The Oak Leaf - armidale-s.schools.nsw.gov.au

Issue 10 – Term 2 – Week 10 Pride Respect Responsibility Wednesday 29th June 2016

The Oak Leaf Armidale High School

Friday 1st May 2015

Butler Street, Armidale, N.S.W., 2350 – PHONE: 6776 7466; FAX: 6776 7424 Email: [email protected] Website: armidale-h.schools.nsw.edu.au @ArmidaleHS Armidale High

Principal’s News It has been another particularly busy term with so many fantastic student achievements. Formal Assembly Yesterday we conducted our Term 2 formal assembly where we recognised so many students for their effort and achievement in their studies and also in many extra-curricular activities. It is wonderful to see the consistent display of pride, respect and responsibility amongst our students. Youth Forum Armidale High School was well represented at the Armidale Youth Forum that was held last week at the Town Hall. Our students participated in a roundtable discussion about the issues that affect youth living in our local area. I was lucky enough to call in on the event while the discussion was in full swing and I was so impressed with the insight that our students brought to the discussion and the confidence that they demonstrated. We have a number of students who are members of the Armidale Youth Council who do great work to support the interests of young people in our society.

New Qualification You may have read in the newspaper or watched a Prime News segment last week about a new qualification that Armidale High will be delivering. The FSK (Skills for Work and Vocational Pathways) is a qualification designed for students who would benefit from foundational skills development and provides excellent preparation for the workforce or a vocational training pathway. All learning is project based and we will be working with a group of girls in Years 9 and 10 and using the school canteen as the vehicle for skill development. The girls will work with staff to acquire skills from a range of areas such as retail, hospitality and business services and they will provide the canteen service three mornings a week.

Information Nights Next term will see a range of information nights that will be important for prospective students and families and also those students transitioning from Stage 4 to 5 or Stage 5 to 6. Please put the following dates in your diary and bring them to the attention of any new families that you may know of.

Wednesday 29th June 2016 Issue 10 – Term 2 – Week 10

ENROLLING NOW I am happy to make appointments with any families that may be interested in enrolment at Armidale High School to talk you through the wonderful opportunities that the school has to offer. There is also the opportunity for prospective students to have an experience day(s) at various times throughout the term. Please don’t hesitate to contact the school if you require any further information about enrolments or would like to make an appointment with me.

I look forward to seeing many of you at the various events that will be held in Term 3. My best wishes. Carolyn Lupton, Relieving Principal

Important Dates Information Evenings Year 6 into 7 – Tuesday 26th July at 5.30pm Year 8 into 9 – Tuesday 2nd August at 5.30pm Year 10 into 11 – Tuesday 9th August at 5.30pm Parent/Teacher Interviews Thursday 1st September, and Tuesday 6th September

Christmas in July It’s that time of year again to dust away those winter blues and have some fun and help raise money for the school. The P&C committee, school executive and teachers have a great night planned. A scrumptious meal will be made and served by our hospitality students. Dress up as Santa at the photo booth, buy a gift or toss a gold coin to win a prize. You can warm up with carol singing and open fires. Tables of ten can be booked on trybooking.com. Just search Armidale and scroll to the Christmas in July heading. Smaller number can be catered for. Ring Leigh from Helloworld for booking queries. No eftpos is available on the night.


Year 10 Debating Banning horse racing is a contentious issue, with many valid points sometimes presented in the media both for and against. This is exactly what the successful Armidale High School Year 10 debating team drew upon on Thursday 23rd of June in their debate against the Year 10 team from Guyra Central School. The AHS team, comprised of Harley Fraser, Satvika Puri, Jonathan Bruhl and Eric Wei successfully persecuted the negative side of this topic. Teams have one hour's preparation time in which to formulate their case, decide on their arguments, anticipate the opposing team's points and craft their speeches. Ultimately, the Armidale High School team was successful in offering a very strong case for opposing the topic. Adjudicator Mrs Vaughan offered both teams valuable feedback after the conclusion of the debate. Many thanks must go to her for her time and expertise in this area. Additionally, the debate was very competently and smoothly run by Zoe Barker as chairperson and as timekeeper. Congratulations to the winning Year 10 debaters.

Greg Bugden Year 10 Debating Team Coordinator Armidale High School Year 7 and 8 debaters achieve success in Round Two of the Premier’s Debating Challenge.

Should junk food advertising be banned? Should the individual have a right to remain anonymous when making online comments?

Armidale High School’s Year 7 and 8 debating teams successfully responded to these complex contemporary issues to win the second round of the Premier’s Challenge Debating Competition held at Duval High School on Tuesday 28th June. Both teams have shown great enthusiasm in their preparation for each round of the competition. The Year 7 team comprising Ella Vu, Tristan Rottcher, Hamish Doak and Arrawyn Gower and Year 8 debaters Juliet Knuckey, Rove Leskie, Stephanie Hancock and Roanan Fleming have become cohesive units to develop team communication skills and forge effective arguments and rebuttal. Winning the toss and arguing the affirmative case for ‘Junk food advertising should be banned’ proved to be a worthy challenge for the Year 7 team. While such a topic would see most teenagers laugh off any deep consideration of the topic, for the Year 7 debaters it was a topic to be taken seriously in the tense world of competition debating. Faced with arguing the case for banning junk food advertising, the team drew on extensive personal research and first-hand knowledge of ‘burgers, fillets and nuggets’ to present a serious, evidence-based case that successfully overwhelmed Duval High School’s Year 7 team who argued the negative case.


Year 8 Debaters found themselves having to consider a highly confronting issue of the 21st century digital world. A flip of the coin and Year 8 debaters Juliet Knuckey, Rove Leske, Stephanie Hancock and Roanan Kelsall found themselves arguing the positive case for maintaining anonymity when writing online comments. A clear argument and consistent team line based on sound logic and various scenarios saw the team present an effective counter argument to Duval High School’s Year 8 negative case. Armidale High School’s Year 8 team will meet Year 7 for the final round early in Term 3. Congratulations to both teams on their success, and their grace in acknowledging their opponents, adjudicator and audience. Ms S McLeod Year 7 Debating and Mrs E Smith Year 8 Debating

History HSC Lectures at Sydney University

From Wednesday 8th to Friday 10th June, 10 Armidale High School students attended the annual NSW History Teachers’ Association (HTA) HSC lectures at the University of Sydney. Armidale High School was generously support by the HTA with a rural travel subsidy grant of $1,000.

The HTA lectures are the flagship of the History booster days that run across the state. Our students attended lectures delivered by prominent academics, History teachers, syllabus writers, textbook writers and HSC markers in the fields of Ancient, Modern and Extension History. The nature of the lectures is to consolidate student knowledge, provide insights into how to best approach the HSC Examination and to provide students and teachers with up-to-date historiography on their respective topics. The students who attended have since indicated that they found these booster days to be a valuable event at this stage in their study of History, leading into their final assessments and the HSC Examination itself.

Far Out Science at UNE: Digital Science Awards Students at AHS are invited to enter their student research projects into the Digital Science Awards at UNE. By entering the competition students have the opportunity to showcase their projects, win great prizes and can attend the Far Out Science Day (formally Science in the Bush) in October. Students may enter their projects in one of three categories: Category 1 – An original science investigation presented as a single interactive Glogster poster with voice over; Category 2 – An original science investigation presented as a 5 slide presentation with voice over; or Category 3 - A science story that focuses on an investigation (your own or a ‘real’ scientist’s) presented as a 3-5 minute mp4 video. Please see Mrs Williams for details on how to enter your project. Email: [email protected]


Sporting News Armidale High School has 2 boys playing in the CHS Golf Championships in Tamworth at the moment - Jack Carey and Toby Cooper. The Open Girls Hockey team have advanced to the final 16 in the State. Well done girls. Congratulations to the following students who have gained North West Selection for Cross Country. They will compete at Eastern Creek in the CHS championships in the first week next term - Javan Smith, Henry Sindel, Stuart McLennan, Isabella Gooch, Emily Stonestreet and Natsha Favotto. We would like to wish our athletes, Henry Sindel and Natasha Favotto, all the best when they compete in Fiji in the holidays as part of the Regional Australian Team. And last but not least the first week of next term also sees our open Boys and Open Girls Volleyball teams competing in the State Finals in Sydney. We wish them all the best. JAPANESE NEWS 日本語ニューズ Video Conferencing with Japanese High School Students This week our Japanese classes begin their Video Conferences with JAPAN. We are beginning to communicate with a new school this year, Akebi High School, situated in Noribetsu, Hokkaido. On Monday, June 27th we held our first video conference with Year 8-J2 presenting about teenagers internet usage in Australia, and the Japanese students presented to us in English about Anime. Both classes really enjoyed the experience and interaction via Video Conference. Here is the website of the Japanese school: http://www.akebi.hokkaido-c.ed.jp/index.html They have already posted about their VC with us! These are comments from our students: “It was fun, it was awesome, they were really nice!” “Their English was great! It was fun. It made me want to learn Japanese more.”

“I really enjoyed talking to the Japanese students. They were very organised, they were fluent in English and their uniforms were amazing!” “I really enjoyed talking to the Japanese students. They spoke very well. They had an amazing school uniform. I would love to speak to them again!”

On June 29th, the Year 9s have their first VC. We will have a total of 6 sessions for the rest of the year. Our students are really looking forward to these sessions and the value of friendships with students from another country is really engaging them in their learning of Japanese! MINA-san, GANBATTE KUDASAI (* o* ) / (good luck and do your best!) Japan Trip 2016 This September, 24 AHS students will be travelling to Japan for 19 DAYS! Our Japan trip occurs every 2 years and this will be our 4th trip! The students are preparing for their trip by fundraising, Studying Japanese manners and phrases for homestay experience and also making 1, 000 origami cranes to hang at the Peace Park in Hiroshima. We will be blogging about our experiences and about our trip when we are travelling around Japan, so we hope you can follow our journeys and learn with us! More information before we depart. Also the current year 8s are also asking about when they can go to Japan, so parents beware ….. Your children may ask about our 2018 trip soon enough!

http://www.akebi.hokkaido-c.ed.jp/index.html


Japanese Students and Visitors to AHS - August 2016 Our annual Japanese visit to AHS is happening again in August. This year Mr Hasunuma is bringing 16 students from Nanto City - 5 boys and 11 girls - to visit Armidale High. We will need host families for these students, so if you can host them, please let Mrs Moore know. Students travelling to Japan this year will be given priority as they will be staying with these students when we visit Nanto City in September. The dates this year are AUGUST 8th to AUGUST 14th, 6 nights in total. Pie Drive THANK YOU to everyone who ordered Pies! PLEASE remember to PICK up PIES from W12 from 2pm - 3pm on FRIDAY. We plan to do another one next term too :) Mrs Moore, Japanese Teacher Special Education Unit takes over the canteen on Wednesdays to raise money for excursion to Sydney to participate in Boccia State finals.

Year 7 Science Fair (today)

Testing marshmallow catapults at Year 7 science fun day.

Bridge testing at Year 7 science fun day.

Balancing a ruler with a hammer at Year 7 science fun day.


Photos from the Bush care day held at Manna gums bushcare site with 7/8 Ag.


Students playing Herbie Hancock jazz at yesterday’s Formal Assembly.

Geography - 8HA developing skills in outdoor learning environment.


BRONZE, SILVER, GOLD AND PRINCIPAL’S RECOMMENDATIONS

Open girls hockey donate for Kate with Duval High School.

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