Principals Report

Dates for Calendar

NAPLAN

9-11 May

Year 11 & 12 Needles

11 May

P & C Meeting

16 May

MURRUMBURRAH

HIGH SCHOOL

PRINCIPAL: JOHN

MCFADYEN

5 MAY 2017 Week 2 —Term 2

Mercury Welcome back to Term 2. What wonderful

weather to start the descent into winter. I

hope everyone had a safe and restful break

and are recharged to start a new term of

learning.

Thank you to all the students and teachers

who attended the ANZAC Day ceremony

in Harden. There was a fantastic turnout

from the school and as always, our school

leaders undertook their respective roles in

a responsible and respectful manner. It is

important that we continue to recognise

and appreciate the sacrifices of the AN-

ZAC’s and the subsequent men and wom-

en who have fought and continue to fight

to preserve what we have as Australians.

Jane Fitzgerald, Lucy Chesworth and Ellie Raptis at ANZAC ceremony

Cronulla Sharks Visit Last Monday, Murrumburrah High School

was fortunate to host James Segeyaro and

Jayden Walker from the Cronulla Sharks

NRL squad and NRL development officers

James Smart and Cameron Woo . Our

students had the opportunity to listen to

the players speak about respect and cultur-

al differences. A worthwhile visit.

Cronulla players James Segeyaro and Jayden Walker with Joey Polimeni hold-ing the NRL Provan Summons Trophy

NAPLAN Next week, the National Assessment Pro-

gram Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)

will be completed by students in Years 7

and 9 in all government and non-

government schools. NAPLAN will assess

the literacy and numeracy learning of stu-

dents in all Australian Schools. The testing

dates are as follow;

Tuesday 9th May – Language Conven-

tions and Writing Test

Wednesday 10th May - Reading

Thursday 11th May – Numeracy P & C Meeting A reminder that the next Meeting of the

Murrumburrah High School P & C Associa-

tion will be held in the Teachers Common

Room at 6.00pm, Tuesday 16th May.

All parents and school community members

are invited to attend. Why not come along

and take an active part in the school’s offi-

cial parent representative group?

MHS School

Driver Training

Program

1 hour = 3 Log

book hours

Price = $10 per

1 hour lesson

Reminder:

Uniform Shop is

open Thursdays

3pm to 5pm at

MPS

Page 2 Mercury

HSC Timetable Released Year 12 students should by now have

marked their HSC examination timetable

on their calendars. Murrumburrah High

School students will sit their HSC exams

on the following dates;

Sporting Success Congratulations are extended to Joey Poli-

meni and Tara McGrath-West who this

week have represented the Riverina in

NSW CHS events. Joey represented the

Riverina in touch football last weekend

whilst Tara has spent the last week partici-

pating in the CHS volleyball champion-

ships. I’m sure you all join me in congratu-

lating both students on their success.

Enjoy.

John McFadyen

Open Boys Cricket On Thursday 4th May our opens boys’

cricket team headed to Temora for round

2 of the CHS knockout Davidson Shield.

The boys were confident after defeating

Cootamundra High School convincingly in

round 1. However, this game saw us come

up against a much more experienced and

older team with the Temora High boys

youngest student being in year 9 and the

rest were made up of mainly year 11 boys.

Our captain James Woodhead decided to

bowl first after winning the toss. We could

have had a wicket in the first over but the

catch went down. That ended up being the

theme of the Temora innings as we only

managed to grasp 2 catches out of about

15 chances. Credit must go to our boys

who kept on searching for wickets all in-

nings. Temora finished 9 wickets down for

a mammoth 299. We then set about chas-

ing the total against the Temora boys ex-

press pace attack. All bowlers that we

faced were fast and bowled a mainly con-

sistent line and length. Our boys managed

to get 80 odd and showed great resilience

throughout the innings. I am pretty sure all

our boys will have bruises as this batting

display reminded me of footage of the

1932 ashes bodyline series. However,

while our students nurse there bruises

they can be proud and hold their heads up

high with the opposition mentioning that

our batsmen never took a backward step

and “dug” in throughout the entire innings.

Well done on representing Murrumburrah

High School with fantastic sportsmanship

throughout the match. Coaches award

goes to Ben Hambrook who did not stop

chasing the ball in the field and took a nice

catch, and always encouraging his team

mates. Player of the match goes to James

Woodhead for his 4 wickets and innings of

29 that included a HUGE six back over the

bowlers head. Well done on your efforts

boys.

Josh Wakem

October

16

English

(Standard)

Paper 1

English

(Advanced)

Paper 1

October

17

English

(Standard)

Paper 2

English

(Advanced)

Paper 2

Primary In-

dustries

October

18

Senior Sci-

ence

Agriculture

October

19

PDHPE Human Ser-

vices

October

23

General

Mathematics

October

26

Business

Studies

November

6

Food Tech-

nology

November

7

Retail Ser-

vices

Drama

Page 3 Mercury

Last Wednesday MHS held its annual Cross Country competition.

This run was dedicated in memory of Lui Polimeni, who was a great cross country

runner for our school.

It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon, and a great day was had by all.

Age Champions

12 Girls - Lily Shorrock 12 Boys - Phillip Graham

13 Girls - Samantha Emms 13 Boys - Beau Abnett 14 Girls - Sharna Allen 14 Boys - Mitch Brown

15 Girls - Abbey Wade 15 Boys - James Daley

16 Girls - Hannah Phillis 16 Boys - Jacob Frichot

Opens Girls - Tayla Gaudie Opens Boys - Oscar Forsyth

Run for Lui

With a team of ten eager players and ready to go attitude, Murrumburrah High School

Girls Opens League Tag team graced the field. In the span of the next five hours we

played at 10:10am falling to Hennessy 3-0. Then in the second game at 11:50am we

played Young High falling again 4-0. The third game it was Lucy Chesworth who got

through against Cootamundra High School who scored the one and only try for the

day. Alas, we fell against Cootamundra 4-1. Even though we didn’t get a win in, we

showed great spirit and teamwork. Chin up girls- till next time.

Charity-Leigh Elford

Girls Opens League Tag— 4th May

At the end of last term students in the Stage 5 Elective History - Crimes and Catastro-

phe class participated in a simulated archaeology exercise. Sometimes this comes in the

form of a secret dig being set up in a sand pit, but this time we tried something differ-

ent, testing our skills of deduction using items used daily by members of our class.

The students were required to choose up to 10 items from their day and attach a label

saying where it was used. Other students then had to examine the items, note where

they were used and try to construct a timeline of daily activity. This was an interesting

hands on activity using critical and evaluative thinking skills, that was also a bit of fun

and informative about the hobbies and habits of classmates.

Accompanying photos show some of the items brought in by students for the activity.

Adrienne Beck

Stage 5 Elective History - Crimes and Catastrophe

Student Representatives Amelia Leitner-Ford and Emily Hartwig with the money raised

from the 5cent Fridays challenge for the "Love Your Sister" Big Heart Project.

5 Cent Challenge

Page 4 Mercury

Event Year/Classes Activity Date Money / Note Due

NAPLAN Years 7 and 9 9—11 May 2017 N/A

Year 11 & 12 Needles Years 11 and 12 11 May 2017 OVERDUE

Opens Boys Rugby

Gala Davey Shield

Selected Students 10 May 2017 8 May 2017

Zone Athletics Selected Students 12 May 2017 8 May 2017

What’s Happening

Reminder:

Parents if you wish

for your child to

leave early from

school, please

telephone the

Office on 6386

2755. The office

does not accept

text message on a

student’s phone.

The Stage 4 Scientists have started Term 2 studying Matter & Energy. This topic intro-

duces the students to concepts such as those surrounding the Particle Theory of Matter,

the Periodic table of elements and energy and its transformation. Solids, liquids and gases

to some may sound a tad boring, well pssst have a look at the hot air balloons and hon-

eycomb (the attached photo shows success through investigative failure – and a sticky

mass of binbound sugar) made to help explain the idea that gases expand when heated

(cough gain energy). Incidentally, I think Ms Ashton’s class may have set a MHS altitude

record when they sent ‘Bob’ the paper pilot flew over the hall roof (safe landing) – using

only ‘hot air’ and I swear it didn’t come from me (Mr Priest) –well, not all of it.

The Stage 5 classes have now moved on to the physic topic of Motion. This unit looks at

speed, acceleration and in general Sir Isaac Newtons’ 3 Laws of Motion. There is a bit of

maths (groan – sorry Ms Hyland) in this subject but there is also some great practical

activities – last week Ms Young’s class timed the speed of 20 cars on the Highway in

Harden and didn’t manage to clock one doing over the speed limit (determined through

that pesky maths formula thingy). More outdoor activities in the pipeline, just not those

involving the projectile motion of water filled balloons, way too cold.

The Preliminary Senior Science class are in the final stages of the Local Environment top-

ic, which deals with Human Impacts on environment with particular emphasis on those in

the local area and Australia. To break up the bookwork the students have had a play

(read investigation) with the ferro fluid and neodymium magnets which brilliantly demon-

strate the beauty of magnetism (usually an invisible force). Through accident (read inves-

tigative malfunction) we discovered you can (if you’re prepared to get your fingers oily)

actually feel the force of magnetism as a resistant jelly –like halo around the magnet

while the outside of the sphere is still fluid – way cool.

The Preliminary Chemistry students are also finishing off their second topic Metals. The

last section looks at the extraction of commodities from the Earth – mining. Google

Earth has been a fantastic tool (specially on the big screen TV) to look at the impact ex-

ploration for minerals has had on the landscape. They have also been gaining a thorough

understanding of (less exciting to most/masses) the concepts Molarity and work of Guy

La saacs and Avagadro - maths/stoichiometry – still way cool.

Must also give shout out to Jed Hodson for his work with the lunchtime students and at

the moment (after- in Jed style, undertaking his own research for a suitable method) is

hoping to produce a batch of ferro fluids in the labs – so far looking good. Qudos and

much respect.

Gotta love Science!

Still looking for more plastic bottle caps, old electronic equipment and an old big speak-

er.

Timothy Priest

From the Labs

Smelted Gold

Ferrofluids

Honeycomb experiment

Balloon building

Lift Off in the lab

Success

PO Box 131

HARDEN NSW 2587

Phone: 02 6386 2755

Fax: 02 6386 3048

E-mail: murrumburr-

h@det.nsw.edu.au

A successful driver training program has been in operation at Murrumburrah High School

for over 32 years. Time is made available for the learner drivers to be trained using a

comprehensive teaching program that meets the standards of the NSW Roads and Mari-

time Services (RMS).

The MHS Driver Training program is coordinated by two teachers, Ms Antoinette Ward

and Mr Ian Baird, who are also both licensed commercial driving instructors. The pro-

gram is accredited with the NSW RMS.

The Driver Training car is a manual 1.5 litre dual controlled Hyundai i20. The dual con-

trols allow students to gain confidence in driving.

The course is designed to teach safe driving habits and to make students realise when

they are driving that they are responsible for the safety of family, friends, members of the

community and themselves. Each student progresses at their own pace, that is, according

to how quickly they master the driving skills.

Instructors and students rate this driver training course very highly because it provides a

thorough, well planned course of instruction. A good attitude relating to safe driving is

encouraged with the focus being on low risk driving skills and increased hazard awareness

and response.

The program is sponsored by the Murrumburrah High School P & C, McAlister Motors

Young and Bendigo Bank Harden. The Kruger Trust has also made significant contribu-

tions in the past especially with vehicle replacement. Students make a small contribution

towards the on-going running costs of the vehicle only.

This program is good value for the students especially when one hour of instruction

equals 3 hours in the RMS log book and instruction is given in an educational setting of a

high school.

MURRUMBURRAH

HIGH SCHOOL

PRINCIPAL: JOHN

MCFADYEN

We’re on the web http://www.murrumburr-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/

Murrumburrah High School Driver Training Program

Preparing our students for tomorrow’s challenges through learning

On the 3rd of May our stage 5 debaters ; Madeline Hartwig , Hannah Phillis , Maria

Raptis and our excellent stand in team advisor Abbey Wade (Absent – Tara Mcgrath

West) made their way to Cootamundra High School for the first round of the Prem-

ier’s Debating Challenge. We received the topic of “NAPLAN testing should be

banned”. The girls were ecstatic when the coin toss revealed that we would be arguing

against the motion and quickly rushed off to their prep room where they were busy

for the next hour. During the debate we made many compelling arguments and clever

rebuttals. However, due to a very strong opposition we lost. The adjudicator made

note that they were all excellent speakers and debaters.

Well done girls and good luck for the next round!

Nicole Buttriss

Round 1 of the Premier’s Debating Challenge