WEEK 6, TERM 1, 6 March 2026

acknowledgement of country

We recognise the Dharrug and Kuringai people, 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.

pRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

Dear Parents and Students, A fantastic day was had by all at the Annual School Swimming Carnival last Friday week due to the superb organisation of Mrs Hall (PDHPE), our carnivals' coordinator and all students who attended and participated. Thank you to all members of the PDHPE Faculty, Mrs Hoogerwerf for all the announcements and to Ms Davenport, Mrs Sheppard and Ms Hoang for their efforts on the day in encouraging participation. Thank you to all staff for your assistance in the many jobs and responsibilities undertaken on the day. Well done to the Teachers Relay Team as well. Congratulations to Turner House on their overall victory, to all age champions and to all participants, and House Captains in particular for your work in encouraging participation in all the swimming activities and the Fashion Parade and Chants! We had a great SRC Induction last Friday due to the efforts of our students (new SRC members, musicians and audience) and new SRC Coordinators Ms Tulett and Mrs Turner, with assistance from Mrs Seach and members of the SAS team, along with guidance and encouragement from Ms Carroll. Ms Tullet and Mrs Turner have a great team to work with this year led by Abi Kim (Head of SRC) and Ziqi Zhang (Deputy Head SRC). Thank you also to Ms Ridgway for conducting the orchestra with some marching music to start, the school song and national anthem, a musical interlude, and then a final item to end the proceedings. The parents and students then pivoted to the Staff Commonroom (due to the rain) for a chat and a piece of cake. Ms Tulett's homemade cupcakes and Mrs Turner's homemade cake were much appreciated by the parents and students. Year 11 have been on camp all week at Jindabyne (see the banner photo above) and return today with their teachers Mrs Sheppard and Mr Atkin (Year Advisers), Mrs Gilmore (Deputy Principal), Mrs Sutcliffe (CAPA), Mr Barr (Science), Ms Lam (HSIE) and Ms Brennan (HSIE). For the first time ever I can confidently report that the Year 11 students were in bed with lights off by 10:30pm. Well done students and teachers! A full report will be in the next Torch. Congratulations to Ms Stephanie Boden (Head Teacher HSIE) who received an award from the Professional Teachers' Council NSW for outstanding professional service and contributions to NSW Geography Education. Ms Boden is a councillor for the Geography Teachers' Association NSW and provides leadership in supporting teacher excellence. Well done Ms Boden! Hornsby Shire Council Safety Project: The school has written to Hornsby Shire Council in support of their Safer Cities Project: Her Way 2 Program application. The funding will support Council to improve the safety and inclusion in public spaces around Hornsby Station, with a particular focus on women, girls and gender diverse people, while also benefitting the broader community. The school welcomes the opportunity to support Hornsby Shire Council to help women, girls and gender diverse people to feel safer in the community. We recently received a donation for the HGHS School Building Fund for $134 from the PayPal Giving Fund. Our HGHS Building Fund is a registered charity and all donations to our fund are fully tax deductible. The donation to the school from PayPal was made possible by PayPal users who gave to the PayPal Giving Fund and recommended The HGHS Building Fund. Thank you to parents who have been using this facility with PayPal. Our Building Fund is used to pay for school infrastructure improvements such as the recently completed Covered Outdoor Play Area (COPA). Thank you to all who contribute to this tax deductible fund. For additional contributions please use School Bytes or contact our finance office. Some upcoming dates for your consideration: March 11 HGHS Staff will be completing the mandatory CPR and Anaphylaxis training. Students will be dismissed at 2pm to allow staff to prepare for the training. Students who require staff supervision can go to the COLA until 2:40, our regular Wednesday dismissal time. March 18 is our next P and C Meeting held at the school in the Staff Common Room from 8pm - 9pm. Our focus will be a presentation on the excellent HSC results for 2025, the student university choices for 2026, and some staffing updates for 2027. Finally, Saturday March 28 from 8am - 10:30am will be our first Grounds and Garden Day for the year with some planting, weeding and mulching. Morning tea will be served at 10:10am courtesy of the P and C.   Kind regards, Justin Briggs - Principal

DEPUTY PRINCIPALS' MESSAGE

Year 7  On Wednesday March 18th Senior Constable Nick will be running a workshop for our year 7 students on Community Safety as part of our wellbeing programming. Maintaining positive connections with our local police is an important part of keeping all our staff and students safe.  Year 10 YAM - this stands for Youth Aware Mental Health. On 9,16,23 March 2026 Year 10 will be involved with this wellbeing program at school. It is a school-based program for young people ages 13 to 17, in which they learn about and explore the topic of mental health. YAM is an evidence-based program taking place in classrooms around the world. Students will actively engage with the topic of mental health through role-play and student-led discussions. Kuring gai Women's Shelter (HKWS) Charity Drive Charity Day is coming up. The Year 10 Charity Committee have decided to run a Charity Drive for students and staff to donate priority items to women at the shelter. There is also an option to donate gift vouchers or make monetary donations- at the office. This is a tremendous student-driven initiative that the Charity Committee members have worked hard to plan and promote. Angelica Molina, a spokesperson from the shelter, shared stories of the hardships women faced, homelessness and domestic violence at our last school assembly. The women need the following items if you can help.  Donate items (See below for list) $20 Gift vouchers or monetary donations can be made at the office  ✅ MOST NEEDED ITEMS 🧼 Cleaning supplies • Plastic cleaning gloves • Dishwashing detergent (no tablets) + sponges • Laundry detergent (front loader) • Bathroom / toilet cleaning sprays 🥛 Pantry basics • Long-life milk (oat, soy, rice, lactose free, lite, full cream) • Tea (peppermint, chamomile, chai, sleep teas) • Coffee sachets (regular + decaf) • Cooking oils (olive, rice, sunflower) • Salt, pepper, sugar 🧻 Everyday essentials • Toilet paper • Tissues + paper towels • Toothpaste • Hand soap (pump only) • Bin liners (12L + 40L) 🎁 Gift cards Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, Kmart, Westfield, Priceline, Bunnings 🏠 Shelter items • New pillows • Warm doonas (single only) • Mattress + pillow protectors (single only) • Coffee mugs • Small–medium pots & pans • New overnight bags with wheels Hands off policy Hornsby Girls High School has a ‘hands-off’ rule to preserve the safety, wellbeing and dignity of all members of the school community. Feeling physically safe contributes to wellbeing. Safe environments optimise learning experiences for everyone.   The policy applies to students whilst they are wearing school uniform and/or are engaged in a school related activity.  Guidelines  1. No student is to touch another student in a manner as judged inappropriate by staff.  2. No student is to promote, encourage or use any form of physical conflict against other students, even in “fun” or as a “practical joke”.   3. No student is to interfere with the property of others without the consent of the owner. International Women’s Day - Balance the Scales  Tuesday 10 March 2026. Parents and students are invited to share breakfast in the school hall from 7.30am-8.40am. Keynote speakers include former HGHS Senior Prefect (2015), Abisaini Padmasiri, Constable L Marteene, Ku-ring-gai Police Area Command, Sidhi Saxena and Simran Pandey. These inspiring women will address attendees to share their findings on the plight of women and the continued inequities and challenges they face around the world.  Careers Parents and students looking for careers information should be aware that our Career’s Advisors Dr Turner/Mr Royce have a Google Classroom page for each grade. Careers Bulletins are available to students updating them on university options, open days, work experience opportunities, holiday programs, scholarships and more. This is a highly useful source of information for all students at Hornsby Girls’ High School. Please talk with your child about the resources found on these pages and encourage them to regularly check for updates Year 11 Our Year 11 students have been having a wonderful time in Jindabyne this week. Thank you to Ms Brennan, Ms Lam, Mr Barr, Ms Gilmore and the two Year 11 Advisers- Ms Sheppard and Mr Atkin for providing such wonderful opportunities for our students.  Year 12 The Year 12 Assessment block commences on Monday 16th March and finishes on Monday 23rd March. Please remember that if you are sick on the day you must communicate this to Mrs Wallwork- Deputy Principal prior to 8.45 am on the day of the examination. Students will then complete illness and misadventure forms and if sick they will require a medical certificate. Students also need to attend all lessons including period zero and period 5 the day prior to an examination block. This information is contained in the Year 12 2026 Assessment Manual. Best of luck to all our Year 12 students for the upcoming assessments. Last Friday Year 12 participated in the RIOT (Resilience in Our Teens) refresher workshop. This was developed by HGHS staff in response to student feedback from the original RIOT program. The focus of the session was common thinking traps, Reframing our stress thoughts and how to implement practical strategies when students experience these types of feelings.  Club’s Expo  was held at school during lunch on 25 February 2026. This was a huge success with so many of our students signing up to participate in the various activities. There are 21 clubs running this year - there is something for everyone!! Including, FRED, Swifties, Art and Photography, Social Justice, Social Debating, Minerva, CCMP, Tournament of the Minds - too, many to list here. HGHS is a school where exciting things are happening all of the time. It is not too late to still join a club if you have not yet done so. It is a great way to be involved, meet new people and have fun.  SRC Induction  was held at school on 27 February 2026. We had a great SRC Induction due to the efforts of our new SRC Coordinators Ms Tulett and Ms Turner, with assistance from Mrs Seach and members of the SAS team, along with guidance and encouragement from Ms Carroll. The SRC are a great team and will be led by Abi Kim and Ziqi Zhang. Ms Ridgway conducted the orchestra with some marching music to start, the school song and national anthem, a musical interlude, and then a final item to end the proceedings. The parents and students then pivoted to the Staff Commonroom (due to the rain) for a chat and a piece of cake. Ms Tulett's homemade cupcakes and Ms Turner’s cake were much appreciated by the parents and students. Zone Swimming Carnival Held on 5 March at Ryde Aquatic Centre. Ms Hall led a team of 20 swimmers in all age groups to compete in this year’s event. Year 10 PASS students also attended and assisted as helpers throughout the day. Congratulations to all of our swimmers for their great efforts.  NAPLAN 2026 NAPLAN will be held for Year 7 and Year 9 on the following dates: Wednesday March 11th - Writing  Thursday 12th March - Reading Friday 13th March - Conventions of Language Monday 16th March -  Numeracy In preparation for these assessments we ask that parents and caregivers assist their child to ensure the following:

• The laptop to be used conforms to the device requirements:

https://www.assessform.edu.au/naplan-online/device-requirements 

• The laptop that your child uses has a lockdown browser installed. Previous lockdown browsers should be deleted and a new one downloaded. 

Lockdown browsers to be used are provided in this link: https://www.assessform.edu.au/naplan-online/locked-down-browser 

• Have your student complete a demonstration test at home so that we know that the technology works and they are familiar with the platform. Practice tests are found here:

https://nap.edu.au/naplan/public-demonstration-site 

• Students bring their headphones for the assessments. It is recommended NOT to use wireless or bluetooth as the lockdown browser can prevent these from working. If a student arrives and does not have headphones or the headphones do not function they will be supplied with new headphones and parents/caregivers will be invoiced $8 for the cost of these.

• Remove any parental controls placed on their child’s device to make it easier for our staff to resolve technical problems during the assessment. 

These steps need to be completed by Friday, 6 March, 2026. This will allow us to follow up on problems with laptops prior to the commencement of the NAPLAN assessments. Students will be required to confirm in their grade google classroom that they have updated the lockdown browser and a check will occur on Friday, March 6 March, 2026. These assessments are aimed at providing the Department of Education and the school with information regarding our literacy and numeracy teaching and learning strategies. The results of these assessments do not impact the performance of students in their curriculum studies at school. Please reassure students that their performance is not for the purpose of their academic reports or future class allocations.  If you have any further questions or technical issues please ask your child to see Ms Thompson or Ms Gilmore Ms Wallwork and Ms Gilmore - Deputy Principals

Illuminate National Finals

Two teams from Hornsby Girls High School were selected to compete in the Illuminate National Finals, held on February 18 2026. Teams were asked to propose a solution to the following question: What is one thing schools should do to improve education and learning?  Hornsby Team A Jewel, Hannah, Ivory, Allie and Astrid designed a program to connect disengaged students with community leaders and work on real life projects focused on achieving Sustainable Development Goals whilst simultaneously providing connection and meaning for young people. Hornsby Team B Lane, Ella, Vivian, Cynthia, Claire and Jasmine designed a work ready program for university students that offered two days a week of work placement in a collaboration with Western Sydney University and the Australian Government.  HGHS teams experienced significant success on the day competing against teams from Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. The teams were joint runner ups in the Case Change category, with Team B placing 5th overall in the competition. Team A won the Engagement Strategy Award, the Meeting Guide Award and were the overall  National Winners of this competition. Congratulations to all students involved for their tremendous effort, capacity to work under tight deadlines and pressure and positive team relationships. 

CRICKET

Marie Cornish Trophy – Hornsby GHS Cricket Report.  Hornsby GHS proudly unleashed a formidable cricket squad into the Marie Cornish Trophy arena. The dream team featured: Janani Vijaya Raghavan (11), Keya Patel (11), Maya Venkatraman (7 – yes, Year 7!), Kingkini Mazumdar (10), Aarika Bhatia (9), Audrey Strauss (11), Juliet Jennings (9), Thinolee Gunasinghe (11), Emilia Matthews (9),  Tara Nair (11), Emily Lin (11), Hannah Croaker (10), Vishruti Karthiyeyan (9), Isha Balaji (10), and Thanmaya Santhosh (10). A squad stacked with talent, teamwork… and apparently, excellent aim.   Game 1: Hornsby vs Killara HS (20x20 format) The opening clash took place at Killara. Hornsby lost the toss and were promptly sent into bat. No worries. Challenge accepted. What followed can only be described as a fireworks display — minus the fire ban issues. Janani Raghavan stepped up and casually decided she would not be getting out. She smashed an unbeaten 61, including the only six of the entire match (just to make sure everyone remembered it). Elegant? Yes. Ruthless? Also yes. She was brilliantly supported by Keya Patel, who contributed a handy 17 before being trapped LBW — a decision she is still probably replaying in her mind. Then came first drop Maya Venkatraman (Year 7, by the way — no big deal). She confidently sent the ball touring “all over the park” well-disciplined shots strategically placed and remained not out on a classy 35. The composure. The confidence. The Year 7 energy. With contributions from sundries (always dependable), Hornsby wrapped up their innings on a commanding 161 runs off 20 overs.   Killara’s Chase Killara began their innings full of hope. Hornsby began their bowling full of plans. Aarika Bhatia delivered a spell of pure precision: 2 for 12 off 4 overs, including a maiden, a clean bowled dismissal, and a spectacular caught-and-bowled. Basically, she did everything except bring the afternoon tea. Juliet Jennings chipped in with 1 for 15 off 4 overs, while Maya returned to bowl a tidy 4 overs for 27 — because apparently batting beautifully wasn’t enough for one afternoon. Keya Patel added 1 for 11 off 3 overs, and support from Hannah Croaker, Emilia Matthews, and Audrey Strauss kept the pressure firmly on. Behind the stumps, Audrey Strauss was so sharp she practically had the opposition memorised. Killara finished on 111, with “sundries” again making a heroic appearance as second top scorer on 29. Always reliable, those sundries.   The Result A commanding victory for Hornsby GHS! Confidence is high, spirits are higher, and the team now looks ahead to their next match against Cherrybrook THS later this term.