The diversity of the Engagement portfolio at Cecil was in full display in the first five weeks of Term 2, 2024 with various initiatives and programs running simultaneously. Here are some of the highlights:

Personifying reconciliation at Cecil

As part of National Sorry Day, The Cecil Voice invited Justin Rousell from Year 7 to explore the day’s significance to Australian society.

The podcast, which was played to all Connect classes on the 27th of May 2024, saw Justin asking Aimee Ward from Year 9 a series of questions about National Sorry Day.

Throughout the interview, Aimee eloquently spoke to Justin about the significant role that reflection plays in achieving reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous people.

We thank our YARN Connect class and Mr Matt Clough, our Aboriginal Education Coordinator, for successfully collaborating with The Cecil Voice to successfully deliver this episode to our community.

We look forward to our next collaboration for NAIDOC Week when we re-record our school's Acknowledgement of Country.

Building empathy through sport

It is a privilege to release this episode of The Cecil Voice featuring Anthony Sath Sposito and Dane Knudsen in an interview with Marco Quintao Sr and Marco Quintao Jr.

In this uniquely Cecil Interview, Anthony and Dane had the opportunity to sit with a Cecil Old Boy and a former Cecil parent to talk about the purpose of Heroes With Ability and how it supports all students in building a better sense of understanding towards people with disabilities through sport programs.

We thank Heroes With Ability for lending their support to The Cecil Voice and sharing with Anthony, Dane, and our listeners about their ideas and lived experiences.

We also thank Mrs Kelly Ford and Mr Glen Brookfield for strongly advocating for the delivery of episode.

"Together, we're unlimited." - Elphaba to Glinda (Wicked)

As we rebuild our HPGE scope and sequence, we are proud to introduce our first new program, The Game Changer Challenge.

The Game Changer Challenge is the NSW Department of Education’s award-winning design-thinking competition where students engage in and formulate innovative solutions to a wicked problem.

This year’s wicked problem is: “Can you design a future where everyone, no matter where they live, can access and benefit from modern, sustainable, and resilient technologies and infrastructures?”

Our inaugural Game Changer Challenge team members are as follows: Evelyn Yarng, Avalynne Chanthasenh, Talía Gomez, Phoenix-Tammia Ngor, and Kayla Luu from Year 9.

The team recently completed the first stage of the challenge which involved creating a two-minute video submission highlighting how they intend to tackle the wicked problem through collaboration, problem-solving, and innovating thinking.

Locked in for a writing marathon

Another program our HPGE team will launch in Term 3 is Write A Book In A Day.

The program is exactly what it sounds like! Our Stage 5 Cecil Voice team writers and illustrators will have the opportunity to collaborate with our Librarian, Ms Elizabeth Baldacchino, to write a book (3500-5000 words in length) in one day.

Not only will this writing marathon extend our students’ writing and illustrating skills but also allow them to contribute to a great cause by raising funds for The Kids’ Cancer Project.

Our writing day will coincide with our school’s celebration of the annual CBCA Children’s Book Week between August 17-23.

We thank the Library team for their support in planning and launching this initiative. We look forward to announcing the date for our writing day, fundraising details, and our official team roster of writers and illustrators in the Week 10 edition of our newsletter.

Recognising and capturing the Cecil Spirit

On 24 May 2024, Mr Rod Jonusas from The School Photographer visited Cecil Hills High School to beautifully capture the excellent teaching and learning practices happening across our school.

On this note, we would like to thank our SRC, House Leaders, The Cecil Voice team, Support Unit, and all students who participated in photo shoots at various times during the day.

We also thank the following teachers, many of whom are members of our Community Engagement Team, for opening their classrooms and domains to promote our school:

Mr Allan Leng
Ms Enza Occhiuto
Mr Thomas Nguyễn
Ms Lidia Sentic
Mr Dan Luzinsky
Ms Mel Marando
Mr Alex Colussi
Ms Connie Madalakoudis
Ms Crystal Bai
Mr Matt Clough
Mr Gary Le
Mrs Kelly Ford
Mr Andrew King

Finally, we thank Mr Jonusas for his skills, time, and generosity.

Future-proofing our students

On 2 May 2024, 8MYOB1 participated in a Social Media & Content Creation Workshop facilitated by Ms Stephanie Aceglav of Media for Millennials.

The workshop supplemented the marketing concepts students are learning in class. They now intend to use their new skills to promote their products in preparation for their Market Day. Thank you to Mr Steven Nguyen for helping me organise this initiative.

On 15 May 2024, our Stage 6 students also had the pleasure of once again hosting Media for Millennials but this time for a Video Resume Workshop.

The workshop taught students essential skills that can be strongly leveraged in an increasingly competitive global job market where video interviews are becoming a more prominent feature of the application process.

Here’s what some of the participants had to say about the program:

Charlotte McGregor: “I loved the workshop. It was extremely engaging and I walked away with a range of beneficial skills I will be using in the future."

Setare Nafisinia: “I learnt how to format a video resume and make effective use of my time to provide information that employers are looking for in the hiring process.”

Marcelina Youssef: “The workshop was really engaging and enjoyable. It helped build my confidence. It provided me with skills I need for the future. It is great preparation for the modern job application process.”

Thank you to our Careers Team, especially Mrs Mary Reid, Mrs Noor Naim, Mr Matt Evans, Mr Callum Wilcox, and Ms Alexandra Dovnik, for helping me organise and supervise this incursion.

We also thank Ms Rhonda Stone and the Regional Industry Education Partnerships (RIEP) program for funding these initiatives.

Rethinking Cecil

Thank you to over a thousand staff members, students, parents, and carers who completed the Curriculum and Learning Structure Review Survey that was sent out throughout Weeks 4 and 5.

The data gathered from this survey will allow our team to start a series of robust and reflective conversations about the different ways the school can continue to evolve to meet the needs of our school community in the midst of a rapidly changing world.

We look forward to using this new set of evidence along with other sources to rethink and refine our current structures in service of a better Cecil!

Strength in numbers

Our Numeracy Sprints Initiative recommenced this term with a renewed focus on targeting key areas of growth identified by our NAPLAN results.

This term, the Numeracy Sprints will also cover Stage 5. On top of its current purpose, the Stage 5 iteration of the Numeracy Sprints will also focus on building student readiness for the HSC Minimum Standards. We will review the success of this experiment at the end of the term by measuring its impact.

Finally, our data collection from Weeks 1-3 has shown that our Numeracy Question Decoder is a helpful resource in understanding worded questions. However, the overall feedback also revealed a need for refinement in terms of formatting, delivery, wording, and the use of a more diverse range of exemplars. As such, our student feedback will be used to review how the resource can be further improved to meet student needs while aligning it with current research.

Rising to the level of our systems

We are halfway through Term 2, 2024 and our Reconnect team is happy to report that, on average, 98.2% of our students are meeting expectations in terms of arriving to school on time.

This is steady pace that we seek to further improve with upcoming updates to our Reconnect policy and procedures that will be communicated to the school community once finalised either later this term or early in Term 3, 2024.

As a general reminder, all students must be seated inside their Connect classroom by 8:35am. This is our desired standard outcome for every student every day.

We are confident that through the establishment of sustainable systems through routines, all students can meet our high expectations. Some simple and achievable routines you can incorporate into your system include:

Sleeping early the night before
Setting your alarm multiple times
Leaving your house with ample time to walk to bus stop or to school, to find parking if you are driving, or to avoid the dreadful Frederick Road morning traffic
Preparing your clothes the night before
Walking faster.

Remember, as James Clear wrote, "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."

Therefore, strengthen your systems, and watch yourself rise to your desired outcomes.

Thank you for your continued understanding and support as we fortify our students with the micro-skills and habits, such as punctuality, essential to navigating the present and the future.

And thank you to Ms Lisa Bastide and Mrs Julie Alfonsi for their constant support in delivering this initiative.

Running craze hits Cecil

To end on an even more positive note, our newly established Cecil Run/Walk Club continue to provide teachers with an outlet to unwind and relax after a long week at work.

To date, we have had two five-kilometre runs and walks. Participants are encouraged to run and/or walk at their own pace around Doujon Lake. To borrow the words from Mr Allan Leng's favourite run club, "We start together, we finish together."

For now, this is a teacher-centred initiative, but there may be space to invite a limited number of students when the time comes. Thank you to Mr Thomas Nguyen and Mr Nathan Lee for their continued leadership of this initiative.

Francis Floresca

Head Teacher Engagement

A beautiful day...