Grace Faulder
2019 - Soham Desai, Aryenish Kavarana.
An asterisk(*) denotes deceased
Michael Handley - PHS -'85-'87 - Finished Army Service as a Lance Corporal
WERE YOU A STUDENT OF PHS WHO SERVED IN THE DEFENCE FORCE OR KNOW SOMEONE WHO DID?
Would you like to be recognised on PHS Defence Force Service Honour Board? Or, have your friend or relative recognised who attended PHS?
If you are interested please email the school on: penrith-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au
Attention Cathie in the library for further details
NOTE: the school was not established until 1950 so bear this in mind
In addition, if the Alumni listed below could also reach out to update some details:
Harry Grimes
Jason Peterson
Stephen Thompson
Barry Brown
Brian Carney
Alan Ormerod
David Stevens
Ian Dickens
Bill Wheeler
Updating Honour Boards/Sports Records
We are in the process of updating the Honour Boards in the hall.
We would like to confirm the Duxes:
1.from the 50s (see below)
2. 1966
In Addition, we are also trying to find the Junior Sportsman and Junior Sportswoman of the year for;
1987
1990
1991
1992
1993
If you can help please email the school on:
penrith-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au
Attention Cathie in the library.
Thanking you
Recognition of the Duxes in the 1950s (according to Towers)
If you or someone you might know could elaborate further regarding the information below please contact Cathie in the school library(when we return) or via the school email:
penrith-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au ATTENTION Cathie
Duxes in the 50s and early 60s
During the 50s the Fletcher Award was given to students in all years to encourage them
to continue their studies. It included a monetary donation.
Students in 5th Year sat for the Leaving Certificate.
In 1950 - Margaret Duncan and Alan Holswich received the Fletcher Award in 4th Year.
In 1952 - Marcia Kirkness and John Day received the Fletcher Award in 5th Year.
John Day came 2nd in the state for Physics and Chemistry and was placed
in the top 30 in the state for the Leaving Certificate
In 1953 - M. Eckford and A. Bills received the Fletcher Award in 5th Year
In 1954 - PHS held its first Speech Day in April at the Nepean Theatre
Jocelyn Cooper and Anthony Walker received Fletcher Awards
In 1955 - Jill Reid and Anthony Walker were named Duxes of 4th Year
In 1956 - Dawn Morgan and Jim Finnimore were named Duxes of 4th Year
In 1957 - Dawn Morgan and Jim Finnimore were named Best in the Leaving Certificate
In 1958 - Joyce Anderson and Robert Cuckson were named Best in the Leaving Certificate
Robert Cuckson was mentioned in the state group of the Leaving Certificate
In 1959 - Margaret Finnimore and Michael Walker were named as Duxes of the School
In 1960 - Michael Smith and Meryl White (Prox. Acc.) were named Duxes of the School
In 1961 - Bob Munro and Yvonne Fripp (Prox. Acc.) were named Duxes of the School
In 1962 - Ian Jay was named Dux of the School
In 1963 - Elizabeth Finnimore was named Dux of the School
In 1964 - Richard Douglas was named Dux of the School
In 1965 - Herman Nacinovich was named Dux of the School
In 1966 - no Dux recorded in Towers
In 1967 - Stephen Johnson and Ian Coleman named Duxes of the School
PSHS
Email: penrith-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au
Website: http://penrith-h.schools.nsw.gov.au
Location: 158-240 High St, Penrith NSW, Australia
Phone: 02 4721 0529
Facebook: facebook.com/penrithselectivehighschool