Penrith Selective High School
October/November Newsletter 2019
From the Principal
It has certainly been a busy and exciting time over the last two month.
Last week, we once again had the opportunity to host US based gifted education experts, Dr Susan Baum and Dr Robin Schader. This was their second visit to Australia and all staff were able to undertake professional learning and we also welcomed a number of colleagues from other schools in addition to psychologists and academics. The opportunity to have world class professional learning onsite for a second year has been inspiring and will continue to shape our thinking about how we best work with the students. My sincere thanks to the organising team, Mrs Ryan, Ms Cush, Mr Ferguson, Ms Ross, Ms Holloway, Mr Serrato, Ms Pipio and Mr Vassallo and, of course, the prefects who met our guests, manned the registration table and delivered morning tea and lunches with precision-like timing. Thank you also to our kitchen staff, Ms Shearer, Ms Bono and Ms Eaves for keeping everyone fed and hydrated during a big and hot week.
Year 7-10 students have now completed their yearly exams and reports for students will be issued on Monday December 16. Our Annual Presentation Night will also be held on the 16th at the Joan Sutherland Centre in Penrith.
We wish Year 12 (2020) the best of luck for their first HSC assessments later this week and look forward to seeing students and parents at the parent/student Information Night (P&C Forum). The topic presented will focus on key information from the University Admissions Centre (UAC) and school staff will also present information about the next 12 months. All families are welcome to attend but are asked to register their attendance using the link below as seating is limited. https://www.trybooking.com/BGPZV
Congratulations to all of the students involved in Schools Spectacular at Qudos Arena last week. A video clip of the finale is available on the school's facebook page and it was once again an amazing performance. The show will be shown on Channel 7, December 7 at 7pm, and hopefully we will see all of the Penrith students involved. Thanks to Ms Whittaker, Mr Vassallo and the CAPA staff for creating an opportunity for the students to join 5500 other students in such a large scale production. See article below.
Finally, it is with great pleasure to share that we have appointed an additional Deputy Principal for the next 12 months and hopefully longer. Ms Doris Lee will join us in 2020 and will have a range of responsibilities including being the Deputy in charge of Year 7. Ms Lee joins us from Canley Vale High School and we look forward to her joining our school. To alleviate any concerns, neither Mr Ferguson or Ms Cush are leaving we are just adding some extra capacity to the school's executive team.
Please enjoy the range of updates below in this edition of the newsletter and thank you to Mrs Fayle, our expert editor of both this publication and the termly publication for former students and staff- Towers Alumni. Both are widely read and of very high quality.
I look forward to seeing many parents over the remaining few weeks of the 2019 school year.
Warm regards,
Mark Long
Principal
Dr Susan Baum and Dr Robin Schader
Enrichment Program Recognised!
Below are photos of Lisa Andreatta, Sue Briggs and Antoinette Pipio receiving their World Teachers' Recognition Awards with the Minister and Shadow Minister at a dinner held by the NSW Teachers' Guild and attended by our Principal, Mark Long.
New Student Leadership Team for 2019/2020 Elected
Captains: Sophia Hadjimichael and Ethan Shackley
Vice Captains: Holly Gerrard and Ben Gange
Senior Prefects: Eugenia Kim and Lance Santos
Congratulations to all 26 Prefect Interns who were elevated to Prefects for 2019/20. The group has been exceptional in Term 3 and will continue to provide outstanding leadership and service.
(l-r) - Ben Gange, Holly Gerrard, Ethan Shackley, Sophia Hadjimichael, Eugenia Kim and Lance Santos.
P&C Report
In addition, everyone toured the art rooms, music rooms, the newly refurbished gym/canteen area and the front development area of the school.
The next P&C Forum will be on Tuesday Week 7, November 26.
Praba Maheswaran
P&C President
Richard Sandham Addressing Parents
Anthoy Vassallo Addressing Parents
School Tour
Mathematics Update
Another school year is almost over and all students in Years 7 to 10 have completed their yearly examinations.
Currently, the Year 7 students are working in class on a research task that will increase their knowledge on where their school maths has been developed from, as well as encourage the students to think about how maths is used in their everyday lives. This culminates in each student completing a presentation to their class. The Year 8 students are completing a Project Based Learning Task involving statistics and school sport. The Year 9 students are still working on units of work that will be assessed in 2020. The Year 10 are busy working on their Stem Project, hopefully the winning STEM project will be uploaded to Facebook.
Throughout the year we achieved even better results in all the Olympiads and competitions that we have entered our talented students in. We are so incredibly proud of all that they have achieved and all that they continue to achieve. Here are some more fantastic results:Australian Intermediate Mathematics Olympiad (AIMO)
The Australian Mathematics Trust also use the Australian Intermediate Mathematics Olympiad (AIMO) as one of the competitions to determine which students are selected to a number of invitation only events; including other mathematics competitions AMOC, enrichment classes, Tournament of Towns and Olympiad training schools. Participation in these elite programs increases the likelihood of being selected in the Australian Training teams for the International Olympiad Team. It gives talented students an opportunity to be recognised and to participate in activities which will enhance their enjoyment and knowledge of mathematics.
There were 1 869 students from 208 schools participating in this very prestigious and challenging Olympiad. This year we had 10 students from Years 9 and 10 competing and we achieved our best results to date!
Jamieson Berida Year 10 High Distinction
Gurveer Singh Khalsa Year 9 Distinction
Eric Ruan Year 9 Distinction
Harrison Shi Year 9 Credit
Anaf Sayed Year 10 Credit
Keeno Mendoza Year 10 Credit
Beonrik Pascual Year 10 Credit
Yash Mishra Year 10 Credit
Tournament of Towns
The Tournament of Towns is an international competition with more than a hundred participating cities around the world. Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Perth are among the Australian participants. It is conducted each year in two stages – Autumn and Spring. Each stage has two papers: O (Ordinary) and A (Advanced). There are also two streams: Junior (for students in Years 8 - 10) and Senior (Years 11, 12). The level of difficulty of A-level paper is comparable with that of AMO, i.e. it is very hard. The O-level paper is slightly easier, but it still requires a student to have an extraordinary talent for Mathematics. The duration of the competition is 4 hours for O-level and 5 hours for A-level.
Students can only enter this highly elite and challenging competition by invitation only. The AMOC state director for NSW, from the Australian Mathematical Trust Mr Dmitry Badziahin, issues the invitation. This year for the first time in Penrith Selective High Schools’ history we had two students invited to compete in both papers! This honour went to Jamieson Berida and Keeno Mendoza, both of Year 10. Three other students from Year 10 were invited to participate in the two training sessions; Anaf Sayed, Beonrik Pascual and Yash Mishra. We are very proud of all five young men who not only have worked hard on their Olympiad Mathematics, but who represented our school admirably. We wish them all the best in this international competition.
Australasian Problem Solving Mathematics Olympiad (APSMO)
All students from Year 7 and Year 8 have completed the APSMO Competition. There were 12 167 students throughout Australasia competing in this year’s APSMO Competition. The five papers were conducted throughout the first 3 terms of 2019.
At the end of the competition when the final results came in, 8M1 finished in the top 10% of all teams! The school has received a nice trophy to add to our Mathematics cabinet.
The top student/s from every class received a trophy. Students who were placed in the top 10% of the overall scores received an Achiever Pin. The students in the next 15% received an Achiever Patch. An Encouragement Award was presented to one student from each class as well.
The Trophy winners were:
7M1 – Jaide Knaus-Petrie
7M2 – Pramit Dutta
7M3 – Nathan Bao
7M4 – Sanskar Tibile
7M5 – Sheikh Mustayeen Mahfuz and Aryan Modak
8M1 – Cameron Lau and Mohammad Siddiqui
8M2 – Tavleen Kaur, Brian Liu and Daming Wang
8M3 – Tamiz Rumey Jiffrey
8M4 –Erica Zhou
8M5 –Dharani Sutharshan, Kshitij Valechha and Eason Zhang
We will be entering the APSMO Competition with 10 teams again in 2020. There will be five papers spread throughout the first three terms.
Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC)
The Annual Australian Mathematics Competition was held on Thursday August 1. More than 30 countries participate in this annual competition.
There is an emphasis on problem solving; a valuable life skill, and the questions are designed to be fun for the students. The AMC is run by the not-for-profit Australian Maths Trust (AMT). The problems created for the AMC papers are set to the highest possible standards by volunteer teams of the most experienced Mathematics Teachers and academics in the country.
The photo below shows the winners of the High Distinction certificate. This means that they were placed in the top 3% of their year group and region.
Our PSHS High Distinction achievers were:
Year 7
Pramit Dutta, Timothy Gonzales, Jaide Knaus-Petrie and Kovidh Nalamati
Year 8
Rahul Joshi, Dinil Rajamanthri, Tanish Patel, Daming Wang, Cameron Lau and Harini Paranthaman.
Year 9
Gurveer Singh Khalsa, Harrison Shi, Eric Ruan, Aaditya Manek and Marc Mumford.
Year 10
Keeno Mendoza, Marco Perri and Nicholas Whelan.
“The Best in School” Award: this award recognises the student with the highest AMC score in a school, based on the minimum achievement of a Distinction Award, and minimum AMC entries of 50 secondary students. This year the award went to Keeno Mendoza of Year 10.
All certificates were handed out either at the school assembly, year assembly or in their mathematics classes. Congratulations to all our winners!
Mathematics Enrichment
Our Enrichment program for 2019 has concluded. Below are all our Distinction and Credit winners:
Dharika Sujendran Year 8 Distinction
Harini Paranthaman Year 8 Distinction
Rahul Joshi Year 8 Credit
Dismitha Punchinilame Year 9 Distinction
Shreya Patel Year 9 Distinction
Siththarth Sivasaththy Year 9 Distinction
Gurveer Singh Khalsa Year 9 Credit
Abhinav Santhakumar Year 9 Credit
Andric Nelson Year 9 Credit
Adi Shah Year 9 Credit
Harrison Shi Year 9 Credit
Alan Steny Year 9 Credit
Aaditya Manek Year 9 Credit
Veerja Patel Year 9 Credit
Supreethi Kanta Year 9 Credit
Soo Jung Yoo Year 9 Credit
Beonrik Pascual Year 10 Distinction
Jamieson Berida Year 10 Credit
Durga Pothuraju Year 10 Credit
Darren Pradhan Year 10 Credit
* The application forms have been sent out for Years 8, 9 and 10 in 2020, but if your child/children would like to participate, they can come and see me in the Maths staff room for an application form. The invoices will be sent out early in Term 1 2020.
The Enrichment program runs once a week before school. We run Euler for Year 8, Gauss for Year 9 and Noether for Year 10. The program is taught by our Alumni, former students who themselves excelled in Mathematics. It is designed to extend laterally the mathematical skills of the students who are excelling in their day to day mathematics. There is an approximate fee of $130 involved, and this covers the tuition fees and resource materials from Canberra for the three terms. If your child starts the program you are liable for the whole fee, so please discuss the program with your child before entering them.
However, if your child is struggling with Mathematics or just needs a little more help with their work then I highly recommend our Peer Tutoring program. This is free, and is a program designed to have our senior students help their fellow students address their area/s of weakness. If you would like your child to take up this offer they can either send me an email or send an email to: mathspeertutoring@gmail.com
By Mrs Sue Briggs
Head Teacher Mathematics
Mathematics Challenge Corner
Answer all the questions correctly without the use of a calculator, present your full worked solutions to Mrs Briggs in the Mathematics Staff room at recess. The first Junior and Senior with all questions correctly presented receives a prize.
1. 1. If (1 + 3 + 5 + …… +p) + (1 + 3 + 5 + ……… + q) = (1 + 3 + 5 + ………. + 19) where p and q are odd integers, evaluate p +q.
2. 2. A man eats 20 mangoes in 20 days. Together with his wife they eat 20 mangoes in 12 days. How many days does it take the wife to eat 20 mangoes by herself?
3. 3. Alfred has forgotten his five-digit password. The first and last digits are the same, 542 is in the middle, and his password is divisible by 9. What is Alfred’s password?
4. 4. Make up two fractions with all of the digits from 0 to 9. Use each digit once only. The two fractions must add up to exactly one. One fraction must contain one digit in its denominator.
5. 5.The product of two integers is 1 000. What is the smallest sum of these two integers?
Yash Mishra, Keeno Mendoza (both papers), Jamieson Berida (both papers), Beonik Pascual and Anaf Sayed - through to different sessions of the International Competition!
APSMO Winners!
High Distinction Winners in the AMC
Keeno Mendoza Year 10 - 'The Best in School' Award
Off to Schools Spectacular!
Schools Spectacular is an extraordinary event that celebrates youth, education, culture, diversity and young Australian talent. This year the theme was STARS! It featured over 370 schools, 50 solo performances, a 2,800 strong choir, 2,300 dancers, an 80 piece symphony orchestra, a world-class stage band and a cast of thousands of public school students from metropolitan, rural and remote regions of NSW from varying ages, cultures, skills and socio-economic backgrounds who all shared the spotlight.
Thank you to our amazing performers who were part of the massive production at Qudos Arena in the choir! A huge thank you as well to Ms Whittaker for looking after our students!
SRC News
The SRC has been working on plans for Variety Night with tickets and selling beginning soon. The SRC body has aimed to communicate students' ideas. There is a SRC Suggestions Box in the main foyer, where students and teachers can communicate their concerns.
Wear It Pink Day
Wear it Pink Day is a charity event linked with the McGrath Foundation where students participated by wearing articles of pink clothing to raise money for breast cancer awareness. The initiative was well received by students, as there was a large turnout who contributed to this important cause. The photo booth that was held at recess and lunch also raised money towards funding and trials in relation to breast cancer.
The SRC thanks all those who got into the spirit and supported the initiative.
National Young Leaders Day
National Young Leaders Day is an initiative run by Halogen Australia where young leaders from all across NSW work on building connections and further establishing their leadership skills. There were 50 students comprised of SRC, Prefects and House Captains who attended the event representing the leaders of the future. Once again it was a great success. The group listened to keynote speakers, interacted with other school leaders and enhanced their leadership potential. See article below for further information.
Q and A with Year 9 SRC:
“What is the most important thing you learned from National Young Leaders Day?”
The most important thing I learnt at National Young Leaders Day was to set goals involving direction, purpose and strength, and to write them down, as this increases the chance of you completing them and also gives you satisfaction when crossing them out!
Nipulma Attanayake - Year 9 Representative
“Why do you think initiatives like “Wear it Pink Day” are so important for the school and SRC to get involved?”
I think initiatives like ''Wear it Pink Day" are important for the school and SRC to get involved as it promotes school spirit throughout our school community and simultaneously creates opportunities for our school to be involved in the wider community.
Athena Xin Tian Auw - Year 9 Representative
“What are some of the most important decisions you believe the SRC has made this year?”
I would say that the SRC has made several important decisions to do with upcoming events in the school such as how Variety Night will run or the activities which will be happening in 12 days of Christmas as well as the fun times we all had at Multicultural Day and a bunch of other events. The SRC has also done many things to do with several issues in the school to make improvements, which is always a good thing.
Rehan Ali - Year 9 Representative
“Are there characteristics you think that leaders should possess?”
While patience, open-mindedness, the ability to delegate and many more are all common characteristics any leader should possess, self-management is a skill that is less well-known, however, is still just as important. We can only try to lead others after we have this skill ourselves. Self-management includes time management, having a healthy and stable mindset, able to problem solve, able to take responsibility and so on. This skill allows us to create a strong and healthy foundation on which we can then continue to grow and improve as leaders.
Soo Jung Yoo - Year 9 Representative
"How has your time as a SRC Rep influenced your leadership skills"
Being a part of the SRC has widely influenced leadership skills by giving me the opportunity to constantly help others. This allowed me to gain experience and to constantly practice my leadership skills, which I use on a day to day basis.
Alan Steny - Year 9 Representative
“For our future leaders of Penrith High, are there any opportunities around the school you believe they can get involved in?”
There are boundless opportunities at Penrith High for students from all years to get involved in. Penrith High is filled with opportunities for students to showcase their leadership ability. Leadership at Penrith High isn’t just major activities like running whole school assemblies or being a prefect, but there are many other but equally important activities such as performing or running grade assemblies or running a club. Penrith High has numerous opportunities for students to get involved and showcase their leadership skills and there are regularly new opportunities created for students thanks to the always improving and expanding environment at Penrith High. If any students would like to know more about leadership opportunities they can speak with their Year Advisers for advice or approach their SRC Rep or Prefects to find out what they can do to get involved. Some examples of opportunities are:
· SRC/JRC
· Prefect/ Captains
· Sports House Captains
· Running a club
· Running year meetings
· Assemblies (year and school)
· Gardening Club/School Service
· Getting involved in school activities (e.g. running a stall on Multicultural Day, performing at Variety Night/Multicultural Day)
Abhinav Santhakumar - Year 9 Representative
Wear it Pink Day
National Young Leaders Day
On Monday 4 November 2019 our leaders from the school including House Captains, SRC and prefect body all joined together at the International Convention Centre with other schools all around NSW to partake in the National Young Leaders Day. The day started with an introductory speech from our two hosts and a fun and exciting dance session, as an ice-breaker.
The day was then continued with guest speakers who spoke about their individual experiences and the struggles they had to be where they are today. They gave inspiring talks about motivation and perseverance.
The first guest speaker was John Coutis, a man born without the lower half of his body. He shared stories of his difficult past which consisted of bullying due to his physical state and his battle with his own will to live. John inspired everyone who attended with how he overcame these difficulties as a result of strong willpower and unconditional love from his parents. He talked about how his sheer perseverance and goal setting have allowed him to achieve his dream of being on stages around the world, presenting speeches to thousands of people.
The second guest speaker was Biance Chatfield, a former Australian Netball Captain and contestant on The Block. She too, shared her experience of how she felt she did not belong because of her height. However, after stepping on the netball court, she realised her potential and used her natural ability of being tall to attain the success she has today.
The third guest speaker was Erin Molan, an NFL host of the Sunday Night Footy Show. She shared her difficult journey to become a TV journalist, from being rejected 80 times to given discriminatory comments for being the first female presenter on sports television.
Last, but not least, Lachlan Smart gave his inspiring story of travelling around the world solo in an aircraft at the age of 18 years old. As a child, he was always interested in aviation, and took the step in raising thousands of dollars from large corporations to fund his journey over two years and took the world record of the youngest person to fly around the world solo, beating the previous world record holder by a year.
Everyone who attended the conference can, without a doubt, agree that each and every one of these people inspired us to face life without fear and to make sure that whatever it is that we are doing now, it is something that we know will have a positive impact on ourselves and others in the future. All 4 guests spoke about how having a positive attitude, doing the right thing and most of all, being a good person to others around us, were the most important things that could help us achieve our dreams. The lessons they taught resonate inside each and every person who heard their stories and it is an experience that changed our perspective on our own ability for the better.
We are filled with gratitude for having the opportunity to attend National Young Leaders Day and listen to the motivational stories of John Coutis, Bianca Chapman, Erin Molan and Lachlan Smart. The day was filled with great moments and we will never forget the lessons we learned to live by.
Overall, we speak on behalf of everyone who attended to thank both Ms Horsley, Ms Zhou and the guest speakers for such an amazing opportunity.
Written by,
Anushka Agarwal (House Captain), Jun Ma (Prefect), Drashti Shah (SRC)
Congratulations Keshna!
Keshna receiving her award, The Order of Australia Association (NSW) Youth Community Service Award, from the present Governor of NSW, Margaret Beazley, at Government House
Congratulations Sharvari!
Additionally, three of our Year 7 students have been shortlisted as part of the competition and winners will be announced on November 28. Those students are Sharvari, Gretchen Pronk and Saniru Dayaratne.
Thank you to Ms Xiberras for organising such a great opportunity.
More Penrith High Students get Published!
Two students have been selected to have their work published in an anthology titled Inspired 2019 that includes hundreds of poems, short stories and artworks from students ALL OVER Australia.
Hazel Malhotra from Year 7 and Sidra Afroz from Year 11 were both selected as Finalists in the competition and will now see their work in print!
Both Hazel and Sidra write beautiful poetry and continue to have a passion for it throughout their schooling. We are extremely proud of their achievements and cannot wait to see their work published!
If you are interested in purchasing the anthology Inspired 2019, you can visit the Write 4 Fun website to get a discount:
Sidra Afroz Year 11 2019
Congratulations Kristiana!
I cannot thank the RSL & Services Clubs Association, (especially Brad and Garrie) enough for the opportunity you have granted me.
The Kokoda Trail was absolutely amazing! Charlie's stories were both heartbraking and inspirational, and even though the trek was tiring, I am so grateful that I heard it straight from him, right where it happened all those years ago. I met such fun and amazing people, and the villagers and guides we met along the way were just beautiful. They seem to be so happy despite them having much less in terms of material possessions.
I feel like such a different person now from when I was at Port Moresby, and I've learnt so much about myself and the other trekkers. I feel stronger physically and emotionally. I honestly can't believe I have actually completed the trek - it feels surreal.
Thank you again, completing the trail has been the best thing I've done so far and will probably continue to be a momentous achievement for me for the rest of my life.
Kristiana Margate
Congratulations Ashley Tan from Year 8 who has been awarded second prize in the High Schools Division for the Design an Ad Competition
Year 12 Russian Study Day
Year 12 Russian students completing the HSC Russian Continuers course with the NSW School of Languages met with representatives of the Russian Ethnic community, Mrs Elena Stocker and Mrs Elena Avramidi.
Two Penrith High students, Lizaveta Drodz (middle row 2nd from left) and Daniil Rzhevskiy (back row 2nd from left), participated in the day.
PSHS Prefects attend the Kings School for Multiculturalism Prefect Afternoon Tea
Our Senior Leaders also visited St George Girls High School
Remembrance Day 2019
On Monday November 11, Penrith High held our annual Remembrance Day Ceremony. It was a sobering reminder of the Australians who served our country in the World Wars and other Wars as well as those who still serve today.
It was extremely insightful to hear from our guest speakers LACW Shanae Stengord and CPL Coen Henry from the Richmond RAAF base. As the History Prefects, Nicole Huang and myself had the honour of reciting the poem “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon as well as "The Ode" to commemorate Remembrance Day.
We also wanted to thank the Year 11 music class for their beautiful musical item “Can you hear Australia’s Heroes Marching?” by Peter Barnes.
We concluded the ceremony with "The Last Post" played by Lachlan Braikenridge, The One Minute Silence, followed by "The Rouse" played by Lachlan as well.
In conclusion, our Remembrance Day was a successful ceremony that commemorated and paid respect to the Australians who served and those who still do.
Hasanga Malalasekara
- History Prefect
Spring Regatta 2019
CAPA News!
For the CAPA faculty, this year has been very eventful! New additions to the faculty staff, many enriching and valuable events, and a score of outstanding achievements by talented students have demonstrated the value of the arts in fostering a school environment that enriches and provides opportunities for students to express themselves creatively and take pleasure in their learning.
Additions to the CAPA faculty
During the months of October to November we have made many new exciting additions to the CAPA faculty.
After the induction of the Prefect body, we were glad to welcome William Baltaks, the CAPA Prefect Leader and Rahul Sahadevan, the CAPA Assistant Prefect to the team.
Additionally, Penrith is excited to welcome Ms Goodman, who has joined us for the term replacing Miss Ridgeway. Ms Goodman studied at the Conservatorium of Music majoring in Musicology, and regularly performs with orchestras as a violinist - honing her skills and giving her students a rich musical education.
We have also engaged Richard Sandham to run our Instrumental Program, and Clare Richards to run our choral program, with the aim of expanding the amount of enrichment opportunities across CAPA to allow students across the school access to a broader scope of extra-curricular activities.
Student achievements
Several of our high achieving students have shown their skills in winning various awards and competitions - demonstrating the results that come with hard work and dedication to excellence.
Angus Benedek from year 11 was awarded the Silver Award at the Arts Alive Film Festival for a film he directed, starring other students from year 11. An enormous achievement for Angus, who is now technically an award winning director. Well done!
Ashley Tan, another high achieving student, was able to come second overall in the “Design an Ad” Competition. This is a momentous achievement, considering the competition is a major event for schools all across Australia, with more than $100,000 in prizes given out for students, teachers and schools.( See previous article and photo).
Events
Extra-curricular events and excursions are vital in creating a school community which not only values academics, but also well-rounded and holistic education. Thus, the CAPA faculty is ecstatic in reviewing the quantity and quality of Arts events held this year:
• Year 9 Visual Arts students were lucky enough to attend Sculptures by the Sea, which is Australia’s largest outdoor sculpture exhibition, where they were able to view many captivating and sophisticated works of art.
• Year 11 Music students participated in a Composition Day at Western Sydney University at the end of last term which saw them have their personal compositions performed and recorded by professional musicians.
• The upcoming ‘Retrospect’ Art Exhibition on the Tuesday of week nine (10 December) will see students from our VA enrichment classes, as well as students across the school, showcase their work - and go in the running for the “Penrith Prize”, where the best portrait of a member of the Penrith High school community will receive a prize of art supplies.
• Additionally, Drama enrichment students will perform a play, and music students will perform their compositions - displaying the enormous effort our students invest into their art, and the abilities of our skilled and diligent performing arts teachers.
• On the Thursday of week nine, the “Pulse Music Ensembles Tour” event will see our school host the Pulse Concert Band, Big Band, Percussion Ensemble and Vocal Ensemble. They will perform for our Year 7 and 8 students, as well as Penrith Public Primary School students, showcasing the outstanding talent of students at our school.
Alumni Garden - a work in progress! - Term 4 Week 2
Thank you Chris Prior!
Thank you Matt Oxley!
Term 4 Week 3
Term 4 Week 3
Bunya Pines at the Front of the School
Lisa Slade was an Art Teacher at Penrith High from 1993-1997. She has gone on to be a Creative Arts Consultant for the DoE, ran major art exhibitions, been a curator at a number of art galleries around the country, a university lecturer, completed a doctorate in Philosophy and is currently Assistant Director at the Art Gallery of South Australia. She featured prominently on an ABC documentary on Ben Quilty recently.
In her time at PHS, as well as inspiring students with her teaching, she started an Environment Group who worked during sport. The two bunya pines out the front (original homestead gate entrance) were in danger, one looked sick, because the night school and others parked their cars on the roots most days. Lisa was instrumental in stopping the car parking there by getting the school to install treated pine bollards and mulching under the trees. A large cone fell from one of the trees one day. Lisa and her group gathered seeds, grew seedlings and planted them out.
Unfortunately her concern was justified as the sicker tree first lost its top (which crashed down onto High Street about 2010) and then was taken out (about 2017). However, the other tree is going fine and that is in no small part down to Lisa, whilst the seedlings are now beautiful trees. Two are near the front entrance, one is very close to where the sick original was taken out and the largest is near the High Street side of A Block. A wonderful legacy from a teacher who was also very fondly admired by her students.
Nathan Wilcox
Teacher Librarian
Silver Duke of Edinburgh
The past year, the year 10 Silver Duke of Ed group have learnt the definition of teamwork, resilience, hard work and dedication through our preparation and completion of 2 expeditions. As a group, we completed on two adventurous journeys, our first to Euroka Clearing and the second to The Megalong Valley, which ended the year with more wonderful memories to cherish. As a group, we discovered the many ways to have fun, learn more about nature and our surroundings but more importantly learn about ourselves.
Our final journey of 2019, was to Megalong Valley, where we walked up more mountains then we can count, got navigationally challenged a couple of times, climbed or rather crawled up 563 steps and many more enjoyable hills, mounds and ladders along the way. For some of us, this may be the last Duke of Ed journey and we really did end it with a blast.
After every mountain peak, there's another, yet as a group, we keep on marching through. With each stretch we reach higher; with each stride, we’re stronger together. Our last expedition not only tested our physical capabilities but our mentality; our drive to not give in! It was more a mental challenge for most of us, but as a group, we helped each other and supported each one of us to push through and reach the end.
We are all so grateful and thankful for all the teachers involved in allowing us to safely participate and complete Duke of Ed each year. Most importantly we are very grateful for Ms Andreatta for always being the amazing teacher she is and doing so much for all the Dukes kids. Consequently, allowing all of us to partake in an amazing journey with her right beside us.
Our journey and progress from Bronze to Silver has been nothing short of remarkable, as many of us started the journey with little to no skills, no concept of the environment and for many of us, we had never even set up a tent before. The help and guidance from our teachers, but Ms Andreatta in particular, has seen us grow mentally and physically. To our current group, our peers who have come and gone along the way as well as our parents and families who have gotten us to where we are today, we, the 2019 Silver Duke of Ed group, thank you all so much.
Till next time !!!
Sinduja Sureshkumar
Bronze Duke of Edinburgh (Group C) recently went on their last expedition for the year.
Next was a hike up a spur between 2 dry rivers. We reached the road and began the last stretch down to the campsite along a fire trail. When we reached the campsite we set up our tents and after some time and an icy pole we walked down to the Nepean River. The river was, as most people said, the best part of the day. We spent some time in the cold water and then went back to camp to begin dinner with a refresher on how to use the stoves. After dinner we played games, ate the jelly and lollipops brought by the teachers for Halloween then each group talked about their day.
Day 2 kicked off early as everyone rose at 5am. We were 'ready' at 6.30am but after rubbish checks, getting maps ready we were out at 7am. Finally the first group left and the hike started with a walk across campsites and up a steep hill. We went past Portal Waterhole after a few disagreements and for one group, a wrong turn. We went off track up a hill and down to the road. We walked along to Portal Lookout where we could see all the way to Penrith and beyond. Then we went down the road to another lookout playing games again. Finally we went off road onto a track. Afterwards we arrived at Jellybean Pool where we could swim. The water was freezing but lots of fun. Finally we went to the carpark and the end of the walk.
Overall, the Duke of Ed Bronze Hike was a great experience. Everyone learnt great skills, made new friends along the way and had an amazing time. We'd all like to give a big thank you to Ms Andreatta for giving us the opportunity to participate in Duke of Ed and organising it for us. It has truly been a memorable experience!
Mela Hoffman
Sport Update
Swim School Training Year 10 PASS
Year 10 PASS Students had the opportunity to participate in Training for the upcoming Year 7 Swim program this term. Water safety education is important as its primary focus is to educate students to prevent drownings. In particular we focus on education of water safety and survival skills, such as what to do in an emergency situation. Year 10 students from PASS participated in various water safety activities to be able to teach Year 7.
Softball NSW Slow Pitch
NSW Softball came into the school during a PE lesson to allow Year 10 students the opportunity to participate in a new version of Softball, called Fully Loaded Slow Pitch. Fully Loaded is a shorter modified version of Softball. It has Loaded bases, three innings, shorter fences and 60-second changeover between innings. Fully Loaded Softball is all the best bits of the game wrapped up within 30 minutes. SlowPitch is where the ball is underarm pitched in an arc opposed to a regular fastball. This means the ball can be easier to hit. (See photos below)
Halloween Celebrations
Slime juice and dragon's blood(glowing drinks) were the order of the day along with bat poo(chocolate cupcakes)! Many students remembered to come dressed to GLOW in the DARK!
Everyone seemed to have a glowing good Halloween!
Friday 8 November at 8.50 am in the library! A great hive of activity on any given day!
Penrith Selective High School
Email: penrith-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au
Website: https://penrith-h.schools.nsw.gov.au
Location: High St, Penrith NSW, Australia
Phone: 02 4721 0529
Facebook: facebook.com/penrithselectivehighschool