Thank you

All good poetry takes time

You don’t hear the final rhyme

Until you reach December time

“December Time” by Maury Yeston from ‘Death Takes a Holiday’

Excellent HSC results

Congratulations to our Year 12 graduating class on their excellent HSC results. Overall, Cecil Hills High School was the 2nd highest ranked public school in the Liverpool area, second only to Hurlstone Agricultural High School which is a selective school. Our students achieved 39 x Band 6 results (a mark over 90%) and 187 x Band 5 results (a mark over 80%). A total of 23 students were placed on the statewide NESA Distinguished Achiever's List.

A special congratulations goes to Sharon Tat (Year 11) who completed her accelerated Mathematics HSC this year and achieved a perfect mark of 100 in her HSC exam and was ranked 11th in NSW overall. Our students have done very well and should be proud of their efforts.

Farewells

Mr Mitchell Comans has been our Head Teacher – English for the last two years. He has been successful in a merit selection for a position at Katoomba High School.

I would like to thank Mr Comans for his leadership of the very large English faculty and for his work in other whole school roles in

assessment and coordinating parent-teacher evening. We wish Mr Comans all the best in his new role. Until a new permanent head teacher is appointed, Ms Felicity Wicks will relieve as Head Teacher – English.

Ms Elaine Luppino is one of our School Learning Support Officers in the support unit. She has been a permanent SLSO since 2007 and has decided to retire.

I know the staff, students and parents of the support unit will miss her caring nature and we wish her all the best in retirement.

Ms Julianne Wallace has been one of our school counsellors since 2012.

She will be moving on to

but still in the field of child psychology. We wish her all the best for this new chapter.

We are also saying farewell to a number of temporary teachers who will be sorely missed.

Mr David Gromof Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) has been a fantastic teacher in Music and we wish him all the best for these next steps in his career.

Mr Tom Joannides Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) has been a fantastic teacher in Music and we wish him all the best for these next steps in his career.

Mr Mark Rakecki (History) has been appointed to a permanent position at Vincentia High School by merit selection.

Ms Nicole Portelli (Technology and Applied Studies - TAS) has been appointed to a permanent position at Ashcroft High School as a targeted new graduate.

Mr Colin Fawcett has been our wonderful temporary General Assistant for the last six months. He has been amazing in this role and our staff have universally appreciated his attention to detail and work ethic.

He will be missed but we wish him all the best for his retirement.

Save the Date - Year 7 (2018) BBQ and

Year 7 (2019) Information Evening

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 Ms Denise James, Deputy Principal. This will also coincide with our normal Year 7 BBQ. As a result, we invite both Year 6 (2018) and Year 7 (2018) students, parents and families to this double event! Please save the date and further information will be provided early next year.

2018 Starting times

Please see our 2018 school starting times attached - in particular our Tuesday starting time of 8.58 am for all students.

FOCUS on Positive Behaviour

Our fantastic FOCUS: On Positive Learning program was launched on Thursday, 9 December 2017 with a special green day. Cecil Hills High School is now ‘focusing’ on our three core values of being respectful, responsible and successful. Students will be explicitly taught about these values to provide a common language between staff, parents and students.

Presentation Assembly

Last week, we celebrated excellence at Cecil Hills High School in our annual presentation assembly.

I would like to share some words used in my speech at this event:

"As high school students, it’s so important to plan and prepare. JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, didn’t just jump into writing the first Harry Potter book by starting on page 1. She took five long years to create the world of Hogworts, imaging the different characters, the spectacular settings, how the world of wizarding was to work and of course the plot, events, twists and turns. Five years! On top of that, JK Rowling wrote and rewrote the very first chapter of the very first book a massive fifteen times before she was happy with it. What lessons can we learn from this and what does this mean for success? In the history of the entire planet, JK Rowling is the world’s 9th most popular author of all time, a billionaire, selling 500 million books. But she doesn’t get her work right the first time. Remember, it took her 15 goes to get the first chapter right. So, as students, remember that excellence won’t always come naturally. It has to be worked at, much like a sculpture, chipping away each day until a masterpiece is revealed".

In terms of my introductory quote, works of art take time. Sometimes, they aren’t ready by December but students should always aim for their best.

Congratulations

I am pleased to announce the Dux of each year group for 2017

Year 7 - Kelly Nguyen, Year 8 - Sonia Hoang, Year 9 - Hayley Bui,

Year 10 - Sarah Kouch; Year 11 - Milena Cugalj

P&C Meetings

Our next P&C meetings for 2018 will be at 6:30pm on Monday, 5 February 2018 with a repeat session at 9:30am on Thursday, 8 February 2018. We always welcome input and feedback from parents and community members to ensure we are considering your perspectives when making decisions.

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

In our community

HSC Revision

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HSC Revision