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Gunnedah High Newsletter Week 5 ∙ Term 3 ∙ 2024

Dates for your diary

August
  • Aug 20-22 CHS Statewide Lawn Bowls Knockout
  • Tue 20 Aug Book Week Dress-Up
  • 20-22 Aug AgQuip
  • Thu 22 Aug AECG Meeting
  • Tue 27 Aug Year 7 Transition
  • Tue 27 Aug P&C Meeting
  • Wed 28 Aug Young Drivers Expo - Tamworth
  • Thu 29 Aug Year 10 Subject Selection Night
  • Fri 30 Aug Wear it Purple Day
September
  • Sep 1-3 Year 11-12 Clontarf Excursion
  • Mon 16 Sep Year 7 Rewards Excursion
  • Tue 17 Sep Year 9 Rewards Excursion
  • Sep 23-27 Year 10 Gold Coast Excursion
  • Thu 26 Sep Year 12 Farewell Assembly

What's On

Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club runs Monday-Friday from 8:15 am outside of the canteen. On offer are ham and cheese toasties and hot or cold Milos. We have also introduced hash brown Wednesdays! So why not come down and grab some brekkie with friends?

Book Week Dress-Up

Wear it Purple Day

We'll be participating in Wear It Purple Day, the annual LGBTIQA+ awareness day for young people based in Australia. On Friday 30 August staff and students are encouraged to wear purple and donate a gold coin towards this great cause!

James Knight inspires during 'Writer in Residence' program

On the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Week 3 (August 5-7), journalist and published author Mr James Knight came to our school for a Writer in Residence program that was organised by our English Faculty in partnership with Westwords, which is a non-profit organisation that is based in Western Sydney that focuses on promoting literacy and storytelling in the community.

The workshops were held in the library and English classrooms, and James also held an author talk talking about all of these publications with over 30 students attending at lunchtime. James was a natural storyteller, having us all engaged as soon as he introduced himself, he even told us stories about being in Year 7 when he was a student at Gunnedah High School in the same classroom a workshop was being held, in D10.

We had some students from Curlewis Public School also join us for our workshops as well as a guest lecture to Year 11 students for Education Week.

James often writes and reflects on his experiences of growing up in Gunnedah, and he explained that his writing journey really started when he was playing around with his brother and it went from there!

James helped us learn things like how we can tell stories using a simple image of a front gate or a chair, how things can inspire us and hands-on activities like the background stories, helping us understand what being an author is all about and what our young minds can do as an author one day. James took time and helped us with a fun morning of writing activities and stories, all that we can do is tell our story. What’s your story?

The Writer

A country man from our town

Born and bred in Gunnedah

Schooled at Gunnedah South

‘Pumpkin Head’ they called him

Transitioned to Gunnedah High School

School Captain Honour Board they saw him

Now returning to us, the cycle repeats

Activities of writing stories

Publishing them to the world, to ourselves

Creating a workshop for our students

A fun day it was

We too became writers

Laughing and thinking

Telling our stories through poems and rhyme and images

This is me, this is you

We took what we learnt

Now we cherish it

We thank James Knight

For the workshops he gave us

And for the impact and lessons he shared

Mary Baker and Erin Mitchell, Year 9

In the Classroom

Students dive into authentic science

Students in Year 7 and 9 have been busy exploring authentic science activities through a series of practicals both inside and outside the classroom.

Year 7 is studying the living world and classification and Year 9 is studying body coordination systems.

Churning out butter

Year 7 students making butter, so they are ready to make buttermilk pancakes and scones in their next cooking lesson.

New space for Clontarf

Our Clontarf boys began the day on a high note by preparing a delicious breakfast for teachers and staff. 🍳🧃 The boys also proudly showed off their new room, complete with their own table tennis table! 🏓🙌

Sport

Congratulations to our Athletics Champions and Runner-ups

Congratulations to all our students who competed with passion and determination at the Athletics Carnival. To our champions and runner-ups, we are equally proud of your performances. You displayed tremendous spirit and gave it your all, pushing the competition to new heights.

Under 12s
Champion: Portia Woodhouse Runner-up: Rebecca Partridge Champion: Jaquan Bartman Runner-up: Oakley Kitchingham
Under 13s
Champion: Kirby Wells Runner-up: Layla Budden Champion: Lachlan Young Runner-up: Chase Fermor
Under 14s
Champion: Marnee Walters Runner-up: Chelsea Morgan Champion: Cobi Morris (not pictured) Runner-up: Isaac Brown
Under 15s
Champion: Lacie Kleinschafer Runner-up: Aleisha Doolan Champion: Keaton Walters Runner-up: Maxie White
Under 16s
Champion: Issy Bieman Runner-up: Haylee Turner Champion: Angus Eather Runner-up: Daniel Prabu
17s+
Champion: Mackenzie Keeler Runner-up: Chloe Ellery Champion: William Mannion Runner-up: CJ Lim

Creating Chances: Future Pathways and Rugby Tackle Life

Week 2 saw the start of our Future Pathways and Rugby Tackle Life programs. These programs allow students from Years 9-11 to engage with our external provider ‘Creating Chances’ who use sport as a way to achieve social impact in health, education, employment and community cohesion. The students throughout the term will undertake in weekly sport and interactive workshop activities to inspire young people to believe in themselves, try new things, share their ideas and build healthy relationships. Thus far, the programs have been positive, as students have been engaging with the content and collaboratively working with one another to achieve each lesson outcomes.

NRL Well-Being session

In Week 2, former NRL players Trent Hodkinson and Brad Takairangi delivered a well-being program to Year 7 students as part of their sports activities. The students listened to the players’ experiences and participated in a variety of activities.

The workshop included both on-field and off-field activities, designed to help students understand the importance of good mental health and recognise the impact they can have in this area. The students were highly engaged from the start, captivated by the players’ stories from their time in the NRL.

North West athletes going to State

At the end of Week 2, Gunnedah High School had a handful of students travel across to Tamworth for the North West Athletics Carnival. The students well-represented the school with many students partaking in a number of events across the day. All students did their best in their events throughout the day. For several of our students, the day was successful, with the following students finishing in the top 2, qualifying for state in Sydney.

  • Portia Woodhouse 100m, 200m and 800m
  • Maverick Flewell-Smith Shot Put
  • Keaton Walters Shot Put
  • Rhyse Frost 100m, 200m & 800m
  • Isabelle Bieman 200m and 400m
  • Lacie Kleinschafer Discus, Javelin and 200m

Big thank you Mr Goddard, Miss Wicks and Kaz Fulwood for accompanying the students and ensuring they made it to their events.

Northwest U15's Basketball

The boys came 2nd in the Gala Day – unfortunately losing to Coonabarabran - but they played well as a team and had a great day.

  • Game 1 – Quirindi 38-35 WIN
  • Game 2 – Coonamble 20-20 Draw
  • Game 3 – Coonabarabran 31-21 Loss

Knocked out in round 4, but ready to ‘check’ back in next year

Linkin, Ekam, and Erin with the team from Holy Trinity School, Inverell.

Gunnedah High is excited to re-introduce the chess team in 2024! A weekly competition occurred in Terms 1 and 2 where the best players were selected to represent GHS in the NSW Country Chess Championships.

Round 1 was against St Mary's College Gunnedah with Isaac Vallada, Erin Mitchell, Braidyn Campbell and Ekam Sahota taking on some very competitive Year 10 and 11 students. Boards 1 and 3 were won in close games by Braidyn and Isaac, eliminating St Mary's from the main competition and progressing us to the next round. St Mary's were kind enough to have a morning tea with us after which all students (and staff) were extremely thankful for.

Round 2 occurred online against Inverell High School, and with Braidyn absent Linkin Turner stepped up to fill his place. Unfortunately, Inverell's full team of experienced Year 12 students proved too much for our junior team, eliminating us from the main competition. Isaac Vallada lasted an impressive 25 minutes against Inverell's best player.

Round 3 was meant to be against Manilla Central School, however their senior team were all in assessments and could not compete which allowed GHS to progress by forfeit.

Round 4 was played against Holy Trinity School in Inverell with a face-to-face match. Ekam, Linkin and Erin braved the trip up north to compete against a highly skilled and experienced finalist team, however, were unfortunately eliminated in quick succession. The team and their coach offered Ekam, Erin and Linkin some coaching advice for future games and prepared a morning tea for us to relax after the game. We thank Holy Trinity School, Inverell for their hospitality and support in this competition.

With our loss at round 4, Gunnedah High School has been eliminated from the competition, however all students are keen to give it another crack in 2025.

– Mr Moore

The matches against Holy Trinity School Inverell.

Library News

Book Week: Reading is Magic!

Book Week is here! Our library has a full week of lunchtime activities planned, and don’t forget—our Book Week dress-up event is happening tomorrow, Tuesday, August 20!

The NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge closes to students soon! Students need to complete their online reading records by 11:59pm on Friday 23 August.

Library staff have introduced a new library loyalty card!

Come grab one from the library and read any 10 resources from the range we have including magazines, picture books, easy fiction, YA novels, non-fiction books, poems, eBooks, or even the newspaper! To get a holepunch you'll need to leave us a small review and a prize will be awarded at the end!

How many loyalty cards will you fill up this term?

Positive Rewards

Maths Rewards / Years 7-10

How it works

Vouchers • 10 classes • 16 prizes per class

Each lesson you can receive raffle tickets for:

  • Great behaviour
  • Super work ethic
  • Homework

These will be placed in a container and will be drawn for your class at the end of each week.

  • Runs for the rest of the term.
  • New draw begins each week.
  • The more tickets you get, the more chance you have of winning!
  • YOU CAN DO IT! Let’s do our best & make our classes awesome to learn in!

CAPA Rewards / Years 7-10

How it works

$50 vouchers • 12 classes • 8 prizes per class

Each lesson you can receive raffle tickets for:

  • Great behaviour
  • Super work ethic

These will be placed in a container and will be drawn for your class at the end of each fortnight.

  • Runs for the rest of the term.
  • New draw begins each fortnight.
  • The more tickets you get, the more chance you have of winning!
  • YOU CAN DO IT! Let’s do our best & make our classes awesome to learn in!

PDHPE Rewards

  • Week 1 Cordelia Esther and Cleal Bender
  • Week 2 Rebecca Partridge and Maverick Flewell Smith
  • Week 3 Braidyn Campbell, Erin Mitchell and Jacob Bennett

Well-being

Enja empowers girls through mentorship program

Local boxer Enja Ryan has generously extended her time to also mentor a group of Year 7 girls at GHS. Through a weekly program, the girls engage in exercises, journaling, boxing skills, team-building activities, and more. This experience is helping them build friendships, resilience, strength, and empowerment. Thank you, Enja!

Share these tips with family members in your community or check out the full guide here: https://bit.ly/3WyUjwp

P&C News

Next P&C meeting: Tuesday 27 August, 6pm in the Library

We invite all parents, carers and community members to attend our P&C meetings. We value and encourage your feedback, so come along and have your say.

To add an item to the agenda please email gunnedahhighschool@pandcaffiliate.org.au

Community

Free internet for eligible families! 💻 🙌 The Australian Government has introduced the School Student Broadband Initiative (SSBI) to provide free internet access to eligible families. Find out more here: https://brnw.ch/21wLxNd

SAFER DRIVER'S COURSE

Next course: Monday, 26 August, 6pm-9pm

PCYC Gunnedah is offering the Safer Drivers Course for learner drivers who currently have 50+ hours of on-the-road driving experience. (Please note: credits gained under the 3-for-1 scheme cannot be included.)

Participants who complete the course will have 20 hours recorded in their logbook.

The session includes a classroom component, where participants discuss and learn about road safety with the course facilitator, and a one-hour driving session with a driving instructor.

To book, visit www.pcycdrivereducation.org.au

Questions? Contact PCYC Gunnedah at 6742 1586 or email gunnedah@pcycnsw.org.au

Domestic and family violence almost always involves a pattern of behaviour that is used to maintain control over another person. It can happen to anyone — regardless of religion, sexuality, gender, socioeconomic status, age or culture. If you or someone you know is affected by domestic and family violence, you can contact 1800RESPECT via call on 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732 or visit www.1800respect.org.au for online chat and video call services.

We pay our respects to the traditional owners of the Kamilaroi lands where we work and learn. We also acknowledge our Elders past, present and emerging.

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