Newsletter

No. 10

20 June 2016

Inside this issue:

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Gold Day was a great success. We raised about $1200 from the sau-

sage sizzle which will all be donated to our choice charity: Camp

Quality.

We chose Camp Quality not only because it allows kids with cancer

to live and enjoy life, but because it was one of the things our dear

friend Noah loved. Noah mentioned that when he grew up he want-

ed to be one of the leaders there so he could help kids who had can-

cer like him.

The Magic Tournament also ran where each participant put in some

money towards Camp Quality. Magic was a game that Noah greatly

enjoyed, especially as it was something he could do even when he

was sick. His enthusiasm for the game was a great contributor to the

foundation of the Magic Club, and in his honour the tournament will

run yearly around Gold Day.

All in all Gold Day has allowed, and will continue to allow, the Pre-

fect Group and school to come together and celebrate Noah's life, as

well as raising money and awareness for other children suffering

from cancer.

DATES FOR THE DIARY

27 June Table Tennis State Finals, Sydney

28 June-1 July DHS Musical - The Pajama Game

30 June Year 7 Catch-Up Immunisations

1 July NAIDOC Assembly

1 July Last day Term 2

19 July Students return to school for Term 3

Publication of this newsletter is made possible through the generous support of the

Duval High School Parents & Citizens Association.

Page 2 Principal’s News

Page 3 From DP Desk

P&C News

Year 9 Textiles

Page 4 DHS Work Experience Programme

Page 5 8X Personal Development

Music Eisteddfod

Page 6 State Dance Ensembles

Eisteddfod Successes

Tennis

Bill Turner Cup

Page 7 Duval in Pictures - Gold Day

NSW Knockout Health Challenge

Page 8 The Pajama Game

GOING GOLD

FOR NOAH

More Gold Day

photos on page 7

Year 12 Prefect Group

20 June 2016 Page 2

PRINCIPAL’S NEWS

Today I‟m going to focus on the

positive things that have been

happening lately, and give out

some big votes of thanks.

Firstly, thank you to all of our stu-

dents and staff for supporting

Gold Day and by so doing, helping kids with can-

cer all over NSW. Childhood cancer is a terrible

thing, and it affects everyone in the community

when it happens, as we all know from our own

experiences. All we can do is try to beat it, and

the only way to do that is by supporting research

into beating cancer. Every little bit helps when it

comes to this, and Miss Mancell tells me we

raised some $1200 yesterday! Well done!

Thank you to all the students for their efforts in

attending school regularly. The numbers won‟t

mean much to anyone except the statisticians, but

our goal is to maintain 90% attendance across the

school throughout the year. Currently, Years 7

and 12 are leading the way on 89.09% attend-

ance, closely followed by Year 8 on 88.09%. Like

most things, Duval High School leads the way in

attendance, having a better average than other

local schools or the State average. It‟s just anoth-

er reason why our children should be proud of

themselves and their school.

I want to thank students also for showing their

school pride by wearing their uniform every day.

Whether they like it or not, people in the commu-

nity judge a school by how its students present

themselves, often ignoring the actual achieve-

ments those students might make. That‟s just the

way of the world. Someone once told me that

people will have an opinion about your school,

and not be afraid to voice it, despite never once

having set foot in it! That‟s not fair, but all we can

do to combat it is to do our best, and represent

our school well every chance we get. Whether

we like it or not, the state of our uniform is how a

lot of uninformed people will judge us and our

school by reflection. So I‟m always very proud

when I see students wearing their uniform with

pride, because I know this is an excellent school,

and that‟s all that counts.

Speaking of representation, thank you to every-

one who has represented the school in one way

or other during the last month, either academical-

ly, culturally or on the sporting field. There are

just too many to mention individually, but I do

want to acknowledge the efforts of the Girls Open

Football team, Regional Champions after their

win over Narrabri, and give commiserations to

the Boys U-15 side after their narrow loss to Kari-

nya last Thursday in their Regional Final. The

girls had a very close match, but thoroughly de-

served the win on penalties. Mrs Rajaratnam tells

me that she is very proud of all of them, and we

wish them luck in their next match, a home game

against a Sydney team. For the boys, Mr Model

tells me that Callum Ferguson and Mitchell Styles

were the standout players as centre-backs for the

day, and also received an email from the referee

commending the whole team on how well they

conducted themselves! Well done to all of you for

reaching the Regional Final in the first place, and

there‟s always next year! I also want to thank Mr

Flynn for all of his efforts with the Rugby League

teams, especially for the carnival on Wednesday.

A huge thank you to everyone who is involved

with the school musical, “The Pajama Game” - Mr

Myers, Ms Walsh, Ms Labrosse, Mrs Pearson,

Miss Mancell, Mr Grafton, and Mr O‟Baoill. I‟ve

probably overlooked some people and I apolo-

gise for that, and all of their teams - and let‟s not

forget the marvellous cast - who have put in ex-

tensive hours of their own time to make this show

a success, and they all deserve our congratula-

tions and support! I sincerely hope all of you plan

on attending either the matinee or one of the

evening performances!

Lastly, I want to thank Ms Cotton and the Transi-

tion Team, and all who have taken part in the

Year 7 2017 Transition program, including the

latest round of „Taster Lessons‟ on Thursday. Our

Year 7 group for 2017 looks like being a big one

again, probably over 120-strong, and the fact that

our numbers continue to grow helps us to keep

teachers and facilities open for each and every

one of our students. Our enrolment is currently at

560, 50 higher than last year. For every extra stu-

dent we have, we receive extra funding to em-

ploy more staff and purchase more resources for

our children.

So let‟s all do our best to always give the best

possible image of our school to outsiders, even if

it means doing without our beloved hoodies on

school days!

Mr Stafford Cameron

20 June 2016 Page 3

FROM THE DP DESK

I came across this link that could

be helpful to parents and carers

in understanding more about the

teenage years. This is what they

say about themselves -

ReachOut is Australia’s leading online mental

health organisation for young people, providing

practical support to help them get through eve-

rything from everyday issues to tough times.

Since 1998, ReachOut has worked alongside

young people to deliver online tools that ad-

dress youth mental health and reduce youth sui-

cide. An extension to ReachOut’s service for

young people was launched in 2016 to help par-

ents and carers improve the mental health and

wellbeing of the young people within their fami-

ly environment. Available anytime and pretty

much anywhere, ReachOut.com is accessed by

110,000 Australians each month.

So, if you'd like to have a look at ReachOut, here

is the parent page link

https://parents.au.reachout.com/

Mrs Sandra Rosner

P&C NEWS

The Duval High School P&C would like to thank

all those who have already volunteered to help

with front-of-house and catering for the upcoming

musical production,”The Pajama Game”.

If you would like to also help we will need more

helpers at intermission for Wednesday and Fri-

day nights of the production. If you are able to

bring along biscuits, cake, slices, brownies and

scones to be served at intermission on Wednes-

day or Friday evening, they will be very grateful-

ly received. All funds raised will go towards fu-

ture musical productions at the school.

We would like to thank THE FOOD SHED for the

irvery generous donation of a beautiful hamper

towards the raffle. Other donations to the raffle

are very welcome.

Please contact Sally Lucas for more information:

david.k.lucas@bigpond.com

P&C Committee

YEAR 9 TEXTILES

Year 9 Textiles have been designing their own

line of fashionable bags as part of their major

project. The students all chose their own fabric

combinations and design features. Some includ-

ed pleats, pin tucks, appliqué and ribbon trim on

their designs. All have done an exceptional job

with their efforts and accuracy. Well done all!

Mrs Munday

20 June 2016 Page 4

DHS WORK EXPERIENCE PROGRAM - EXPLORING CAREER OPTIONS

As part of the Year 10 Career Education program,our students have the opportunity to participate in a

work experience program. Work experience is organised with the purpose of assisting students to gain

skills and knowledge in an occupation or industry of their choice. It is an opportunity for students to de-

velop work related skills and form networks within our local community.

Work experience can provide:

insights into what a job involves

structured, supervised, hands-on experience

useful work skills that are recognised in the workplace

confidence in their ability to learn and become competent at new tasks

work/life skills, such as communicating effectively, or working in teams

a chance to demonstrate how they can contribute in a work environment

an understanding of the world of work

an opportunity to demonstrate commitment and reliability

a new referee to add to their resume

an employment opportunity - either casual, part-time or full-time

The positive feedback I have received from local and non-local employers has been overwhelming.

Congratulations to all the students who have secured casual employment as a result their work experi-

ence program.

I am proud of all our Year 10 students for their involvement, commitment and exceptional behaviour

whilst on work experience. I hope you have all developed many valuable work related skills.

Mrs Hardman

Careers Advisor

Page 5 20 June 2016

8X PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT:

HEALTH INTERACTIVE LESSONS

Year 8X have been learning about growth and

development throughout Term 2. This week, they

were very excited to welcome four Year 9

mentors: Vaishnavi Pradeep, Kate Jones, Georgia

Vaughan and Hadi Hussain to show the class the

puberty board games which they produced as

Year 8 students.

Year 8 enjoyed the interactive and fun learning

experience. Year 9 mentors were great teachers

and positively developed the understanding

around the topic in an enjoyable but educational

manner.

MUSIC EISTEDDFOD

On 7th June over 100 Duval students studying Music had a wonderful day performing songs that they

had learnt in class over the year. All students performed well and are to be congratulated on their out-

standing efforts and performances.

Highlights were the Year 12 Music class winning the senior section, Year 9 the intermediate, and 7X

second in the junior section. Lucy Portell and her band of Bailey Patterson, Marley Lynch and Brodie

Kelly won the junior section and received 2nd and 3rd in the senior section of the popular bands with

Freddie Heslin, Shandra Moens and Taylor Rose Embleton a second in the junior section of the popular

bands. All groups and classes received a place on the day.

Congratulations to the Choir, Orchestra and soloists on their wonderful eisteddfod performances on

the day.

Mrs Pearson and Mr Myers

Mrs Vaughan

20 June 2016 Page 6

STATE DANCE ENSEMBLES

Congratulations to Patrick „PJ‟ Ferris (Year 11) on

his selection to the State Aboriginal Dance En-

semble, and further congratulations to Elayna

Moens (Year 11) on her selection into the State

Dance Ensemble.

Mrs Pearson

EISTEDDFOD SUCCESSES

Georgia Vaughan (Year 9) has been working

hard on several drama and speech presentations

for the Armidale Eisteddfod. In the 15yrs-23yrs

age group, Georgia took out the overall champi-

onship award. This award is a combined point

score of three events: Character Sketch-solo,

Verse Recital, and Public Speaking-Prepared

Speech. In total, she gained two firsts, three se-

conds and a third.

She also achieved positive re-

sults in the dance eisteddfods at

Inverell and Armidale. Georgia

won the overall Song and Dance

Championship with a collabora-

tion of three performances with

songs from Chicago, The Sound

of Music and Mary Poppins, gain-

ing first place in all three events.

Georgia has gained selection into Hunter School

of Performing Arts, a huge achievement following

years of hard work and dedication in the field of

Performing Arts under the tutelage of Mrs Walsh

and Mr Myers.

TENNIS

Congratulations to Freddie Hes-

lin who was selected as a shad-

ow NW Representative in the

Open Boys Tennis Team .

BILL TURNER CUP

On Thursday the 16th June, Duval High School

played Carinya Christian School for the second

year running in the regional football final.

From the team line up before kick off it was clear

that the Carinya side had a distinct size ad-

vantage over the Duval boys. However, it did not

deter the Duval boys from utilising their superior

ball skills, by scoring the first goal of the match

and going into half time with a goal advantage.

Carinya kept pressing hard and playing long

balls, which kept the Duval full-backs under pres-

sure. Duval had 2 great opportunities mid-way

through the second half to go 2-nil, but some

scrambling in front of goal by the Carinya back

prevented the ball from hitting the back of the

net. With 13 minutes to go before full time

Carinya scored an equaliser taking the scoreline

to 1-1. For the next 10 minutes Carinya continual-

ly attacked the Duval goal, but to no avail due to

some exceptional defending from Duval.

AT full time the match was to go into golden point

time, where every 5 minutes a member from

each team would come off the field. Golden time

started with both teams working hard to create

chances but neither getting a full blown oppor-

tunity on goal. Halfway through golden goal time

fatigue from quelling Carinya‟s attacked late in

the second half set in, with Carinya eventually

scoring a well worked goal to win the regional

final 2-1.

Congratulations to all team members who played

with a positive attitude and showed that you don‟t

have to be big and strong or in Year 9 to play in

the Bill Turner Cup. All you need is to work on

the basics of ball control and passing, and to

have a can-do attitude.

Mr Model

20 June 2016 Page 7

OUR CULTURE YOUR HEALTH STRONG COMMUNITIES

NSW KNOCKOUT HEALTH CHALLENGE 2016

JULIA YOUNG CHALLENGE Do you want to lose some weight?

We are looking for 25 people who are committed & dedicated to a

10 weeks WEIGHT LOSS Challenge.

Registrations open 20th June to 1st July

Starts 4th July — 16th September 2016

For more info contact Amanda

@ Healthwise on 6771 1146

DUVAL IN PICTURES

- GOLD DAY -

20 June 2016 Page 8