Respect ~ Perseverance ~ Growth

Principal Matters by Mark Watson

Year 12’s Final Week The last week of Term 3 is traditionally the last week of formal classes for Year 12. It is a week of celebrations, graduations and formals. The restrictions in place to stop the spread of COVID-19 have resulted in considerable adjustments to our normal celebrations. The Year 12 Formal has been postponed to after the HSC. With the considerable reductions in COVID-19 numbers in NSW it is anticipated, especially by Year 12, that the restrictions will be eased allowing for a more traditional formal later in the year. A Week Of Celebrations Despite the dampener placed on proceedings due to the pandemic, Year 12 was still able to cel-ebrate, in traditional and innovative ways. Everyday was mufti day for Year 12 this week. Everyday had a theme from “beach” through to “future career”. Then there were the traditional students verses teacher sporting matches. Year 12 challenged staff in soccer, netball and touch football. In keeping with tradition, the students were no match for the teacher’s superior sporting skills. On Thursday Year 12 decided it would be a good idea to bring their dogs to school. It turned out it was. The day was very calm as everyone wanted to just sit and pat pets. Year 12 Graduation The Year 12 Graduation has traditionally been a night where parents are able to join in with the celebration of their child finishing school. So not wanting to have an event at school without parents, we decided to pre-record the graduation and make it available in the scheduled time slot over the Internet. Students were able to sit at home with their parents and families and watch the graduation which featured each student receiving their certificate, speeches from Ms Paterson and myself, a musical item and photo montage. Thanks go to Ms Peattie and her team for the wonderful production. Year 12 Wellbeing Program & P&C The P&C have always had a significant role to play in the graduation. That role became difficult this year because parents have limited access to school grounds. Nonetheless, the P&C still made a contribution. On Thursday, a couple of parents attended school and distributed the P&C gift (a water bottle and pen) and on Friday, every stu-dent received a cup cake. The P&C also organised former students to attend school on Wednesday and Thursday to work with Year 12 in small groups, or one on one; to help them solve problems.

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Fun Friday On Friday normal classes were suspended for Year 12. They arrived a little later, in time for period 2 where they presented their Year 12 concert to Year 11. Following this they received their cupcake before going to the oval to play and watch sporting games. Individual pizzas, drinks and icecreams were a hit before bringing the week and formal education to a close.

Term 4 Return Unlike previous years, Year 12 will follow a school based educational program during the first week of Term 4. This program was initiated to ensure students’ are not disadvantaged by any loss of time that may have occurred during the lockdown over the first and second term. Some staff really appreciated the additional time as they still had ma-terial to cover. Students in these classes must attend school for that lesson. We are following our normal timetable. COVID-19 Update On Thursday, the government announced an easing of restrictions in schools for next term. Year 12, however, should not lower their guard. It is important they get tested if needed. More information is available on the Depart-ment of Education’s website. Classes Resume For Year 11 This week saw normal classes resume for our Year 11 students following two weeks of examinations. These ex-ams mark the end of the Year 11 course. Next term our Year 11 students will begin HSC course work. This week students will have begun receiving marks from their exams. With this information they will be considering their study options for the HSC. The minimum number of units that must be studied in Year 11 is 12 units and in Year 12 it is 10. This allows students to reduce the number of units they take through to the HSC by 2. At the start of term 4, Year 11 students will all be provided the opportunity for a 1 to 1 coaching session with a trained staff member. They my wish to discuss subject options in these meetings. More information regarding coaching will be sent by Mrs Mercer at the start of term 4. Farewell Ms Kaur Ms Kaur from the Science staff will be leaving us at the end of this term to take up a position at Normanhurst Boys High School. Ms Kaur joined our staff in 20?? and her commitment to science has been appreciated by her stu-dents, especially her physics students. We wish her all the best for her move to Normanhurst. We welcome Mr Frew, Ms Kaur’s replacement. Mr Frew will join us next term. Infrastructure Update After many years of meetings and looking at plans, I cannot tell you how delighted I am to see our new Gym taking shape. Works are progressing rapidly and the exciting news is that we will be using the building in the second half of next term. After we have moved in, works will begin on the demolition of the existing Gym. It is anticipated the demolition will be com-pleted during the summer break and this will include the remediation and landscaping of the site. While we await final approval of the landscaping plans, I am hopeful they will include an outdoor court if the budget per-mits. Meanwhile work continues on the remediation of A-Block. The old roof has been com-pletely removed and this week trusses were delivered for the new roof. Work is progressing rapidly and remains on sched-ule. It is most likely we will move back into this building around the middle of next term.

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Last year the P&C were successful in winning a community grant to revitalise the school hall. A tender was awarded for this project during term 3 and works are scheduled to begin after the HSC. The back of the hall will be remodelled to add a mezzanine level to carry sound and lighting controls on the upper level with seating on the lower level. This will increase the seating capacity of the entire hall. Works will also include an upgrade to the toilets and kitchen in the hall.

Plans for a community hub have been in place for many years. Again this project is a direct result of a grant won by the P&C. The original site for the hub was where our new Gym is located. The new location for the hub is where the container used for music tutorials near the office is currently situation. This project is currently out to tender. The ten-der will be awarded next term with works planned to begin after the remediation of the gym is completed during the summer holidays. The hub will be a lightweight triangular shaped building and has been designed so that musical in-struments can easily be moved from the hall to the hub. The hub will also provide valuable rehearsal space for many of our ensembles.

Northern Sydney IEC You will be aware, from previous communications and newsletters that the Intensive English Centre (IEC), currently located at Chatswood High School, is relocating to our school. The new IEC will be known as the Northern Sydney Intensive English Centre. The relocation is necessary because there will be no space at Chatswood after the redevel-opment of the site. From term 4, staff from the (IEC) will be at our school one day a week. The current cohort of stu-dents will remain at Chatswood and complete their program at the end of this year. A new group of students may be placed at our school from the beginning of next year; however, the numbers are very low in all IECs across the state due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. We are expecting a decision about 2021 student numbers next term.

What Are Your Plans For 2021? Planning is well underway for the 2021 school year. At this stage we anticipate that Year 7 will be our largest year. There is currently strong demand for places at our school and we must take all local applicants. Our planning for 2021 will be greatly assisted by your notifying us if you are intending to move your child to another school next year.

Congratulations This week, congratulations go to:

Nina K (Year 11). Nina was recently invited to participate in the Australian Mathematical Olympiad. This week she received a certificate from the organisers recognising her involvement.

our students in Years 7 to 11, who will have their artwork displayed at St Ives shops over the school holidays. See the item in this newsletter for details. A big thank you to the Art staff who will be at the shops next Monday hanging the students’ works.

Happy Holidays I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very safe and happy 2020 spring holiday. This has been a very difficult year with significant unplanned events impacting greatly on the school. The next two weeks will be an oppor-tunity for all of us to look forward to the final term while having the time to relax and recover from the year so far. The exception to this, of course, will be Year 12 who will be very focused as they prepare for the HSC. All students will re-turn to classes on Monday October 12. There is no school development day at the beginning of Term 4.

Please see the latest YouTube time lapse link for the new building project update attached :

https://youtu.be/B_FonVSAbXY

Best wishes Mark Watson Principal

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SHOWCASE 2020

If you missed our annual Art, Music and Textiles exhibition in the hall this year, please take a few minutes to view a short video of some of the amaz-ing work created by students from year 7 to 12. This is just a snapshot, there was so much work we could only record a small number of pieces. https://youtu.be/-tSHhId_xM0 Enjoy!! Next term we will show more of our artwork and there will be more show-casing of Science major projects Patricia Gettens Head Teacher Creative Arts Visual Arts Teacher

SIHS SYDNEY TURPENTINE AND IRONBARK FOREST ART

COMPETITION This week, selected artworks from year 7 and year 9 that reflected a bush theme, were judged in a competition run by the St Ives High Bush Care parent group. The SIHS Sydney Turpentine and Ironbark Forest Environment trust award was won by Sienna J with runners up, Strahan Cormican Jones and Jordan T all from year 9. The images will be used in future publications. sien-na 2 copy We are fortunate to have the forest on our grounds which is home to a unique groups of trees and plants that aren’t found anywhere else in the world and survive only in a few scattered reserves. This is why it is listed as a critically endangered ecological community. Pat Gettens Head Teacher Creative Arts Visual Arts Teacher

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YEAR 9 JEWELRY BOX & PORTFOLIO

With remote learning now gone but not forgotten, our year 9 timber class has been able to successfully take full

advantage of their practical time in the new workshop facilities. Getting back on track with their practical assess-

ment schedule, year 9 have produced a stunning array of individualised Jewellery Box designs. The projects

demonstrate a high range of skills including joinery, lamination and cabinetry, all of which have been finished to a

very high standard. The students have really taken ownership of their individual designs, making informed aesthet-

ic and functional design choices. You can detect a real sense of pride in their work, and justly so!

Glen Woodhead, Woodwork Teacher

8T TEDed Talks This year 8T Gats class have prepared "an idea worth sharing" , presenting their ideas via video instead of to a live audience.By joining the interna-tional TEDed Club, students were trained in how to develop concepts and write with an arc and a throughline. They have developed short speech-es that are thought provoking, sometimes person-al , informative and persuasive....our future is in good hands! The videos will be available for you to watch next term. Well done 8T! Pat Gettens, GATS Coordinator

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YEAR 9 PASS – PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SPORTS STUDIES 18th

Sept 2020

Week 8 Year 9 PASS started a unit called Australia’s Sporting Identity. The students are learning about how sport has long played an important social and cultural role in Australia’s history. We have also been looking at the rea-sons for changes in Australia’s sporting history and identity, including researching the inclusion of people with a disability and traditional indigenous games. For the next practical lesson, the students brief was to research a traditional Aboriginal game and then (in groups) teach it to the class in our practical lesson. The students had a lot of fun exploring these traditional games and real-ised the crossover between many of our modern sports. Some of the games included: Kalq, Weme, Kokan, Wana, Munhanganing, Tarnanbai and Buroinjin. An example of one of the games played is outlined below: Woggabaliri Background - Children from the Bogan and Lachlan rivers area of New South Wales played a kind of football with a ball made of possum fur. The fur was spun by the women and made into a ball about 5 centimetres in diameter. It required great agility and suppleness of limbs to play this game with any degree skill. Groups of 4–6 players standing in a circle about 2 metres apart using a size 4 soccer ball, volleyball or a soft inflat-able ball (such as a beach ball). It is a kicking volley game with the emphasis on cooperation. One player kicks the ball up in the air and other players try to kick it (one touch only) again before it hits the ground. Younger or less ex-perienced players may use two touches. The main objective is to keep the ball from hitting the ground. No player may kick the ball more than once in succession. All ‘kicks’ are made with the feet or knees. Players must have one foot on the ground when kicking the ball. Scoring - Each group attempts to volley the ball (consecutive kicks) in the air as many times as they can within a set time. The group with the greatest number of volleys in the time wins. If the ball touches the ground the count is restarted. A competition could require players to follow a set order. Language The name for this game was taken from the Wiradyuri lan-guage for ‘play’ (woggabaliri). This language was spoken or under-stood by many Aboriginal groups in central and southern New South Wales. Indigenous Traditional games - Office of Sport https://www.sport.nsw.gov.au/node/6549 Student comments – informative giving interesting facts about traditional Aboriginal games; fun; interesting; good fun Thanks Year 9 for doing an amazing job. Sandy Terrey PDHPE/PASS teacher

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MATHS COMPETITION NEWS APSMO FINAL RESULTS

Congratulations to the following students who achieved excel-lent results in the 2020 APSMO (Australasian Problem Solving Mathematical Olympiad) competition. This year it consisted of four rounds over four months. First place: Mahan M (year 7) Second place: Nate R (year 8) Equal third place: Stacy K and Oliver J (year 7) Well done to all students who participated this year. Sue Berger Mathematics Teacher

10X HISTORY HOLOCAUST PROJECT Generally at this time of year we are lucky enough to have had a visit to the Sydney Jewish Museum and then have the Courage to Care organisation out to look at our Holocaust PBL. However, due to Covid restrictions we had a zoom excursion to the Museum instead, and the PBLs presented in class. 10 X provided a wonderful selection of digital presentations and some additional props. The digital presentations were very informative with some fabulous research done and strong judgements made to answer our driving question: Have we learnt from the Holocaust? . One group made an amazing display of books all representing each of the genocides the world has experienced, complete with 'bloodied' handprints. This was a fabulous lesson where all students learnt some-thing new from their peers. Gillian McGhee Economics Teacher

FAREWELL YEAR 12 SRC This week we say goodbye to our Senior SRC stu-dents. It has been a tough year readjusting their plans and accomodating new world of school through Covid. I would like to thank and congratu-late them myself for their dedication to their role this year. I have enjoyed working with them and am proud of their leadership in 2020. Tania Mcurgan Transition Coordinator Visual Arts teacher

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CAREERS UPDATE Employment Prospects post COVID

Before the pandemic most jobs in order were in health care and social assistance, retail, construc-tion, professional, scientific and technical, education and training, accommodation and food ser-vices, manufacturing, public administration and safety, transport, postal and warehousing, adminis-trative and support services. The most impacted industries are accommodation, food services, retail, tourism and the arts. There will be fewer jobs in the short term, meaning the jobs market is more competitive. Resilience and adaptability will be critical skills. Employers want education and training, work experience (volunteer, unpaid, casual), employability skills and personal qualities such as motivation, reliability, problem solving, communication, teamwork, organisation & planning and digital literacy. Post COVID, Health, aged and disability care will be the largest employing industries. Retail and hospitality are dynamic and will continue to provide many jobs. Education and training, construction, manufacturing will continue to be large employing industries. Online shopping will remain a significant industry. Trades with national shortages are motor mechanics, plumbers, electricians, bakers & pastry cooks, bricklayers, ma-chinists, welders and cabinet makers. Jobs in demand are: dental assistants, child carers, receptionists, truck drivers and managers. New growth areas are IT, big data, cyber security, food production and green energy. Lifelong learning is essential. https://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/GainInsights/EmployersRecruitmentInsights Figure 1: Emerging occupations identified by the National Skills Commission

Neil Holmes Careers Adviser

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