Penrith Selective High School

Welcome to our latest newsletter. It encompasses so much of what has taken place at school since the start of term. It has been wonderful to also see how many students have been awarded Distinctions and High Distinctions in external competitions as well as a success in a range of other endeavours including sport, the arts and community service.

The 2018 HSC has been and gone and below you are able to see some photos from the graduation evening. The students were a credit to themselves and their families throughout the HSC. The formal, held last week, was the perfect way to spend one final time together. Year 12, you have been outstanding and we look forward to seeing you for the HSC brunch when the results and ATARs are released.

While Year 12 has been saying farewell, we welcomed 150 new Year 7 students and their parents last week as part of our Interview Day. The interviews allow us to meet prior to Orientation Day and importantly provide a much more personalised opportunity for both the school and families to learn about each other a little more. Our Year 10 peer support leaders were outstanding ambassadors while ensuring that no one got lost around the school and that our new students met some of the older students who will support them on Orientation Day and throughout Term 1 as part of the peer support and wellbeing program.

Our Year 10 and 11 Academic review meetings have been conducted and it was a positive opportunity to meet with almost 40 families to discuss how each student could achieve their personal best between now and the HSC. While everyone is aware of the expectations of being a student in a selective high school, it was very valuable to revisit the strengths of each student and how this could be harnessed at home and school.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to remind parents that we are always available to provide support and ideas about how to help your child succeed. Please feel free to contact the school to make an appointment with the appropriate staff member and they will ensure that this is scheduled at an appropriate time. Raising gifted children is challenging and the Commonwealth Government has launched a new parenting website with many tools. I would strongly encourage you to bookmark this website for future reference: https://raisingchildren.net.au/

I look forward to seeing many parents at our upcoming events, including our final P&C meeting of the year, where the Head Teacher Mathematics - Sue Briggs will discuss the changes to the HSC courses.

Please note that this meeting starts at 6pm on Tuesday November 27 and not the regular starting time of 7pm. The meeting will conclude by 7:15pm.

Mark Long

Principal

We have had an extremely busy term with all Years completing their Yearly Assessment tasks as well as the results coming in from various Olympiads and competitions.

The Australian Informatics Olympiad was held on Thursday August 23. The 3-hour Olympiad competition was run from 8am until 11am. In total 640 students from 100 schools competed in the Olympiad. This is the first time that we have entered students in this challenging Olympiad Competition. We entered 4 students; one in the Intermediate Division and 3 in the Senior Division. The students had to write computer programs to solve 4 logic problems.

Daniel Su, William Gao and Armaan Bhullar all of Year 11 worked valiantly through the 3 hours, showing determination and eagerness to solve the problems posed, as did Jamieson Berida of Year 9.

Jamieson was one of 12 students throughout NSW to gain a Gold certificate! Congratulations Jamieson!

The AIOC School of Excellence is held in the first two weeks of December. The results of the Australian Informatics Olympiad are used to determine which students are invited to train at the AIOC School of Excellence. This highly prestigious school takes in students from all over NSW. To be selected to receive this invitation is an honour as the principle purpose of the School will be to help identify and develop the skills of students who may become members of the Australian Team to compete at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2019. The four members of that team will be selected following further examinations and the AIOC Informatics Selection School in April 2019.

The Mathematics Department of Penrith Selective High are very proud to announce that our first ever representative at the School of Excellence is Jamieson Berida! Well done Jamieson, we are all proud of you and your achievements to date! We wish you good luck in December!

The AMC – On August 9 over 190 000 students sat the Australian Mathematics Competition, AMC. The AMC is in its 41st year and it 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.

Students are awarded a prize if they are in the top 0.3% of their category. High Distinctions are awarded to the students who are in the top 3%. We had our best overall results gaining 1 prize, 17 High Distinctions, 156 Distinctions, 306 Credits, 135 Proficiency and 4 Participations.

In the AMC this year, we had one prize winner: Jamieson Berida of Year 9!

We had 17 High Distinctions –

Year 7 – Beatrice Jusuf

Year 8 – Gurveer Singh Khalsa, Aatish Budhwani, Abhinav Santhakumar, Aaditya Manek, Aravind Nadadur Rangarajan

Year 9 – Elaine Yilin Xia

Year 10 – Ricardo Irving, Rumman Rauf, Kevin Lin, Amiru Premnath, Wendy Li, Jessica David, Jun Ma

Year 11 – Benjamin Renaud, Abraham Song, Keshna Jeyandrabalan.

ICAS Mathematics Competition – was held on August 16. The one-hour competition posed many challenges for our students to solve. We achieved our best results to date: 26 High Distinctions, 203 Distinctions, 276 credits, 48 Merits and 43 Participations.

High Distinctions are awarded to the students whose results put them in the top 5%. Our High Distinctions were:

Year 10 – James He, Ricardo Irving

Year 9 – Hemish Ahuja, Jamieson Berida, Jaden Ha, Matthew Luo, Beonrik Pascal, Vedika Sathi, Heethavan Senthikumar

Year 8 – Yashvean Anantha-Siva, Athena Auw, Anders Ernest, Lyndsay Everett, Tudhjot Hayer, Gurveer Singh Khalsa, Aaditya Manek, Panshul Nelapuli, Eric Ruan, Abhinav Santhakumar, Harrison Shi

Year 7 – Umar Anwar, Maayon Chanthiran, Rahul Joshi, Cameron Lau, Alex Lin, Naveen Premkumar.

The Year 9 Financial Competition – was held during the last two weeks of Term 3 for all of Year 9. The competition educated the students about budgeting, credit cards, saving money, spending money, incomes, taxes, scams. The students had to get a job, answer quizzes and complete diary entries whilst building their financial empire. At the end of the competition the winners were determined by who had the most money, answered quizzes and completed at least 3 diary entries.

The overall Year 9 winner was Frank Liu, in second place was a team consisting of Nityam Patel and Sujanthan Manoharan and in third place was Beonrik Pascal.

The APSMO is a problem solving Olympiad that all of our students in Year 7 and students from 8m1 and 8m2 compete in. This year, Penrith Selective High School achieved our best results so far. There were 518 teams from schools all over Australia competing. Our 8m1 team were placed 18th overall, (last year the 8m1 team placed 22nd). All students who competed received a certificate, with the highest scorer in each class receiving a small trophy. The students whose scores put them in the top 10% received an Achiever’s Pin and students whose scores were in the top 25% received an Achiever’s Patch.

The Euler, Gauss and Noether Enrichment Programmes- Your sons/daughters should be coming home with the application to do enrichment for 2019. Please bring the completed and signed applications to the Mathematics staffroom ASAP.

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 me, (Mrs Sue Briggs).

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 2018).

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 Thursday. 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 Mustafa or Tommy or Victor at mathspeertutoring@gamil.com and they will match you with a peer tutor who will help you with your maths for free.

Math IT Day

MATH IT is a one-day annual academic enrichment event for Year 7 students at Penrith UWS campus. It aims to build interest and capacity in science, technology, mathematics and engineering by increasing awareness of the importance of Mathematics in day-to-day life and providing engaging academic enrichment opportunities for students interested in Mathematics.

Every year Dr Anju Katyal takes 10 students from Year 7 to attend the one-day Maths IT Day. This year our 10 representatives were Manhishtha Bucktowar, Arish Halim, Beatrice Jusuf, Alex Lin, Kedar Mehta, Harini Paranthaman, Timothy Quinn, Avneesh Shivkumar, Dharika Sujendran and Akinash Vickneswaran. All students had a great learning experience and loads of fun.

Mrs Sue Briggs

Head Teacher of Mathematics

Peer Tutoring Coordinator

What do you picture when you think of a genius? A mad, crazy looking individual working furiously on a table with paper stacked everywhere, flying all around the place and a blackboard full of mathematical mysteries?

But did you know great minds are lurking in the middle of Penrith Selective High grounds, hiding in its vast rooms and alleyways? Jamieson Berida is one such student and I managed a quick talk with him.

Name: Jamieson Berida

Year: 9

Achievements: Gold in Informatics Olympiad, Prize in AMC, HD in ICAS Mathematics, Invitation to The Informatics School of Excellence

What in Maths really interests you?

Jamieson: Graphing

What is something that you did interesting lately?

J: Played Mario Kart this morning

You are leaving school and manage to win a $10 million lottery? What would you do?

J: Probably buy a bunch of video games- maybe all that’s out there

Hobbies?

J: I do a bit of programming side projects. Currently a rhythm game where you ‘click circles on the screen’

Tell me a fact that will blow me away?

J: There are twice as many kangaroos as Australians

*Watch out for the next newsletter where we will catch up with another genius from the grounds of PSHS!

Article by Cyril Cherian, Photos by Troy Affolter

Well done to our record number of High Distinction recipients for ICAS Mathematics. In addition, there were a very large number of Distinctions achieved by students.

Early this term some SRC members, House Captains and House Vice Captains attended the National Young Leaders Day.

It was an amazing conference for young people with many guest speakers and our students were very grateful to have been given the opportunity to attend.

On October 22, we were fortunate enough to represent our school and the Penrith and Mulgoa electorates at NSW Parliament House for the Children’s Week Parliament. Ninety-four young people attended the event to represent the members of the NSW Legislative Assembly, each giving a speech voicing their opinions and concerns regarding six given topics including: voice, respect, wellbeing, connect, opportunity and safety. All of the speeches presented on the day were filmed and sent to the local MP of each electorate. Along with the opportunity to deliver our speeches in the legislative assembly chamber, we also had the chance to learn some parliamentary processes.

We had the opportunity to listen to five MPs from multiple parties speak about topics such as: why they chose politics as a career and what they do in their typical day. Our guides took us on tours around Parliament House and we saw where they spend most of their time during the twenty weeks they are working at the Parliament House in Sydney. Overall, it was a highly valuable experience representing our electorates in children’s parliament. We presented issues that require our attention and we meet other people our age who share similar values and attitudes towards politics.

This was an excellent opportunity to develop our leadership and public speaking skills and we encourage every student to challenge themselves and apply for various leadership roles throughout the year.

Marco Perri Year 9 and Annabel Zhao Year 9

The English Faculty has had some wonderful news this term in regards to student-written poetry. Year 7 studied poetry this year and have worked hard to produce quality poems with the theme of ‘A Sense of Place’.

Year 7 student, Atchaya Suganthan, has progressed through to the first round of judging for the 2018 Schools Poetry & Short Story Competition. Her poem ‘My Sister’ was chosen among thousands of others and will now be published in the book Write-Along which contains a compilation of poems and short stories written by students all over Australia. We are extremely proud of Atchaya’s hard work and congratulate her on now becoming a published author.

My Sister!

I love you from deep within my heart,

Through good times and bad.

No matter how hard anyone tries to draw us apart,

You’re the best friend I’ve ever had.

Wherever you go, you create love.

Everything depends on you.

You are born like a dashing dove

In a peaceful country called Peru.

Don’t worry it’s only exciting steps ahead.

I never knew you cared so much about me,

I don’t ever want you to dread

You will always be my tree.

Rooted in my life,

Younger sister, all I ask is to give me no strife.

Two other students, Dharika Sujendran and Ashley Tan, have had their poems shortlisted by the Red Room Poetry Object Competition for 2018. There were 2,526 poems submitted to the competition, from which only 72 made it to the shortlist.

The competition is set to celebrate the students’ poetic prowess and unique relationships with special objects. Dharika’s poem ‘One Tear Drop’ looks at our carelessness of Mother Nature, and Ashley’s poem ‘Simple Sphere’ takes a humorous approach to appreciating the small things in life. A full list of those who made the shortlist can be found here.

The winners will be announced during a live-stream video event on Thursday 6 December 2018, in partnership with Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences (MAAS). Prizes are awarded to the winning student (primary and secondary) poems, teacher poem, group installation and poems from regional and rural locations. Prizes include flights, travel vouchers and poetry packs, valued at over $10,000.

Winning poems will also come alive in an animated short film to be screened during the Winners Announcement and released in cinemas in Australia in December 2018.

We are so very proud of the achievements of these young girls! Congratulations!

Dimity Scardanas

English Teacher

Congrats Class of 2018

A huge congratulations to the class of 2018 on completing their final year. PHS students have already been experiencing success in gaining places in their university courses, all before receiving any HSC results. We have had 18 students receive offers to Macquarie University through their Global Leadership Entry Program (GLEP) scholarship and many more students are receiving early offers through the Schools Recommendation Scheme as I write. There will be way more to come over the next couple of months but it is good to see that we have started well. Year 12 have been an absolute pleasure to work with this year and I wish them all the best for the future.

Max Potential

The four year 10 students doing the Max Potential program have brought their plans to a stunning conclusion at their Showcase. Vaishvi Doctor, Haroop Malhi, Hasanga Malalasekara and Jun Ma worked hard to complete this program and have flourished and gained confidence as they went about completing their community projects and presenting their stalls at the Showcase to represent their growth across this year. We had four wonderful stalls which creatively represented students’ individual growth but also their active service to the community. This was done in creative and interesting ways, often deeply rooted in layers of metaphors which the students unravelled for visitors on the night. There were so many great ideas on the night and we are very proud of our students for taking on this huge challenge and taking the series of small steps that lead to significant changes over time. Penrith High School wishes to thank Dee Raquel Joma from Max Potential for all her hard work in making it happen as well as all the coaches who provide one-on-one self-improvement sessions for our students at no cost. Additional thanks to teachers who attended on the night – your support is always appreciated. See below for photos of this excellent event.

UMAT and UCAT Tests

The medical entry test known as the UMAT has now been scrapped and a new test will replace it called the University Clinical Admission Test (UCAT). It’s not exactly new and has been used in the UK for many years, where it is known as the UKCAT.

To help students understand and prepare for this change, we are having Michael Tsai from ICanMed present to students on Wednesday, December 12 from 1 until 3pm. Students will need to register via the following link and will also need to return the note I have sent them via email. Students who do not do both of these actions will not be able to attend.

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/icanmed-penrith-year-1110-ucat-workshop-what-is-ucat-and-how-to-beat-it-tickets-52201233294

The people who run the UCAT have provided enough preparation materials online to allow students to prepare without paying for a course. This is one of the noted advantages of the change, since the organisation that ran the previous test had very few materials that were free. The materials from the UK version of the test are currently available and sufficient to use until the Australian site has been finished. https://www.ukcat.ac.uk/ukcat-test/ukcat-preparation/

2018 Competition

The Penrith Selective High Senior Chess Team narrowly missed out on playing in the final of the NSW Junior Chess League Interschool Competition. The Western Sydney winner, Penrith Selective played the North Sydney area winner Normanhurst Boys on the September 14 with the games resulting in a draw of 2 -2. The tie was a demonstration of how tough competition gets at the top. The rules for a final are that should the games result in a draw the 4th board is eliminated to decide the tie-break. Penrith had won on boards 1 and 4 making Normanhurst the tie-break winner with boards 2 and 3. Normanhurst Boys will play the other finalist Sydney Technical High on September 28. In summary, PSHS came third with their senior team in the NSW Competition. Congratulations on a job well done!

In closing the season for Penrith I would like to thank all our players in the senior team, Kashish Christian, Neil Chan, Maninder Singh and Ashley Xia as well as our reserves. A big thank you to Ms Sonter for transporting the students to the away games and back. Many thanks to Mr Gastineau-Hills the NSW Junior Chess League Secondary Schools Coordinator and Ms Leis the Penrith Selective High School Chess Coordinator.

2019 Competition

Parents and students who would like more information on the Secondary Schools Chess Competition for 2019 are welcome to contact Ms Leis. The competition has 3 sections Senior (Years 11-12), Intermediate (Years 9-10) and Junior (Years 7-8). The competition involves playing Friday after school games in teams made up of 4 students. Students play alternating home and away games. Home games are coordinated by the Chess Coordinator at Penrith High. The inter-school competition is ran by the NSW Junior Chess League, a non-profit volunteer organisation and team joining fees are minimal. However, being part of the competition requires a volunteer commitment from parents and teachers. Any parents who are interested should please make contact. The competition runs in Term 2 with area schools and may go into Term 3 if a team wins the division. Drivers are needed for alternating Friday afternoons in Term 2, 2019.

Congratulations to all our Science Students who achieved a Distinction or High Distinction in the recent ICAS Science Examination. It was our largest group of students to ever achieve these levels of awards.

These students achieved Distinctions in the Australian Science Olympiad. These were achieved across Chemistry, Physics and Biology. Congratulations!

Students were dressed for the Halloween Mufti Day

Hello from the Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) prefects Divinia Eather, Sara El Youghun and Tyler Williams! Just a few weeks into Term 4 and already there have been so many fantastic opportunities for students within the faculty, and in light of the recent World Teachers’ Day celebrations we’d like to thank the CAPA teachers for their behind the scenes work to develop the skills of the students and help make our school more colourful and creative! Mrs Ridgeway and Ms Whittaker in Music, Mrs Grice for the work she did with our dance ensemble, Mr Bauman in Art and Mr Vassallo in Drama and as our relieving faculty Head Teacher. Thank you all!

What’s been Happening?

• Year 12 Visual Arts, Drama and Music students have completed their HSC written examinations! We look forward to seeing you achieve wonderful results.

• Year 12 student Stephanie Lui’s film has won 1st place for Best Production at the Arts Alive Film Festival. Congratulations Stephanie, and a well-deserved win!

• Last term the year 11 Drama class put on their first play, ‘April’s Fool’ by David Burton. The afternoon was a success and helped them to understand the processes behind productions and promotion. Thanks to everyone who came along and showed their support! A full report was in our last newsletter.

• The Year 9 and 10 elective art classes had a great time at Sculpture by the Sea…

“Goggle-eyed scuba divers, towering sumo wrestlers, trees intricately made from zip-ties… we never knew what we were going to see next on our excursion to Sculpture by the Sea! On Tuesday the 23rd of October, the Year 9 and 10 art students, accompanied by Mr Bauman and Ms Andreatta, took a bus to Tamarama Beach and spent the day in awe of the incredible creativity around us. We had the chance to explore the exhibition at our own pace, taking plenty of photos, writing notes and sketching our favourite artworks along the way. The sheer variety of styles, techniques and media we had the chance to admire, showed us that art can come in many forms and serve countless purposes. “

-Sophia Hadjimichael, Year 10 art student

• Year 10 Drama students travelled into Sydney to watch an adaption of Dario Fo’s ‘Accidental Death Of An Anarchist’ by the Sydney Theatre Company as a part of their Theatre Reviews unit and reflecting the work they covered on Black Comedy.

“The comedic play about corruption and power left us in awe and open minded about our world today. As they said in the play "when people laugh, they listen."

• The Year 11 drama class travelled to the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) for a HSC IP Study Day.

"The inspiring speech made by keynote speaker Eamon Flack (Artistic Director of Belvoir Street Theatre) introduced us to the diversity of the creative process before we were split into specialist workshops focusing on our HSC Individual Projects: Scriptwriting, Costume Design and Individual performance. These workshops helped us to gain an understanding of the limitations and expectations surrounding our IPs and our mentors (practising artists) provided us with tips and tricks for creating outstanding pieces of work. We also met with NIDA Head of Departments to discuss the audition process and careers in the creative industries.”

-Zamanda Kwan and Aidan Willis, Year 11 drama students

• Thank you to the year 11 music students who performed at the World Teachers’ Day celebrations - Zamanda Kwan, Hayden Samuels, Divinia Eather and Julia Labbé

• Cultural Art Exchange Mini Exhibition – Presently we have a mini art exhibition on in the CAPA courtyard. These include prints of students’ work that were sent to Japan as part of the Department of Education initiative and works we received from students in JAPAN. Please come visit our exhibition which will finish at the end of December.

Develop your Abilities!

Choir - Monday Recess

Stage Band - Wednesday Recess

String Ensemble - Thursday Recess

Concert Band - Tuesday Lunch

Art Club - Tuesday Recess

Drama Club – Monday Lunch

What to look out for!

There are so many new opportunities for workshops and competitions which will help you develop as a creative artist. Please consider some of the events on this list, or research for one that’s right for you!

MUSIC

• 2019 Music Scholarships (Penrith Conservatorium of Music)

• Solo Vocal Camp (The Arts Unit)

• Talent Development Project Open Talent Workshop (The Arts Unit)

• International Jazz Day Composition Competition (The Arts Unit)

• Q&A with James Morrison on the art of composing a melody (12pm 12 Nov)

• 2019 Diverse Drumming Workshops (The Arts Unit)

• Boys Vocal Program (The Arts Unit)

• State Junior and Senior Music Camps (The Arts Unit)

DRAMA

• The Arts Unit drama ensemble auditions:

• SENIOR ENSEMBLES: Drama Company, Senior Ensemble, Year 10 Ensemble

• JUNIOR ENSEMBLES: Year 7 Ensemble, Year 8 Ensemble, Year 9 Ensemble

ART

• Design a Bag Competition (Closes Jan 20, 2019)

• “Autumn” Digital Art Competition (Closes Nov 8, 2018)

• 13th Arte Laguna Prize (Closes Nov 27, 2018)

• Contemporary Art Awards 2019 (Closes November 27, 2018)

• Visual Art Open 2019 Awards

DANCE

• NSW Public Schools State Dance Ensemble (The Arts Unit)

• NSW Public Schools State Dance Festival (The Arts Unit)

FILM/PHOTOGRAPHY

• Film By the Eucalyptus (The Arts Unit)

• Monochrome Awards 2018 (Closes Nov 18, 2018)

• Nikon Small World Competition 2019 (Closes April 30, 2019)

• 16th Annual Smithsonian.com Photo Contest (Closes Nov 29, 2018)

• 2019 Love Shorts Film Festival (Closes Feb 22, 2019)

Please see the CAPA staffroom for information on any of the above initiatives that might be of interest.

Year 10 Drama watched an adaptation of Dario Fo's classic the Accidental Death of an Anarchist performed by the Sydney Theatre Company. This farcical performance has forced them to consider that when people laugh they also listen.

Year 11 Drama participated in the HSC Drama Individual Project Study Day at NIDA. This included a keynote address by Eamon Flack the Artisitic Director of Belvoir Street Theatre. Specialist workshops focussed on their Individual Projects with practising artists and a meeting with NIDA Head of Departments to learn about the audition process and careers in the creative industries.

Year 12 Drama attended the HSC Drama Written Study Day by Drama NSW at Loreto Normanhurst. This provided them the opportunity to work with and learn from senior markers specialising in their areas of study.

Years 9 and 10 Visual Arts students enjoyed Sculptures by the Sea. Thank you Mr Bauman for organising a great day!

High Resolves Social Action Project

Congratulations to students in Lawson and Blaxland Houses who have completed their High Resolves Social Action Project and raised money for a charity focusing on gender equality. In addition to their films students organised the Girls at the Grill Sausage Sizzle and Manly Mufffins Bake Sale.

As mentioned above, congratulations goes to Stephanie Liu in Year 12 for her achievement in film making. Stephanie’s Drama Individual Project “Dear Familiar Stranger” won best film at the Arts Alive Film Festival which took place at Dendy Cinemas in Circular Quay. Thank you to Grace Faulder and Tyler Davies for attending the screening and accepting the award on Stephanie’s behalf.

Anthony Vassallo

12 of our brightest and keenest Year 8 Geography students travelled to St Marys on November 1 for the Western Sydney Geography Trivia Day, competing against 40 teams from across Sydney and as far as Kiama and Bowral. After competing very well throughout 10 rounds across a range of geographical topics including famous monuments, flags and rivers, our 2 teams finished towards the top of the leaderboard. Oxley College from Bowral filled first and second spot, with one of the Penrith teams coming third, while the other Penrith team finished in eighth position. This makes us the most successful public school in the event, finishing above a number of other selective schools. Students enjoyed their time at the event and should be congratulated on their effort, attitude and behaviour. The students involved were Rehan Ali, Yashvean Anantha-Siva, Gabrielle Cant, Ajinkya Datir, Anders Ernest, Tudhjot Hayer, Raghav Malhotra, Panshul Nelapudi, Ansh Patel, Shreya Patel, Subham Pyakuryal and Katherine Shipp. Well done students!!!

Hi all, we are Lachlan Reeves and Maggie Li, two year 12 Japanese students and the language prefects, and we will be bringing the latest news from languages to the rest of the school community. We are excited to share our many opportunities and activities and keep everyone updated.

First of all, as the previous year 12s have finished their schooling careers, Italian and Japanese peer tutoring have been brought back with leaders who are both excited to provide help for anyone who wants it. If you would like to get any information about peer tutoring, please contact Julia Duncga for Italian, or Maryanna Anislag for Japanese.

Secondly, we are excited to share the short exchange program with Kunori Gakuen High School from Japan. On the Thursday and Friday of week 4, and the Monday of week 5, we hosted 16 students during the day, and showed them our school community and various aspects of Australian culture. All of our year 11 buddies made great friends and many memories were created at recess and lunch, where we played soccer and basketball in friendly competition, although it was made clear that we need to practice at basketball a bit more.

Although we could only spend 3 days together, the connections we made go beyond any cultural barrier, and we are very thankful for this opportunity.

Special thanks to Mrs Sullivan and the year 12 buddies for organising and making this visit memorable for everyone.

Recently, our Science Faculty had successfully held an astounding event, bringing the Halloween spirit to Penrith Selective High School with various activities throughout recess and lunch. The atmosphere was filled with thrill and delight as students travelled through an array of activities, experiments and food! The rooms were darkened and illuminated with glowing Halloween decorations paving the path into each room. The various activities set up in the spookily decorated rooms ranged from glow in the dark bouncy balls and slime to Halloween cupcakes, drinks and jelly. All the students without doubt jumped into the spirit of Halloween experiencing the magic and mystery of science.

As always, all this was made possible through the hard work of our Science Head Teacher- Ms Lam, the Science Faculty, Science Student Leaders and Prefects who organised and executed a very memorable and spooky Penrith Selective High School Halloween Day! A massive thank you to all the students who participated on the day and made it a day to remember!

FUN FACT: Quinine is a compound that naturally glows under UV light. It contains PHOSPHORS that become excited by UV light causing them to emit light/colour. Did you know quinine was used to prevent malaria?! It is predominately added to tonic water to make drinks bitter but has the added goodness of making jelly and drinks glow too!

Sonia Tint, Naomi Sunny and Pavanitha Nadagobalan

The Public Relations Prefects are responsible for dealing with interactions between the school and the Penrith and wider community. Public Relations Prefects are also responsible for advertising school events, maintaining social media accounts and producing prefect videos for the school and wider community. The leader, Troy Affolter has been responsible for photographing school and prefect events along with the help of Divinia Eather. Together, they gain and distribute school sponsorship and funding initiatives such as “Return and Earn."

In the past month, Stage 4 students have participated in many amazing activities. A few weeks ago, along with prefects, house captains and the SRC, 3 of year 7 and 8 SRC representatives had the opportunity to attend National Young Leaders Day in Sydney, where they had the opportunity to listen to and meet some very inspirational speakers. There are photos of the day towards the front of the newsletter.

The stage 4 prefects, Troy Affolter, Rhalize Cereno and Tommy Kwon liaised with year 7 and 8 Year Advisers, Ms Wallace and Mr Elias, to discuss what needs to be done as part of our role. We will later speak with Mrs Elias, the Stage 4 Academic Adviser, to determine what needs to be done to assist stage 4 students with their studies as they begin to move into stage 5 (in particular, Year 8).

We have discussed the upcoming Swim School for Year 7 with Miss Borg and we will assist with any organisation if necessary. The Orientation Day for new Year 7 is coming up and so we have discussed our planning and role with Mr Hyunh, the Year 7 Adviser for 2019.

We are in contact with the year 7 and 8 SRCs and are we working towards contributing to the Year 8 newsletter. We hope to meet each and everyone of you soon!

Hello everyone, high five for your stage 5 prefects, Joshua Lin, Pavanitha Nadagobalan and Maggie Li!

In the past months, we have met up with the stage 5 year advisers (Mrs Grice - Year 9 and Mr Hoekstra - Year 10) and also the stage 5 academic adviser (Ms Holloway). Together we discussed new ideas that could be implemented and improvements that could be made, although year 10 are soon going to be stage 6 in less than a term, we are working hard to provide them with advice as they will undergo a major transition into year 11. We are also organising a meeting with Mr Elias (Year 8 year adviser) as from next year, the year 8 cohort will move out from stage 4 and into stage 5. We are looking forward to this meeting and discussing the future for stage 5.

We have also been attending and helping out during Thursday and Friday lunches when we can, with Ms Holloway. Every Thursday lunch in Lab 5, 8 gifted students from Year 9 gather in preparation for the Da Vinci Decathlon next year. This academic competition challenges the students as they compete across 10 disciplines: engineering, mathematics and chess, code breaking, art and poetry, science, English, ideation, creative producers, cartography and general knowledge.

Also, every Friday, we help out with students in Stage 5, providing advice and strategies for them to improve and work on building strong study habits to carry through with them into their senior years. Doing so establishes a healthy learning foundation for these students to help enable them discover improvements in their academic capabilities and results.

Good luck to all the Year 9 and 10s currently sitting their yearlies, good luck to everyone and remember to get a good night’s sleep! “A banana every day in the morning will unlock your academic potential!” –(Ms Pipio)

The Duke of Edinburgh program is one of the most rewarding our school offers, developing leadership, teamwork, commitment, perseverance and other key skills needed for any successful student. Recently, I had the incredible opportunity to participate in the practice Gold Duke of Edinburgh journey, with the qualifying coming up soon. There were many moments that tested our determination as individuals and as a group.

In this journey in particular, a four day hike from Mount Kuring-Gai, up to Patonga, and then continuing down to Manly to finish, the entire group demonstrated the skills needed to succeed in the Duke of Edinburgh program. I’ll use what I consider to be one of my proudest moments as an example. During the entire walk, I had developed blisters like never before. Other people were also getting blisters, but I was getting them particularly badly. This coalesced on the third day, because we’d been walking on pavement and hard surfaces all day. That night, while we were walking to dinner, I had almost collapsed because I got a sharp pain in my feet, so bad that I could barely walk. After dinner and our group meeting, I decided to take a look at my feet to see what I could do, and low and behold, I counted 13 splinters in my blister on my right foot. It was almost excruciating, but I removed them, and I could walk on my feet again, albeit still painfully. The next morning was the beginning of our last day of walking. We were estimated to arrive in Manly between 12 and 1pm. Walking had become incredibly difficult, but we made it just after 12pm. I feel particularly proud of this day because as the day started, I was taking rests every 10-15 minutes, but as the end got closer and closer, and my group members encouraged and supported me, for the last hour and a half I didn’t take a single break. To me, this day demonstrates the comradery, teamwork and perseverance that’s emblematic of the Duke of Edinburgh experience.

Duke of Edinburgh Prefects

Andreas Higginbotham Benjamin Sayer

On October 31 the Silver Duke of Ed kids began a three-day hike through the Megalong Valley in the Blue Mountains National Park. The day started at Glenraphael Drive where we assembled, got sorted into groups and waved goodbye to our parents. The first leg of the journey for day 1 was a long winding trail along Narrow Neck in Katoomba, heading towards the first checkpoint which was a fire tower. We saw some cool native plants like waratahs and golden wattle along the way. The track was very steep at some parts but took us past amazing views of the mountains and the valley.

As the day progressed, it started getting hotter as we made our way to another checkpoint to have lunch at Tarros Ladder. After breaking for lunch, we headed in the direction of our compass bearings to power lines which we had to follow until we hit a track that would lead us to our campsite. Along the track we came across a couple of creek intersections where we cooled down by splashing around in the water. We climbed over a stile to enter our campsite where we were greeted by a bunch of kangaroos. Soon after, the other groups started arriving and everyone set up camp and prepared dinner as the sun began to set. The day ended with a regroup where we talked about our day, shared fun stories and discussed what we would be doing the next day.

On the second day, we woke up early and packed everything up to have an early start to the day to try and avoid the heat. We followed a trail going past farms where we saw some cows and chickens, we then bush-bashed up to our next checkpoint, Tinpot Hill. At this point in the day it started getting pretty hot so we had a snack break, reset our bearings and made our way down the other side of Tinpot Hill to eventually meet up with Ms Ladd and Mr Cantlon down at the Cox’s River for our lunch break.

The hike down to the river took a lot longer than expected. After arriving at the Cox’s River we all splashed around in the water for a bit and then set off for the last leg of the journey. To reach our campsite, we had to follow the river for a while. Our bearings led to a few places where we had to rock rump over the river and creeks which was really fun. We also saw a snake chilling on a tree. When we reached our campsite, which was right by the Cox’s River, we all immediately went for a swim in the water to cool off and relax.

The following morning was the beginning to our third and last day. Our first checkpoint was Bowtells Bridge, a long and narrow swing bridge high up off the ground (which was heaps of fun to walk across). Most of that day was spent on the Six Foot Track, where we got to see stunning views and come across various animals such as horses, cows and lizards. The last leg of the trip was probably the most tiring as we climbed 523 steep steps up to the pick up point where we met with our teachers and parents.

Overall, the Qualifying Silver journey was the best one yet. Some highlights of the trip were paddling around in the rivers and creeks, rock hopping, crossing the swing bridge and the scenery. I would like to give a big thank you to Ms Andreatta, Mr McNally, Mr Cantlon and Ms Ladd for organising this trip and keeping us safe. We all had a lot of fun and can’t wait to begin our next journey.

Paavana Singareddy

On Wednesday October 17, Cyril Cherian (Assistant Alumni Prefect) and myself had the honour of hosting the school reunion of the Penrith High School class of 1958. A committee formed on the PSHS Alumni Facebook page contacted Mr Long with interest to organise this event. From this, we were fortunate enough to have 28 ex-students take a walk down memory lane, guided by our current prefect body. For many of the returning students, it was the first time they had returned to the school since 1958. Together, the alumni, the prefects and some of our current teachers enjoyed light refreshments in the library whilst reminiscing over memorabilia displayed by our library staff, Mr Wilcox and Ms Fayle.

My organising roles in this event included: the setting of a meeting point that best suited the time available, notifying the event to the prefects and planning how many prefects we needed to assist and what their roles may be - including a cameraman, Troy Affolter; communication with library staff, Mrs Fayle and Mr Wilcox, who diligently gathered ‘artefacts’ relevant to the visiting alumni and kitchen staff, Mrs Shearer, who organised light refreshments for the visitors. On the day, my role was to delegate tasks and planning in regards to the set up in the library, planning of route plan and guiding prefects, transport and layout of afternoon tea and pack up once the event had concluded. The event ran very well, and the attending alumni were thoroughly impressed with not only our school grounds but also by our school leaders.

It was a great experience for the prefect body to have the opportunity to meet the class of 1958 and hear of their high school experience. We were able to gain invaluable insight into their post-school achievements.

Towers Magazines will be our next priority. We have editions dating back to the very first year of PHS’s history, which are in high demand for past students. I have enrolled in a few PHS Alumni Facebook pages where I have been active in answering any questions and queries of the alumni. In the Towers - Alumni Term 3 Link below there is a mailing list button where you can add your name to the mailing list already established.

I am very excited about this role and the events we have planned in the future!

Maxwell Peters

Towers, our school magazine, celebrates oustanding achievements of our students. It also highlights special events throughout the year such as the Walkathon, Carnivals and School Spirit Week. Mr Wilcox, Year 12 students (Megan Chen, Michelle Lin and Thea Yuen) and Towers Prefect Leader Heidi Liu did most of the work this year. The magazine is looking good and will be out later in the year. Next year our team of prefects - Heidi Liu, William Gao, Keshna Jeyandrabalan and Lachlan Reeves - will be working with students across the Years to get a Towers team organised.

Last week, the Year Seven Gala Day was hosted both in school and at Jamison Park on Tuesday November 6 last week. It turned out to be an exhausting yet exhilarating day for everyone who participated. Great sportsmanship was displayed through our passion and commitment to both the sports we were playing and working in our teams. It was also nice to meet new people from other schools and play against them.

A variety of physical activities and games were held at school whilst PHS students competed in soccer, touch, netball, and frisbee at Jamison Park, versing Blaxland, Nepean, Springwood and Winmalee. Students gave it their all and displayed brilliant skill and teamwork during each team’s six tiresome games. The hard work paid off in the end as our school won the majority of games, go Penrith!

On behalf of the grade, we would like to thank the Year 9 coaches for their effort and hard work helping the Year 7 teams on the day.

“The Year 9 coaches were really helpful and considerate.”, Leah Joseph from 7P stated. We are all very grateful for your help!

Overall, the day was a fun experience for everyone attending. It was an exciting day to take a break from school work and studies, and just run around and have a good time! We all look forward to the next time we get the opportunity to have another awesome day like this.

• Written by Paige O’Connor, Anwen Gregory, Angeline Kaitharath Joby of 7S

On November 9, our Knockout Cricket Team faced up against Plumpton High School. This team was a force to reckon as they won the toss and elected to bat. We were rattled by their openers' stroke play, but this came to a halt as textbook bowling from Hiriharan Nanthapoopan and Shaun Shaji with excellent keeping from Raunak Srivastava cleaned the opposition up for 126 runs after 37 overs.

Penrith HS then went into bat and struck with force initially. With Parth Khanna’s explosive offensive batting, he hit 33 runs while facing only 22 balls. The captain, Dhruv Kant, stepped in and played shots all around the field, ending at 50 not out, with Ayush Arora hitting a glorious six to end the match.

PENRITH WINS THE MATCH AND KNOCKS OUT PLUMPTON

This puts us into the regional final against Castle Hill HS, which should be played in the next week or two. Good luck to the team!!!!

Best figures:

Shaun 3/12 (8 overs)

Haran 2/10 (5 overs)

Dhruv 50 not out

Parth 30

Final Score

Plumpton HS - All out for 126 (37 overs)

Penrith HS - 3/136 (22 overs)

Thank you to Mr Divine for looking after the team!

by Jayden Rambukwella

Remembrance Day Ceremony

On Friday November 9, Penrith Selective High School held its annual Remembrance Day Ceremony in the school hall. This ceremony was attended by students in Years 8, 9 and 11.
As usual this was a high quality event that paid due respect to honouring the sacrifices of the men and women who have served Australia in all conflicts.

A special thank you to Owen Pangcog, Ashley Xia and Andreas Higginbotham, the History Prefects, who helped with the organisation and delivery of the ceremony.

Holly Epps of Year 10 gave a thoughtful presentation of her trip to the Western Front in France in July this year. During this trip Holly visited a number of sites of significance to Australia’s military history. Holly had been selected to attend as part of the Premier’s ANZAC Memorial Scholarship.

Following this Ben Sayer and Amber Vella of Year 10 gave an insightful presentation on their trip to the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea in October. They retold their experience of retracing the steps of the Australian soldiers during World War Two which conveyed the hardships and difficulties the soldiers faced in extremely difficult conditions. This trip was part of the Kokoda Youth Leadership Challenge run by Adventure Kokoda.

Our guest speaker, Corporal Osama Tissawak from the Richmond RAAF base gave an interesting address of his military experiences from many places around the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan. He also highlighted the significance of Remembrance Day in Australian society today.

Year 12 Ancient History Seminar

On Monday November 12, Year 12 Ancient History students were joined by students from Jamison High School to attend a whole day seminar conducted by expert academic Dr Brian Brennan. The seminar focused on the core topic of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Students covered key aspects of the syllabus and how to use their knowledge effectively to answer HSC questions. Dr Brennan, author of textbooks on this and many other historical topics, shared his knowledge, experiences and photos of his many trips to Pompeii and Herculaneum to provide illuminating insights to the students. Overall this was a very worthwhile seminar which should benefit students in their HSC exam.

Clark Stone

Head Teacher History

Senior Debating Training Day at the University of NSW

Twelve students represented the school at the University of NSW at a Senior Debating Training day on Monday October 29. The three teams of four members from Penrith High competed against a range of other debating teams from selective, comprehensive and private schools. Our teams had mixed success on the day both winning and losing a range of challenging debates.

They were given a range of thought-provoking topics that would often appear at university level debating competitions. The three topics that were debated on the day covered a range of topics from changing the admission process into universities, global economics and politics and conviction laws in particular criminal cases. These three topic areas challenged and extended our students by getting them to grapple with pressing questions of modern society and debating their position against a range of high quality debating teams.

The students were praised by the various university adjudicators on the day for how they effectively constructed their arguments, engaged with the opposing argument and for conducting themselves in a mature manner across all the debates and training over the course of the day. The students have gained a lot from this experience and will come back next year stronger teams ready to compete in competitions like the Premier’s Debating Competition.

Year 9 Debating Report 2018

Being a part of the debating team is an opportunity which initiates deep thinking about current societal issues, and allows for debaters to build unique skills. In debating, rational arguments with compelling evidence to back it up is necessary, and in the process, great memories are created with truly amazing people.

The year 9 debating team in 2018 consisted of Jasraj Kaur, Olivia Bock, Jamima Rumey Jiffrey and Vishwa Shah. This team entered the year 9 and 10 Premiers Debating Competition and won their zone, eliminating Nepean A, Nepean B and Penrith A from the competition. We went on to win the inter-zone final against Katoomba High, and unfortunately lost the regional Quarter-Final against Hills Sport High.

Email: penrith-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au
Website: http://penrith-h.schools.nsw.gov.au
Location: 158-240 High Street, Penrith NSW, Australia
Phone: (02) 4721 0529
Facebook: facebook.com/penrithselectivehs/