Excellence and opportunity begin here

Summer days drifting away

Oh the summer nights

Summer sun, something's begun

Oh the summer nights

‘Summer Nights’ by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey from ‘Grease’

Welcome Back

Welcome back to another school year.  This promises to be an exciting year at Cecil Hills High School as we finalise our 2021-2024 Strategic Improvement Plan and our areas of focus.

COVID Learning Support

The NSW Department of Education has provided schools with funding to employ before-school and after-school tutors to support students who may have fallen behind academically during the lockdown period last year.  We will distribute information to relevant parents in the coming weeks.

Cooler Classrooms Program

In terms of my introductory quote, the “summer days” are here which can involve difficult learning conditions in the heat.  Cecil Hills HS will benefit from the Cooler Classrooms Program from the NSW Department of Education this year, which will see air-conditioning installed in all our classrooms.  Contractors will be installing air-conditioning units in two or three classrooms each week from February 2021 to June 2021.  This will involve some week-by-week room changes.

Deputy Principals

At Cecil Hills High School, our deputy principals move up with their grades so the same deputy principal maintains responsibility for your child’s education for their high school experience.  These are the grade responsibilities for our four deputy principals in 2021:

• Mrs Julia Cremin – Year 7 and the Support Unit
• Mr Michael Lane – Year 8 and Year 11
• Mrs Denise James – Year 9 and Year 12
• Mr Joel Howard – Year 6 (transition) and Year 10

Sources of Advice

Teachers work in partnership with parents.  Our teachers have the knowledge of teaching and parents have the knowledge of their child.  I encourage parents who have questions or concerns to contact the school so that issues can be resolved quickly and fairly.  As a large school, there are many sources of advice for parents:

In the first instance, it is preferable to speak with the classroom teacher or subject-specific head teacher for classroom matters.  For other issues, parents should contact the relevant year adviser who will be able to assist.  We also have school counsellors and coordinators of other support programs including our diary program.  It is always best to contact the school early if you have any questions.

HSC Results

I congratulate our teachers and students on another set of excellent HSC results.  We are all very proud of the achievements of our most recent Year 12 group.  In 2020, students at Cecil Hills HS received 45 x Band 6 results (a mark over 90%) and 179 x Band 5 results (a mark between 80% and 89%).

Special congratulations go to:

• Winston Fok who received our highest ATAR of 97.80.
• Jessica Csillag who was placed 4th in NSW for Earth and Environmental Science.
• Elvis Nguyen who was placed 8th in NSW for Engineering Studies.

It has been a pleasure to hear from our HSC students and learn of the courses they received entry into and it is a testament to their collective hard work as a grade.

Our annual Year 12 Recognition Evening will be held on Tuesday, 9 February 2021 and we look forward to celebrating our fantastic results.

New staff

There are a number of new teachers joining Cecil Hills High School in 2021. We are very fortunate to have some experienced teachers from other schools joining us.  I would like to welcome the following teachers and staff members to our school:

• English: Bianca Hlaihel
• Mathematics: Jason Tang, Parkash Thakur, Odelia Quek
• Science: Andrew Lentini, Rasha Kamil
• PD/H/PE: Victor Pham, Marko Petronijevic
• TAS: Milan Cosic, Ashley O’Sullivan
• CAPA: Zoe Watson, Amy Shannon, Crystal Bai
• Support Unit: Jessica Alvarado
• School Psychologist: Nathan Attard
• Technical Support Officer: Anderson Chen

Save the Date - Year 7 (2022) Meet the Teacher Evening

Our Year 7 (2021) Meet the Teacher Evening is where parents are invited along to meet their child’s Year 7 teachers and ask questions.  This will be held at 5pm on Monday, 22 February 2021.

Year 7 (2022) Information Evening

Our Year 7 (2022) Information Evening is normally held on the same evening, however, will be held virtually this year through our website and through engagement with our feeder primary schools, Cecil Hills Public School, Bonnyrigg Heights Public School and Kemps Creek Public School.  Our key transition staff for our Year 7 (2022) group are Ms Rania Zaidan (Year Adviser), Mr Joshua Banks (Year Adviser) and Mr Joel Howard (Deputy Principal). 

Reading

I remind parents of the importance of daily reading for children at home.  Scholastic Book Club has produced a parents' guide which emphasises the importance of reading.

Scholastic Book Club has a large range of books available for purchase.

and the teacher edition has packs of 15 books for $49.

This is an easy way to quickly expand your home library. 

Sleep, Diet, Exercise

I recently read an interesting article from Professor Pasi Sahlberg who is a former leader in the Finland education system and now works at the Gonski Institute at the University of NSW.  He indicated that five ways for students to improve are to:

1. sleep more
2. play more outside
3. spend less time with digital media
4. read more books
5. write letters to ones you love

It is essential that students come to school rested and healthy in order to perform their best.

Parent Information Sessions

Our first online Parent Information Session for 2021 will be held at 6:30pm on Monday, 8 February 2021.  This session will have a focus on our new Year 7 students and include a Q&A with our Year 7 Advisers.  This will be followed by a short P&C meeting for those who wish to stay online. 

I look forward to continuing to work with the staff, students and parents of Cecil Hills High School, the best school in NSW.

Mark Sutton

Principal