WOONONA high school

Our Fantastic Volunteers! EXCELLENCE INNOVATION SUCCESS New s l e t t e r Issue No. 8 5 June 2017 PH: 4284 1513 [email protected] Minnamurra In this issue: 8 8 Page 5 Athletics Carnival

Page 6 Athletics Carnival Fun

Page 7 2 Wise Monkeys Cafe Page 8 CoS CAPA Day 5 Page 9 SongMakers Project Excursion

Page 10 CAPA IRT Performance

Page 11 KYUP! Self Defence

Page 12 Living Books

Page 13 World’s Biggest Morning Tea

Page 14 Library Book Club

Page 14 Volunteering at WHS

Page 15 Canteen News

Page 15 Mathematics Comp

Page 16 Regional SRC Conference Page 16 Year 8 Checkerboard Cakes 6 Calender Mon 5 Jun Stage 5 Assembly 16 Thur 8 Jun Monty Prior Visit Thur 8 Jun Captivate CAPA Showcase Thur 8 Jun Accelerated Art Portrait Display Wed 14 Jun CoS Leadership Day Fri 16 Year 10 Science, Lunar Park Excursion Mon 19 Jun—Fri 30 Jun Year 12 Trial HSC Period 12

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I had the pleasure of attending the Illawarra Regional Dance Festival on Wednesday evening. It is always wonderful to see the depth of talent in Public Schools and in particular the talent at Woonona High School. Congratulations to the students in both dance troupes who performed beautifully and thank you to Mrs Steele and Miss Sharp for their dedication, expertise and commitment to the performing arts at Woonona High.

This Thursday evening we will host the annual CAPA Showcase, I encourage families to attend as the array of creativity that will be on display is inspiring. Thank you to all CAPA staff who have been

Principal’s Report preparing students, troupes and displays for the evening.

Today Woonona High School is hosting the annual NAIDOC Public Speaking workshop. We welcome students from a number of Illawarra schools who are participating in the event and wish our students well as they represent our school. Thank you to Miss Potter for liaising with the Northern Illawarra AECG and organising this event.

GONSKI:

There has been a great deal of information about Gonski in the media recently. I thought that I would share my perspective as the Principal. Where it originated, what it is about, what is it trying to do and what is the impact at Woonona High School.

Collecting information from around Australia

The Gonski Review was a bipartisan committee that conducted public hearings in six states and heard the views of a wide range of stakeholders: public, Catholic and independent school associations; parents, teachers, principals; unions and, in some cases, State and Territory Governments. In addition to the public hearings, the committee received over 3400 submissions over the course of the inquiry.

What Gonski recommended

The Gonski Review made 41 recommendations for a fair, equitable and efficient school funding system. The Gonski Review found that Australia is investing too little in schools, and that the way we distribute the money is neither fair nor effective. The Gonski funding arrangements are designed to ensure that the right resources are in every school to give children the individual attention and support they need to excel. The six-year Gonski agreements the Federal Government signed with five States and Territories began in 2014 and were designed to bring schools up to an appropriate level of resources in six years.

Primarily there was a greater need to invest in education. A $6.5 billion per year funding increase (about 15% extra) distributed to schools based on a model that gave every student a funding benchmark amount plus extra money, or “loadings”, for specific disadvantages.

The Gonski Review found that Australia has one of the biggest gaps amongst developed nations between high and low performing students, a gap that is growing. It also found that educational performance is strongly and unacceptably linked to students’ backgrounds - the more disadvantaged, the worse the child’s outcomes. The loadings would cover six identified forms of disadvantage – low socioeconomic background, indigenous background, Refugee or non English speaking background, rural or small schools and disability.

While all sectors enrol a mix of students of different backgrounds and educational ability, socio-economic and educational disadvantage is heavily concentrated in the public school sector. In 2010, public schools enrolled 80% of students from the lowest SES quartile, 78% of disabled students, 85% of Indigenous students and 68% of students of non-English speaking backgrounds.

Excellence Innovation Success The Gonski Review stressed the need for an equitable school funding system: one that ensures that differences in educational outcomes are not the result of differences in wealth, income, power or possessions. To address the current imbalances, the review recommended a national needs‑based and sector-blind school funding model. The new funding model would provide a level of base funding to all schools and additional targeted funding to disadvantaged students in order to remove inequities and

minimise the identified performance gap. Cont.

So what has happened?

Schools have been the beneficiaries of funding over the past four years through equity loadings. These equity loadings have enabled additional support to assist students from low socio-economic backgrounds, students with low level disabilities, students who have no or very limited English and students from Aboriginal backgrounds.

This funding has enabled our school to operate additional support programs that are targeted at supporting students. We have put in place school strategies, resources for classroom learning programs, employ additional staff and allow for time to support our students and teachers in order to support our students achieve their best. Many of the successful initiatives for which Woonona High School has received positive publicity have been made possible due to the additional funding we have received in recent years.

The Gonski funding does make a difference and will continue to make a difference at Woonona High School.

CAPA Showcase and Portrait Display

Applications for the next group of Visual Arts Accelerated HSC students close at the end of Week 9. This opportunity is for those students in Year 8 who are part of the Art Extension elective. This is the third group of students who have the option of undertaking the accelerated program. Our initial group is in Year 10 and on their way to completing the Preliminary HSC course. Some of their work will be on display in the hall this Thursday 8th June from 3:30 to 6pm.

If you would like any information regarding the course please come along or contact Mr David Hoole on 0400 242 247

Also on display 3:30 – 6pm will be the 37 Portraits completed by Year 11 Art students. For this task they had to produce a 2D work capturing a Year 11 student or member of the Woonona High School Staff. The results are fantastic and cover a wide range of media and techniques. On Thursday you can come along and post a vote for the “People’s Choice Award” with a chance to win a prize just for picking which portrait will get the most votes.

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Page 4 Page 5 2017 Athletics Carnival Our annual athletics carnival was held on Tuesday 23 May in absolutely perfect conditions. Attendance at the carnival was high and there was lots of competition in all events. Mr Landy (carnival organiser) said that there were some great athletic performances and that the atmosphere of the carnival was fantastic with students and staff getting into the sports carnival spirit.

Track events, high jump, long jump, javelin, discus and shot put as well as the more fun events such as tug-o-war and “sack” races were very well supported.

There were some stand out performances with several students beating their personal bests on the day. Congratulations to all students who participated and to those who were place getters.

Official results and age champions will be announced at next week’s assembly and reported in our next newsletter edition.

Also, see our facebook page for lots more photos.

Students who have made it through to the Zone Athletics Carnival on 23 June are busy with preparations. Once again Mr Thompson (guest coach), is helping with athletics coaching and students have been offered training sessions with him. Mr Thompson has joined us here at Woonona High School for over 10 years to help our students with their athletics carnival preparation and his efforts have been greatly appreciated by our students. Excellence Innovation Success Page 6 Fantastic Carnival Atmosphere

Not only do our sporting carnivals (athletics, swimming and cross country) give our students the chance to show their athletic abilities, the special atmosphere that is generated at our carnivals is legendary and allows all students to have a fun and relaxed day with their peers and teachers. All our carnivals are very well supported by students and staff and a lot of effort goes into ensuring that students enjoy the day. Firstly, a big congratulations to Mr Landy for his organisation of the Athletics Carnival. Mr Landy worked tirelessly to ensure that the carnival ran smoothly and that everyone had a fantastic time. Mr Landy acknowledged that he had lots of help from other staff members with Ms Sharp, (helped by some of her Music students), making sure the music was energetic and entertaining, Ms King’s CAPA class put on a brilliant opening performance that certainly set the tone for the day, Mrs Mete, Mrs Cannings and Mr De Main catered for staff and Year 12 students sold cakes and goodies, with money raised being donated to the Cancer Council. Other members of our staff made sure there was lots of entertainment with Mr Rayner and Mr McDermott taking on the high jump, Mr Chamberlain having a go at discus, Miss Kate Sharp and Miss Walker trying their hands at the novelty events and Miss Potter organising the staff soccer match. Apart from all the fun things there are tasks that need to be completed for a successful carnival. Mr Landy thanked the PE staff and other staff members for their input and support and especially thanked the student helpers that made the day so successful. Well done everyone, a great team effort !! Excellence Innovation Success Page 7 Great Effort!

During our athletics carnival, Year 12 students took the opportunity to raise money for the Cancer Council by selling cakes and slices that they had prepared. They all looked delicious and the students raised a fantastic $200 for this great cause. Well done! 2 Wise Monkeys Last week our Year 11 Hospitality students opened their café “2 Wise Monkeys” to staff and students. The students served barista coffees, milk shakes, hot chocolate, iced chocolate and iced coffee as well as delicious melts (bacon, chicken, avo and cheese) and triple choc chip muffins. The café was very popular and Mr Mete had the honour of being the first take-away customer!

Excellence Innovation Success Page 8 Express Yourself! Literacy and CAPA CoS Transition Day

Year 6 students from our three partner primary schools had a wonderful day experiencing the fun at Woonona High School on Monday 22nd May. Thank you to the students of 7M and 7E who were student leaders on the day and to Ms R Sharp, Ms Z Steele, Ms E Taite, Ms K Sharp and Ms J Knell who ran very enjoyable workshops for the Year 6 students.

A particular highlight for the Year 6 students was our yummy canteen food, and they had great fun playing handball against the Year 12 students in the Senior Quad (especially when they beat year 12!) Thank you to Saffron Owen of 7M who wrote the following article for the newsletter.

Year 6 Visit by Saffron Owen

On Monday 22 May, Students from Year 6 came to experience what Woonona High School was like and what it had to offer in Year 7. Students from Woonona Public School, Woonona East Primary School and Russell Vale Public School all tried little portions of what WHS had to provide for them such as poetry, public speaking, creative writing, dance, art, drama and a few grammar games.

Whilst Year 6 were enjoying the activities, we interviewed some of the students from each school:

Luke Downie – Woonona Public School

Woonona High School looks like fun and it’s nice. The activities I have done so far were cool. I am excited for next year even though my brother and sister are here.

Ella Clemants – Woonona East Primary School

At Woonona High, there are many opportunities to choose from. I am also very excited to come to WHS.

Leah Heaton – Russell Vale Public School

I am very excited to come to Woonona High. I got into the enrichment class which I think will be fun.

Natasha Coupe – Woonona Public School

I like the subjects that WHS provide. I am not sure if I got into CAPA or enrichment yet but excited to find out. I also liked the activities because I was with my friends.

Excellence Innovation Success Page 9 SongMakers Project Q & A Excursion – “How to Rule the Music World” Last Friday 26th May, over 30 Year 9 and 10 Elective Music students attended a Q & A session called How to Rule the Music World as part of Vivid Festival .

Students were invited to take a look behind the scenes of the music industry and find out what it takes to become a hit- making songwriter, performer or producer. They learnt about the creative and business practices of successful musicians as John Foreman hosted the forum alongside some of Australia’s leading talents including ARIA and APRA Music Award winner (), producer/ songwriter/DJ KLP, writer/producer Robert Conley (Montaigne, Thelma Plum, Jess Mauboy, , Ricky Martin) and up-and-coming artist Sonia De Pellegrin. Fresh from mentoring students around the country as part of the ground breaking APRA AMCOS SongMakers program that Woonona High School was selected for last term, these experts explored everything you need to know about a career in music including: how to start a song from scratch; finding and working with collaborators; sharing and protecting your intellectual property; social media for artists; what gear to use; how to find a publisher, manager or producer (and why you need one); and how to build an international career.

Our students thoroughly enjoyed the discussions, live performances, and the exciting opportunity to ask their own questions of the mentors. It was a great day overall - thank you to Miss R Sharp and Mrs Arnold for taking us. We hope to participate in the SongMakers Project again next year!

Ms Rhiannon Sharp (Head Teacher CAPA / Music Teacher) South Coast Dance Festival

This week students have been taking part in the prestigious South Coast Dance Festival. The performance is looking quite spectacular and there will be a full report in next weeks newsletter as well as on facebook. Excellence Innovation Success Page 10 IRT Performance On Monday 29th May, our talented CAPA students staged a very entertaining performance for some of our local Illawarra Retirement Trust residents in our hall. The newly formed Woonona High School Performing Ensemble (stage band, vocalists and dance troupe) were eager to perform their repertoire, as they did not get to perform at the recent Thirroul Seaside and Arts Festival due to rain. The Stage Band also performed some songs on their own, and the audience was also treated to a performance from our Year 10 Dance Elective class and Kaia Brienen, who performed a beautiful circus piece on the lyra (suspended hoop.) Despite a few students being away sick and our main vocalist having lost her voice, the performers continued on in true show biz style, performing fifteen numbers, including some solo demonstrations of each of our band instruments. Congratulations to all performers involved – you brought a lot of smiles to the audience, some of whom could not sit still and there were plenty of feet tapping! We look forward to performing again for our local IRT residents later in the year.

Ms Rhiannon Sharp

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Creative and Performing Arts Showcase and Band Performances On Thursday 8th June the 2017 Year 7 CAPA Enrichment Classes will be holding a showcase to demonstrate the work that they have completed in first semester.

In Music, CAPA students have been learning to play a band instrument as well as how to read music and they are looking forward to showing off their new skills. Both CAPA classes will also be displaying the skills they have developed in Dance, Drama and Visual Art.

The evening will feature performances from the Woonona HS Performing Ensemble, Stage and Junior Band, Vocal Ensemble, Community of Schools Primary Band, Dance Companies, along with cheerleading, circus and a sneak preview of our upcoming production of Disney’s High School Musical.

We hope you can join us there from 6pm – entrance is by gold coin donation only.

KYUP! Project

On Thursday 1 June, Year 9 girls were invited to attend a self defence workshop called KYUP!

KYUP is all about raising awareness of violence against women and children and empowering them to recognise a bad situa- tion.

The workshop aimed to give students strategies in their approach to personal safety by making strong choices and remaining cool headed in awkward situations. The program also focussed on the importance of self-worth and changing behaviours that could put them at risk.

Our female students enjoyed the program, especially the hands-on techniques that they learnt that could potentially save their life. Excellence Innovation Success Page 12 Living Books On Thursday 25th May all Year 9 students had the opportunity to share the extraordinary life stories of a group of volunteers from the Wollongong community.

The Wollongong Living Books program brings to the community an exciting opportunity to think beyond stereotypes.

In this program the ‘books’ are local residents from many walks of life, who are there to share their life experiences and life choices. Students engaged in a half hour conversation with a ‘book’ in a safe and supported environment.

Students heard stories of resilience, courage and survival in the face of life challenges. 'Books' included: "A King's Tale" where a visually challenged lady come to school with her seeing eye dog, King.

"ADHD. Is it a gift or a curse?"

"You can't beat me! Years of bullying at school led to anxiety and an eating disorder but that didn't stop me!"

Students really enjoyed the experience and were listening intently, with many saying that they were inspired by the stories they heard.

Feedback from the 'books' was that the students were very attentive and engaged. One girl surprised Burhan, a Kurdish refugee from Iraq, with a thank you card from her whole family with a message recognising his courage! He was very touched.

This is just one more example of the lovely respect that students from Woonona High School show to our community. We are all very proud of Year 9.

Ms Matthews

Head Teacher English

Excellence Innovation Success Page 13 Worlds Biggest Morning Tea

On Thursday 25 May our wonderful SRC members along with Ms Johnstone (SRC Coordinator), hosted a World’s Biggest Morning Tea event in the hall. There were scrumptious cakes and other baked goods, including cupcakes baked by Carmen Mete (our fantastic Hospitality assistant) on sale, as well as this, real coffee and hot chocolates were available, which were prepared by the amazing Mr De Main and his hospitality team.

The event was very well supported by students and staff and all proceeds of the day, a fantastic $374, was donated to the Cancer Council.

Excellence Innovation Success Page 14 Book Club This fortnight, our guest speaker was Mr Harwood from our HSIE department. He spoke about the book Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey. This book is known as the Australian equivalent of To Kill a Mockingbird. The story centres on Protagonist Charlie Bucktin, a thirteen-year-old boy living in the fictitious rural town of Corrigan in Western Australia. Ona summer evening in 1965, Charlie has an unexpected visit from fourteen- year-old Jasper Jones, an outcast in Corrigan due to his mixed White- Aboriginal heritage and rebellious lifestyle. Jasper begs for Charlie's help, and leads him to his private glade in the bush. Here Charlie is horrified to find the dead body of a young girl, Jasper's girlfriend Laura Wishart, battered and hanging from a tree. Jasper, aware that he is likely tobe blamed for Laura's murder, convinces Charlie that they should hide the body, so they throw it into a nearby pond, weighted by a large rock. A fantastic read. Cohen Smith spoke about the book The Girl with Seven Names. The story centres on a child growing up in North Korea. Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal totalitarian regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and to realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told “the best on the planet”?...... Aged seventeen, she decided to escape North Korea. She could not have imagined that it would be twelve years before she was reunited with her family. Mrs Roddis (Teacher Librarian) Volunteering at Woonona High School This week our students were boot scooting and yahooing at the Country and Western theme day at the Illawarra Retirement Trust Aged Care facility at Woonona. Students helped create displays for the day and also with catering.

Residents were entertained by a country and western singer who invited our students to participate in a line dancing display for the residents.

Mrs Roddis (Volunteer Coordinator)

Excellence Innovation Success Page 15 Keeping Us Healthy Our fantastic canteen is now selling healthy beef burgers and cheeseburgers for only $4 each. All ingredients are prepared fresh onsite and students need to order these for lunch.

“Snack Paks” of carrot and cheese sticks are also available for 50c.

A big thank you again to our hard working canteen staff Mrs Cannings, Mrs Te Pairi and Mrs Mete (Hospitality Assistant) for keeping us well fed and healthy, especially as we head into the cooler months.

2017 INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS AND ASSESSMENTS FOR SCHOOLS MATHEMATICS Reminder notice: Students who wish to participate in the Mathe- matics Competition this year can enter by paying $10 to the front office by Friday 16th June, 2017. All students receive a certificate and an individual student re- port. The sitting date for this event is Tuesday 15th August, 2017. Certificates are awarded for each year level as follows:  High Distinction to the top 1% of entrants  Distinction to the next 10% of entrants  Credit to the next 25% of entrants Participation to all other participating students. Peter Holliday (Head Teacher Mathematics) Excellence Innovation Success Page 16 Regional SRC Conference

From the 15th-19th of May ,Harrison Dabin and Arun Wanstall from Year 9, and Angus Smart and Fletcher Bowler from Year 10 went to the 2017 Regional SRC Camp in Warrumbui. It was an unforgettable experience. We made many good friends from schools all over the state, some from Broken Hill and all the way down to Canberra. As well as making lifelong friends we learnt a lot of things about being a leader and that’s it’s not just about getting in front of a crowd and speaking.

It had many Flexi Shops where we learnt many new things including cyber bulling, LGBTQI, youth mental health and healthy relationships. We now have the skills to lead the school and inform the other members of the SRC about what we know.

Angus Smart was elected one of the leaders of the Regional SRC.

We all can’t wait to go again next year.

By Harrison Dabin Checkerboard Cakes Our Food Technology elective class have been busy making “Checker Board” cakes in class this week.

This is an interesting and challenging technique whereby two different coloured cakes are combined to form a checker board pattern in the finished product. It appears that the class mastered the technique!

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Excellence Innovation Success Page 18 Canteen Roster Term 1 Calendar th Monday 5 June HELP NEEDED Thur 8 Jun Monty Prior visit Tuesday 6th June Alisha Lloyd Thur 8 Jun Captivate CAPA Showcase Wednesday 7th June HELP NEEDED Thursday 8th June Karen Bate Wed 14 Jun CoS Leadership Day th Friday 9 June HELP NEEDED Mon 19 Jun—Fri 30 Jun Year 12 Trial HSC Period Tuesday 13th June Kerrie Austin Tues 20 Jun P&C Meeting Wednesday 14th June HELP NEEDED Thursday 15th June Susie Eager Fri 23 Jun Zone Athletics th Friday 16 June Jessica Tinelt Mon 27 Jun Year 7 Rewards Excursion Monday 19th June HELP NEEDED Tues 27 Jun “Unplugged” Tuesday 20th June Carolyn McQuiggan Wednesday 21st June Jo Meirs Thur 29 Jun Year 7—10 Parent teacher Interviews Thursday 22nd June Donna Thompson Friday 23rd June HELP NEEDED Monday 26th June Karen Dubowic Tuesday 27th June Janece Pender Wednesday 28th June HELP NEEDED Thursday 29th June HELP NEEDED Friday 30th June HELP NEEDED

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