Welcome back

Thank you to our wonderful community engagement team for the very inviting welcome on Monday 25 October. Whilst some of our students were anxious on return, the vibe, balloons, fun playlist from Mr Stevens and the wonderful 'welcome' signs certainly put our students' minds at ease. I would like to thank our staff for making it all happen and for the commitment to making our school grounds safe and inclusive. A special thanks to our site supervisor Jeff Williams for his hard work to provide safe areas for our students and going

above and beyond to ensure the bollards and the safety barrier mesh made our students feel safe and secure. We would like to thank Funny Face Parties for their awesome decorations which really added to the positive vibe for our return to school.

A very proud Year 9 Deputy!

I am very impressed with the settled approach that Year 9 students have demonstrated on their return to face to face learning. I have enjoyed visiting classes and watching them re-group in their social circles. I will certainly look forward to reading their yearly reports and watching their progress closely over the next 3 years!

Connect lessons

Our Connect groups are the first lesson of the day and are pivotal in setting the tone across the school. Teachers use this opportunity to get to know their Connect groups and engage our students in activities that benefit both their self-esteem and confidence. Instilling a positive environment and adding a bit of fun into connect sessions creates an enjoyable and motivating start to the day for all involved.

Thank you to Jonathan Brancati, our Student Support Officer, for his wonderful message delivered in our ‘Safe and Inclusive return’ presentation to students. It is always great for our students to see a familiar and supportive face!

SRC recognises World Teachers Day

Thank you to our incredible teachers and staff. Your newly elected captains thank you and recognise and acknowledge your dedication. Have a look at the video below designed by our newly elected leaders, Jessica Nervaiza and Andrew Gerwagis.

Our newly elected captains shine!

During the Parent Information Session on Monday, 1 November, our newly elected captains dived into their first opportunity to showcase their leadership talents. They were asked to think about what self-leadership is and what the local Cecil Hills community means to them. I was so proud of how they delivered their presentation through Zoom and enjoyed watching their teamwork in action.

I also gave them a challenge on Wednesday morning to deliver an adapted presentation to our Year 9 cohort during Connect lesson. They were only informed about this about 10 minutes prior. This was their first test to see how they could think on their feet. They passed the test and had a few high fives afterwards! A copy of their presentation is below.

Hello everyone,

My name is Jessica Narvaiza and this is Andrew Gewargis and we are your newly appointed school captains for 2022. We would like to say thank you for all of the support we have felt throughout the community while online and during our first week back. Without the lovely parents and teachers at Cecil Hills High School, our return from online would not have been so seamless, and on behalf of the students we are extremely grateful.

In our new roles, Jess and I would like to share the value we feel leadership holds in our community. Leadership is often seen to be an individual characteristic, although it is very much a collective concept. To us, leadership is the ability to guide others towards success, and we believe that each individual at our school has shown extensive leadership in recent times. In my time as school captain, I hope to give back to the Cecil Hills community, and help each one of our students to become leaders in their own way.

Hi everyone, I’m Lara Ly and this is Brandon Nguyen, we’re the Vice Captains for 2022. Going off what Jessica has amazingly put into words, I also want to truly thank you all for your support and exceptional resilience in adapting to the changes that came with covid. I think we can all agree that these last two years have been quite chaotic with both online and in person school. But because of this, we’ve had the opportunity to reflect and really see the importance of our school community.

As part of the SRC team, we want to draw on this idea of growing gratitude and just show our appreciation for our fellow students, teachers and of course, the parents. Both Lara and I are ecstatic to work with you all and we hope you’ll what we bring to the table as your vice captains.

From generating various events to networking and connecting with the wider community, our main focus during our time will be to boost the Cecil spirit.

Written by Jessica, Andrew, Lara and Brandon

Cecil Hills High School SRC Team

Breaking the Silence

Breaking the Silence is a professional learning initiative for school staff that provides knowledge, tools and strategies to implement respectful relationships and violence prevention in schools. The program supports schools to bring about a whole of school commitment to stop domestic violence against women, children and men. The vision is for teachers, students and communities to work together to drive generational change in preventing violence against women and children by promoting respectful and equal relationships.

The NSW Department of Education, as part of its role in promoting respectful relationships education in all schools, is facilitating an Art and Poetry exhibition in November this year. This year's Art and Poetry exhibition has obviously been impacted by Covid, but exhibitions will still happen at Parliament House, Oran Park HS and Broken Hill.

The theme will be Breaking the Silence around the topic of domestic violence. One in four children are affected by domestic violence on a regular basis. The exhibition will allow students to express their feelings about this injustice in a positive and creative way. The exhibition will run from 9 November to 19 November 2021 and coincides with the United Nations' 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence and White Ribbon Day in Australia on Friday 19 November 2021. Four of our very creative and talented students have kindly offered to exhibit their artworks as a part of the initiative.

The students are:

Theodora Moungatonga - Year 11: acrylic on paper

Kelly Nguyen - Year 11: coloured pencil on paper and

Vicky Phan - Year 7: pencil on paper

Josephine Zucco - Year 11: acrylic on paper

We are very proud of our talented artists and look forward to seeing their work displayed at Parliament House. A special thanks to Mrs Connie Mandalakoudis and to Mr Andrew Faga from our Creative and Performing Arts faculty for their organisation, commitment and continued support of our students.

Christine Lord

Deputy Principal - Year 9

Tell them from me