Year 10 English Documentaries

Thank you to Miss Shulz who invited me to view her wonderful 10G documentaries. The year 10 class worked in groups of three over a 3-week period to plan, storyboard, script and film their own documentary on an issue/event of interest to them and the Cecil Hills community. Issues and events ranged from the impact of social media to Covid-19.

I was really intrigued by many of the presentations and impressed by the quality of work. Well done to 10G and Miss Shulz.

Kindness Week and R U OK? Day

Thank you to our enthusiastic Student Representative Council for embracing Kindness week. Our school leaders ensured we had the opportunity to recognise and celebrate kindness and R U OK? Day through their array of initiatives. We loved seeing the team in their yellow shirts and certainly enjoyed those yellow cupcakes. Remember to embrace these important points when starting a conversation.

Starting a conversation

Ask R U OK?
Listen without judgement
Encourage action
Check in: If a student confides that they may need additional support. It is important to respond. Remember there is always some there to help you. Teachers and staff members value your wellbeing and are here to help and support you every day!

Our Year 10 Yes Program

Congratulations to our awesome year 10 students that successfully participated in the YES program. Our Careers team always ensure our students have every opportunity to succeed.

Staff Wellbeing....Teachers working together

Thank you to Mr Floriano and Miss Carter for designing and coordinating awesome team challenges at our recent staff meeting. There were many very motivated and enthusiastic staff that were keen to be collaborate with their team members and encompass the Cecil spirit.

The purpose of the staff meeting was to develop skills in team work, decision making, problem solving and foster staff wellbeing. I must commend Miss Li Donni for so effortlessly demonstrating her ability to say the alphabet backwards.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father’s, Grandfathers and Carers Day to all the wonderful Dads, Pops, Grandfathers and Carers across our school community! Thank you to Mr Faga, Miss Phan and our fabulous year 10 students for such a beautiful breakfast offered to our community.

We think you are fabulous.

Deputy Principals Conference

The Deputy Principals conference was a great opportunity to listen to keynote speakers ranging from dual Paralympians, behavioural psychologists, inspiring motivational speakers, and survivors that shared their awe-inspiring stories.

I had the opportunity to attend workshops on addiction and the developing brain and a risk and resilience approach to screen addiction. Both sessions were presented by Wayne Warburton who is a well-known behavioural psychologist. 

These are some interesting points that I took away from Wayne’s workshop

The average screen time for USA teenager is 8.39 hours a day. The average time for high income teenagers is 7.36 hours and low income is 9.36 hours. A recommended healthy media diet is 1 – 2 hours of screen time a day.  
A third of teenagers do not like to connect face to face. This is the impact of screen time and using social media sites like youtube, tik tok, snapchat, instagram and gaming. 
Teenagers need 9 - 11 hours of sleep and the overuse of screens and gaming is causing detrimental effects on wellbeing. Too much screen time can impact negatively on attendance, contribute to late arrival at school, put students over the cognitive tipping point causing the brain to shut down when you are tired, contribute to dropping grades, limit friendships and reduce control over their life when offline.

Warning signs of too much screen time for our students 

Increased time in the bedroom, a decline in grades, increasing attention problems, tiredness, irritability, talking about games or social media sites all the time, withdrawal from non-online game activities, lying about how much screen time and trouble reducing or stopping online use.

What can we do as teachers and parents/carers?  

Talk to students/our children about balancing their lives and the negative outcomes of spending too much time on their screens and the benefits to their wellbeing if they limit use. Teaching staff at Cecil ensure in all lessons students mobile phones remain in the bottom of their bags and are off and out of sight. When at home parents and carers can direct their children before bedtime to place their phones/devices outside of their bedrooms. If phones are out and in hand, they are tempted to check them. Remember what our teenagers do in their teenage years gets wired in permanently.

Thank you to all our amazing and very committed staff for another amazing term! We are lucky to have you.

Mrs Lord

Deputy Principal

Year 10

Western Sydney Wanderers