JJCMHS WINGS ISSUE NO. 1, 2020

From the Principal

Welcome to 2020 I am very excited about where our school is right now.

We have a highly skilled and dedicated teaching staff

and I value the important work that they are doing. I

have visited classrooms and am very happy with what I

am seeing - engaged students and focused learners.

Our literacy and numeracy program for Years 7 and 8

has commenced and is in its second year, providing

intensive literacy and numeracy support for our students.

We have met with our local primary schools to discuss

how we will work together this year to build learning

partnerships.

These partnerships were evident last year when we had a

collaborative end of year performance hosted at our

school with Gardeners Road Public School and Mascot

Public School.

Continued Page 1

What’s on?

10 March – Zone Swimming Carnival

13 March – Zone Basketball Trials

20 March – School Photos

25-27 March Year 7 & 9 Camp

31 March – Parent-Teacher Night

Safe and Respectful

Sutherland Street, Mascot 2020 PH 02 9669 5118 EMAIL jjcahill-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au WEB www.jjcahill-

h.school.nsw.edu.au

Our school is committed to supporting families beyond the school gate. That is why we have committed to

employing a family referral service social worker, Amaia. Her role is to support students and families with

tangible social, emotional care and provide real supports to link families and students to services.

Parents and Citizens Association

Our P&C met on Wednesday 19th February. Thank you to all the parents who attended. I apologise for moving

this meeting back a week. I realise that the meeting clashed with Mascot Public School and that this impacted

upon some people’s ability to attend.

Our P&C will meet twice per term in Week 3 and Week 7 on Wednesday from 6:30pm to 7:30pm.

Here are the dates for the rest of the P&C meeting for 2020:

Term 1 - 11/03/2020

Term 2 – 13/05/2020 and 10/06/2020

Term 3 – 05/08/2020 and 02/09/2020

Term 4 – 28/10/2020 and 25/11/2020

We value the involvements of parents in our school. Coming to the P&C meeting is a great opportunity to get

involved. We discussed fund raising for 2020 and decided that we would support a P&C run barbeque for Big

Night out in term 2 and a trivia night. One of the goals for the P&C it to become incorporated this term. I hope

to see you at the next meeting.

Large Maintenance works, upgrades and school improvement projects.

We have been fortunate to gain approval for some significant maintenance works for our school. Many

classrooms will get new carpet and be re-painted. The entry foyer and hall will be recarpeted, nearly all down

pipes and gutters will be replaced, and the exterior of the Technology building will be painted (this is the

building on the right as you enter the school).

On another note, the storms that we had a few weeks ago have resulted in leaks and damage to carpets and

ceilings. The music rooms were hit most, which has been a challenge for our music teachers and students. The

work is currently being assessed and will hopefully be rectified quickly. We were by no means one of the worst

hit schools, with 39 schools having to close as a result of the rain.

Last year we funded the development of a collaborative learning space. The room has been fitted out with

advanced computers and very large monitors so that we can effectively deliver Multimedia. The room has also

been equipped

with the large

television and

interactive

whiteboard and

new flexible

furniture. It will be

trialled by teachers

this year who want

to create links

between different

subjects and team

teach.

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE CONTINUED

We are currently doing the final fit out of our mindfulness room. We envisage this room to be used for wellbeing

and mindfulness activities including Yoga. It can also be a calm space for students to use before big exams or

to reflect and ‘re-centre’. Down the track I would like this to be utilised with the community for yoga classes or

even as a meeting space.

We added our 2 large Aboriginal Murals last year which have lifted the school. We also added created

colourful and tactile walls in our support unit. Thank you, Melisa Ryan, for this work. This year we will purchase

flags for all or our many cultural groups so that we can have a flag ceremony to acknowledge, value and

respect our school’s diversity.

Last year we asked students and staff to identify people who embody our school values. We are currently using

those choices to be part of two large murals that celebrate the heroes of JJ. These will be installed over the

large concrete walkway that is visible from the street. More on this to follow.

Thank you,

Ralph David

Principal

WELCOME TO A NEW YEAR

To begin I would like to welcome everyone to another school year and a warm

welcome to all the new families and students in the JJ Cahill Memorial HS

community.

WELCOME TO JJ

The year at JJCMHS has begun with a great feel in the playground and in each classroom. We have been

privileged to welcome many new enrolments at the beginning of 2020. The most pleasing thing to see is the

successful transition each new enrolment has had in to their new learning environment and the way they have

been accepted and welcomed into the school by their peers. This tell us the amount of time we have spent as

a school over the last few years teaching students about developing positive and respectful relationships has

been very much worthwhile and well received.

We will continue to communicate and deliver our commitment to Positive Behaviour for Learning and the

impact this has upon people’s lives. Already we know it is making a difference in student learning and

willingness to engage in learning in the classroom.

PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS

Please mark in your calendars Tuesday 31 March for Parent Teacher Night. Information will be sent home soon

providing parents with an opportunity to use the parent portal on the school’s administration platform, SENTRAL,

to book interview times with teachers.

John Mifsud,

Deputy Principal

SOME WORDS FROM MR MIFSUD

NEWS FROM THE SUPPORT

UNIT

Ms Stathis’ SU2

class and their

highly textured

Valentine’s Day

3D artworks

inspired by

Dominic

Pangborn’s

lithograph

‘Abstract

Poppy’

And some comments from the students!

ARMANDO – “It’s about people falling in love. It began in a church. The church didn’t allow the priests

to be in love because they had to be faithful to God and the church. The symbol of Valentine’s Day is a

red heart”

MAX – “I gave my artwork to my sister, Alice. She liked the picture and she told me it was wonderful”

BAHRAM – “I gave my artwork to my pet goldfish. I put it outside the aquarium and I think my goldfish

really liked it”

MONTY – “Making the artwork was very enjoyable. I used coloured tissue paper to give a 3-dimensional

feeling. The artwork was mounted on cardboard when I finished it”

SAUD – “I gave my artwork to my mum. She really liked the poppy”

HAKIM – “I gave my Valentine’s Day artwork to my whole family – my mum, dad, brother, and sister. We

all went to a restaurant to celebrate”

MICHAEL – “I gave my artwork to my Yiayia and Pappou (my Greek grandparents). They said they liked

it!

Open Boys Basketball

Congratulations on a great performance by our open boys’ basketball team who won their round one

knockout game against Cronulla High School 50 points to 25.

Our opponents for the round 2 game are the students from

Sydney Technical High School.

Volleyball

Our girls’ volleyball team (top right) put in a great performance at the recent central venue knockout

competition held at Menai. The girls beat Heathcote first game and gave St George Girls’ HS a good shake up,

only narrowly losing the game by a few points.

Our boys’ volleyball team also put in a great performance in their round one knockout game at school against

Newtown Performing Arts HS. The game was tight the first two sets with each team winning a set each, however

JJ took the win convincingly in the third set.

SPORT NEWS

The boys then progressed to the central venue competition at Sydney Olympic Park where they drew the most

professional team in the competition, Sydney Boys’ High School. The boys were a bit intimidated at first but then

managed to compose themselves and focus on their own game with a gutsy performance, which proved

somewhat successful where they we were able to win roughly every third point. Despite going down in the

second round, the team then played friendly games against other schools and revelled in the competitive

atmosphere.

Zone Touch Football Trials

Our boys’ and girls’ touch football teams recently attended the Eastern Suburbs Zone trial games. Both teams

played well, and this was a great opportunity for the boys to get some experience before competing in their

round one knockout game to be played in the near future. The girls played their round one knockout game

against Alexandria Park Community School as the first game of the trials, and unfortunately could not match

their opponent’s strong performance. The trial day aims to highlight individual students who are performing at a

high level, and to encourage these selected students to attend the Sydney East trials.

Congratulations to Peter Syed who was selected on the day.

Zone Football Trials

The Eastern Suburbs Zone Football trial games were held on 2nd December 2019 for the girls and February 7th

2020 for the boys (in very wet conditions). The boys’ trials were postponed in December last year due to poor air

quality from the bush fires.

Congratulations to Alexia

Charalambous, Esra Sevgin,

Aisha Ors, Peter Syed, Kaan

Yilmaz, and Arda Lok who

were selected and are now in

the Eastern Suburbs Zone Team

to compete at the Sydney East

Football trials in March.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN TAS?

Year 12 VET Construction All students continue to competently complete their latest Cluster D Concreting

Task, where they are involved in completing a “School Project of Concreting”.

They seek out a potential job site with the assistance of their teacher – this time

it’s the building of a concrete slab at the rear of the library - where the

construction of the School’s Garden has already started. This concrete slab will

be the footing for the 3000 litre (or 3000kg) water tank – which will provide the

garden with a sustainable and free source of garden rain water for plant life.

In class, students also complete theory lessons on these competencies:

• Erect and dismantle formwork for footings and slabs on ground

• Apply basic levelling procedures

• Carry out measurements and calculations

• Carry out concreting to simple forms

• Read and interpret plans and specifications

The images below show the students working. It was a hot day which is actually a good day to mix and pour

concrete as it dries quickly. The day after the slab is poured it is safe to remove the timber formwork and safely

lock the timber and screws away in the shed.

The slab is usually ready 28 days after pouring (the time taken for the concrete to set in average conditions). It is

now safe and ready to hold a 3000 litre/tonne water tank!

The rain has fallen recently, and given growth the grass which will be removed inside the school garden area. It

continues to be ‘a work in progress’!!

The JJ Garden Project!

Work is well underway in the planning and completion of each stage of our project, involving Mr Morris and a

number of teachers and students. It is anticipated that walkway ground cover of decomposed granite and

planter box soil, combined with irrigation of sustainable water tank rainwater, will see this garden operational by

2020 midyear, well before Spring.

Year 12 Vet Construction students have recently completed the concrete slab (see the information and photos

above)to support the 3000 litre water tank (3 tonne in weight, the weight of 2 small Toyota cars !) These students

will also assist in further construction work in the garden area. Other gardening students helping with the build

do so during Wednesday afternoon sport. Bahram, Louis, Louis, Norhan and Oliver are seen in the images

below using the schools cordless impact drills that screw together the first of nine sleeper/planter boxes - that

Ameer of Year

12 completes

the measuring,

levelling and

positioning of

the timber

formwork.

will form the major part of our new school garden. The students are looking forward to planting and maintaining

the garden after it is operational.

AND IN HSIE…

Year 12 Business Studies students attended Taronga Zoo on the 28th February as part of their course work

on Marketing. Students took the opportunity to engage in real world learning and complete the “It’s Zoo

Business” workshop. Students were given the opportunity to investigate the main elements involved in

the development and implementation of Taronga Zoo’s successful marketing strategies and use the Zoo

as a business case study. The day was both informative and highly enjoyable for the students.

Petros Goudis, Teacher, HSIE