ACKNOWLEGEMENT OF COUNTRY
We recognise the owners and custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respect to Elders past and present as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure every Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander learner in NSW achieves their potential through education.
WEEK 8, TERM 4, 1 December 2023
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
Our oldest alumni Mrs Pam Carey celebrated her 103rd birthday on 16 November and the whole school celebrated her birthday by singing Happy Birthday to her on Friday 1 December. Mrs Carey attended the HGHS Old Girls Union Annual General Meeting held at school and enjoyed coming back to Hornsby to such a warm welcome. The students were very excited to see Mrs Carey who has become a school celebrity. The students also gave her 'Three Cheers' and sang the 'Hornsby Chant'. Mrs Carey enjoyed the joyous singing and told the students she will see them all again next year. Mrs Carey left Hornsby Girls in 1935 and has maintained a strong connection with the school including attending Speech Days to present awards to students as recently as 2018. Congratulations Mrs Carey!
Thank you Mrs Tutty (HSIE Faculty) for her tireless work in organisng this year's Speech Day which will be held on Tuesday 12 December at the Sydney Town Hall from 10am to 12pm. It will be another spectacular showcase of our talented students with many awards and performances. Our special guest speaker is Ms Davina Rooney (HGHS Class of 1997) CEO Green Building Council of Australia.
Our Orientation Day for Year 6 - 7 was held on Tuesday and was a great success due to the efforts of Mrs Hoogerwerf (Relieving Head Teacher Student Wellbeing), Ms Redpath (Year 7 2024 Adviser), and Mrs Gilmore and Mrs Wallwork (Relieving Deputy Principals) who worked as a team to develop an excellent transition program in conjunction with many members of staff to provide special lessons and activities for our new students. Thank you to all the Year 9 students who assisted with Peer Support in preparation for their roles as Peer Support leaders in 2024.
It was an honour to be among the guests to see Adya (Ankita) Routray and Shirley Lei (both from the HGHS Class of 2022) receive their Duke of Edinburgh Gold Awards from Prince Edward the Duke of Edinburgh last Wednesday at NSW Government House. Congratulations to Adya and Shirley! Please see the photos below.
Well done to all the contributors to this edition of the Torch with photos and articles on the Slatyer Cup, Drama, ZONTA, Schools Spectacular, Dance, Japanese classes, Student Wellbeing Conference, FRED, Premier's Reading Challenge, and Beach Day. Well done Hornsby!
Kind regards, Justin Briggs (Principal)
DEPUTY PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
Uniform 2024 - At the end of this edition of The Torch you will find important information regarding School Locker’s Uniform Shop. School Locker will be available on site at Hornsby Girls’ High School on the 29th, 30th and 31st of January 2024. Please use the booking system contained in the flyer to make bookings if you wish to purchase uniforms at the times advertised. The flyer is found at the end of the newsletter.
NSW Cricket Clinic - On the 17th of January NSW Cricket will run a skills clinic for children at Hornsby Girls’ High School. This is occuring under the Department of Education’s Share our Space program. Please find details of this program at the end of the this newsletter.
Orientation Day - Year 7 2024 - This week we had a fabulous day meeting our new Year 7 students for 2024. Our incoming students were introduced to the Principal - Dr Briggs, Year 7 Year Advisor 2024 - Ms Redpath, our Prefects and Student Representative Council. Our future students participated in ‘mini-lessons’ in PD/H/PE, Drama, Music and Visual Arts. They also met with their 2024 Year 10 buddy to start building connections within the school to ensure they have a wide network of people who can support them as they move from primary to secondary school. It was terrific meeting them and we can’t wait for Year 7 to join us in 2024. Thank you to Year 9 who did a fantastic job of making our new students feel welcome. This buddy program will continue in 2024 to support Year 7 students who are joining us.
Year 10 - Work Experience - Week 9 - Year 10 will be engaged in work experience in Week 9. A wide range of professions will be tested by our students including veterinarian, architect, lawyer, florist, pharmacist, dentist, teacher and researcher. We hope all students will have an enjoyable and insightful experience.
HSC Assessment Block One - Week 9 - Our 2024 HSC candidates will sit their first assessment tasks from the 4th - 8th December. Arrangements have been emailed to students and their parents. Students are reminded to swipe in for each examination and swipe out again when leaving the school. If students are unwell on the day of an examination they should contact the school prior to 9 am for further advice. We wish our Year 11 students all the best for the Assessment Week.
Season’s Greeting - SRC Wellbeing Day and Prefects Christmas Concert - Friday 15th December - The Student Representative Council has planned a funfilled last day of term to celebrate the end of the school year. Students are invited to wear Christmas themed mufti, play trivia, take a photo at the photo booth, dance and engage in a range of other games.
The day will then end with a Christmas Concert, ‘Under the Mistle-Torch’ organised by our Prefects. Thank you to both the SRC and Prefects for planning these wonderful events to celebrate the end of a successful school year.
Ms Gilmore and Ms Wallwork Relieving Deputy Principals
Thea Slatyer Cup
A team of Year 10 students participated in the Northern Suburbs Football Association Thea Slatyer Cup on Wednesday at Turramurra. The competition brought together high school teams from across Sydney and was played in a round robin format. Our Hornsby team played against Chatswood High School, Brisbane Water Secondary College and Pittwater High School.
All team members played well and are to be commended for their efforts. The team’s goalie Evie made numerous spectacular saves and our striker Maya scored what many believe was the goal of the tournament from the halfway line.
The tournament celebrated girls playing football by showcasing the inclusiveness, enjoyment and camaraderie the game provides.
Jane Hall - PDHPE Teacher
Year 10 Drama Performances
Year 10 Drama students entertained audiences at lunch with their Shakespearean monologue performances. Thank you to the performers, Akeesha, Amy, Bethany, Evie and Saiesha for showcasing your work, and thank you to the students and teachers who came to watch in support!
Ms Mackenzie Carroll – Relieving Head Teacher, English and Drama
Zonta Club Term Recap
Over the last term, Zonta has had some exciting events, like the Ramen Rage, the Birthing Kit Assembly Day and the PLC Girl Up Conference. Over the holidays, the new Zonta board of Term 4 2023 - Term 3 2024 was also elected. The Board consists of:
President: Archismita Deb - Secretary: Ishi Gupta - Treasurer: Shelah Prasanna - Non-officer board Members: Amaaya Chowdhury, Maya Okada and Annabelle Zhang
Keep an eye out for some exciting events soon!
Ramen Rage
On the 29th of August (Term 3 Week 7), Hornsby’s Z-Club ran its first-ever Ramen Rage event. The lunchtime fundraiser aimed to raise funds for the Zonta Birthing Kit Foundation, which Zonta students later attended an event for in October. Run in the canteen, numerous students volunteered their time to sell a variety of ramen cups, with an amazing turnout. Hornsby students also participated in a gold coin mufti, themed red and yellow. Together, Z-Club raised $537 and looks forward to running this event again in the foreseeable future.
Shelah Prasanna - Treasurer of Zonta Club
Zonta Birthing Kit Assembly Day
On 21st October, Hornsby Z-Club was invited to join the Birthing Kit Assembly Day, organised by the Zonta Clubs of North Sydney and Hornsby Ku-ring-gai. The money from the Ramen Rage were donated to this and funded part of the resources included in the birthing kits. Along with around 50 other people, we formed birthing kits including a large plastic sheet, small blade, string, pair of gloves, five pieces of gauze and some soap. Together, we made 800 birthing kits which will be sent out to people in developing countries. It was a great experience, and we were able to meet some great people!
Archismita Deb - President of Zonta Club
Pymble Girl Up Conference
On Monday the 6th of November, five students from years 10 and 12 attended an Empowerment conference hosted by PLC’s ‘Girl Up’ Club. The conference was held at Pymble Ladies College, and attended by a number of local public and private schools, including Cheltenham Girls High School, Chatswood High School, Knox Grammar School, Epping Boys High School and Killara High School, Methodist Ladies College, North Sydney Girls Abbotsleigh and Newington. We had the opportunity to hear from a number of renowned speakers, including:
Zoë Robinson (Advocate for Children and Young People NSW)
Dr Danielle Einstein (Clinical Psychologist, Adjunct Fellow at Macquarie University)
Guest speaker from Headspace Chatswood
Abigail Barfield, a Year 11 Pymble student
The conference addressed issues and concerns with youth mental health and what we can do to encourage advocacy from young people. We then split into break rooms where we had the opportunity to discuss these issues with each other considering how they may impact us as well as what we can do within our schools to benefit the future of our peers. When we returned we had a Q&A session with the speakers where a number of students were able to get advice on speaking out and standing up for youth mental health.
Eleanor Chim and Netli Siriwardana (Members of Zonta Club)
FRED’s Mister Maker Upcycling Workshop!
On Tuesday 25th October and Wednesday 26th October FRED ran the ‘Mister Maker Upcycling Workshop’ where we made lots of little crafts using recycled materials. As many of you may know, the amount of recycled materials being thrown away is massive, and by doing this workshop we got to create new products that were waste free. Some of the crafts we made included roses made from egg cartons, painting bottle caps, and magazine and newspaper origami. We hope to spread awareness around the school about limiting our waste and trying to reuse products the best we can!
Meena Valliappan Year 10
DUKE OF EDINBURGH Gold AWARDS - Adya Routray and Shirley Lei (HGHS Class of 2022)
2023 NSW PREMIER’S READING CHALLENGE (PRC) AWARDS
The Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) is open to all NSW students in Kindergarten to Year 10. The Challenge aims to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure in students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to read more widely.
https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html
HGHS has a long tradition of involvement in the PRC and our congratulations go to the 83 students who enrolled and successfully completed it in 2023. Certificates of completion will be distributed at Year Assemblies in Week 9.
At this week’s school assembly the following prestigious PRC certificates and medals were awarded:
Gold certificates awarded after completing 4 years of the PRC:
Year 7: Aurora Goodwin and Thanmaya Santhosh
Platinum Certificates awarded after 7 years of completing the PRC:
Year 7: Atrin Bagherian, Vasilisa Boag, Violet Cho, Mio Foley, Sreenidhi Manickavasagan, Kingkini Mazumdar, Jesselyn Tedja, Phoebe Wu;
Year 8: Shriya Sungala, Jaynee Vaghela, Arwen Zhang, Grace Zhang
Year 9: Chitrakhhi Banerjee, Aanya Chandel, Hayden Wong
PRC Medals awarded after completion of the PRC every year from Year 3 to Year 9 (inclusive) OR for a total of ten years of completing the PRC:
Chitrakhhi Banerjee, Winnie Harzenko, Whitney Jung, Amber McLean, Sidhi Saxena, Sanvi Sharma, Abigail Tang, Hayden Wong, Angela Yang, Isabel Yang, Jessica Zhou.
Congratulations to these Year 9 students who have displayed exceptional and sustained commitment to reading over many years.
The Premier's Reading Challenge 2024 will begin in Term 1, 2024. Students should keep a record of anything they read over the summer as these can be added to their list when the challenge opens next year. Happy holiday reading!
Library Staff
YEAR 10 BEACH DAY
On Thursday 23rd of November, Year 10 went to Manly Beach to enjoy a beautiful day and a range of beach activities, over the day we learnt a variety of beach safety tips and tricks, including how to effectively wade in the water, bodysurfing, floating methods and boogie boarding.
After a hectic bus ride with a lot of rain and clouds, we arrived at the beach (albeit a little late) as the rain and clouds were clearing up and the sun was beginning to come out. With guidance from Surf Education instructors, we were able to race each other through the water, wading over some waves and dolphin diving under others. There were lots of successful (and many more unsuccessful) attempts at bodysurfing through waves, but whether or not we enjoyed the thrill of success or a nose and mouth full of salt water, we were all able to thoroughly enjoy this activity.
We then moved on to learning how to float effectively - and there were so many more methods than we previously knew. We learnt about sculling, how to save energy when floating, the correct methods to get a lifeguard's attention, and how to kick effectively.
Finally, we were able to participate in boogie boarding. The instructors guided us through the process, including where to place your hands at different times, how to get over or under waves on a board and most importantly, how to catch waves the best. We had practice turns, and then finally, we had a relay to see which pair could paddle out and return via boogie boards the fastest (congratulations to Cindy and Maya who won in our group).
After all of this physical activity, we enjoyed a lovely picnic on the beach, with foods either brought from home or purchased from local shops and cafes, then once again boarded the bus to go back to school where many people slept to rejuvenate the immense amounts of energy we used.
Thank you to all the teachers who worked tirelessly to organise this and help us on the day, and a HUGE thank you to Mrs Sheppard who chased up endless amounts of students about late notes and permission slips to ensure everyone would be able to participate and enjoy this day! One final thank you to Surf Education Australia who helped organise these events and activities!
Danielle Yu Year 10
JAPANESE CLASSES
This term Year 9 and 10 Japanese classes participated in the annual Video Matsuri, a Japanese video festival/competition for schools across Australia.
Across many weeks we worked hard to produce a Japanese script (with the help of
Lawson sensei of course!), film, and edit the videos. Although there were many challenges, we tried our very best as failure was simply not an option!
In the end, out of 58 entries one Year 9 group and one Year 10 group were nominated for special mentions, Year 9 "School Surprise" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW_sf_C8vkM
Year 10 "Job MINT-erview" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7LyGJz4_cI
It was a lot of fun and well done to everyone who participated!
Apple Cong - Year 10 Japanese
Schools Spectacular 2023
During recent months, we have had some of our talented students audition and volunteer to be part of this year’s School Spectacular production. Term 4 saw 14 of our students participate in many long rehearsals and put in hours of practice to prepare for four performances held at Qudos Bank Arena at Sydney Olympic Park last Friday and Saturday. HGHS students participated in the combined choir as well as featured ensembles including orchestra, Taiko Drumming and dance. Congratulations to the students involved. They were FabuloUS! and excellent representatives of our school. The show will be broadcast on Channel 7 at 7:00pm on Saturday 9 December and will also be available to stream on 7plus. Some of our exhausted students have generously written about their experiences and shared some photos.
I played as Violin I in the 2023 School Spectacular Orchestra which was a blast and a fabulous experience! Some of my highlights were bonding over UNO with new friends during rehearsal breaks and passing around chocolate and lollies in the middle of rehearsal. I'm super grateful to have had the opportunity to play the large variety of music (and the large amount too - 87 pages of sheet music) and it was absolutely insane to hear the featured artists and accompany the dancers and combined choir!
Summer Pan Year 10 Orchestra
This term we got the incredible experience of participating in the combined choir for Schools Spectacular! There were several busy days of rehearsals spread out over the course of the term. Last week we had 4 performances in just 2 days, which was super tiring but totally worth it, as we got the chance to perform in a huge arena with thousands of other students. The highlight for us was definitely the cool light-up props we got to wave around, as well as attempting to coordinate a Mexican wave with the other choir members in between rehearsals!
Laureen Talao and Eleanor Swadling Year 10 Combined Choir
In Week 7 I had the amazing opportunity to perform as a part of the Taiko Drumming Ensemble for School Spectacular. I had never played Taiko Drumming before, so this was a great experience to learn a new skill, but also surround myself with a new environment and community of people. I must say one of the things I enjoyed most about my experience in School Spectacular was my fellow performers. They came from far and wide, some even coming in from Cobar (over 8 hours away!) but all of us united under the same passion for music. I had an awesome time performing as an ensemble for everyone (although I must say at first it was a bit nerve-wracking) but despite the nerves, I learnt to enjoy the process, the performance and everything in between.
Big shout out to the teachers by the way who made this possible and who made it so fun! (Special thanks Ms Sutcliffe for organising so much from costumes to sheet music - we are all so grateful for you :) )
Abi Kim - Year 8 Taiko Drumming Ensemble
OLD GIRLS’ UNION - Grand Birthday Celebration
We have joined our alumni’s oldest Life Member, Mrs Pam Carey (nee Webb), to celebrate her very special 103rd birthday last Thursday 16 November 2023.
Beautiful flowers arrived from you all and adorned Mrs Carey’s table to be admired by staff and visitors to her respite facility. She wishes to thank you all for your continual thoughtfulness.
Hopefully, depending on her health and mobility, Mrs Carey will be attending the Annual General Meeting of the Old Girls’ Union on 1st December held in the ground floor Common Room - another chance to celebrate with a birthday cake and candles.
Joan Burke - HGHSOGU Committee 2023, Archives