Narrabri High School Community News Educational Excellence and Innovation in a Unique Caring Environment

Meetings 15th May in Library

6.00pm Canteen Committee 6.30pm P & C Meeting

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Principal’s Report

Dear Parents/Carers Welcome back to Term Two. There have been some changes made this term, but one thing that won’t change is our commitment to delivering quality education opportunities to all of our students. Judging by the articles and photos in this newsletter we have been successful. As most of you will know, Mr Jones has taken up his new Principal's position at Peel High School. We wish him all the best for the future and thank him for what he has done for our school. I will be Relieving Principal until the School Director (and the panel) goes through the merit selection process to appoint a new Principal. Mr Graham will be looking after my Deputy Principal's position, and Mr Loder will be Head Teacher of HSIE. We should know who the successful applicant is before the end of the term. We welcome two new staff members, Ms Jill Duncan in HSIE and Miss Kate Johnston, who is doing her internship in TAS this term. Mrs Hartog-Smith has taken some necessary leave which has led to a reshuffle in the timetable and the Year 12 Metals and Engineering students needing to go to TAFE to complete their coursework. The Year 11 Metals students are looking at some other options including the possibility of doing both the Year 11 and 12 course in one year(1 full day per week, from Term Four). All VET courses must be taught by accredited teachers to ensure that National competencies are met.

Once again the staff and students proudly represented our school at the annual ANZAC day celebration in Narrabri and other communities. Except for the school captains, all of the other students did not have to attend, but chose to go as did the staff who supported us. The students looked great in their school uniform. The names of all students who were involved on the day will be included in their records in the area of community involvement.

C a l e n d a r May

15-19 Work Placement for Yr 11

Hospitality & Yr 11 Automotive

17-20 CHS Rugby

17 Tamworth Careers Expo

19 Quirindi Horse Sports

22-26 Work Placement for Yr 11

Hospitality & Yr 12 Metals

25 State Girls Touch Finals, Parramatta

25-26 Year 12 HSC Seminar, Singleton

29-31 Electrotechnology Work Placement

30 Netball Schools Cup Narrabri

Rugby 7’s Armidale

June

1-2 Electrotechnology Work Placement

7 Chess Comp, Narrabri

9 Athletics Carnival

12 Public Holiday

19-23 Year 11 Work Placement for Primary

Industries, IT, Tourism & Nursing

22 MADD Night, Betty Berriman Hall

26-30 Year 11 Nursing Work Placement

30 Last Day Term 2

July

17 Staff Development Day

18 Students commence Term 3

If you would like to receive the Newsletter via email. Please send request to:

narrabri-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Our captains, Harry Russell and Olivia Bange did an excellent job of reading the prayers. A number of students assisted in taking water around to the public during the official ceremony, once again showing that many of our students are always prepared to do a bit more to help. They are a credit to the school, town and their families. Since the last newsletter both senior cohorts have completed their examinations. Hopefully the results are indicative of each student’s ability. The most important piece of advice that I can offer is for the students to be less concerned with the marks and pay attention to the comments made by the teachers. These indicate areas of strength and what needs to be done to further improve. Close contact with individual teachers and adherence to a realistic study program will ensure greater success. As has been commented by many people the new school uniform looks very smart. It is not compulsory to wear the new uniform unless you are in Year 7 or Year 11, but many students have already transitioned, which is great. The school is able to assist parents and students in purchasing school uniforms when a genuine need is brought to our attention. You will soon receive a letter outlining the process that students need to follow if they are not in uniform. We are seeking your support with the wearing of school uniform as it is fully supported by our P & C Association. The week beginning May 15th is Canteen celebration week. We will be acknowledging all of the great community members who support our school by presenting them with certificates at successive Wednesday assemblies. Our students are very grateful for what they do to ensure that they get appropriate nutrition. NAPLAN testing of Years 7 and 9 is taking place this week. Reports are that the students have been compliant and made a good effort. The results will be available in a few months, which will inform you of their progress and enable us to work on improving individual students’ skills. The Athletics carnival will be held on Friday, June 9th. It is always a great day and I encourage all students to be involved and parents to "pop in" for a visit. I am unashamedly a fan of Currong house (for 31 years!), but they haven't been able to translate their aqua dominance to the track........maybe this year! Having been to the last few MADD nights I cannot recommend to you enough this exhibition of our talent held on Thursday, June 22nd. Every year the performances/student works get better and showcase our exceptionally gifted students who get so much support from their families. Pencil this in your diary, and please take lots of video, as I will be on long service leave and cannot be there. At the end of last term our SRC, led by Miss Ford and Miss Rosenblatt came up with an initiative to provide a small gift to the community recognising their support. Our students visited business houses and homes and dropped off a small coffee cup with a few goodies inside. What a great way to give back something to our great townspeople. We have

received many positive comments about this and I'm sure that it will continue. Narrabri High School continues to offer a wide range of extra curricula activities for our students. On the sporting field our swimmers competed at the Combined High Schools Swimming Carnival at the end of Term One. All ten students performed to the highest standard, with a number achieving personal best times and competing in finals. Ella Tomlinson won a bronze medal in the 50 metre freestyle. Ms Broderick was the manager/coach of the team. During the holidays, Keltan Williams of year 8 competed in Townsville as part of the NSW junior basketball team. His performance caught the eye of selectors and he has been invited to participate in a development camp in January. Our Open Girls softball team, expertly coached by Miss Neil, has again made good progress in the CHS knockout competition. Our robotics team is planning for the future and we had a thank you afternoon for the sponsors in early May. The team members are keen and enthusiastic and impressed the sponsors with their drive and skills. Layten Smith has been accepted to attend the vocal performance workshop and CAPERS audition-he really is a talent. At the time of writing I do not know the full details of the students who successfully exhibited their group Science activities in the recent Narrabri Show. I do know that the work was impressive and impressed the judges. I commend you to look at the various images of our students "at work" in this newsletter. It highlights the range of "fun" activities that they do on a daily basis. We are proud of our former students who fit into our great community when they leave school. There are so many success stories, one of which is highlighted in this newsletter: Dr Georgia Barden. Georgia attended Narrabri Public School and then came to us. She clearly illustrates the idea that living in a rural (and a bit remote) area is not a barrier to success. Georgia is very complimentary of the opportunities that we afforded her, and we are very proud of her achievements. We also had a baby!!!! Well a calf on the weekend which is very cute, with two more to follow in the next couple of weeks. Former staff member, Cristina Fernandez had a baby boy on May 6

th, both are doing well as is proud Dad, Jason.

Dinos Charalambous Relieving Principal

Agriculture

Junior Judging – Fruit & Vegetables: 1st

Georgia Kirkby, 2

nd Lillia Shlack-Whitehouse 3

rd Ben Atkinson

Sophie Eather, Olivia Verrier, Georgina Dries, Lillia Schlack-Whitehouse, Colby Davies and front holding the calf, Jono Davies

It is the time of the year again when we are starting to have some calves born at the school. We have had one bull calf born so far and the students are enjoying spending some time with the calf and allowing it to get used to having people around. We are waiting on two more calves to be born soon.

A busy time of the year with Narrabri Show once again upon us. Narrabri High school show team attended the show with some great results. On Friday 5

th May, students

participated in workshops on Fruit and Vegetables, Grain, Merino Fleece, Merino Sheep and Meat Sheep Breeds. At the conclusion of the workshops, the students put their knowledge to the test by competing in judging competitions with the following: Fruit and Vegetable Judging 2

nd Lillia Schlack-Whitehouse, 3

rd

Benjamin Atkinson Grain Judging; 1

st Emily Fielder, 2

nd Jono Davies, 3

rd Patrick

Wheeler Merino Fleece Judging; 1

st Emily Fielder, 2

nd Ben Atkinson,

3rd

Ashleigh Dunn Merino Sheep Judging; 1

st Ben Atkinson

Meat Sheep Breeds Judging; 1st

Ben Atkinson, 3rd

Patrick Wheeler

On Saturday students also participated in the Cattle Junior Judging and parading classes with the following results: Senior Paraders Class; 2

nd Ruby Ford, 4

th Ashleigh Dunn

Senior Judging Class; 1st

Ashleigh Dunn, 3rd

Georgina Dries, 4

th Ruby Ford

Junior Judging Class; 1st

Jonathan Davies, 2nd

Brock Davies, 3

rd Colby Davies

All up a busy, but successful weekend. Many thanks to the community members who helped to run these events and gave up their time to share their knowledge and experience with our students.

Junior Judging – Meat Sheep: 1st

Ben Atkinson, 2nd

Riley 3

rd Patrick Wheeler

Georgina Dries in action in the fleece Judging

Junior Judging – Grain:1st

– Emily Fielder, 2nd

– Jono Davies, 3

rd – Patrick Wheeler and showgirl entrant

Ashleigh Dunn

Softball Report

Where are they now?

Dr Georgia Barden My entire high schooling was at Narrabri High, finishing in 2010. We had Mel Wyper as our year adviser which was an absolute gift; she’s still one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met to date. Despite HSC pressures the final two years were the best since we students had a good rapport with our teachers and control over what we wanted to study. Chemistry and physics would be my favourites since everything in science is connected and you get a foundation

of concepts that allows you to investigate bigger ideas if you want to. Things like AI, consciousness, “nothing”, time, free will etc. Sci-fi books and movies also both make more sense and make you question more (e.g. Inception, Arrival, 2312, The Forever War). On the other hand, music was quite a magical release and the highlight for me was auditioning for the Encore collaboration at the end of Year 12. I completed my Bachelor and Master degrees in Bendigo at La Trobe University. At the time I was also pursuing aeronautics and medicine as options; now I’m glad neither of those worked out. It took me about eighteen months to realise that dentistry is a spectacular amalgamation of medicine and engineering. (See what I did there?). One of the great things I have found about dentistry is that it attracts people from so many backgrounds and cultures, all with wickedly agile minds, and has enough greyscale to

allow this smelting of brainpower. I love the intricacies, skill and technological capability of this job, even though it is a grossly underappreciated industry. Coming back to Narrabri has provided a good launching pad and the initial response far exceeded my expectations. I definitely could not do my job without Alex having the guts to give a newbie a chance, or without the tireless efforts from Geanine, Kirsty and Sherstyn. As for what’s next? I can’t say just yet.

Narrabri played Coonabarabran High School in the 2nd

round of the CHS Open Girls Knockout. Four safe hits by Zara Foley, Lidia McCauley, Chelsea Hancock & Jasmine Wheeler resulted in 6 runs to Narrabri in the first innings. Coonabarabran then scored 3 runs. Narrabri Pitcher Isabelle Howard-Phemister recorded her first K2 of the game.

In the second innings Narrabri scored 10 runners across the plate. A few highlights of the second innings was 3 base hit by Chelsea Hancock that scored 3 runners and the two base hit by Jasmine Wheeler. Coonabarabran scored 3 runs. Narrabri then scored 13 runs in the third innings after Coonabarabran allowed 9 batters to get to first base due to base on balls. This combine with a few errors & safe hits had Narrabri leading. Narrabri then shut Coonabarabran out and ran out winners 29 to 6. All the Narrabri girls played well. Narrabri team :- Zara Foley, Elsie Ford, Isabelle Howard-Phemister, Sam Baxter, Chelsea Hancock, Jasmine Wheeler, Monique Foster, Alex Howard-Phemister, Lidia McCauley, Brielle Wales & Brittany Young. Thankyou to Dale Nixon for umpiring & Stephen Duncan for marking the diamond. Narrabri will now travel to Tamworth and play Tamworth High on the morning of Friday 12

th May. The winner will then

play MacIntyre High in the North West Final in the afternoon. Cindy Neil (Coach)

CHS Swimming

NSW Basketball

During the Easter holidays Keltan Williams along with the NSW junior basketball team travelled to Townsville to compete in the National Championships, the Kevin Combs Cup. NSW finished 4th overall and a great time was had. Whilst there, Keltan and 1 other team mate were approached by representatives from Basketball Australia and invited to attend the Australian development camp in January at the Australian Institute of sport in Canberra.

On 2

nd April to 4

th April ten

Narrabri High School students attended the Combined High Schools Swimming Carnival at the Sydney Aquatic Centre. This carnival is the selection trials for the All Swimming Championships in Sydney in May All students performed extremely well and many

PBs were achieved. Highlights included Nicholas Tomlinson was a finalist in the 16 years 100m breaststroke, Ella Tomlinson being a finalist in the 12 years 100m and 200m freestyle and the 16 years boys relay team of Nicholas Tomlinson, Dylan Gordon, Angus Browning and Andrew Coleman were finalists in their event. Ella Tomlinson was the stand out swimmer for Narrabri High School and the North West Team. As well as being a finalist in the 100m and 200m freestyle Ella won a bronze medal in

the 12 years 50m freestyle. This was the only individual medal won by a North West swimmer during the carnival. Ella and Nick have been selected for

individual swims at the All Schools Swimming Championships, Ella in the 50m freestyle and Nick in the 50m breaststroke. The medley relay teams of Nicholas Tomlinson, Dylan Gordon, Angus Browning and Andrew Coleman and Charlotte Penberthy, Rachel Caton, Ella Tomlinson and Lucy Gordon have also been selected to represent CHS at the carnival.

Leave Notes Could leave passes please be put

handed into the Glass Office BEFORE

school.

Please ensure they have the following:

Student’s full name

Roll Class

Year

Reason for leave

Year 7 Plarn crocheting and Upcycling

Visual Arts

Year 8 Visual Arts

Soccer

Science Project Success at Narrabri Show

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After losing 13 players from last year’s squad, a relatively young but very enthusiastic team travelled to Moree on Monday 8 May to play in the second round of the CHS Open Boys Football (soccer). In the first half, Narrabri held their own against Moree with keeper Jakeb Nipperess only required to make a few saves as the defence, led by Daniel Hall, determinedly shut down the Moree forwards. Dylan Gordon, Zaine Saunders and Lachlan Coleman continually blocked the Moree attack and fed the ball up the field to the very mobile midfield. In the midfield Jason Foxe and James Madden ably held the centre, flanked by Ben Freeman and Angus Browning, pushing a number of balls past the Moree defenders. Colby Williams and Ayden Hunter made several runs toward goal but were unable to convert their opportunities. At the first substitution, Dylan Thompson rotated into the attack, Will McCahon into the defence and Callum Webster and Patrick Loder relieved the busy midfield. Thirty seconds before half-time, the ball rebounded into the arm of a Narrabri defender in the penalty box and a penalty was awarded and converted. The Narrabri team went into the second half maintaining their determination and again made several attempts at goal. In the middle of the second half a Moree player found some free space and headed an unstoppable shot from a corner kick. The Narrabri players continued to give it their all but with a few minutes to go, again had a penalty awarded for an accidental handball. Every single player in the Narrabri team is to be commended on their determination, commitment and sportsmanship. Special thanks must be made to the parents who gave up their time to drive the players to and from the game.

Students from the 2016, 9 Science Red class had their group project, entered into the show. The project testing natural antibiotics won first prize and champion project.

NHS Robotics team held a thank you afternoon tea for the sponsors and parents recently. Representatives from some of our Sponsors came along to watch some video footage and also saw students demonstrating some of the techniques. Warwick Moppett & Todd Dunn (Santos) and Leah Baguley & Carla Baxter (Carla Baxter Real Estate) were present. Also thank you to parents Leanne Ferguson, Angela & Gerard Lonergan, Kim Howarth, Alex Fawcett who were also present. Thank you to Gerard and Alex for your wonderful help on the excursion. We would like to acknowledge our sponsors Santos, Carla Baxter Real Estate, CRDC, Barrakets Shop 1, Simply Print Anything.

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Year 10 History Elective

Mitchell Starc &

Alyssa Healy visit

Year 10 Science - Volcanos

Year 7 students enjoying Visual Art, Food Technology & Science ANZAC DAY