South Sydney High School

SOUTH SYDNEY
Care Opportunity Success
Term 3 - Week 6
School Newsletter
Friday 22 August 2014
From Our Principal
Congratulations and thanks to:
 Former South Sydney student Tiana Penitani as the flag bearer for the World Youth Olympics – what an outstanding young
Australian.
 Anthony Leung, Bocar Diaw, Brian Wu and Jonah Diano for their outstanding short film, Stand Up, entered into the Focus on
Ability film contest about a boy dealing with his blindness. You can view the short film on our website.
 Hayden Towns, Emily Cooley, Brent Newport, Shiana Honeysett and Simone
Taylor for representing South Sydney High School in the guard of honour in
the “Closing the Gap” round at the Rabbitoh’s game against the Broncos last
week.
 Year 10 students for their positive attitude in the Mock Interviews held on
Wednesday. Many employers commented that they were impressed by the
maturity displayed by the students.
 All students and parents who contributed so generously to our Mufti Day and
Cake stall held last week to raise money to support Jessada and his family;
over $1800 was collected.
 SRC students for organising this special day for Jessada.
HSC Update
Year 12 students have been very busy preparing for their practical Drama exam, Music practical exam, Visual Arts major works
and Industrial Technology major practical works. Please come along and see the outstanding talent within this group of
students at the annual HSC Showcase of creative and performing arts to be held next Tuesday 26 August from 6.30 pm 8.30 pm, in the School Hall.
Year 10 Formal – is not a school sanctioned event
South Sydney High School does not endorse the Year 10 formal. This is not a school sanctioned event and therefore,
no teachers will be in attendance.
New School Planning Procedures 2015 – 2017
The new school plan will provide schools with the opportunity to lead educational innovation for the improved delivery of
quality teaching, learning and leadership outcomes for all NSW public schools.
The new school plan will support school leaders in working proactively with their staff and school communities to establish
school strategic directions and key educational improvements. It will support collaborative leadership and community consultation for strategic decision making, ensuring that the educational priorities of the school reflect the goals and learning needs
of students, staff and parents.
We will be working closely with students, school staff and local community to make evidence-informed decisions that focus on
continuous educational improvement. It is important to involve students, staff, parents and other key community group
members. This partnership approach will help build cultures of high performance and shared trust in our school, empowering
staff and community members in working together to achieve the goals of NSW public education. At South Sydney High School,
staff are currently working through these new processes to develop our school plan which reflect our priorities over the next
three years. I look forward to working with our P&C, staff and students to formulate this important plan.
Kind regards
Ms Robyn Matthews
Mind Marathon
Year 7 & 8 Boys Mind Marathon Team, East Hills
On Thursday 21st August, Mr David Tipple, Year 8 Year Advisor and
Industrial Arts teacher took South Sydney’s first ever Stage 4 Mind
Marathon team to East Hills Boys. These Year 7 and 8 students were
required to compete in a day of academic rigor involving challenges
in English, History, Mathematics, Science and Engineering.
Congratulations to the following students who were very worthy
representatives of our school at this prestigious event: Angelo
Estoque, Rahul Banga, James Grimshaw, Jaeyong Sim, Axel Cordova,
Syahmi Mohd Nasir and Jefferson Liauw.
Speak Up!
The third annual Speak Up! forum, a public speaking
forum for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
in Years 7 and 8, was held at NSW Parliament on the 21st
July. Our two representatives Jayden Slater and Ryan
Daniels from Year 7 both did an excellent job of sharing
their passion for sport and rugby league respectively.
Both individuals also entered the impromptu speaking
challenge and performed exceptionally. Congratulations
to Ryan and Daniel who were excellent representatives
for their school and their communities.
My First Speech
Gifted, Talented & Enrichment opportunity for Senior Students:
‘My First Speech’ Competition
Those who involve themselves in opportunities for Gifted, Talented & Enrichment
at South Sydney tend in the main part to be our junior students. This competition
however represents a wonderful chance for talented public speakers in Years 10 –
12 to deliver a speech they might make if they were a newly elected member of
the House of Representatives.
One student who has already expressed enthusiasm for this competition is Jasmin
Ali in Year 11 who plans to offer as the subject of her speech a plea to Australians
to pay more attention to the needs of those with disabilities. We wish Jasmin
every success as she prepares her speech and we encourage any senior student
who feels they would also like to embrace this challenge to see Ms de Paor in the
Drama Room on a Monday during our SSCIM club meeting.
Closing The Gap
On Thursday 14th August the Year 12 students in the Souths Cares School to Work Program were extremely lucky to
be asked to represent our school by forming a Guard of Honour on ANZ Stadium for the “Close the Gap” round
between South Sydney Rabbitohs and Brisbane Broncos.
The students were transported to the ground and participated in a Cultural Music workshop before taking part in
the Guard of Honour. They then watched the game in a private suite where Souths had a very exciting win.
The students present have been outstanding representatives of our school and Souths Cares over the last 3 years.
The students who attended were:
Hayden Towns, Emily Cooley, Brent Newport, Shiana Honeysett and Simone Taylor.
We would like to thank the amazing support and opportunities that Souths Cares have provided our school.
In particular thanks to Shannon Donato, Rhys Wesser and Leellen Lewis.
Jenny Wilson
Souths Cares Coordinator
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie...
Congratulations to Tiana Penitani - flag bearer for Australia at the Youth Olympic Games, Australian Sevens Star,
and now Gold Medalist.
Tiana co-captained the Australian Youth Olympics Rugby Union Sevens squad that has just competed at the Nanjing
Youth Olympic Games. After a thrilling final, Australia defeated Canada 38-10 to bring home the gold. The Aussies
dominated the 4-day event, remaining undefeated over their seven games.
Well done, Tiana, South Sydney High School is extremely proud of you!
Attractivo Comes to Commerce
On the 8th August Bianca Senegos of Marketing Company
Attractivo came to Year 10 Commerce and talked about
marketing at her business. She talked about different promotional strategies and she was particularly interesting because
she told us about her career path - how she got to be one of
the youngest and most successful female marketing
entrepreneurs in NSW. The class thoroughly enjoyed her
presentation and look forward to welcoming her back next
year. We were introduced to Bianca through the Beacon
Foundation program, thank you to Beacon and thank you
Attractivo.
Merrian West
National Science Week Festivities
To celebrate National Science Week 2014, Year 9 Blue and Year 10 Blue visited the Australian Museum with
Mr Wiseman, Ms Corlija and Mr Katz to attend the annual ‘Science Festival’.
The students were entertained with an exciting talk from the eccentric, all knowledgeable Dr Karl Kruszelnicki.
Dr Karl spoke to the students about the exciting future of science and some amazing developments that have
come about in recent years. Not a sound was heard from the audience as the students’ eyes were glued to the
screen and ears intently focused on the variety of interesting facts and figures coming from Dr Karl.
The world of ‘Animal Forensics’ was investigated. Students were able to learn how scientists go about solving
crimes involving animals such as the illegal animal trade.
The Science Expo provided the opportunity to meet with teams from various universities and other institutions. Students were engaged in live demonstrations which included bubbling chemicals, rumbling robots and
crackling electricity.
Thank you to the P&C for their support of this event by providing a subsidy for the cost of this excursion.
Your Account Explained
In 2014, South Sydney High School has moved into a new accounting system for all financial transactions. We have a
new cash desk and a new format for our Student Statement of Account.
As we are a trial school for this new system, there have been some teething problems. Consequently, we were only
able to send this statement out to parents in June this year. This will be sent out much earlier next year now that
everything is set up.
The wording on the Statement is not ideal. We did not have sufficient lead time this year to fine tune this as we
needed to get the statements to you as soon as we were able to. There have been further developments in the new
system and please be assured that next year it should be much clearer to read.
If you do need clarification on any issues with regards to your statement please call Janeece Fiala in the School
Office on 9349 3868 and she will be happy to assist.
Your name
Your address
Subject charges for
consumables
Student Name: number
Funds for School
resources,
eg. Study Skills
P&C donation for
school projects
Pre-paid photocopying
for your child to use in
the library
Student Name: number
Reflects any partpayments that
have already been
received
All year camps are
invoiced so you can
pay in instalments
Tax deductible
donation to Library
for resources
Your name
Payments can be made at the front office (or over the phone for credit cards) Monday to Friday 8:30am - 3:30pm.
Mock Interview Sensation
th
On the 20 August, Year 10 were interviewed by a most impressive group of accomplished Business men and
women who volunteered their time from Prince of Wales Hospital, Genworth, Gaden’s Law Firm, Maroubra Police,
DB Schenker and Colliers. We set up our hall into a simulated interview area and there the interviews took place.
Our students excelled in the areas of handshakes, eye contact and personal presentation. The students presented
cover letters, and CV’s as if they were actually applying for jobs in the real world. One student (Jack Stout) even
provided a memorable gift for his interviewer- a coke bottle with his name on one side and his resume on the other! All the interviewers were impressed with our students, and said that their preparation, enthusiasm and effort
was excellent. We are very grateful to the Beacon Foundation who introduced us to these volunteers and thank our
students who participated wholeheartedly with this activity that was also their English Assessment task.
Here’s to their excellent results!
Many thanks to all the teachers who participated and assisted especially, Ms Brooks, Ms J Wilson and the English
Department.
Helen Stell
Beacon Coordinator South Sydney High
Showcase!
South Sydney Creative Arts students participated in the annual
Botany Showcase at the Souths’ Juniors Auditorium on the 19 th
August. Anastassiya Sotnikova choreographed her interpretation of the Christina Aguilera hit song “Fighter” with the vocal
quartet of Bronte Carpenter, Tiana Noy, Nancy Talakai and
Tiulipe Taukeiaho providing the powerful vocals. Our fantastic
volunteers also contributed to the success of the evening by
their supporting role for this regional event.