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21 November 2016                                     Year 12 Formal21 November - 16 December                 Year 10 Senior PreparationProgram25 November 2016                                     Special Education Excursion-School Spectacular25 November 2016                                     Year 11 Retail Services Excursion25 November 2016                                     Year 7 & 8 Gala Day29 November 2016                                     Minimum Standards InformationEvening                                                                            (Year 7 & 8 Parents in the MPC at7.00pm)30 November 2016                                     SRC Movie Night 6.00pm1 December 2016                                        Year 10 Elevate Study Day2 December 2016                                        Year 10 Terrigal Beach CulturalExcursion6 December 2016                                        Year 7, 2017 Orientation Day7 December 2016                                        Year 7 Rewards Day8 December 2016                                        Presentation Evening 7.00pm9 December 2016                                        Year 9 Rewards Day12 December 2016                                      Year 9 Art Gallery Excursion14 December 2016                                      Year 10 Sydney Tower/MadameTussaud’s                                                                             Wax Museum Excursion14 December 2016                                      Year 8 Rewards Day15 December 2016                                      HSC Results Released15 December 2016                                      Year 10 Dinner/Dance 6.30pm16 December 2016                                      Special Education Christmas Party16 December 2016                                      Year 12 Morning Tea16 December 2016                                      Last Day Term 4 for Students 

Upcoming Events 

HSC ConcludesWith the HSC examinations concludingon November 4,  and much earlier forsome, I would like to congratulate ourstudents on the way they approachedand worked through the challengesthat the examination period brings. Asalways, our students were a credit tothemselves, their families, and theirschool. Now begins the anxious waituntil results are released on Thursday15 December, and the ATAR’s thefollowing day. Whilst some studentswill excel, and we have high hopes thatall will attain the results they areaiming for, it remains important tokeep the HSC in perspective as it isonly one step in developing a futurecareer. Most people take several yearsto find their true path in life. There arevarious agencies to assist in makinggood, informed choices. Henry KendallHigh remains one avenue to givestudents advice and guidance. With the examinations over, the shortterm focus remains the celebration ofthe formal at Ettalong Memorial Clubon Monday 21 November. This will beone of the final times in which the

entire cohort are together, andpromises to be a very special occasion,and a wonderful celebration of 13years of schooling, friendships andmemories.

Senior Preparation

ProgramMonday 21 November sees thecommencement of our SeniorPreparation Program for Year 10. Thisdynamic program, unique to HenryKendall High School, provides analternative structure for Year 10 for thelast four weeks of the year focused onpreparing them for the expectationsand rigors of the senior school, as wellas many social and life lessonsrelevant to the later years ofadolescence. The programs structuremerges learning and workopportunities with fun, creativity,collaboration and thinking skills. Year10 students are already expressinghow much they are looking forward tothe opportunities it will bring, and Ihave no doubt that it will be ofimmense value. This program is led by

our Deputy Principal, Donna James,and has been devised by a team ofsta驚� who have worked hard in creatingthese opportunities for our students.

Collaborative

Learning SpacesThe school has implemented threeredesigned learning spaces within theschool with a focus on promotinglearning practices that encouragecollaboration, creativity, critical andanalytical thinking, and real worldproblem solving. In Middle School two classrooms havebeen opened out with a flexible wall,new furniture and seating options, andaccess to 60 laptop/iPad’s that bringtogether 55 students and 2 teachers inan integrated learning environment.Complementing this environment aredesigned teaching programs focussedon 21st Century Learning Skills.

Principal's Report

The senior student level of our libraryhas been remodelled with a range offlexible study booths, a set of laptopsfor senior student use in study periods,and two seminar rooms forcollaborative work that are equippedwith interactive panel screens.

One of our technology workshops hasbeen redesigned as an open plan,collaborative workspace with flexiblefurniture, breakout spaces, whiteboarddesks, and an interactive panel screen.This space will be a centre-piece fornot only our technology and projectbased learning programs; it will alsobe integral in our new STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering andMathematics) curriculum beingintroduced in 2017. To further enhancethis space a café has been includedthat will extend the opportunities ourhospitality students have.Development of this space is stillunderway for operation in 2017.Photographs here show what thespace was, and what it has become.

Whilst these three spaces are fabulous,engaging and attractive; what isimportant is not the space or furniture,or technology within them. What isimportant is the way they encouragenew approaches to teaching andlearning that are essential for theworld our students will live in.Continued investment in learningspaces will be a feature in comingyears.

 

Minimum

Standards

Information

EveningAs you will have read in previousnewsletters, the Board of Studies areintroducing a new literacy andnumeracy requirement for students inorder to be eligible for a HSC. Thisrequirement takes e驚�ect for next year’sYear 9 students, and then everysubsequent group. This is a significantchange that the school, students andparents alike must gain anunderstanding of, and work towardscollectively. We are holding aninformation evening for parents ofYears 7 & 8 students in the school hallon Tuesday 29 November to outlinethe new requirements andimplications, discuss approaches andprovide a forum for discussion. Istrongly encourage parents to attend.

Relieving PositionsI would like to thank Donna James forher work as relieving Principal whilst Iwas on leave for the first four weeks ofterm. I’d also like to thank MarkMacdonald who relieved as DeputyPrincipal and Carly Brien for her workas relieving Head Teacher. It iswonderful to have such quality in thedepth of leadership at our school.

          

Mr Andrew Backhouse - Principal

CAPA NewsYear 12 PhotographyWe have been exploring a variety oftechniques that escape the splitsecond in photography with long timeexposure photos. We have done some light painting,strobe photography and zooming witha long exposure. Here are some of ourresults. Students will be perfectingsome of these techniques forassessment in Week 9.

Year 12 Visual ArtsWe ventured up to Newcastle toparticipate in a community art eventorganised by the Newcastle Gallery tocelebrate the opening of the JohnOlsen Exhibition.

It was called Our Hunter River and wewere asked to create Nobbys Head outof boxes and recycled materials. It wasan extremely hot day and we struggledto work in the heat, but ended up witha pretty good result by the end of theday.

The event extended into the night andsome of the photos from the evening

are quite lovely with the PashaBulker ship making a come back. Welldone Year 12 on a great e驚�ort. 

 

Library NewsOliver – New Library ManagementSystem A⒌�er a twelve week implementationprocess Oliver is now up and runningat HKHS. Students will see a very di驚�erent andfar more appealing interface whenaccessing the system. Oliver has an exciting range of featuresthat will benefit students greatly –

Student News

Interactive experience and vastlyimproved search capabilityAbility to search school library,Google and other educationalsources concurrentlyAbility to rate resources andwrite reviewsAbility to focus student researchto the most appropriateinformation resources

Students will be introduced to Oliverduring lessons in the library and helpis always available from the librarysta驚�. Mrs Carmel Taylor - Teacher-Librarian

Young Achievers

GeographyThis semester  Year 8 Young Achievershave been studying Geography as partof their HSIE program. Our focus areahas been ‘Global Change’ and we haveconsidered topics such as‘Globalisation’, ‘Global Inequalities’and ‘Global Organisations’. The first assessment task askedstudents to research some of thesetopics and complete six di驚�erent tasksbased on Blooms Taxonomy. BloomsTaxonomy focuses on thedevelopment of higher order thinkingskills, and the assessment given tostudents began with a rememberingtask and progressed to evaluating andcreating tasks. The assessment taskalso gave students choice within eachthinking skill to choose a questionwhich they were interested in. Cynthiaproduced an amazing diary of a childliving in Africa as her ‘creating’ task.Throughout the term we have alsobeen studying geographical skills, suchas grid and area references, drawingand interpreting climate graphs alongwith atlas work. Everyone achievedwell in the recent skills test. Last week we began studying thegeographical issue of climate change.We had a fun lesson playing the

‘Climate Change Game’ where groupsof students were producing eitherwheat or luxury cars. Due to climatechange the UN introduced carboncredits which were required to bepresented with the production of a carto enable its sale. A lot of bargainingwent on between wheat producers andcar producers over the carbon creditsas the wheat producers didn’t needtheirs! Will and Nic were our overallwinners, amassing $10, 000 and 15carbon credits by the end of the game.Well done.

EnglishYear 10 have been studying dystopiannarratives.   The following is anamazing piece of creative writing byZac Khatziagelis. In the centre of a city shaded ingreyscale, where life was taken fromintricate flora; Oxygen once bloomedfrom parcels of trees. Replaced withmechanical outer shells the dwindledthickets weep.Lifeless beings wander today,yesterday, tomorrow. The tomorrow oftomorrow, ongoing.The faces of mad men stare, scrapedupon the walls, leering downward,peeling from the edges of torn outpages. Booming voices screech fromerupting speaker posts, appearingfrom the smog. In one year the city oflights turned to city of the decay. Itturned to the city of rising steam, thickand dirty rising from the streets,authoritarian empowerment shroudedin death and destruction. In one year. Corruption seemed like a pastime tomost, in a city of cars honking,speaking incessantly, of news articles,sold, overpriced, and bargained for bymen and women who couldn’t a驚�ordto.People talked by parks and lakes thatwere devoid of life. Baron andisolating.“The breeze is delightful” a voicespoke,“Can’t get much better than this”replied another.

They had almost never felt the breezebefore. Buildings obtruded ontosidewalks and blocked the sun. TheGovernment thought it would bebetter if the sun was minimised. It waskilling them a⒌�er all, so wasn’t it worthit?They all believed it, the laws were putin place by people who were originallythought to be helping us all. Thingswere now changing. In a city thatnever slept, all appeared assomnambulists. Mindless to theremoval of things they treasured,slowly, but surely, they too wouldvanish. When they stole the sun, they stole theplants, the insects, the animals. Treeswere first, followed by the multi-coloured and fragile flowerbeds. Likedominos they fell. No one noticed it,but now machines stood on graves ofwithered nature. Light posts stoodwhere trees once lived, speakersattached, to reassure that everythingwould be ok. It was not going to be ok.Red Wi-Fi booths rested on epitaphs oflife, benches covered in policies thatno one cared for. Walls were plasteredwith sheets of paper. The gasses ofwheeled machines were filled withvacant bodies which pressed air in andout as did machine. Nothing could bedone. City of lights turned into city ofmachines. No one cared, no onenoticed, no one intervened. Despiteknowing that trees were vital to theproduction of oxygen, they still cuttheir breath short. They all seemedassured, calm, as if they were waitingto be removed. The Governmentknows best. The streets were nowthick with voluminous and innocuousoverlay, pu驚�ing and wheezing in amonochromatic haze.“The breeze, it’s killing us” a voicespoke.“Don’t you see?” The voice replied“It can’t get much better than this”. By  Zac Khatziagelis - Year 10

Congratulations Stella Tufuga in Year8. Stella was a State Finalist at theYouth Frontiers State Awards in theEnvironment Section. You Gotta Bin It to Win It A passion for the environment broughtStella's attention to the large amountof rubbish at her school. To bringawareness and initiate change in thebehaviour of her fellow students,Stella planned a rubbish collectioncompetition. Using the rubbishcollected, Stella created a litter citymural to represent what she felt likethe city would look like if behavioursdid not change. A time lapse of themural and a video of the classcompetition was uploaded to socialmedia via YouTube.' Youth Frontiers is a program thattargets Years 8 and 9 students, with thecapacity to benefit from youthmentoring that focuses on leadershipand civic engagement. Every year,more than 1,200 young people willhave the opportunity to participate inthe program.

 

Congratulations Madeleine  Consolino-Bouzaid in Year 9, winner of the MentalHealth category at the Youth FrontiersState Awards. I'm OK now - RU Presenting to a Year 5 class, Madeleineran an interactive workshop where shespoke about her personal experience

of being bullied. The aim of theworkshop was to advise the studentswhere to go and who to phone for help

when being bullied or needingassistance with mental health orconfidence issues. Youth Frontiers is a program thattargets Years 8 and 9 students, with thecapacity to benefit from youthmentoring that focuses on leadershipand civic engagement. Every year,more than 1,200 young people willhave the opportunity to participate inthe program.

 

Youth Frontiers

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