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Glendale Technology High School Newsletter

Glendale Gazette

Term 3, 2016

Good Luck Year 12! Year 12 Graduation

Friday 23rd September we celebrated the end of 13 years schooling with Year 12. These occasions

are filled with mixed emotions as another year group leaves to make a difference on the world

ahead of them. Year 12 leave behind many memories and have touched the hearts of staff. I wish

Year 12 all the best for their future endeavours and their upcoming HSC Exams.

Year 12 Study Support

The staff are truly amazing at Glendale Technology High School as many have given up their holiday

time to work with Year 12 students. Students were provided with a timetable of study support

groups being run on every single day during the holiday period. I encourage Year 12 to make the

most of these times to help prepare for their HSC.

AIM Reports

The school has commenced issuing the AIM Reports to families. These will be distributed every five

weeks to families via the post. I thank parents for their positive feedback so far as this program

gives students and families regular feedback on students preparedness to learn. It is vital that we

are all working together to assist students in achieving the best possible outcomes.

Parent Feedback Survey

At the present moment we are collecting feedback from parents via an online survey. The infor-

mation received is important as it determines the future directions for the school. Please click on

the following link to provide your feedback.

https://nsw.tellthemfromme.com/3z9bn

If you have any questions please contact myself on the details provided to the left.

Youth Frontiers Program

This program is drawing to a close as the students work on their projects and get ready for the

showcase early next term. It has been amazing to see the students involved in this program grow

and challenge themselves with the support of their amazing mentors.

Staffing Changes

This term we welcomed two new staff. Mrs Lisa Arms into the Maths Faculty and Mrs Vicki Hart into

the TAS Faculty. We also bid farewell to Miss Bates as she has accepted a permanent position on the

Central Coast. We wish her well in her new school.

Mr Anthony Angel

Principal

NEXT P&C MEETING

Wednesday 26th October, 2016

Come along and join our friendly and supportive P&C from 6:00pm in the Glendale Technology High School Library .

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h.schools.nsw.edu.au

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Ph. 02 - 49549166 Fax. 02 - 49566879 Email: glendale_h.school @det.nsw.edu.au

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TERM 4 DATES TO REMEMBER

17th October 2016—HSC Examinations commence.

19th—21st October 2016—Year 7 Great Aussie Bush Camp.

14th November 2016—Year 12 Formal.

TAIKO JAPANESE DRUMMING

Selected students from Years 7-10 were invited to partici-

pate in the Taiko Japanese Drumming incursion which ran in

our school’s MPC. This was an excellent workshop run by EZ

Japanese with

students highly

engaged while

learning new

skills in order to

play the Taiko

drums. The

students learnt

about the

history of these

drums and

were guided through building up to a performance piece.

Selected students from the group were given the

opportunity to be the head drummer in charge of the

group. All students enjoyed the workshop and came away

from the incursion with excellent skills and knowledge.

Our current HSC Music students have completed their per-

formances and viva voces for the HSC Practical Examination.

We wish them all the very best in their exams and future

endeavours.

Our school choir has been rehearsing Tuesdays and

Wednesdays during lunch time. We have an excellent core

group and have shown outstanding improvements in our

songs. We welcome new members to join our fantastic

group at any time. Come along with a friend or see Miss

Wiley to learn more.

Any instrumentalist interested in being involved in

performances please come see Miss Woodhouse or Miss

Wiley in the Music/PE staff room. We would love to include

more instrumentalists in our performances.

BREAKFAST CLUB

This term the SRC and other student helpers have served

FREE breakfast to students on Monday mornings in the

MPC. There has been fruit, juice, cereal, toast and delicious

hot milos that have been very popular on those cold winter

mornings. Thanks to Mr Clinton, Ms Nelmes and Mrs

Clewett and all of the student helpers for filling those hun-

gry bellies in order to start our school day in the best way!

KUBO EXCURSION

On Thursday 8th September Japanese language students from Years 7 and 8 attended an excursion to Glendale cinemas. Students enjoyed watching the animated adventure film, Kubo and the Two Strings. The film was excellent and everyone enjoyed an exciting day out. Thank you to Mr Wagner for organising this experience for our language students.

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SCIENCE REPORT

This term all Years 7-10 have completed Communication

tasks which involved students designing educational

brochures about a variety of subjects. Most students are to

be commended for submitting quality work which will be

reported on in their Semester Two reports.

On Wednesday August 31, 95 Year 7 students made their

way by coach to Taronga Zoo. They observed many

different types of animals, including giraffes, bongos and

penguins. The highlight of the day was the bird show,

where lots of our students had birds flying within a few

centimetres of their heads on the way into the show.

Year 12 Earth and Environmental, Biology and Chemistry

students have been involved in extra study sessions during

school time and the Term Two school holidays and are to

be congratulated for their commitment towards improving

their skills for the HSC. Additional Earth and Environmental

and Physics tutorials have been planned during Term 3 holi-

days. As the HSC approaches the Science faculty would like

to wish all Year 12 students the very best of luck.

ENGLISH REPORT

On Wednesday, 24th August, 8G were lucky enough to go on an excursion to the Belvior Theatre in Surry Hills, Sydney, to watch a live performance of Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night—the text they are studying in English during the end of Term 3 and Term 4. The students travelled to Sydney and back by train, and were extremely well behaved, even gaining some positive comments from the general public expressing how great the students were. Watching a Shakespearean play live can help the students gain perspective when they actually read the play. Mastering the language of Shakespeare can be quite a difficult task, so being able to experience the play live was a wonderful opportunity for the students.

Yr 11 GOLD COAST EXCURSION

Yr 11 students were lucky enough to experience the annual Gold Coast excursion this year. Students left from school at 6am on Sunday 24th July and returned on Friday the 29th July. Students explored central Gold Coast around Cavill Avenue, got up-close and personal with some animals at Sea World, pushed their limits riding some gravity defying rides at Sea World, Dream World and Movie World, and most importantly, just had an overall good time having a week away getting to know and bonding with their peers. It was an amazing week and all students were well behaved and represented the school with pride.

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TAS REPORT

An exciting part of the year in the TAS department with

HSC Major works due for Industrial Technology, ISTEM

classes competing in combined school challenges,

Hospitality students running a successful and ongoing café,

Multimedia students producing excellent photography

pieces following their excursion and the list goes on! Below

are a few pictures to give you a glimpse of the great work

that our Year 12 students have produced in TAS.

Yr 12 construction

students building

a shade shelter

near the

Basketball Courts

Yr 12 Industrial Technology Multimedia Major Project

Yr 12 Industrial Technology Timber Major Project

Yr 12 Hospitality

prepare their

last dishes

FIT AND FAB

During sport this term the energetic female students from Fit

and Fab carved up the dance floor with choreographed

routines, the high shelter with indoor soccer and dodge ball. It

was so fantastic to be involved with students who actively

participated in the planning of sporting goals and the

physicality of participating. Well done girls!

MOTIVATED TO LEARN — 7S

Visual Art: This term 7S has been enjoying the playful

art style that is Surrealism. Having heaps of fun whilst designing

and making wire sculptures, the class is

enjoying putting the finishing touches

on their masterpieces.

History: 7S have been studying Medieval Times through

their “Back to the Future” unit of work. Students have been

enjoying researching the purpose of Medieval castles and

making their own using either Minecraft, cardboard or Lego.

Adding a personal touch to their castles, students have also

designed their own coat of arms to display.

Blackbutt Excursion: Students from 7S had the

most amazing day whilst visiting Blackbutt Reserve for the day.

The class took the opportunity to connect real life experiences

with content they are learning about in the classroom.

Particular emphasis was placed on Visual Arts by making clay

textural tiles and Science through exploration of the natural

world around them. It was an excellent day of getting to know

each other and having a lot of fun along the way!

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ART REPORT

Students have really taken their creativity to new horizons

this term in Visual Arts! With the completion of HSC Year 12

major works modelling to our junior classes what

exemplary work you can achieve with hard work and

dedication.

We’ve been on the lookout for “Wanted Aliens” as Year 7

created some amazing (and wonderfully disturbing)

extra-terrestrial beings as they explore all things alien. They

have experimented with watercolour to create different

colour affects and alter egos.

Year 8 have looked at Sally Morgan’s My Place and

Aboriginal Art as a starting points to design and make

artworks that is a symbolic narrative about a personal

journey. Year 8 Scrapbooking have experimented with

different printmaking techniques to create pages about

such themes as friendship, fashion and fun. Students in

Hand Building with Clay have worked to create a series of

small works that explore different techniques. Their

Cupcakes are brilliant – bright colourful and decorative

while their Animal moneyboxes are textural and fun.

Year 9 Visual Arts have completed their fantastic movie

posters featuring themselves in the starring role and have

now been looking up and down and all around. By using

different perspectives such as birds eye view to see the

world from a different perspective, they have studied

artists such as Mondrian and John Olsen. The students are

busy cutting away at their lino in order to start printmaking.

Year 9 Graphics students have embraced being in fun

overdrive whilst creating their own theme park concept.

Designing everything from event tickets, maps, key-rings,

photo frames, snow globes and souvenir door hangers to

make up a branded theme park show bag. Students have

also successfully completed design challenges which have

included logos for coffee cups and chocolate boxes.

Year 9 Street Art are developing their painting skills in

preparation for painting their sophisticated designs onto

their skateboard decks. These amazing and varied ideas are

inspirational.

Year 10 are using their understanding of Pop Art and

Surrealism as the inspiration for Portraits celebrating their

personal style in a range of different artmaking forms. Both

classes are working with enthusiasm to create these

expressive artworks.

Year 11 have completed the Preliminary course. They have

created a variety of artworks in response to a range of

artists and their artworks. The small soapstone carved

sculptures are both impressive and evocative of each

students’ personal identity.

Year 12 have successfully completed their BOW with much

relief and a sense of pride. Many students created artworks

that showed their own interpretations of issues that affect

teenagers today and were well resolved to an impressive

level. This year the students undertook a variety of

artmaking practices such as painting, drawing, mixed media

and, for the first time in many years, photography has been

a strong component of the major works. This was a result of

the students undertaking a unit on photography in Year 11

which they thoroughly enjoyed and produced some

fantastic photographs. As the artworks are currently being

marked we are not able to publish images of the work but

look out for these images in the next newsletter. We wish

all of our students the best of luck leading up to their HSC

Examinations!

The art staff would like to extend their appreciation to the

surge of students settling their Visual Arts fees during this

term. As the year progresses towards the conclusion of

2016 it would be wonderful if all Visual Arts fees could be

paid in order to support the faculty with much needed

resources and equipment for students.

Yr 7 Alien Head Magnets, Yr 9 Graphic Design Coffee Logos,

Yr 7 Perspective Drawing.

Year 9 Created their very

own movie posters—

starring them of course!

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LIBRARY REPORT

The Library upgrade continues with new colourful collaboration desks. Students utilising the Library during break times and before school has tripled. Seniors are using the new study areas to prepare for HSC Examinations and lots of junior students are using the Library computers to complete assignments, which are usually due in the next five minutes. But the Library staff are always willing to assist the students to help them get over the line. Mr Morgan has purchased some old school board games and loves sitting down with the students during break times to teach them a lesson or two when playing Uno.

FAREWELL MISS BATES

Unfortunately, the Library staff will say goodbye to Miss Elyce Bates at the end of this term. Elyce will be moving onto a permanent Careers position at Terrigal High School. Elyce has been with us for over 5 years working in the PDHPE faculty and then transitioning over to the Careers faculty 3 years ago. Here Elyce worked closely with Mrs Lynn, an experienced Careers Advisor whilst studying after hours to complete a Careers Advisor degree which provided her with the opportunity to later take on the role full time and lead the faculty through Trade School, TVET and SBAT opportunities. Elyce has devoted her time over the past couple of years to ensure the ‘Planit Youth Mentors’ program continues within the school and initiated the very popular ‘Youth Frontiers’ program. We will definitely miss Elyce but we are also happy to see Elyce move onto a new challenge and a new chapter in her life.

PDHPE REPORT

It has been a great term in the PE/Music Faculty. All of the

students in Years 7 - 10 have completed their dance

components of the PE syllabus

and many have thoroughly

enjoyed this unit of work.

Students have now progressed

onto a variety of team sports

and the staff are encouraging

students to bring their own

water bottles, hat and a

change of clothing with them as the warmer weather is

appearing.

SRC REPORT

The students have been working hard since Term 1 and we

have some outstanding achievements that the students

have contributed to the school as well as the wider commu-

nity. In Term 2, the SRC decided to support the Mark

Hughes Foundation and host a "Beanie for Brain Cancer and

Cupcake Day". Between the students and staff, we managed

to raise over $800 to donate to the cause. The SRC students

have helped throughout Term 3

with breakfast club on Monday

mornings, cooking BBQ's for the

school students on NAIDOC day,

helping with sales for Youth

Frontier's RSPCA Cupcake day,

providing support and

leadership with the student

elections and we will be

assisting with Harman Cup. Look

out for one more exciting event

to occur in Term 4!

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SPORT REPORT

Another term has come and is about to go. We have had a

quiet term for sport but there has still been some great

achievements by our students. Firstly Mel of Year 12 com-

peted in her first NSW CHS Cross Country Championships

representing Hunter. Then we had the Hunter Region Ath-

letics Carnival at Glendale where we had a large number of

GTHS students representing the Westlakes Zone. The Year 9

and 10 students participated in the Craig Johnston Cup

(Soccer) at Lake Macquarie High School and a great day was

had by all. We were the only school to field a majority all

girls team and we were thoroughly proud of all the students

and referees on the day. The U15's Girls Basketball team had

a tough first round game against Lake Munmorah at GTHS

and even though the girls did not win, they were great ath-

letes. The Year 7 and 8 students participated in the

Westlakes 7/8 Gala day which provides students the oppor-

tunity to play Netball, Soccer and Oz Tag. All of the GTHS

students who played, refereed or organised the games par-

ticipated at their personal best. Finally, we had three stu-

dents represent Hunter at the NSW CHS Athletics Champion-

ships at Sydney Olympic Park. Congratulations to Bailey of

Year 7, Connor of Year 9 and Zac of Year 11 for their efforts

and achievements.

GTHS students

competing at

sporting gala

days.

GTHS has success at the Hunter Valley

Electric Vehicle Festival

HUNTER VALLEY ELECTRIC

VEHICLE FESTIVAL

Several members of the Year 9 iSTEM class worked hard on

upgrading the school’s electric bicycle to use again this year

in the Hunter Valley EV Festival. The bike was rewired, the

battery mount was re-designed and some covers were made

to help with the aerodynamics. Our bike was entered in the

Hub Class, which means the motor was enclosed within the

hub.

On Saturday 13th August we set ourselves up for the practise

day at the Cameron Park Go-Kart Track. The bike was

scrutinised to ensure that it met the standards set by the

organisers. Our riders, Brady and Daniel also had to be fully

race-ready and their gear was inspected to confirm they met

the safety standards. After a thorough briefing, they walked

the track and were given safety information about the

corners and tips on how to save battery power at various

parts of the track. During the practise run, the riders

focused on going as fast as possible. They were getting some

impressive times and the bike was going great. But we soon

realised that we would not make the full 60 minutes

expected of the bike on race day, because our battery was

flat after about 40 minutes. A re-think of tactics was in order.

The morning of Sunday 14th August, saw us back at Cameron

Park Go-Kart track for Race Day. The team discussed tactics

and decided that we would try to achieve the fastest lap

time early in the race when the bike’s battery was at its best.

Then we would slow down and aim to complete as many

laps as possible while conserving as much power as possible.

Race time saw Brady, our most experienced rider, take the

lead on the first lap and put in some impressive times early.

He then backed off and settled in to a steady, yet competi-

tive, pace. After about 20 minutes, we made our mandatory

rider change with Daniel going out and putting in some con-

sistent laps for another 20 minutes. Brady jumped back on

the bike to see the remaining time out. Our bike managed to

make 57 minutes before the battery died. But the hard work

was put in early and we managed to hang on to 3rd place

out of 24 teams. The icing on the cake was that we also

achieved the fastest lap prize!

Well done to the riders, Brady and Daniel, and a big thanks

to the support team, Matthew, Nathan, Nathan, Madelyn &

Sarah. These students all worked together to achieve

outstanding results for themselves and the school. Thanks

must also go to Lake Macquarie City Council who provided a

grant to help with the costs in setting up the bicycle.

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THE FORMULA 1 TECHNOLOGY

CHALLENGE

For the first time GTHS entered the F1 in Schools Challenge. Yr10 iSTEM started this challenge early in Term 2 by watching F1 races, researching new technologies which Daniel Riccardo’s Red Bull team develop and learning how to use new technology such as CAD INVENTOR and a CNC Mill. For weeks students created designs using CAD soft-ware, printing 3D prototypes and utilising Maitland Gross-mans CNC Mill to cut their F1 cars from Balsa wood blanks.

The F1 in School Challenge was held at the Forum at the University of Newcastle. 24 different school teams entered into several different categories. As this was GTHS first year, we entered the Cadet class along with 15 other teams. Rac-ing was tough on the day and judges were strict when scru-tineering car specifications. Team GTHS #1 topped our school teams coming in 3rd, closely followed by GTHS Maclaren in 4th and Carbon Rush coming in 11th place. All the students had a great time and are looking forward to entering into next year’s competition.

YEAR 8 GIRLS IN SPORT

This term Year 8 girls have been trying out different sports

with a focus on well-being, positivity and healthy attitudes

towards themselves and others. Each week they have

participated in activities such as rock-climbing, beach

fitness, splash zone and trampolining. The girls have been

motivated and willing participants in every aspect of these

sports and have been a pleasure to take out each week.

COMMUNITY ACCESS

Many classes in our Special Education Unit have continued

with some wonderful community access excursions. Some

of these include the

viewing of Kubo and the

Two Strings, visiting

Nobby’s Break wall, ten

pin bowling and putt putt

golf.

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IMAX THEATRE AND SYDNEY SEA LIFE EXCURSION

During Term 3 a group of Year 8 students travelled to Syd-

ney to visit the Imax Theatre and Sydney Sea Life Aquari-

um. The weather was perfect and everyone real-

ly enjoyed the informative Dinosaurs Alive Imax 3D film.

After a quick lunch break at Darling Harbour, students were

able to experience many different marine habitats and see a

variety of different marine creatures at Sea Life Sydney

Aquarium. The touchpool was very popular with students

being allowed to handle starfish, shark eggs, sea urchins and

sea cucumbers. Thank you to the staff and students for

making this a fantastic day.

SPECIAL EDUCATION

This term SE3 has been busy working on their individual

projects which they will present to another class in the

Special Education Unit. In HSIE the class has been studying

Medieval Times and enjoyed completing various activities

such as making a peasant hut, Medieval shields and

organising a Medieval Feast.

In Visual Arts, SE3 has been exploring the dream like

qualities of Surrealism. Students have made some amazing

abstract sculptures and digitally manipulated images this

term. In Maths this term, SE3 have been learning about all

things 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional. Student

knowledge of shapes have assisted in the creation of their

own flags and foil relief designs.

We have been very busy this term, concentrating on our

prime focus of transition. Many of our students from Years

11 and 12 have attended either work experience or taster

courses with service providers. All experiences have been

extremely positive, and it has been very encouraging to

hear such great feedback regarding the work skills and level

of participation and interaction with new people.

The Rainbow Café has been in operation for the past 2

terms, providing our senior students with some essential

in-school work experience. Members of our school

community are welcome to attend every alternate Friday,

resuming in the second week next term. It would be great

to see some new faces for our students to serve.