T H E F O R T N I G H T LY N E W S L E T T E R F R O M G A L S T O N H I G H S C H O O L 2 0 2 0 T E R M 1 W E E K 2

2019 High Achievers’ Assembly...

Celebrating our 2019 HSC High Achievers...

Regularly at assemblies, as well as in the Grapevine, we talk about our students Achieving Excellence and Inspiring success. On Tuesday 4th February, our assembly exemplified this statement with the return of our year 12 2019 High Achievers. For many of our current senior students, it was a reminder to them of how close they are to fulfilling their HSC ambitions and for them it was an inspiration to see and speak to these high achievers.

There were 4 High Achiever awards presented at this assembly:

Dux of year – the recipient of this award is the student who achieves the highest ATAR score in the year group

Distinguished achiever – the recipients of these awards are the student/s who achieve an ATAR score of 90 or above

Band 6 – the recipients of these awards are the Student/s who receives a band 6 in any subject.

Outstanding Achievement for Intech/ArtExpress/Encore selection – the recipients of this award are selected to have their major works at a state wide presentation for Industrial Arts and or Visual Arts

Bryce HayesDux 2019 Academic Award for Band 6 in Mathematics and Mathematics Ext 1Academic Award for Band 6 in Beginners JapaneseDistinguished All Round Academic Achievement Award for an ATAR over 90

Catriona Pennock Academic Award for Band 6 in English Advanced and English Extension 1Academic Award for Band 6 in Visual ArtsDistinguished All Round Academic Achievement Award for an ATAR over 90

Ethan Marlow Academic Award for Band 6 in Mathematics and Mathematics Extension 1 – awarded in 2018 HSCDistinguished All Round Academic Achievement Award for an ATAR over 90

Damian Shahfazli Academic Award for Band 6 in Ancient HistoryOutstanding Achievement for OnStage SelectionDistinguished All Round Academic Achievement Award for an ATAR over 90

Savannah Skewes-Weir Academic Award for Band 6 in AgricultureDistinguished All Round Academic Achievement Award for an ATAR over 90

Ella Cashman Academic Award for Band 6 in Earth and Environmental ScienceDistinguished All Round Academic Achievement Award for an ATAR over 90Olivia Votano Academic Award for Band 6 in MathematicsDistinguished All Round Academic Achievement Award for an ATAR over 90

Celebrating our 2019 HSC High Achievers...

Mia Rowe Academic Award for Band 6 in DramaAcademic Award for Band 6 in Music 1

Colby O’Mara Academic Award for Band 6 in Industrial TechnologyOutstanding Achievement for InTech Selection

Jade Langley Academic Award for Band 6 in Community and Family Studies

Victoria Cullen Academic Award for Band 6 in Agriculture

Jessica Eltis Academic Award for Band 6 in Ancient History

Giorgio Novella Academic Award for Band 6 in Italian Continuers

Jiguo (Amy) Yu Academic Award for Band 6 in Mathematics

Bryce Hayes is Dux of 2019. Bryce epitomises the term “The Quiet Achiever”. Bryce has been a valued member of our school and is a great role model, particularly for students wanting to achieve academic excellence studying a broad range of subjects.

Bryce was accepted to UTS for a combined degree; bachelor of engineering and bachelor of arts in international studies.

His plan is to utilise this degree with his love of the Japanese language and culture for future job prospects.

We welcome Bryce to reflect on his time at Galston High School and how he achieved his success.

High Achievers Speech – Bryce HayesGood morning everyone. First of all, thank you to everyone who has attended the assembly and given me the opportunity to give this speech. I'd like to start out with a strange rhetorical question, what is normal? Perhaps the best way to answer this is what we perceive as normal is just relative to what we most commonly experience in our own individual lives, but what is vitally important is that we don't become blinded by the conventions of our own 'normal' lives as this can restrict us to help share our knowledge and help teach others. I feel I am in the fortunate situation coming from scoring average to below average near the beginning of high school, and gradually making changes to improve over time. I've tried my best to pin-point most of these vital factors which have contributed positively to my school experience, which I hope I can effectively share with you today. After much thought, I believe the opportunity of giving this speech is the main privilege of receiving the title of dux, as a difference of a couple of ATAR points would have still allowed me to go to university. So I hope I can use this opportunity to share my experiences and assist current students.

First of all, I'd like to note that I've decided to refrain from listing out or suggesting specific study techniques for 2 main reasons. The first reason is that no study technique will actually benefit a student unless they personally decide to implement it in their own time. The second, and more significant reason is that different techniques

work for each person, and I could suggest some study strategies hoping that there are students here who would benefit from this, however I also believe that there is a certain sense of satisfaction found in developing your own strategies purely accustomed to your own unique needs. Of course it's good to be inspired by others' study techniques, but even so it is your own discovery and recognition of this new technique that can be applied to your strategy that makes it unique. This is compared to me telling you "do this, do that", and you becoming a study minion, which is boring, no one wants to do that.

The main focus of my speech today is to plant core concepts by discussing ideas which I hope will encourage you to find your own way to achieve your personal best at school. A quick word of warning, this speech gets quite philosophical quite quickly, but even though it may seem over the top, this is about life, and school is just a step in life that if you have rationalised your perception of the world, can be natural procedure that can be taken with minimal struggle.

Talent:The first concept I'd like to talk about is talent. We tend to look so highly of people we consider to be talented, but realistically we are all human and capable of the same things. So why is it that we have this concept of talent?

I might start off by defining talent as essentially a certain sense or skill that someone has on a subconscious level which allows them to somehow know what to do or how to do something. We might often say "this person is just better at it than me". In my view, I believe that this sort of sense is developed through a combination of one's environment and their experiences. For example, if we perceive someone as being "good at maths" and we say that they were "just born that way", it's not like a newborn comes into the world being able to solve complex integrals (for example), however, the combinations of experiences they have in their life leading up to their schooling career may influence them to approach these sorts of problems naturally. So unless there is some way of us to know every single experience in someone's life, we shouldn't disregard and resort to talent as the most simple explanation.

This is fine, but what sort of experiences are we talking about and how do they contribute to the development of a sense of talent? Really it can be anything which is relevant, from practicing whatever skill it may be on a physical level, to considering the absolute essence of the skill and it's relation with other concepts. But ultimately, to gain talent we need to develop this sense we've been talking about so that we approach situations to find a solution in the most effective manner. This really just comes from being comfortable with the concept at hand which is developed through extensive exposure of the skill with a matter of time.

We must also have a mindset that captures the essence of the skill and associated emotions, which I believe at this level, is fair to say

is developed to the point of talent. Seeing as this is developed through increasing our experiences through a matter of time, if there is some new thing you wish to learn or skill you want to gain, the best time to start is now (or maybe, after this assembly).

The point of all of this is to say that we shouldn't be misled and confuse talent with a convenient exposure of experiences from a young age, and we all have a stronger control of developing our own talents than we may think; if you refine your experiences in life to things that will be beneficial, and deeply consider the reasoning behind a range of situations, you will be able to find further meaning and create linkages between ideas you may have never originally thought possible. I can't give a specific example as this is unique to everyone, but it is an idea I strongly encourage you to reflect upon.

Furthermore, as an additional point to make, sometimes the most genius of ideas can almost randomly come from some specific and sometimes obscure light bulb moment. The more people we have thinking, the more likely it is that these ideas will sprout and we will be able to share them with everyone else, so I encourage you to be a thinker and believe in your ideas as equal to everyone else's.

Now that we are a bit more familiar with this perspective, we can investigate some of the implications, so now you don't have any excuse for not trying right? Honestly, from this perspective, I think the main idea to reconsider in the context of school is the concept of comparison. To some extent, I believe it is good to have a little competitiveness between friends to help bring everyone up which is great, however I think realistically, most of us also have a sense of comparison with the 'top students' which in more cases than not, negatively effects our ability to achieve as that thought comes up "there's no way I'll ever be able to be as good as them". My strong recommendation is to not compare yourself, and focus on relative improvement with yourself.

For example, one key thought that I keep in mind when taking on exams is that the real opponent is the exam and that it's just me and this paper, and it doesn't matter where I am or who I'm with but I'll just try my best, and I think this also really helps with nervousness as well as keeping you calm.

You might want to consider the simple analogy of a running race; even though someone else happens to be ahead of you, who's to say they aren't walking while you are running? Don't feel discouraged and let the person in front of you slow you down from achieving your best time if you were by yourself.

In school, at the end of the day, in terms of comparing yourself to someone who happens to be ahead of you, you can either:a. be discouraged and not study as you believe there's no way you'll be at their levelb. disregard this as in external factor and purely focus on your self-improvement by studying, even just for a little bit

Celebrating our 2019 HSC High Achievers...

In the end, the net result of deciding to not be discouraged by others means you do in fact improve, even if it's by the tiniest bit and you gain one extra mark. This means you've made a positive impact to yourself which is a great thing and continuing on this path of improvement at a consistent rate is all you will need to achieve whatever you dream of. Of course being inspired by others' achievements to push a little further is also a good thing, however we must also be aware of the positive improvements we are making to ourselves rather than only focusing on others, and whether this is a sustainable long-term strategy is up to you.

Levels of understanding:With this talk about talent and understanding, I would also like to talk a little bit about knowledge vs understanding, or 'levels of understanding', if you will. As we should be familiar with, knowing is simply the skill of recitation; you were told that the effect of 'a' is 'b' and you are able to reproduce this answer when prompted with the question.

Understanding is a little deeper, in that when we understand a concept, we are usually able to create a linkage to some simple analogy which is easier to understand, and arrive at the new concept through means of derivation. However I also believe that we should not just stop here, as there is some deeper level, which I couldn't think of a name for so I'll just call it further understanding, where you understand a concept on such a fundamental level that you start to question variations and further applications. It is at this point that we should be comfortable explaining the concept to someone else who has almost no previous knowledge of the concept.

To demonstrate this, I'll use the simple analogy that I think we can hopefully all understand, which is adding. For example, if you needed to know how many blocks you would have if you had 2 then added another 3, 'knowing' would be if a teacher told you if you had 2 and added 3 you would get 5, and you recite this fact. 'Understanding' would be if you took this question, and imagined the situation in your head or counted with your fingers and you arrive at the same answer using a physical application. However once someone is comfortable with the concept of adding, you will realise that adding blocks is the same as adding pens, or tables, and you start to question variants, such as: What if you add 4 instead

of 3? What if you reverse the action and subtract? These are the important questions that bring us to further ideas. This may seem like a silly analogy, but it is something that we can all understand and its applications are profound in that we can follow a certain train of thought that will lead us to further concepts which we may originally have thought are not related

Study:Something that I thought about often towards the end of my final year of high-school is the concept of study. More specifically, I was questioning what even is study as I believe that in some aspects we are lead to misunderstand what study is really about. Literally speaking, you might define study as something you do to learn about or increase your understanding of a subject, but in the context of school, I think it is better to define it in terms of its purpose, i.e. why do we study?

At a base level for most people, we study in order to perform better in an exam compared to how we would do without studying. To achieve this, ultimately what we want is the ideal conditions in an exam to do our personal best. These conditions may vary from person to person, so in order to find what works for you, you should sit and imagine yourself in the exam room and ask yourself what you think would be most beneficial. This can be anything really, from feeling energetic and awake, confidence, understanding of the content etc. For example, if someone wants to feel well and awake while they're taking an exam, does eating well on the morning and sleeping well the night before count as studying? I don't know, perhaps it does in this context but the main take away is that studying doesn't always have to be about hitting the books and boring yourself to death while in a room alone as many people imagine.

This naturally brings about the concept of balance as if what you are doing is truly beneficial for yourself at the time, you don't need to keep track of the hours spent doing a certain task and switch to take a break while following a schedule (which can sometimes be even more exhausting), and you can do whatever task you want to in order to achieve your goal in the medium term.

This sounds great and all, but it does require some mental strength to resist temptations and actually get down with the hard work

Celebrating our 2019 HSC High Achievers...

when necessary, but once you are confident you understand all you need to for an exam, the only further thing you can do is enjoy yourself to be in a good physical and mental state to take the exam in. Again, in terms of actual techniques to study school content, it varies from person to person, but the one of the best ways to make study easier, which many people ignore is to actually understand the concept from the beginning, when it is being explained to you in the classroom.

The next part of advice that I think will be particularly beneficial to younger students in Year 7-9, is that if you don't understand your teacher's explanation, just ask them! I'm sure you've heard this before, that there is probably another few students in the room wondering the same thing, and you benefit all of them when you ask the question, but furthermore, if you're feeling embarrassed to ask a question, you'll probably remember it better if you ask in front of the class, why not!? After all, if you really want to remember something, there's not much better you can do than to make an awkward or embarrassing memory that comes along, you'll never forget that, honestly! Even if people laugh, you'll be the one laughing when you can easily recall the answer in the exam so just ask your teacher if you're ever unsure.

Getting back to study techniques, there is one final point I'd like to make, which is we can all find our own techniques that work best for ourselves if we put our mind to it, but this does require some sense of interest or motivation in the subject. We can become more motivated through setting goals or rewards for ourselves, and really it's probably best to think of your own, but I believe something that is even more powerful is actually having a genuine interest in whatever you're studying. Imagine your favourite hobby, something you know the in's and out's of and love to do in your spare time, if you had an exam about this it would be great wouldn't it? You'd easily ace it and the whole chore aspect of studying is taken away as it's something you just do in your spare time.

Now if we can emulate this sort of passion for school subjects, it would be ideal right? Theoretically, yes, but at the end of the day you are your own person and shouldn't revolve your life around school, so the best we can do is to with an open minded approach with no negative biases from what we hear about school, slowly begin to understand and appreciate the beauty of each subject from a unique perspective. I suppose this does require an optimistic view, by taking in all the good while ignoring the bad, but if we can simply appreciate what we are learning, even if it doesn't become our hobby, there is a whole new level of motivation that will come with it, and we won't dread learning about the subject, making studying and your whole school experience just that much more positive. And don't forget, your teachers are the ones who actually do have these subjects as their hobby, and they understand all the beauties of learning about that subject so genuinely listening to your teachers is the best way to grasp this sort of perspective and once you've obtained an interest, it can only go uphill from there.

Celebrating our 2019 HSC High Achievers...

Good morning everyone. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of this land and to pay my respects to elders both past and present, and to those present here today.

It is my very great pleasure to welcome our parents, families, staff and students to today’s High Achiever’s Assembly for the 2019 Higher School Certificate. A very special welcome back to our class of 2019 – we are delighted that you could take time out from your hectic schedules to be here today.

Whilst we hold this Recognition Ceremony today in honour of those students who have achieved extraordinary results across the full range of HSC subjects, we also wish to publicly acknowledge to our students, parents and school community, how very proud we are of the outstanding achievements of the entire 2019 Year 12 cohort at the Higher School Certificate.

The HSC is only one measure of a graduate’s success, and HSC statistics only tell part of the educational passage that students undergo throughout their years at our school. It is important to remember the development of character, citizenship, creative thinking and confidence, the formation of lifelong friendships, participation in the creative and performing arts and undertaking leadership roles. All of these traits prepare our students to be the future leaders of our community.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge our teaching staff for their dedication, expertise and outstanding work with our senior students. As educators, the teachers of Galston High School are privileged to work with some very exceptional young people.

Over the past six years at Galston High School these students have contributed significantly to school life and we thank them for the way in which they embodied the school’s values of Respect, Responsibility and Personal Best. They have worked diligently to realise many different leadership, social, and community initiatives as well achieving academic excellence at the HSC. The Class of 2019 was able to maintain a high level of academic performance whilst balancing busy schedules of extracurricular activities, part-time employment and for some, a busy social life.

Highlights of the 2019 HSC include:Dux of the School, Bryce Hayes, achieved an ATAR of 94.65.Seven students achieved ATARs above 90 – Ethan Marlow,

Principals Speech

So in conclusion, I hope that what I've said today while discussing talent, understanding, and study has inspired students to reconsider and find new motivation to have a more positive take on school or personal life. Again, thank you all very much for listening and enjoy the rest of your day.

House Point Leader Board

42 Points

68 Points

108 Points

42 Points

Bryce Hayes, Catriona Pennock, Ella Cashman, Savannah Skewes-Weir, Damian Shahfazli, Olivia Votano

23% of students achieved Band 6 results (mark of 90 or higher) placing them on the NESA High Achievers List, compared to 12% in 2018.

73% of students scored at least one subject above 80 marks (Band 5 or higher) compared to 52% in 2018.

We achieved 114 x Band 5 results compared to 74 in 2018.

36% of subjects achieved Band 6/E4 scores

97% of subjects achieved scores in the top two performance bands (Band 5 and 6) compared to 79% in 2018.

100% of subjects achieved Band 4, 5 or 6 scores

Results in 20 subjects were greater than or equal to State Mean compared to 16 last year.

39% subjects above state average in top 2 bands

61% subjects above state average in top 3 bands

These results continue to be important benchmarks indicating the broad strength of our curriculum offerings at Galston High School. They also reflect many hours of study and preparation on the part of the students, dedication to excellence in the classroom by their teachers and the support and love of their families.

These results demonstrate an outstanding achievement for a fully comprehensive coeducational high school.

We wish the Class of 2019 all the best for their future learning, careers and pursuits as they continue to strive for excellence in all aspects of their lives.

Celebrating our 2019 HSC High Achievers...

This Week

Monday 10 FebruaryYear 7 Best Start Assessment periods 1-4Year 9 Trial Naplan periods 5-6

Tuesday 11 FebruaryYear 9 Incursion - Olympics Unleashed 1.45pm - 2.45pmYear 9 Trial Naplan periods 1-4Year 10, 11 & 12 Onstage Excursion

Wednesday 12 FebruaryMinimum Standard Testing Years 11 & 12Year 10 Assessment Information Evening 6.30pmYear 11 Assessment Information Evening 7.30pmSydney North Girls & Boys Volleyball Trials

Thursday 13 FebruarySydney North Senior & Junior Tennis Trials

Next Week

Sunday 16 FebruaryGold Duke of Ed Practice Walk

Monday 17 FebruaryGold Duke of Ed Practice Walk

Tuesday 18 FebruaryYears 7 & 9 Parent Assessment Information Evening 6.00pm - 7.00pmP&C Meeting 7.30pm Wadell Learning CentreGold Duke of Ed Practice Walk

Wednesday 19 FebruaryGold Duke of Ed Practice WalkSchool Photos

Thursday 20 FebruaryGold Duke of Ed Practice Walk

Friday 21 FebruaryGold Duke of Ed Practice Walk

Still to come

Monday 24 FebruaryZone Swimming Carnival

Wednesday 26 FebruaryPhoto Day - catch upNSW All Schools Triathlon

Thursday 27 FebruaryNSW All Schools Triathlon

Sunday 1 MarchStudent Leadership Camp

Upcoming Events

2020 Year 11 and 12 Edrolo courses and classes are live and ready to start using.

Edrolo is a 24/7 online resource featuring video-based learning that students can use to reinforce their understanding, get ready for exams, come to class more prepared, or even catch up if away from school.

Edrolo is made available free to all

Galston High School students and covers the following courses:

ScienceBiologyChemistryPhysicsInvestigating Science

MathematicsMathematics StandardMathematics AdvancedMathematics Extension 1

HSIE & ReligionEconomics NEWGeography NEWBusiness StudiesLegal StudiesAncient HistoryModern History

Year 7 have completed their digital readiness program this week, giving them the core skills to utilise their device at high school.

Remember, students are required to bring their device to school every day, fully charged.

Drivers should look out for children who are crossing the road or waiting to cross. Lights flash on buses to warn motorists that buses are picking up and dropping off children. By law, a driver must not overtake or pass a bus with flashing lights at more than 40km/h.

Lights begin to flash when the bus stops and the doors open, and they keep flashing for about 20 seconds after the doors close. Children are most at risk in the minutes after they get off the bus

You must slow down to 40km/h when bus lights flash

PEPDHPECommunity and Family Studies NEW

EnglishEnglish StandardEnglish AdvancedEnglish Studies

To activate Year 11 and 12 account on Edrolo

1. Go to www.edrolo.com.au/galston-high2. Follow the instructions3. You will receive a confirmation email from Edrolo - click on the activation link4. You’ll then be logged into your account

2020 PREMIER’S ANZAC MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

The NSW Office for Veterans Affairs (OVA) administers the Premier's Anzac Memorial Scholarship (PAMS) which funds an international study tour for a group of young people. Scholars learn about the causes and effects of world conflicts and visit the battlefields where ANZACS have fought, to learn about and commemorate their service. They will travel in October holidays next year to Singapore and Greece. Students will visit battlefields where Australians fought, as well as significant historic sites and memorials. They will learn about the scope and nature of warfare in the First and Second World Wars, and commemorate the service of Australian men and women in these conflicts.

Galston High School is pleased to announce we are one of 20 schools who was successful in the ballot.

1 student from Year 11 or Year 10 2020 will be awarded the scholarship by the OVA and attend the tour. PAMS supports the NSW curriculum and students who are studying Modern History will gain the most benefit from attending the tour. Eligible students must be in Year 11 or 10 next year and be 16 years of age. Eligible students have been told about this exciting opportunity and are starting to work on their pieces of work that must be submitted as a part of their application. Their work will focus on answering the question: How did the scope and nature of warfare change from the First to the Second World War? Explore in relation to two or more of the following: weaponry, medicine, communications technologies, transportation, mechanisation.

For those wishing to know more please see the website; https://www.veterans.nsw.gov.au/education/

premiers-anzac-memorial-scholarship/ or contact Mrs Lamont Head Teacher Humanities.

STUDENT SELECTION PROCESS

1. OVA has provided the selected schools with the PAMS student information booklet to be shared with the student body and their parents.

2. Eligible students submit scholarship applications to their school.

3. Schools shortlist applications and hold interviews with students.

4. Schools complete a selection panel report and forward three (3) candidates to OVA for consideration.

5. OVA assesses the panel report and candidates applications.

6. OVA selects one (1) student per school to be awarded a place on the PAMS 2020 tour.

Prefect Report...

Help Support Year 12 2020 as they raise funds this Valentine's Day.

Buy a card for $2,

a rose for $3, a cupcake for $4,

a singing telegram for $5, or sweep them off their feet with the

whole package for $10!

Love is in the air!Welcome back to 2020!!

Week 1 and 2 back at Galston High School after the summer holidays have been pretty eventful with the annual swimming carnival, Year 7 camp, Year 7 Digital Readiness days and the High Achiever’s Assembly all happening within the first two weeks.

The swimming carnival this year had high attendance and overall was a great day for all year groups, this was Year 7’s first taste of house spirit and even though they may have felt like the smallest students in the school this didn’t stop them from entering races and earning points for their respective houses

Year 7 camp was on the 3rd of February to the 5th of February and this a brilliant opportunity for Year 7 to meet their peers and some teachers who were in attendance at the camp.

Valentine’s day is coming up where students can purchase serenades or roses for that special someone. This event sounds like fun and games but all the profits go towards the Year 12 charity of choice or to the end of year formal for Year 12, so it would be greatly appreciated for students to get involved this Valentine’s day.

Teaching someone to drive can be a happy experience.

Helping learner drivers become safe drivers

Come to a FREE two hour workshop full of practical advice and information for parents, carers and supervisors of learner drivers completing the Graduated Licensing Scheme.

The next workshop in your area will be held:

TIME & DATE: VENUE: BOOK NOW ON:6:30pm to 8:30pm

Thursday 5 March 2020

Hornsby Shire Council Chambers Building 296 Peats Ferry Rd

Hornsby

Online via: www.trybooking.com/BGILA

(02) 9847 6856 Bookings Essential Proudly supported by