30 top of the hill no 10 week 26 [pdf, 4 mb]
TRANSCRIPT
Newsletter
No. 10
20 June 2016
Inside this issue:
Top of the Hi l l Newsletter of Duval High School
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COMMUNITY
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Gold Day was a great success. We raised about $1200 from the sau-
sage sizzle which will all be donated to our choice charity: Camp
Quality.
We chose Camp Quality not only because it allows kids with cancer
to live and enjoy life, but because it was one of the things our dear
friend Noah loved. Noah mentioned that when he grew up he want-
ed to be one of the leaders there so he could help kids who had can-
cer like him.
The Magic Tournament also ran where each participant put in some
money towards Camp Quality. Magic was a game that Noah greatly
enjoyed, especially as it was something he could do even when he
was sick. His enthusiasm for the game was a great contributor to the
foundation of the Magic Club, and in his honour the tournament will
run yearly around Gold Day.
All in all Gold Day has allowed, and will continue to allow, the Pre-
fect Group and school to come together and celebrate Noah's life, as
well as raising money and awareness for other children suffering
from cancer.
DATES FOR THE DIARY
27 June Table Tennis State Finals, Sydney
28 June-1 July DHS Musical - The Pajama Game
30 June Year 7 Catch-Up Immunisations
1 July NAIDOC Assembly
1 July Last day Term 2
19 July Students return to school for Term 3
Publication of this newsletter is made possible through the generous support of the
Duval High School Parents & Citizens Association.
Page 2 Principal’s News
Page 3 From DP Desk
P&C News
Year 9 Textiles
Page 4 DHS Work Experience Programme
Page 5 8X Personal Development
Music Eisteddfod
Page 6 State Dance Ensembles
Eisteddfod Successes
Tennis
Bill Turner Cup
Page 7 Duval in Pictures - Gold Day
NSW Knockout Health Challenge
Page 8 The Pajama Game
GOING GOLD
FOR NOAH
More Gold Day
photos on page 7
Year 12 Prefect Group
20 June 2016 Page 2
PRINCIPAL’S NEWS
Today I‟m going to focus on the
positive things that have been
happening lately, and give out
some big votes of thanks.
Firstly, thank you to all of our stu-
dents and staff for supporting
Gold Day and by so doing, helping kids with can-
cer all over NSW. Childhood cancer is a terrible
thing, and it affects everyone in the community
when it happens, as we all know from our own
experiences. All we can do is try to beat it, and
the only way to do that is by supporting research
into beating cancer. Every little bit helps when it
comes to this, and Miss Mancell tells me we
raised some $1200 yesterday! Well done!
Thank you to all the students for their efforts in
attending school regularly. The numbers won‟t
mean much to anyone except the statisticians, but
our goal is to maintain 90% attendance across the
school throughout the year. Currently, Years 7
and 12 are leading the way on 89.09% attend-
ance, closely followed by Year 8 on 88.09%. Like
most things, Duval High School leads the way in
attendance, having a better average than other
local schools or the State average. It‟s just anoth-
er reason why our children should be proud of
themselves and their school.
I want to thank students also for showing their
school pride by wearing their uniform every day.
Whether they like it or not, people in the commu-
nity judge a school by how its students present
themselves, often ignoring the actual achieve-
ments those students might make. That‟s just the
way of the world. Someone once told me that
people will have an opinion about your school,
and not be afraid to voice it, despite never once
having set foot in it! That‟s not fair, but all we can
do to combat it is to do our best, and represent
our school well every chance we get. Whether
we like it or not, the state of our uniform is how a
lot of uninformed people will judge us and our
school by reflection. So I‟m always very proud
when I see students wearing their uniform with
pride, because I know this is an excellent school,
and that‟s all that counts.
Speaking of representation, thank you to every-
one who has represented the school in one way
or other during the last month, either academical-
ly, culturally or on the sporting field. There are
just too many to mention individually, but I do
want to acknowledge the efforts of the Girls Open
Football team, Regional Champions after their
win over Narrabri, and give commiserations to
the Boys U-15 side after their narrow loss to Kari-
nya last Thursday in their Regional Final. The
girls had a very close match, but thoroughly de-
served the win on penalties. Mrs Rajaratnam tells
me that she is very proud of all of them, and we
wish them luck in their next match, a home game
against a Sydney team. For the boys, Mr Model
tells me that Callum Ferguson and Mitchell Styles
were the standout players as centre-backs for the
day, and also received an email from the referee
commending the whole team on how well they
conducted themselves! Well done to all of you for
reaching the Regional Final in the first place, and
there‟s always next year! I also want to thank Mr
Flynn for all of his efforts with the Rugby League
teams, especially for the carnival on Wednesday.
A huge thank you to everyone who is involved
with the school musical, “The Pajama Game” - Mr
Myers, Ms Walsh, Ms Labrosse, Mrs Pearson,
Miss Mancell, Mr Grafton, and Mr O‟Baoill. I‟ve
probably overlooked some people and I apolo-
gise for that, and all of their teams - and let‟s not
forget the marvellous cast - who have put in ex-
tensive hours of their own time to make this show
a success, and they all deserve our congratula-
tions and support! I sincerely hope all of you plan
on attending either the matinee or one of the
evening performances!
Lastly, I want to thank Ms Cotton and the Transi-
tion Team, and all who have taken part in the
Year 7 2017 Transition program, including the
latest round of „Taster Lessons‟ on Thursday. Our
Year 7 group for 2017 looks like being a big one
again, probably over 120-strong, and the fact that
our numbers continue to grow helps us to keep
teachers and facilities open for each and every
one of our students. Our enrolment is currently at
560, 50 higher than last year. For every extra stu-
dent we have, we receive extra funding to em-
ploy more staff and purchase more resources for
our children.
So let‟s all do our best to always give the best
possible image of our school to outsiders, even if
it means doing without our beloved hoodies on
school days!
Mr Stafford Cameron
20 June 2016 Page 3
FROM THE DP DESK
I came across this link that could
be helpful to parents and carers
in understanding more about the
teenage years. This is what they
say about themselves -
ReachOut is Australia’s leading online mental
health organisation for young people, providing
practical support to help them get through eve-
rything from everyday issues to tough times.
Since 1998, ReachOut has worked alongside
young people to deliver online tools that ad-
dress youth mental health and reduce youth sui-
cide. An extension to ReachOut’s service for
young people was launched in 2016 to help par-
ents and carers improve the mental health and
wellbeing of the young people within their fami-
ly environment. Available anytime and pretty
much anywhere, ReachOut.com is accessed by
110,000 Australians each month.
So, if you'd like to have a look at ReachOut, here
is the parent page link
https://parents.au.reachout.com/
Mrs Sandra Rosner
P&C NEWS
The Duval High School P&C would like to thank
all those who have already volunteered to help
with front-of-house and catering for the upcoming
musical production,”The Pajama Game”.
If you would like to also help we will need more
helpers at intermission for Wednesday and Fri-
day nights of the production. If you are able to
bring along biscuits, cake, slices, brownies and
scones to be served at intermission on Wednes-
day or Friday evening, they will be very grateful-
ly received. All funds raised will go towards fu-
ture musical productions at the school.
We would like to thank THE FOOD SHED for the
irvery generous donation of a beautiful hamper
towards the raffle. Other donations to the raffle
are very welcome.
Please contact Sally Lucas for more information:
P&C Committee
YEAR 9 TEXTILES
Year 9 Textiles have been designing their own
line of fashionable bags as part of their major
project. The students all chose their own fabric
combinations and design features. Some includ-
ed pleats, pin tucks, appliqué and ribbon trim on
their designs. All have done an exceptional job
with their efforts and accuracy. Well done all!
Mrs Munday
20 June 2016 Page 4
DHS WORK EXPERIENCE PROGRAM - EXPLORING CAREER OPTIONS
As part of the Year 10 Career Education program,our students have the opportunity to participate in a
work experience program. Work experience is organised with the purpose of assisting students to gain
skills and knowledge in an occupation or industry of their choice. It is an opportunity for students to de-
velop work related skills and form networks within our local community.
Work experience can provide:
insights into what a job involves
structured, supervised, hands-on experience
useful work skills that are recognised in the workplace
confidence in their ability to learn and become competent at new tasks
work/life skills, such as communicating effectively, or working in teams
a chance to demonstrate how they can contribute in a work environment
an understanding of the world of work
an opportunity to demonstrate commitment and reliability
a new referee to add to their resume
an employment opportunity - either casual, part-time or full-time
The positive feedback I have received from local and non-local employers has been overwhelming.
Congratulations to all the students who have secured casual employment as a result their work experi-
ence program.
I am proud of all our Year 10 students for their involvement, commitment and exceptional behaviour
whilst on work experience. I hope you have all developed many valuable work related skills.
Mrs Hardman
Careers Advisor
Page 5 20 June 2016
8X PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT:
HEALTH INTERACTIVE LESSONS
Year 8X have been learning about growth and
development throughout Term 2. This week, they
were very excited to welcome four Year 9
mentors: Vaishnavi Pradeep, Kate Jones, Georgia
Vaughan and Hadi Hussain to show the class the
puberty board games which they produced as
Year 8 students.
Year 8 enjoyed the interactive and fun learning
experience. Year 9 mentors were great teachers
and positively developed the understanding
around the topic in an enjoyable but educational
manner.
MUSIC EISTEDDFOD
On 7th June over 100 Duval students studying Music had a wonderful day performing songs that they
had learnt in class over the year. All students performed well and are to be congratulated on their out-
standing efforts and performances.
Highlights were the Year 12 Music class winning the senior section, Year 9 the intermediate, and 7X
second in the junior section. Lucy Portell and her band of Bailey Patterson, Marley Lynch and Brodie
Kelly won the junior section and received 2nd and 3rd in the senior section of the popular bands with
Freddie Heslin, Shandra Moens and Taylor Rose Embleton a second in the junior section of the popular
bands. All groups and classes received a place on the day.
Congratulations to the Choir, Orchestra and soloists on their wonderful eisteddfod performances on
the day.
Mrs Pearson and Mr Myers
Mrs Vaughan
20 June 2016 Page 6
STATE DANCE ENSEMBLES
Congratulations to Patrick „PJ‟ Ferris (Year 11) on
his selection to the State Aboriginal Dance En-
semble, and further congratulations to Elayna
Moens (Year 11) on her selection into the State
Dance Ensemble.
Mrs Pearson
EISTEDDFOD SUCCESSES
Georgia Vaughan (Year 9) has been working
hard on several drama and speech presentations
for the Armidale Eisteddfod. In the 15yrs-23yrs
age group, Georgia took out the overall champi-
onship award. This award is a combined point
score of three events: Character Sketch-solo,
Verse Recital, and Public Speaking-Prepared
Speech. In total, she gained two firsts, three se-
conds and a third.
She also achieved positive re-
sults in the dance eisteddfods at
Inverell and Armidale. Georgia
won the overall Song and Dance
Championship with a collabora-
tion of three performances with
songs from Chicago, The Sound
of Music and Mary Poppins, gain-
ing first place in all three events.
Georgia has gained selection into Hunter School
of Performing Arts, a huge achievement following
years of hard work and dedication in the field of
Performing Arts under the tutelage of Mrs Walsh
and Mr Myers.
TENNIS
Congratulations to Freddie Hes-
lin who was selected as a shad-
ow NW Representative in the
Open Boys Tennis Team .
BILL TURNER CUP
On Thursday the 16th June, Duval High School
played Carinya Christian School for the second
year running in the regional football final.
From the team line up before kick off it was clear
that the Carinya side had a distinct size ad-
vantage over the Duval boys. However, it did not
deter the Duval boys from utilising their superior
ball skills, by scoring the first goal of the match
and going into half time with a goal advantage.
Carinya kept pressing hard and playing long
balls, which kept the Duval full-backs under pres-
sure. Duval had 2 great opportunities mid-way
through the second half to go 2-nil, but some
scrambling in front of goal by the Carinya back
prevented the ball from hitting the back of the
net. With 13 minutes to go before full time
Carinya scored an equaliser taking the scoreline
to 1-1. For the next 10 minutes Carinya continual-
ly attacked the Duval goal, but to no avail due to
some exceptional defending from Duval.
AT full time the match was to go into golden point
time, where every 5 minutes a member from
each team would come off the field. Golden time
started with both teams working hard to create
chances but neither getting a full blown oppor-
tunity on goal. Halfway through golden goal time
fatigue from quelling Carinya‟s attacked late in
the second half set in, with Carinya eventually
scoring a well worked goal to win the regional
final 2-1.
Congratulations to all team members who played
with a positive attitude and showed that you don‟t
have to be big and strong or in Year 9 to play in
the Bill Turner Cup. All you need is to work on
the basics of ball control and passing, and to
have a can-do attitude.
Mr Model
20 June 2016 Page 7
OUR CULTURE YOUR HEALTH STRONG COMMUNITIES
NSW KNOCKOUT HEALTH CHALLENGE 2016
JULIA YOUNG CHALLENGE Do you want to lose some weight?
We are looking for 25 people who are committed & dedicated to a
10 weeks WEIGHT LOSS Challenge.
Registrations open 20th June to 1st July
Starts 4th July — 16th September 2016
For more info contact Amanda
@ Healthwise on 6771 1146
DUVAL IN PICTURES
- GOLD DAY -