An exciting year ahead

Welcome!

Open a new window

Open a new door

Travel a new highway

That's never been tried before

 ‘Open a New Window’ by Jerry Herman from ‘Mame’

An exciting year ahead

Welcome back!  This promises to be an exciting year at Cecil Hills High School as we implement our 2018-2020 school plan.  This is a short list of new programs that will make this a busy year:

• our new Connect program to provide more pastoral care and a focus on health, wellbeing and organisational skills through roll call
• our new FOCUS program using the principles of positive behaviour for learning to provide a more consistent and explicit approach to behaviour management
• delivering our new Year 8 electives in street art, making a cake, computer aided design, survival skills, football, lego-robotics, creating an art exhibition, entertainment productions and running a business
• exploring ALARM pedagogy (A Learning and Responding Matrix) to improve writing skills
• finalising our new flexible learning spaces
• working with our current Year 10 students to ensure they meet the national minimum standard in literacy and numeracy to pre-quality for their HSC in 2020

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 whole high school experience.  These are the grade responsibilities for our three deputy principals in 2018:

Mrs Denise James - Year 6, Year 9 and Year 12

Mr Michael Lane -  Year 8 and Year 11

Mrs Joanne Tyson - Year 7 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 any 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 who have questions:

Acting Head Teacher – English, Felicity Wicks

Head Teacher – Mathematics, Tom Cordin

Head Teacher – Science, Jason Brame

Head Teacher – Social Sciences, Kim Foo

Head Teacher – History, Stephanie Haskett

Head Teacher – PD/H/PE (Personal Development, Health and Physical Education)  Mel Scott

Head Teacher – Technology, Lee Miller

Head Teacher – Creative and Performing Arts,  Antonella Verter

Head Teacher – Welfare, Alison Randall

Head Teacher – Support Unit, Mary Lukose

Year 7 Advisers

Morgan Howard, Renee Havas

Year 8 Advisers

Marija Miletic, Josh Dunn

Year 9 Advisers

Jenny Green, Christina Marks

Year 10 Advisers

Laura Cossetto, Katherine O’Malley

Year 11 Advisers

Lisa Saliba, James Chandler

Year 12 Advisers

Fleur Farah, Paul Hickey

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 or concerns.

HSC Results

I congratulate all of our teaching staff on another set of excellent HSC results.  We are all very proud of the achievements of our most recent Year 12 group.  In 2017, students at Cecil Hills HS received 39 x Band 6 results (a mark over 90%).  In addition, our students received 187 x Band 5 results (a mark between 80% and 89%).  The school’s HSC ranking in 2017 was 356th which positioned us higher than all other mainstream public schools in the Liverpool area.  Our highest performing courses were 2u Mathematics, General Mathematics, Physics, Community and Family Studies, Business Studies and Information Processes and Technology.

Special congratulations go to Maria Djuric who received an ATAR of 98.20, the highest ATAR in the graduating class of 2017 and to Sharon Tat (who is in the current Year 12 cohort) who achieved a perfect mark of 100 in 2Unit Mathematics and a statewide ranking of 11th in NSW for Mathematics overall.

It has been a pleasure to hear from most of 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.  In term of my introductory quote, an education at Cecil Hills High School will enable all of our HSC students to “open a new window” and travel the highway they choose in life.

Our annual Year 12 Recognition Evening will be held on Tuesday, 13 February 2018 and we look forward to celebrating our fantastic results.

Staff Farewells

Congratulations to Ms Renuka Senthevadivel who received a promotion to Head Teacher – HSIE (Human Society and its Environment) at Northmead Creative and Performing Arts High School. 

Ms Senthevadivel taught Legal Studies, History and English at our school for many years and achieved recognition for receiving the NSW Premier’s History Teachers Scholarship a few years ago.  We thank Ms Senthevadivel for her service to Cecil Hills High School and wish her all the best in this next chapter of her career.

New staff

There are a number of new teachers joining or returning to Cecil Hills High School in 2018.  I would like to welcome the following teachers to our school:

• English – Sam Faulkner, Nikolina Cupac
• Science – David Lay
• Mathematics – Samia Itani, Kathy Tran, Ben Nguyen
• Languages – Andrew Barr
• History – Oliver Hillsmith, Ana Golijan
• Support Unit – Grace Labbozzetta, Gary Le, Olivia Pham
• CAPA – Darren Abbott
• School Counsellors – Miguel Hollero, Rebecca Davis
• General Assistant – Mitch Featon

Save the date

An information evening for Year 7 (2019) will be held on Monday, 26 February 2018.  This will provide an opportunity for prospective parents and community members to learn more about our school and enjoy a guided tour of our state-of-the-art facilities.  Ms Vivian Phan and Mr Andrew Faga, our year advisers for this year group, will be coordinating the event in conjunction with Mrs Denise James, Deputy Principal.  This will also coincide with our normal Year 7 BBQ.  As a result, we invite both Year 6 (2019) and Year 7 (2018) students, parents and families to this double event!

P&C Meetings

Our first P&C meeting for 2018 was attended by a large number of parents.  Our next meeting will be held at 6:30pm on Monday, 6 March 2018 with  a repeat session held at 9:30am on Thursday, 8 March 2018.

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