Harmony Day 2017

MATRAVILLE SPORTS HIGH SCHOOL Anzac Parade, CHIFLEY NSW 2036 T 9661 8000 F 9661 4254 Email: matrasport-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Term 1, Week 10 April 2017

From the Principal

It has been an excellent start to 2017, despite the wet weather! Students in Year 7 have settled in well and have been to their camp on the Central Coast; well done to all staff and students. All students in the school have been taking up opportunities on offer from our UNSW-Matraville Education Partnership. These opportunities are unique to us and I would like to make mention of two in particular. 1. Mathematics Boost Program We have organised our school timetable to allow students from UNSW School of Mathematics to provide tutoring for all of Year 7 on a Friday period 6. This came about after a meeting last year, when one of our after school tutors approached the school to find out if they could help students in any way. That person was a senior lecturer in Mathematics at UNSW. As a result, the university course structure was changed to mandate that mathematics students had to come and teach our students for 8 weeks. It is a pleasure to see students running to maths on a last period Friday! 2. Michael Crouch Innovation Centre (MCIC) This program is an after school design-and-make program for students who have self-nominated. What an outstanding opportunity for our students to have young engineers and designers helping them with electronics, laser cutting and associated skills. I look forward to the finale and showcase this week at UNSW, where students will present their designs. Over the coming term, we will be expanding our partnership with MCIC through UNSW. Lockers and AVID Advancement via Individual Determination is our learning framework underpinning teaching in the school. We have started our second year of implementation. Students in Years 7,8,9, and 11 are learning different skills in AVID to prepare them for further study and success. Part of this program is to teach responsibility and organisation through student binders. Students must manage, carry and organise their blue binders. To support students, we have provided lockers. Lockers are $5 each. Students pay their $5 to the office and a locker is issued by the librarian. Please take up this offer ASAP to avoid missing out. Thank you Mr Justin Stewart, Head Teacher Sport, has been relieving as Deputy Principal for two terms. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for all of his hard work and dedication in the role. Mr Woods has also relieved as Deputy Principal during Mr Stewart’s absence, and I would like to thank him for his dedication to the students and staff of this school. Mr Woods takes up his role as Head Teacher TAS. Mrs Holloway has been relieving as Head Teacher English in the absence of Mrs Sentas. Mrs Sentas returns next term. A big thank you to Mrs Holloway! Easter Break I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday. We look forward to the new Deputy Principal, Miss Jane Stanley, starting from day 1 term 2!

Nerida Walker Principal

Support Faculty Update

Mrs R Malouf, Relieving HT Support Faculty

Support TAS

Special acknowledgment must be given to Support classes this term in Industrial Arts. Students have completed much research and experimentation in the area of Textiles with Ms Sallows. All students have successfully completed creative, diverse, and colourful tie dye works.

Students have experimented with food colouring dye and high quality fabric dyes. Support 3 showed off their skills on Harmony Day, wearing their bright orange tie dye shirts in the choir.

All students will finalise the term with their very own personalised bright, individually designed tie dye t-shirts!

S2 News

S2 made an amazing anti-bullying film late last year called STIX n STONES. I will be entering this film in a worldwide film festival called Focus on Ability. The film festival asks film makers to ‘Focus on the Ability’ of people with a disability and tell a story on film for the world to view. The prizes are generous with over $140,000 worth of cash and prizes up for grabs to encourage film makers and people with disability to tell their stories.

There are a few categories in which we can enter the film so we are still deciding as to which one we will choose. There is also a category for School’s Most Online Votes so when the time arrives we will be asking for community support to get our votes up.

Fingers crossed and I will keep you updated.

Ms Cerin, Support Faculty teacher

RECYCLING COMPUTER HARDWARE

Do you have any redundant monitors or laptops? We are interested in monitors 15-17” and laptops 5 years or younger, preferably with power supply and install disk. Even if it is not working, it may be useful for parts.

Please contact Mr Roger Greene (TAS).

Art Department Update

Mrs S Robinson, Teacher art

A big congratulations to Alyssa Silva for achieving 2nd Place (12-19 yrs) for her artwork Heritage, in Randwick City Council’s International Women's Day Art Prize. Also congratulations to Shaunalee Withers, Halle Nicholls and Christine Withers for creating thought provoking artworks that have been selected for the ongoing exhibition currently held at the Bowen Library.

Alyssa Silva – Year 12 Shaunalee Withers – Year 9 Christine Withers – Year 8

Halle Nicholls – Year 10

Important Dates for your Calendar 27th March – 4th April HSC Half Yearly Exams

Friday 7th April last day of Term 1

Tuesday 25th April ANZAC Day

Wednesday 26th April students return for Term 2

9-10-11 May NAPLAN Years 7 & 9

Tuesday 9th May P&C meeting in library

Tuesday 16th May vaccination Years 11 & 12

Miscellaneous Updates

Miss R Li, Teacher

Year 7 Camp At the beginning of March, Year 7 went to the Great Aussie Bush camp. We really enjoyed the Giant Swing, archery and the Leap of Faith. The most exciting challenge was the Leap of Faith, because you had to jump from a small platform, which was 10 metres high, and grab a bar. Then you had to just let go of the bar and fall. It tested our courage but most of the students in the year had a go and all students cheered each other on. We hope that we can continue to have more camps in the future. We had a chance to nominate the best camper in our year, based on leadership, helpfulness and tidiness. The two best campers were Paul and Dana. Thanks to Miss Hamilton, Miss Li and Mr Bobadilla for organising and having fun with us.

SRC Anti-bullying workshop SRC lead anti-bullying workshops in roll call classes during Week 8. Each roll call participated in coming up with strategies to prevent bullying and cyber-bullying. We are very proud of the positive strategies and experiences that students shared as well as the posters that they helped produce for the school. Harmony Day On the 21st March, students celebrated Australia’s diversity day, Harmony Day. Students talked about their school’s heritage, our links with community and each other’s backgrounds. To celebrate the day, we held a Harmony Day assembly with performances by Year 7 dragon dancing and a welcome in 10 different languages. It’s amazing knowing how diverse our student population is!

Workshops that students engaged in were: • Chinese dumpling making • Scottish Highlander games • Aboriginal games • Indian henna hand art • Tai chi and dragon dancing • Origami making • Greek Easter egg designing. With a huge variety of workshops, students were able to rotate and meet different experts delivering these exciting workshops.

In the afternoon, students participated in a Colour Run. It was a fun day centred on respect, culture and pride. Thanks to all teachers and parents/guardians that were able to participate in the event.

See the front page for all the fun photos! And it even made the Southern Courier:

Induction of SRC Years 7 – 11

The school captain team were very proud to induct the following members into the Matraville Sports High School’s Student Representative Council. We were also very thankful to have the induction supported by the Mayor of Randwick City council, the Honourable Councillor, Mr Noel D’Souza.

Congratulations to the following students who were awarded their leadership positions. The school is very proud to have strong members that represent their year groups and the local community.

Year 7 : Jay-Lee Russell, Isaac Diaz

Year 8 : Jordan Ryan-Hennessey, Carmen-Lee Ingrey

Year 9 : Bronte Page, Davvy Moale

Year 10 : Sara Berger, Lipoi Hopoi

Year 11 : Hayden Pomare, Akira Kelly

We are looking forward to organising fun, charitable events to help promote our student’s ambitions and interests.

Year 7 Sydney Story Factory workshops

Over the course of Term 1, students from Year 7 Blue have participated in creative writing workshops with mentor writers from Sydney Story Factory. Each week, students sat one-on-one with a mentor, discussed their likes and dislikes and put this into the form of a poem. As part of this collaboration, students were able to improve their creative writing and create a poetry anthology. At the end, Year 7 Blue students presented their pieces to Year 7 Green, who were impressed and excited about their opportunity to work with creative mentors. We are very proud of our young talented writers. Well done!

UNSW Drama program

Each week, students have worked with talented UNSW drama teachers experimenting with different theatre sports and games. Our favourite game has been Space Jump and Robots. Students have to enter a scene that has been paused and change the scene to mimic a robotic process.

We are all looking forward to our production of a play in Term 2. For any students who are interested in participating in our drama group, please join us in the Hall on Monday afternoons.

Year 7 English

7 Blue have been honing in on their horror writing skills. A fun writing activity that students have been participating in is class writing. Students have two minutes each to add to a story, which is passed on from previous students. Please be spooked by our short class introduction.

The wind rattled through the cob webbed garden. The door slammed shut and the window’s glass broke. The ghostly figure walked through the room where Jim crouched, quivering in the closet. A shadow appeared right behind. It couldn’t be seen but it could be heard. Afraid, I went to my room and looked for it. I could hear a voice, so I said, “Where did that noise come from?” Things are about to get paranormal.

Year 7/8 Gala Day

Mr S Green, Relieving HT PDHPE

Around the Grounds

On Wednesday 29th March, Matraville Sports High School loaded up two busloads of students to compete in the Sydney East Year 7/8 Gala Day at Heffron & Nagle Parks. We had a great day of competition and physical activity with some very good results.

Football (Soccer) - In the first team hit out for the year, the Year 7 Football boys showed some positive signs. Unfortunately, due to a slow start- mostly down to nerves - the boys drew then lost in the first two games, recovering to win the remaining games. This effort showed great character and resilience. Coach: A Juric.

Netball - A successful day for the netballers. They were undefeated winning all 7 round games. The girls then played South Sydney High School in the semis, then Randwick Girls’ High School first team in the Grand Final and won both convincingly. The girls played very well, demonstrating great teamwork and much talent. Coach: F Slattery.

T-Ball - S1 attended the Gala Day and Softball Australia coached our students in the skills required to play softball. All students had a great time and enjoyed the opportunity to mix with other students from around the area. Teacher: C Furner.

Touch Footy - Our touch footy boys had a great day at Heffron Park and showed great maturity on the day. The boys were undefeated in the very hot and humid 30 degree day. In the final against JJ Cahill Memorial High School, the Matraville Team took an early lead and kept their advantage through to the final whistle and took out top honours with a 4-2 victory. Teacher: S Green.