Cecil Hills High School Newsletter

Respectful, Responsible, Successful

Expressive 1: Year 12 - 2018

Term 3

By this time next year

I will get my foot in the door

Next year I know I'm going to score

An amazing success

 

‘This Time Next Year’  by Christopher Hampton, Don Black and Andrew Lloyd Webber from ‘Sunset Boulevard’

School Plan Update

One of the key features of Strategic Direction #1: respectful, responsible and students is our implementation of our FOCUS program which uses the principles of Positive Behaviour for Learning.  As I walk around the school, it has been pleasing to see that students know our FOCUS matrix and our expectations.  For example, students know that our expectation with mobile phones is that they are “off and out of sight” and students can repeat this phrase back to me.  Students know our three core values (respectful, responsible, successful) and this language now influences how we interact with students.

Year 12 - What To Do Now

With HSC assessment tasks finished, this is the time for Year 12 to shift into a new phase.  They are no longer competing with each other for ranks and marks.  The mission now is for Year 12 to work together, help each other and produce not only individual personal bests but a collective best effort as a cohort.  These messages will be reinforced with students:

  • You wrote some good study notes?  Share them with a friend.
  • You see why a student doesn’t understand a concept?  Help them to learn.
  • You find a good case study or example?  Let the whole class know.

A massive amount of marks in the HSC can be attributed to writing effective paragraphs which means writing effective sentences.  It has been pleasing to hear from our examiners that our students have been writing the entire duration of their trial HSC exams.  This is very important as there are no prizes in the HSC for finishing first and students are not allowed to leave the exam centre in any case.  The whole exam time needs to be directed to maximising marks, which includes:

  • checking, double checking and triple checking answers
  • writing in detail for each question
  • going back and adding in additional information where required
  • improving introductions and conclusions in essays

In terms of my introductory quote, “by this time next year”, the HSC will be long-forgotten by our current Year 12s, so now is the time for the foot to hit the accelerator and go full throttle from now until the HSC exams.  By far, the best form of revision is to complete past HSC papers and these are available here.

Students can also complete multiple choice questions from past HSC papers via this NESA app 

Congratulations

Congratulations to Dragana Cekic and Nikolina Cupac who will be our

year advisers to the graduating class of 2025! 

Nikolina Cupac
Dragana Cekic
Nikolina Cupac
Dragana Cekic

It was a very strong field of candidates and we are very lucky to have people interested in these roles.

Beginning Teachers

Our beginning teachers recently attended a full day conference conducted by our two Head Teacher – Mentors, Katherine O’Malley and Jane Carter.  Our beginning teachers are very fortunate to have in-school experts to guide, mentor and support them through their first years of teaching.  Our beginning teachers learned about behaviour management strategies, differentiation in the classroom and much more.  We are very fortunate to have such an enthusiastic, positive and passionate group of young teachers at our school.

Beginning Teachers Conference
Beginning Teachers Conference
Beginning Teachers Conference
Beginning Teachers Conference
Beginning Teachers Conference
Beginning Teachers Conference

Expressive I

Congratulations to the Creative and Performing Arts faculty on an amazing evening at the 'Expressive I' event at Club Marconi on Wednesday, 29 August 2018.  It was fantastic to see high quality student achievement across visual arts, photography, music and dance. 

group of Year 12 performers with teachers, Darren Abbott and Tom Joannides
group of Year 12 performers with teachers, Darren Abbott and Tom Joannides

I know our parents really appreciated this opportunity to see our achievements in the creative and performing arts and I'm already looking forward to next year's event!

One night only

Year 12 Graduation Ceremony

P&C Meetings

Our next P&C meeting will be held at 6:30pm on Monday, 3 September 2018.  There will be a repeat session at 9:30am on Thursday, 6 September 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