News

The lap tops for Year 9 students have arrived and will be commissioned this week. Before students are able to take possession of their laptops, they and their parents, will be required to sign a DET User Charter and our School’s DER Policy.

An information evening will be held on Monday 21^st September in the Connected Classroom. At the meeting, the capabilities of the laptops will be explained, along with the student and parent responsibilities identified in the Charter and School Policy. The Charter and Policy will be distributed on the night for students and parents to sign and return to Mr. Richmond. Laptops can only be released to students when these two are returned. A release date will be announced on the night.

Father’s Day Breakfast: Another wonderful morning of sharing good company, good food (expertly cooked by the Master chefs of SHHS – Mr Johnstone and Mr Usher – our General Assistant) and good will. We appreciate the extra effort from “our dads” in making the time to join us. We’d like to especially thank those who “adopted” extra children on the morning and the dads of some of our staff who also supported the breakfast.

The 2009 SLC team has had another successful term making significant contributions within the school and also in the community.

Relay for Life is a fun, outdoor and overnight fundraising event where teams of 10 to 15 people take turns to walk around a local oval.

For the fifth year in a row, students from Seven Hills High School have been successful in reaching the State Finals of the Law Society of NSW “SCRAM” (Schools Conflict Resolution and Mediation Competition) competition.

Once again the team was triumphant on the day, retaining its title as State Final Winners.

Mediation is a process in which the disputants, with the assistance of a neutral third party (the mediators), identify the cause of the conflict, develop options, consider alternative solutions and develop a resolution that will hopefully resolve the concerns that brought them to the table in the first place.

Huge congratulations to Lily Brazel who has been selected in the U/16 All Schools Hockey team. She will compete in Townsville in August. We wish her the best of luck!

Mr Gunachandran has been appointed Technology Support Officer (TSO) to support the use of laptops by Year 9 and in the longer term, Year 10 students at Seven Hills Hugh School..

Mr Gunachandran will be located in the library and will support staff and students in all aspects of laptop use and maintenance. Students will be able to access Mr Gunachandran’s services before school, and at recess or lunchtime.

National Tree Planting Day involved more than 15 students and staff. The planting of over 40 local native trees will do much to enhance the physical environment of the school and in the long term provide food and shelter for native wildlife. Thank you to the staff and students involved in making this event such a great success.

As part of their Masters Degree, UWS Student Teachers involve themselves in a more social environment at S.H.H.S. as part of their training. The Mentoring Program aims to give a more individual understanding of student’s motives and thoughts. Mentors and the selected students explored issues and interests aimed at creating a new outlook on what can be achieved at school.

A committee is very actively organising the best possible 50^th “birthday” for SHHS. If you are an ex-student, or know ex-students interested in the celebrations please contact the school and get on our mailing list. Mrs Rhonda Beecroft is the contact person. All information about the celebrations are on the SHHS internet website. Just type “Seven Hills High School, NSW” into your favourite search engine to get online information. Alternatively you can contact the school

The planned celebrations are going to be on in Week 9 Term 3 when the school musical “BATS” will also be playing to sell out crowds. The 50^th celebrations will kick off with a School Reunion Dinner at the Seven Hills –Toongabbie RSL on Saturday the 19^th of September. The cost is $45 per person. Be in early before tickets are sold out.

So, what is happening? The school has a contract with Visy to collect recycled paper and cardboard. We now have 5 large water tanks and a Cumberland Woodland Plain garden established behind the Science and Library block. We have joined Waterwatch to audit how much water we use and where this can be reduced. The SLC operate a regular paper recycling from the various staffrooms each Friday. We have a continuing Mobilemuster to collect unwanted/obsolete mobile phones, rechargers and batteries so they can be recycled- just bring them into the collection point in the Canteen. On Environment Day student volunteers from each year group used recycled newspapers and cardboard as a base before mulching the Cumberland Woodland Plain garden. This follows on from the successful tree planting date that went on in July 2008. There are now an extra 35 young trees in our school environment.

Parent Teacher Night

Thank you to all the parents who attended our Parent Teacher Evening last week. The night was a great success with many staff fully booked from 3.30pm until 8.00pm.

The staff appreciates the support of parents in ensuring the achievement of the best possible learning outcomes for the students of Seven Hills High School.

The school received an email from one parent after the evening and I want to share an excerpt from it with you.

Dear Mr Johnstone.

My wife and I had the pleasure of meeting our daughter’s teachers on Wednesday night just past. May I pass on to you our thanks for their time and their interest in (our daughter’s) educational, progress and welfare and we came away with some advise that (our daughter) and ourselves can use to improve not only her learning skills but also to improve other skills that will also help her in situations other than the classroom.

We noticed the mix of young teachers and experience that you have at your disposal and come away with the impression that with the mix of youthful passion and steady hands (our daughter’s) education is in safe hands.

was selected for the Sydney West Team.

Indoor Soccer

A team of girls competed in a 5-a-Side Indoor Soccer Regional Soccer Championship on the 31^st March in Windsor. The team played well, winning some of their games. A big thank you to Mr. Zuliani for taking the time to train and coach this team.

AFL

Two teams of boys travelled to Jamison Park in Penrith on Monday, 11^th May to compete in an AFL Tournament. Thanks goes to Mr. Mulcahy who spent many lunch times on the top oval training this team. Both teams did well, with the Year 8 boys winning 3 out of their 4 games

Year 7 Study Skills.

Last term, all year groups (except Year 7) had a series of Study Skills seminars that reminded students of how to study effectively. This will be happening for Year 7 on Monday 18^th June Details will be given to students closer to the time, but parents should keep an eye out for the study booklets Year 7 students will be bringing home on Monday 18^th June.

March 2009

Seven Hills High School on Display

It was wonderful to see over 100 Year 6 students from our local primary schools attend our Open Day held on the 4^th March. Students were treated to a variety of classroom experiences and the day finished with a student concert. Open Night the following night was attended by over 90 prospective students and their parents. After a brief presentation about our great school, Seven Hills High School students guided groups around the school to see excellent faculty displays.

We Welcome our New Deputy Principal.

The beginning of Term 2 will see our newly appointed Deputy Principal, Mr Macleod-Jones, join the school. Mr MacLeod-Jones has already met with the school executive at a professional learning seminar held last weekend. Mrs Brown will continue the great job she is doing as Relieving Deputy Principal and Mr McIntyre will continue to lead the HSIE Faculty until that time

School Development Day Term 2 2009.

As you would be aware Monday 27^th of April is not a public holiday as ANZAC Day falls on a Saturday. It is, however, a school holiday. Staff will return to school on Tuesday 28^th April for the School Development Day and this is a pupil free day.

All students will return to school on Wednesday 29^th April.

Local MP visits SHHS

Today Ms Julie Owens MP was welcomed to Seven Hills High School. She was met by the Vice Captains Jon Paul Hourani and Kimberly Allright. She was then introduced to the Deputy Principals Mr McGowan and Ms Brown and the Captains Sarah Yang and Jake Crouse.

Ms Owens was taken on a tour of the water harvesting scheme and the recently established Cumberland Plains Woodland Gardens. She spoke with students who were demonstrating the use of the water to irrigate recently planted trees.

Later Ms Owens unveiled a plaque to commission the SHHS water harvesting scheme. $46,000 from the third round of the Federal Government Community Water grants program has enabled the school to harvest and store over 100,000 litres of water at any one time. In the future millions of litres of water will be harvested helping the school save on its water bills.

The water harvesting scheme is part of the environmental education program which demonstrates to students and the community the viability and value of harvesting rainwater. The harvested water can used to irrigate the sports fields and ensure the trees planted during future Australian Schools Tree Planting days are fully watered. It is planned to also use the water for flushing toilets when the school toilets are upgraded.

In her address to the school assembly Ms Owens said water harvesting will become increasingly important and congratulated the school on its efforts to extend the remanent of Cumberland Plain Woodland that has survived on the school site.

Also during the school assembly Ms Owens awarded Literacy Certificates to the followings students Maegan Hurst, Shane McDermott, Alexandra Clissold, Vanessa Kelly, Kate Simmons and Leif Flory.

February 2009

Welcome to 2009

What a great start to the year! Larger than expected enrolments, students showing their commitment to the values held by Seven Hills High School through the wearing of correct school uniform; the bringing to school of the equipment needed for every lesson; and active participation in their own learning and a great deal of excitement amongst staff around their plans to further improve the educational results of the students at our school.

School Certificate 2008

At the end of last year, at the Year 10 graduation, I had a great deal of pleasure of congratulating all students on their School Certificate results. Particularly pleasing was the fact that the School Certificate 2008 saw students in Year 10 achieve Band 6’s in every School Certificate examined subject and approximately 10% of Year 10 students gained a band 6 or 5 in every subject.

Such results can only be achieved through staff, students and parents working together to improve the educational outcomes of students. Well done by all!

Students Supporting Student Wellbeing

Peer Counsellors

This is a Student Welfare initiative for 2009! Thanks to Ms Wilk and Ms Soder, our school now has 11 specially trained students from Year 10 who will support students at this school. They will also focus on the younger students to make sure that they are settled into friendship groups

Student Support Team

2008 finished on a “high” with a fantastic day out at Jamberoo for those students who met school expectations in their behaviour, attendance, punctuality and uniform. The vast majority of our students are courteous young men and women who take their “job” as students seriously. They are proud of their achievements and of their school and we are proud of them. It is always a delight to acknowledge this “quiet majority” through activities such as the Jamberoo Day Out. We look forward to inviting many more students to our celebratory Days Out this year.

December 2008

Christmas Greetings

Thank you to the staff, students and community members for their support in making Seven Hills High School a great place to teach and learn. This has been a wonderful year and as I mentioned at Presentation Evening, there have been so many things to be proud of that we as a school achieved this year.

Please accept my good wishes for you and your families for Christmas.

Regards

Greg Johnstone

Principal

PLEASE NOTE: A letter will be posted home shortly indicating commencement dates for 2009 with normal starting dates for all years as well as alternate starting dates in the event of industrial action on the 28^th and 29^th of January 2009.

November 2008

UWS Mentor Program

At the start of 2008 the school was lucky enough to partner with the University of Western Sydney to establish a mentoring program where young pre-service teachers spend 60 hours working with young people in our school. This is the first of its kind in the region and is now to become a regular unit of study within the education faculty at UWS.

Even Start

Even Start is a federal government initiative aimed at assisting students who would benefit from additional tuition in literacy and numeracy. At Seven Hills High School there are some 30 students who are currently receiving such tuition from three privately employed and registered tutors. The majority of students involved have chosen to receive numeracy tuition but there is a small number who are working on improving their reading and writing skills.

Multicultural Lunch

Over 250 students, 40 members of staff and 15 parents and family members participated in the celebration by eating, cooking, setting up, wearing national costumes and sharing their heritage and culture in many ways. Our aims were more than realized and the sharing of national and cultural pride from everyone in the Hall had to be experienced! Many students sampled foods they’d not tried previously whilst also indulging in favourite dishes.

October 2008

Relay for Life

The Blacktown Relay For Life is fast approaching! This will be the third year in a row that Seven Hills High students have put their best feet forward to lend their support to the fundraising efforts of the Cancer Council. This is a community event, and we are delighted to open this up to the students’ families and friends.

Lions Club Supports Student Excellence.

The Kings Langley Lions Club works tirelessly in the community to improve the lives of community members and has kindly donated $750 towards education programs within the school. The Write-Fest competition, being run by the Literacy Team, is the first program to benefit from the donation, with almost $300 in prize money being allocated to winning participants.

Information on how you can become involved in the Lions Club can be found later in this newsletter.

August 2008

Seven Hills High School Scrams to Western Australia

For the fourth year in a row, students from Seven Hills High School have taken out the State Title in the Law Society of NSW “SCRAM” competition. SCRAM stands for Schools Conflict Resolution and Mediation Competition.

This competition is open to students in Years 9 and 10 and is similar to the mock trial program. Over 500 students participated in the competition this year.

This year the competition is open nationally and Seven Hills will represent NSW at the National Championship which will take place in Perth on 10^th September at the National Mediation Conference. We will be competing against a Western Australian team from Christchurch Boys Grammar school.

The team members competing in Western Australia are Kerri Piper, Michalia Coyne, Lauren Haslewood, Rebecca Belobrajdic, Alana Adolphe and Natasha Kumar. The following students have participated in SCRAM during 2008 and will be travelling to Perth, Chantal Rabaud, Damian Smith, Justin Fedorwicz, Amanda Reid and Jessica Witt. Accompanying coaches are their teachers Barbara Brown and Shayna Tee.

Tree Planting Day

Australian Tree Planting Day was held on 27 July and to support the initiative four teachers, Ms Jackson, Mr Uden, Ms Thurlow and Mr Davis and 25 students planted over 60 trees in under 2 hours, the trees were staked for protection and mulched. They were all Cumberland Woodland Planting Species and many of them will hopefully have a long lifetime and actively absorb Co2, a greenhouse gas, and play their part in reducing greenhouse warming.

July 2008

Tuesday 5^th August

Seven Hills High School students will be participating in the NSW All Schools Knock Out Competition (15 year olds).

Koori Radio comes to Seven Hills High

News at Seven Hills High