Penrith Selective High School

Dear parents and students,

Welcome to our first newsletter for 2019.

It has been a great start to the year and certainly a start full of events and opportunities.

Student emails- Parent Reminder

I know that you will see many of these below. Please ensure that your child checks their school email everyday as this is the primary way that information is sent to them, including the leadership opportunities that are so valued by students.

Staff

We welcome a small number of new staff to the school for 2019. A number of the staff have been appointed through merit selection and each staff member brings a wealth of experience to the school. Our new staff include:

Mr. Christopher Ferrarin and Mr. Gi Kim in Mathematics.

Mr Karl Serrato and Ms. Kylie Craigen in English.

Mr Mel Coburn in Social Science.

Ms Kelly Lipp and Ms Konnie Kwiet bring many years of HSC experience to the History department.

Ms Jeannie Guy and Ms Carole Martin join our hardworking and talented administration staff.

2018 HSC Results

A big congratulations to the class of 2018. They worked incredibly hard and equalled our best ever HSC results alongside the class of 2016 and 2010. Many of the students have received scholarships and it has been great to see so many students as they have dropped back in and shared their updates. We look forward to hearing about the incredible journeys that are ahead of you and how you will shape the world in many fields. A special thank you to all of the 2018 staff and students’ families as there is no way that they can reach their goals without the support from them.

Parent email addresses

Thank you to everyone for their understanding that the current bulk email system only allows us to send information to one parent email per student. This is currently beyond our control. As you would know, we use email very regularly to connect and inform parents so please determine which email address best suits your family and contact the office if you need to change your arrangements.

Thank you

A big thank you to everyone who has been able to pay their school accounts so far. The incredible response to the invoices has allowed us to plan much of the additional opportunities that we are looking at for 2019. As you would note in each communication, if you need to discuss a plan or need support then please contact me, either Deputy Principal or our School Administration Manager, Maria Ryan, so that we can ensure things are in place. These discussions are confidential and we aim to ensure that no student misses out.

I look forward to seeing many parents at many of our events this year.

Mark Long

Principal

Dear parents,

A number of students study a language for the HSC through Community Language Schools. Our most common language studied by students in this mode is Tamil, but there might be others. If your child is studying Tamil (eg: At Homebush or Wentworthville) or another language in this mode, will you please email the details via the school email penrith-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au and attention the email to Nathan Wilcox (Our Librarian and Distance Ed/ Community Languages coordinator). Students are not enrolled with NESA until we have this data at school.

Please note that an email has been sent to all parents in the event that some junior students have been accelerated by the Community Language School. This is very unlikely, but we like to check.

Thank you,

Penrith Selective High School

In the last few weeks the SRC body has been working on organising several of our annual events.
We have been organising Spirit Week and Multicultural Day.

Multicultural Day will be held on the final day of term 2 and Spirit Week will be held in the last week of term 1. The themes for Spirit Week are 10 year Challenge, 2000s Kids and Memes/Vines.

We look forward to seeing all students participating in the activities we have planned. World’s Greatest Shave is also returning to the school this March on the 13th -17th. For those who do not know World’s Greatest Shave gives an opportunity for the public to help support individuals and their families who are fighting against blood cancer. We encourage as many students as possible to volunteer to shave their head or sponsor someone who is willing to in order to fund research to fight blood cancer. We are looking forward to having some fun at exciting events we have planned for you in the upcoming weeks.

Cara Horsley and Lina Zhou

SRC Co-ordinators

Penrith Selective High School provides high standards of education, safety and self-esteem for all its students. The Penrith Selective High School community – students, staff and parents – see the wearing of school uniform as integral to maintaining these high standards and the positive image of the school in the wider community.

School uniform:

 Helps promote a strong school spirit and a sense of identification with the school;

 Provides greater security for students as it enables intruders onto school grounds to be immediately identified and dealt with properly;

 Enhances the reputation of the school in public and formal situations and provides students representing the school with additional confidence;

 In the long term, is economical, practical and durable, and eliminates any pressure for students to compete in terms of wearing fashionable clothing in the school context.

For safety reasons students must wear fully enclosed black leather school shoes to school. Students will be excluded from certain practical subject rooms if their footwear is unsuitable. There is a real risk of injury where students are handling sharp instruments, boiling water, hot oil, fat or chemicals. Shoes are to be all black leather, fully enclosed and flat heeled. Thongs or open sandals are never to be worn to school, including on mufti days.

Rationale:

Uniform is the responsibility of all members of the school community, inclusive of students, parents/guardians, classroom teachers and school executives. School profile is enhanced by the image that students portray to the community and reflects the commitment that students have in taking pride in their appearance as a representative of the school.

Staff, parents and students need to familiarise themselves with the PSHS uniform code. This document is printed in all student diaries and describes the uniform expectations for both Seniors (Year 10 - 12) and Juniors (Year 7 - 9)

Uniform Monitoring;

Uniform at PSHS forms a component of the school's monitoring system for each student.

Any non-compliance to the PSHS Uniform Code monitoring is monitored by the following procedures;

1) Before Period 1. Students who are out of uniform need to see relevant year Deputy to receive an out of uniform slip. The Deputy will then record this on the Attendance module on SENTRAL.

2) Classroom teachers/period marking. Any teacher who sees a student in their class out of uniform without a uniform slip will mark the student as out of uniform on SENTRAL when marking attendance for that period.

(This may be prevalent particularly after lunch when students have changed for games/rehearsals etc.)

3) Any teacher who observes non-compliance with the Uniform Code e.g. on playground duty, between lessons etc is to send and report the student to the relevant Deputy.

4) Students identified as out of uniform will be placed on the Uniform Detention list for that day.

Uniform detention will occur during lunch each day. Students must report to the relevant Deputy’s Office and be punctual.

A student reminder list will be circulated via the school clerical during period 4. Failure to attend detention will be deemed continued disobedience which will incur a Deputy’s After Sport Detention on Wednesdays between 2.40 and 3.20pm.

If for any reason a student cannot attend school in the correct uniform for a limited time frame, then a uniform slip for the day may be available through the following method;

1) Students are to see the relevant Deputy before period 1. Students should bring a parental note explaining the reason for being out of uniform.

2) The student will need to show this slip to their class teachers throughout the day

3) Days out of uniform will be recorded on SENTRAL and may be kept as a tally for student report cards.

4) A parental note does not equate to permission to be out of uniform. Some students may be asked to attend the clothing pool (Social Science) in order to complete their uniform requirements.

On February 7, a group of 10 girls were lucky enough to attend the annual Girls Write Up Festival in the Greater Western Sydney Performing Arts Centre. Our program consisted of three main sections, readings from Aboriginal poet Kirli Saunders and Afghanistan-Muslim Writer Randa Abdul-Fattah. Both women spoke to a large number of students about their experiences growing up without a connection to their culture, and how they overcame the hardships they faced.

The second part of our day involved 5 workshops run by Kirli (Spoken Word),Randa (Creative Writing), Lorin Elizabeth (Slam Poetry), Winnie Dunn (Writing From Life) and Sarah Ayoub (Owning Your Story). We all split off into groups of 12 to hear from these women and to learn how we could improve aspects of our writing through our chosen workshops.

The third and final part of our day was back in the auditorium, where we listened to a panel made up of Lorin, Winnie and Kirli who reimagined literary pieces to prove that stories can change, depending on who’s telling them. We were then allowed to share our own pieces in front of the other schools. We heard a number of beautiful pieces from students, including one from PSHS student, Jamima Rumey-Jiffrey, named ‘Water’.

The Girls Write Up Festival was an amazing opportunity for all of us who attended. We learned about other cultures, connections and how to improve our abilities as writers. On behalf of all the girls, I would like to thank Miss Scardanas and Mrs Xiberras for allowing us this opportunity. We had an amazing day and we really appreciate it.

Holly Gerrard, Year 11

OnSTAGE & Encore

Each year there are many Higher School Certificate (HSC) showcases and exhibitions that showcase student work. HSC Drama students from Penrith High School attended OnSTAGE, a presentation and exhibition of outstanding group and individual performances and projects by Drama students from the 2018 HSC Drama Examinations. The OnSTAGE season at the Seymour Centre is presented by the NSW Education Standards Authority and the NSW Department of Education.

Similarly, HSC Music students attended Encore, a program of outstanding performances and compositions by students from the 2018 HSC Music examinations. It is held annually at the Sydney Opera House and showcases exemplary student works.

These excursions helped set a benchmark for the quality of work we are working towards and will support students in achieving the best result possible in their examinations.

Ensembles and Bands

It has been a busy Term 1 for the Creative and Performing Arts Faculty. The extra-curricular enrichment programs have begun and over 120 members of the school community take part in specialist ensembles and bands facilitated by our team of CAPA specialists. These ensembles include:

• Concert Band - Kathryn Whittaker

• Stage Band - Kathryn Whittaker

• Choir - Kerrie Ridgeway

• String Ensemble - Kerrie Ridgeway

• Visual Arts Ensemble - Ashley Bauman

• Drama Ensemble - Anthony Vassallo

  Each of these specialist groups are presently rehearsing for various internal and external performance opportunities. In addition, over 30 students in our school are undertaking instrumental, vocal and drama tutoring before school. To help us build these programs, the CAPA faculty would like to welcome our tutors to our school community:

• Clare Richards Vocal Tutor (Vocal Tutor)

• Cassandra Jensen (Brass and Woodwind Tutor)

• Naree Shields (Individual Drama Tutor)

• Tara Lawson (Drama Ensemble Tutor)

• Joshua Wood (Guitar, Bass and Brass Tutor)

• Ying Artweorger (Piano & Keyboard Tutor)

  While tutoring applications are closed for Term 1, opportunities to participate in individual or small group tutoring during Term 2 will be announced later in the term.

We have two new permanent members of staff joining the mathematics faculty. They are Mr Christopher Ferrarin from Cherrybrook Technology High School and Mr Gi Kim from Patrician Brothers. Both gentlemen are highly experienced teachers and are a great asset to our faculty. Mrs Norman had a beautiful baby girl on December 30 2018, both are doing very well.

Enrichment has started with the 3 Euler classes running on either Thursday mornings or Friday mornings. The 2 Gauss classes are run on Wednesday mornings. The Noether class runs on Wednesday mornings. These classes are taught by our Alumni, as they are university students. The classes are held with what fits in with their university timetables. All classes are held from 8am to 9am. We will be sending out the invoices for these classes in week 6. The $130 covers tuition fees, course costs and resources. Enrichment runs for all of Terms 1, 2 and 3. If your son/daughter is interested in doing the enrichment course then they must see me ASAP.

Problem solving is now being taught to Year 7 and Year 8, once a fortnight throughout the entire year. The students are being taught various problem solving strategies and techniques to better prepare them for the APSMO and AMC competitions.

APSMO is made up of 5 papers given throughout Terms 2 and 3. This year all of Years 7 and 8 will compete in this Olympiad. The cost is $6.50 and this covers all 5 papers. The results of these Olympiads go towards their yearly report mark.

Computational and Algorithmic Thinking, (C.A.T) Competition will be held on Tuesday April 2. It is a one hour exam and will be held before school at 7:55am. The competition has a mixture of multiple-choice and integer answers and incorporates unique ‘three-stage tasks’ that encourage students to develop informal algorithms and apply them to test data of increasing size or complexity. The original problems are designed to be quick to solve and highly approachable, and range in difficulty from very easy to challenging. Some questions test the ability to perform procedures, others require logical thought, while the more challenging problems require the identification and application of algorithms. It is open to Years 9 to 12 (inclusive). If your child is interested they must see Daniel Su of Year 12 for training and past papers. They must also register their interest with me ASAP. If your son/daughter is selected to enter the competition, you will be invoiced $6.50 payable before mid-March.

The AMC will be on August 1 and it is compulsory for all of Years 7, 8, 9 and 10. The results from the AMC will go towards their yearly report mark. It is optional for Years 11 and 12, so if students in Years 11 or 12 would like to enter AMC then, they must register their interest with me and they will be invoiced before the competition starts. If they have not paid before the competition date, then they will not be sitting the competition.

Peer Tutoring is up and running again, if you would like a peer tutor to help with your mathematics please send an email to mathspeertutoring@gamil.com

State your name, year, maths class and areas of weakness. The admin will match you up with a tutor and contact you. This is a free service.

Last year we started a homework help centre for year 12s, this year we have decided to include all years. This runs at recess on Mondays through to Thursdays in room A.1.5. If you have a question with your homework/classwork you can just drop into room A.1.5 and ask for help. You can ask as many questions as you like, but if you have a lot of questions regularly we will recommend you get a peer tutor.

Sue Briggs

Head Teacher Mathematics

Name: Mr Chris Ferrarin

Previous School: Cherrybrook Technology High School, before that Bourke High School

Subject Area: Mathematics.

University Education: ACU

Interests: Anything food related (eating, cooking and growing food). I also love travelling, sport, music and comedy.

Favourite Sport: Rugby League & Cricket. Really I’ll watch or play everything and anything. I’ve been known to spend hours watching obscure sports such as Table Soccer and Kabaddi.

Favourite Food Dish: Curries or Garlic Sauce with Lebanese Bread

Anything Else? I'm a Penrith local (as of 2017) so look forward to teaching at PSHS for many years to come.​​

Name: Mr Gi Kim

Subject Area: Mathematics

University Education: UTS / Macquarie

Interests: fishing, gardening and travelling

Favourite sport: golf and tennis

Favourite food dish: BBQ and sushi

Anything else: Friendly teachers and great students! I am really enjoying teaching at PSHS.

Year 12 Modern History Seminar

On Monday, February 18 Year 12 Modern History students attended a seminar in the school hall conducted by renowned historian, Dr Brian Brennan, on the new Core in Modern History entitled Power and Authority. Our students were joined by fifteen students from Jamison HS.

The seminar gave our students the opportunity to grapple with the new content and the concepts of power and authority in Nazi Germany and other countries. Dr Brennan presented many images and sources to challenge the students’ thinking. He also outlined approaches to tackling the short answer questions to be asked in the HSC examination.

As always Dr Brennan was impressed by the knowledge, questions asked and engagement of our students throughout the seminar. He has been visiting our school for over a decade and will do so for the last time in November when he conducts the same seminar for the 2019-2020 HSC cohort. Seminars such as these give our students an added perspective on what they learn in class and are an invaluable addition to our students’ suite of learning.

Clark Stone

Head Teacher History

Our new Penrith Selective Year 7 students embarked on an exciting camp held at Myuna Bay in Week 3 of Term 1.

The students took part in various team and character-building activities including high ropes course, canoeing/kayaking, team challenge obstacle course, archery, giant swing and night time initiative activities. They even made damper over a traditional camp fire.

All activities were facilitated with strong messages of building confidence, teamwork, goal setting, leadership and resilience.

The students were blessed with beautiful weather and were surrounded by an amazing setting in the surrounding area of Lake Macquarie.

The cabin groups and day groups were designed to allow students to meet and mingle with other students they may have not had a chance to interact with in the Year 7 cohort.

Thank you to Year 7 for their cooperation throughout the days we were at camp and the staff that gave up their time away from their families to accompany Year 7 on their first major high school event.

Kind regards

Mr Huynh​

Year 7 Adviser

During February, 20 students from Beijing 171 High School visited Australia and Penrith Selective High School. They visited our school from the 11th to 15th of February, where they had the opportunity to partake in numerous lessons at our school including Science with the year 12 students, Physical Education, Mathematics with the Year 8 students and more.

Welcoming Ceremony

40 Students comprising of the Year 10 elective Japanese Class and their peers were partnered with each of the Beijing 171 High School students and helped their buddy around the school with their lessons and as a result, built a strong friendship, which included staying with them during break times and bringing them to meet their host families. Penrith Selective High students were ecstatic to have a wonderful opportunity and enjoyed their time with Beijing 171 High School students, especially when being able to experience their own lessons with their buddy. Thank you, Mrs Pipio and Mrs. Sullivan, for this opportunity to be buddies!

Written by Ana, Susan, and Cathy from Year 10

Welcome back to another huge year. I am looking forward to working with students to help them move towards their post-school lives. We are in such a changing world and, while this is exciting, it also makes the pressure of making good choices now feel very intense. Students often come to talk to me about what job they should do after university and the truth is that many of the jobs our students will be doing don’t exist yet. So, while on the one hand, we fear this increasingly automated world, we often don’t talk about the creation of new jobs. It can be hard to prepare a student for jobs that don’t yet exist so what I am working on is helping students to identify and gain the skills which they will need in the future. The following document, for those interested, provides a good summary of what it is I am trying to achieve as a Careers Adviser. It is the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2018. If you don’t like a lot of reading, just look at the diagrams as they are quite demonstrative of what we’re dealing with: https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-report-2018. If you only look at one thing in this report, make it this (page 12 of the report, 24 of the .pdf). Please see diagram below.

Year 10 Work Experience

Year 10 will be having their first and only mandatory work experience this year. It will occur in Term 2 Week 6, June 3 – 7. Students can do additional work experience this year and next, if they like. It is hard to manage in year 12 and not advisable to take a week out of class except in a small number of cases which can be discussed with the Careers Adviser. Students must ensure they don’t miss any mandatory events and must discuss it with their teachers to catch up on any missed work.

The due date for students to get their paperwork in to me is day one of Term 2 for the mandatory placement. Despite this, I am encouraging students to get it done earlier and definitely not leave it until the holidays. A student may hear a lot of “no” before they get a “yes” and two weeks might not be enough time. In the holidays I might be slower to respond to email as well, so students should not rely on having my assistance at that time.

To help year 10 students with this I have been running information sessions since late 2018, I am in regular contact via email, and I have posted information on our Google Classroom. Students can also come and see me by booking into my schedule (outside my door) to discuss any concerns.

We have a couple of requirements with our work experience placements for parents to be aware of as they guide students through this process:

1. Students should go to a workplace which would require them to have a degree if they were an employee.

a)For this reason I am asking that students do not go to pharmacies this year. Although it fulfils the requirement in theory, in practice students end up spending most of their time doing retail-based activities (stacking shelves etc.) and this is not suitable for our purposes.

2. Students should not go to their parents’ workplaces unless discussed with me directly. We are trying to send them out in the wide world to collide with it in some new way. Being in a parent’s workplace doesn’t fully allow them to do this. Exceptions can be made but this must be discussed with the Careers Adviser.

3. Students should not go to a high school. Students have access to their teachers who would gladly share the kinds of skills they use on a daily basis, including me. There is also the concern that there is no way to monitor which schools students have friends/acquaintances at which might compromise their ability to give this everything they have.

Aside from that and the information I have prepared students with, they’re on their own! Some students will find this difficult but I encourage parents to be as ‘hands-off’ as you can be. Part of the skill of work is finding it and making a call, or sending an email, by yourself. You can give them a push in the right direction but please let them figure it out, even if they struggle. That’s when we do our best learning!

School University Visits

I am currently in the process of arranging to have universities and other providers visit our students to give them information on what they have in store for them next year. So far our list of visitors is as follows (with more to be added):

Week 6 Tuesday March 5 – Macquarie University

Week 9 Thursday March 28 – UNSW

Week 10 Thursday April 4 – Professional Cadetships Australia (Business, Tech and Engineering)

In addition, I am personally visiting universities to see what they can offer our students for the year ahead. So far I have been to UNSW and the University of Sydney. I will be at WSU, UTS and ACU in the coming weeks. Macquarie’s Careers Seminar will be next term. I will keep students across any major changes but so far there aren’t any huge ones from the universities themselves.

UAC and Scholarships

The biggest change with UAC this year is that it will open early. Last year it opened on August 1. This year it looks like it will be April 4.

This is to accommodate UNSW who have changed to a trimester format for their classes this year and beyond. That means they have students (Mature-age, International etc. not our HSC students) who might apply to start in the 2nd trimester so UAC needs to open early to accommodate this. It will have no effect on our students other than that they can start their applications for university earlier. It will still close on September 30 like normal.

So far it appears that most other university processes will follow the same timeline as always. UNSW confirmed during my visit that their scholarships are likely to follow the same timeline so June – September is the time for those. This makes sense as organising their budgets for this takes time. Again, I will keep students across any movements in this area.

I am wishing everyone a productive year ahead!

Mr Chris Buchli

Careers Adviser

We have had a big start to the term in sport.

There are many Grade teams who are up and running. We had some solid wins against Katoomba in the first round. Unfortunately the weather prevented us playing Winmalee in the second round.

​Our students bond well in Grade teams and develop great team spirit and a sense of achievement whilst competing with other schools in our Zone.

There have been a number of Zone Trials completed. We are waiting on some results regarding selected teams.

The following students are to be congratulated on being selected to represent our school and the Nepean Zone.

Boys Basketball: Jem Herbert-Rice, James Kim and Rodney Siasat.

Boys Tennis: Benjamin Renaud and Nicholas Tseung

Boys Zone Volleyball:
The following students represented the Nepean Zone at Sydney West trials on February 22:

Sidharth Kumar

Edward Sung

Eric Lin

Edison Zhou

Richard Guo

Joshua Lin

Samuel Ip

The boys played well against very strong competition from the other zones. The Nepean zone team made it through to the semi finals before being knocked out by the Hills team who went on to be overall winners.

CHS Knockout

A number of teams are being prepared for the CHS Knockout competitions.

Below are the members of PSHS Cricket team who represented Sydney West in the State Final -The Alan Davidson Shield earlier this term, unfortunately narrowly missing out on the win:

Hemish Ahuja yr 10

Ayush Arora yr 12

Luke Boyes yr 10

Mankirat Chawla yr 12

Soham Desai yr 12

Dhruv Kant yr 12

Parth Khanna yr 11

Vaasav Mehta yr 11

Jayden Ramukwella yr 11

Santhosh Samuel yr 9

Maninder Singh yr 12

Simrandeep Singh yr 12

Raunak Srivastava yr 11

Our Boys Knockout Volleyball team had a great win against Erskine Park in the first round and many games in various sports will be played in the coming weeks.

Thanks must go to the staff who are putting in the extra hours for our Grade and Knockout teams.

Once again, Ripples Swimming Pool, Penrith was the scene of Penrith Selective High School's Annual Swimming Carnival held on Friday, February 8. The House spirit and enthusiasm from all participants went a long way to making the carnival a success. Blaxland have maintained their stronghold in coming first this year, with Lawson coming in a close second, followed by Wentworth and Mitchell. The novelty events provide an increased level of engagement and enjoyment for our students whilst not performing in the main swimming events. Record breaking feat from Year 12 student Abraham Song in 50m breaststroke smashing the record by 2.5 seconds.

Age Champions results are in. Congratulations to the following students:

Females:

12yrs - Mahathi Bethamsetty

13yrs - Cassidy lauguico

14yrs - Jessie Pranadjaja

15yrs - Samantha Buda

16yrs - Jennifer Cho and Ashvini Dolamulla Hewa Kankanamge

17+yrs - Sanaa Chaudhry

Males:

12yrs - Akash Godiyal

13yrs - Owen McCann

14yrs - Parth Purohit and Alex Vella

15yrs - Falekava Mahe

16yrs - Daniel Biswas

17+yrs - Abraham Song

Congratulations to all competitors throughout the day, who participated with such wonderful spirit and determination. We wish our top performers all the very best on their efforts for the Zone Swimming Carnival. A huge thank you to all of the staff for their efforts in ensuring the day ran smoothly and a special Thank you to Mr Grant Newell for his professional organisation and running of the day.

POST SCRIPT

Our zone squad has gone on to be ZONE CHAMPIONS! This is a first in such a long time!

Congratulations PSHS! Details will follow in the next newsletter.

Quad Schools is an annual sporting event amongst four schools, Penrith Selective High School, Baulkham Hills High School, Girraween High School and James Ruse Agricultural High School. This year the sporting events were hosted by Penrith and James Ruse, each hosting two sports, Penrith hosting Soccer and Volleyball, James Ruse hosting Touch Football and Basketball.

This year Penrith finished second on 51 points closely behind Baulkham Hills on 58 points. All our teams played extremely well and we are very delighted with their performances for Penrith Selective High School.

Here is an overview of how each of the teams went on the day:

Boys Soccer:

The boys' soccer team played extremely well to gain the top position on the ladder through a matter of goal difference against Baulkham Hills. Their first game against Girraween was all square at 0-0 till a crucial goal by Janahan in the last few minutes of the game took the win 1-0. Then came the vital game against Baulkham Hills which Penrith dominated, however, the boys weren’t able to take our chances and so the game ended on 0-0. James Ruse was the final game of the day which our players won with ease defeating their team 2-0 with two goals from Max Peters. Overall, it was a good day in the field for our boys' soccer team for 2019.

“when we are on the field, we aren’t just team-mates, we’re brothers”

• Soham Desai

Girls Soccer:

pen-what PENRITH!

Quad Schools 2019 was a huge success for the girls’ soccer team, continuing our reign of being undefeated and this time with a clean sheet for all three games!!

They won against Girraween 1-0, Baulkham Hills 3-0 and James Ruse 3-0.

Outstanding performances from the girls this year and hoping to keep the undefeated reign going for next year.

Well done girls for the amazing job on Friday.

• Maggie Li

Boys Basketball:

The boys' basketball team travelled to James Ruse on the day of Quad Schools being the

reigning champions from the sport last year. The only issue with last year was that we lost one game and we were quite intent on not letting that happen again.

After a relatively comfortable first two games against James Ruse and Baulkham Hills, we

faced off against Girraween; the two undefeated teams meeting in the final round. The

scores were tight throughout the game, and in the dying seconds of overtime, Rodney Siasat, falling to the ground, hit a crazy buzzer beater to put us up by 1.

As the whole gym erupted in disbelief, Penrith High took out the Boys Basketball once again; this time, undefeated!

• Jem Herbert-Rice

Girls Basketball:

I’m glad I got to be the captain of a team who were consistently dedicated to train, which reflected in the way we performed on the day! The girls' basketball team not only played well but also supported each other. Our team spirit was amazing! Thank you to James Ruse for hosting us on the day!

• Linda Li

Boys Touch:

Thank you to the boys who dedicated a lot of their time and effort, despite coming together so last minute. Our touch football team performed so well together and I’m glad I got to wrap up my last Quad Schools with a solid bunch.

• Emmanuel Thomas

Girls Touch:

The girls' touch football team saw our first touchdown in many years! Definitely one of our most successful Quad Schools appearances. So incredibly proud of how much commitment the girls had and the sportsmanship they displayed on the day. Congratulations to all the teams and captains! Special shout-out to Miss Borg for coordinating the event.

• Audrey Honrada

Boys Volleyball:

The team worked well together through dynamic teamwork and really impressed me with their support and sportsmanlike competitiveness. A close tie between Girraween, although if we had more time our team would’ve definitely won. Baulkham Hills was a difficult challenge but ended in an unfortunate loss. However, the team worked cohesively to defeat James Ruse 2-0.

Well played by the boys this year, looking to up their game for next year!

• Josh Lin

Girls Volleyball:

Wrapped up my last Quad Schools with an amazing team who SERVED some killer results which SET Penrith up to be BUMPed into second place! Next year, they’ll definitely have to DIG in there to finally beat Baulko! Thank you to everyone who made the day so successful.
After winning the toss, the Penrith girls' volleyball team started off strong, picking up a good lead. Penrith kept the lead and took the first set. During the second set, Girraween put up a good fight, with tied scoring along the way. However, Penrith was able to keep up and won the second set, winning the 1st game against Girraween.
The game against the Baulkham Hills team was not an easy feat. Penrith was able to keep a slight lead at the beginning of the game, but as the game progressed it was very difficult to play the attack, as we lost the first set to the Baulkham Hills team. The lead at the beginning of the first set showed Penrith's potential but again, it was very difficult to win the second set, which resulted in Baulkham Hills taking the game.
After winning the toss to serve first for all the games, the girls Penrith team was pumped to finish with a solid win. Penrith yet again started off strong in the first set and kept the lead, taking the set. During the second set, the James Ruse team stepped up the game, creating a few tied scores along the set. This was the pressure Penrith faced to finish the game with a win of the second set. However, James Ruse girls were able to pick themselves up taking the second set. This resulted in a draw between James Ruse and Penrith.

• Gayatri Shiva Subramaniam

In the last couple of years, the Year 11 Study Camp has proved to be a fantastic way to start senior schooling for Penrith Selective High School students and 2019 was no exception, as the class of 2020 enjoyed a metaphorical deep breath before jumping headlong into their senior courses.

Of course, after a pre-dawn start for most students, and a long bus ride, the travellers from the hot and dusty west needed very little invitation to literally jump headlong into the Pacific Ocean at Collaroy. A little bit of relaxation on the beach was no doubt the highlight of the camp for many, but it served as a valuable reminder that taking some time out of busy schedules and hard work is very important in the senior school.

As more structured activities began, students also attended Elevate sessions which focussed on further developing study habits appropriate for Years 11 and 12. With increased workloads and expectations, the messages contained in these sessions are vital for students in succeeding in their senior years, and reading student feedback it was clear just how useful Year 11 found these sessions.

Sessions from myself on managing stress levels and from Mr Long on the expectations of senior students was followed by a trip to the wonderful art deco Collaroy Cinema. Arguably there is no better way to finish the day than with a choc top and a movie, and hopefully Year 11 could take solace from the fact that, while the HSC might look daunting, at least they haven’t been bitten by a radioactive spider.

With everyone packed up and ready to go the next morning, Year 11 participated in a group challenge to complete as many camp activities as possible. Archers, climbers, and puzzle solvers completed the challenges with gusto and teamwork – two things that will be vital to the success of the whole grade over the next 2 years.

To round off the camp, the message implicit in the beach visit the morning before was echoed by Lisa Maltman from the Sleep Connection, who workshopped with students on the importance of healthy sleeping patterns. Students were asked to complete a sleep diary last year, and I would urge all parents and guardians to discuss these issues with their children now that they have had time to reflect on their own habits and learn about how to address any issues. More information can be found at http://thesleepconnection.com.au .

Overall, the camp was a great success, and as I said to the students, I would hope that all of them have taken something of value away from it as they begin life as a Year 11 student. For the very large majority of students, if they finish their senior school journey as they have begun it, they will have plenty to be proud about.

On Tuesday February 12, the prefects hosted our annual Prefects Afternoon Tea. Inviting over 20 different schools, we had around 100 other prefects and student leaders join us on the day. We also had 2013 School Captain Grace Shalders present at our event as our guest speaker. The afternoon tea was organised for prefects and school leaders from many different schools (selective, local, and private) to come together and share our ideas and experiences and build social networks, as well as discuss opportunities for collaborations between schools.

Upon arrival prefects were led to the gym for some afternoon tea after which they were ushered to the hall to begin the activities. Here Grace gave an inspirational speech about leadership and obligations to be considered while entering the HSC year. Afterwards, we had two bonding activities, the human knot and bingo followed by a “School Themed Speed Dating” section which allowed one-on-one discussions between prefects.

On behalf of the PSHS prefect body we would like to thank Mr Long, Mr MacVean, Ms Pipio and Ms Ryan for their assistance in making the day a success as well as Grace Shalders and all the prefects for attending. We are looking forward to holding more events for the school in the upcoming terms.

Anoushka Tharakan & Heidi Lui

Recently PSHS students had the opportunity to sign up for different clubs that will be running this year.

It was a very successful day and we wish all the clubs good luck throughout 2019.

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