HOMEBUSH BOYS HIGH SCHOOL

Term #01

2012

Bridge Road, Homebush 2140 Phone: 02 97643611 Fax: 02 97463614 www.homebushbo-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

BUSH BULLETIN HOMEBUSH BOYS HIGH SCHOOL

Editor: K. Attwood

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Term #04

Term #04

Term #4.1

YEAR 12 GRADUATE AND THEN TAKE ON

THEIR HSC EXAMSAt the end of term three our Yr12 students graduated from their final year at high school. The students were farewelled at a special assembly with parents, carers and friends. There was much relief, happiness and a little sadness that this part of their life’s journey was com-ing to a close.

Their next hurdle is for some serious study time to prepare for their HSC exams. We wish the boys every success and hope they receive the results that will give them the opportunity to further themselves in whatever endeavours they take on.

Yr12 students relax at their graduation ceremony

Yr12 down to the real business of their HSC exams

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PRINCIPAL’S REPORTParents and Citizens (P&C) Support. The school benefits greatly from the magnificent support of our involved and articulate parent partners. The P&C , led by Ms Simone Burton (President), is a great contributor to school programs, especially the Instrumental Music program (IMP), by donating funds to school to ensure a high quality and diverse curriculum is maintained. On Friday 19 October, P&C Treasurer, Ms Anita Kumar, handed me a cheque for $18,000 for school programs. This is a wonderful assistance for the boys. Thank you to all the P & C.

P&C also support the voluntary contribution program with a letter mail out to all families. Again this has been fabulous-ly successful with over $8000 raised by the generosity of our families. I thank all who contributed to this contribution and assure you that all funds will go to teaching and learning programs.

Thanks to all the parents and students who gave up their weekend to beautify the senior lawn on 13 October. This P&C organised gardening bee saw 25 parents and 30 students don their gloves and dig, weed, mulch and prune the gardens abound the senior lawn. The day culminated in a barbecue with all the meat donated by Mr Bardouh. It was a great day for the school with the newly elected prefects leading the students in what was very hard but very rewarding work.

The International Music Program (IMP) continues to grow. Our orchestra is currently rehearsing for the Director’s Choice 2012, a regional celebration of student, staff and community achievements, on Thursday 8 November at Sydney Olym-pic Park Sports Centre. This is also a celebration of the “1st” birthday of the IMP under the leadership of Ms Tracy Burjan, the inspirational director of the IMP.

Our dedicated P&C along with some staff assist at our gardening bee

P&C Treasurer Ms Anita Kumar hands over a cheque to Mr Jurd

Band leader Daniel Parkee with IMP conductor Ms Tracy Burjan and our school orchestra

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Our year 12 is currently sitting the Higher School Certificate and our best wishes are with them. At the conclusion of term 3, the school farewelled year 12 with a huge assembly at which the band performed the National Anthem, with Rio Kang leading the singing. Along with speeches from the outgoing school captain Phillip Siomos, the vice-captain Ali El-Kheir and senior prefect Tim Mitry. Their speeches were responded to by the incoming captain Scott Worthington, vice-captain Perrin Tasker and senior prefect Nayan Bhathela.

One of the highlights of the morning assembly was the opening march by the Drum Corps who led the entire year 12 into the Fig tree quadrangle and the conclusion led them back to the Northern Quad. The many parents who came to the as-sembly said that this was an impressive and emotive way to start and finish this part of the celebration.

Year 12 and parents then went to the assembly hall for the official graduation ceremony. The school presented each stu-dent in the grade with their graduation package and celebrated the prize winners in academic, sporting and co-curricular areas of the school. Again the student leaders Phillip, Ali and Tim gave moving speeches celebrating their time at school and thanking the staff for their efforts to help the graduate.

The highlight of the ceremony came when the prestigious “1st in Form’” was announced. This year there were two ties. Equal 3rd place went to Lachlan Foster and Brendan Trinh with equal 1st to Phillip Siomos and Derek Wong. We know that these fine young scholars will do extremely well in the HSC and ATAR.

The final phase in the graduation culminated in a beautiful lunch for year 12, their parents and their staff. This was a won-derful gathering by a cohesive community. The extraordinary lunch was catered for by the Hospitality staff and students.

We were overwhelmed by the success of the day with the outdoor activities complemented by the beautiful spring weather. These events do not happen without a great deal of work and Deputies Caitlin Dwyer and Kamie Khurshed worked tirelessly to make the day a success for the students and the parents.

The Drum Corps leads Yr12 onto the graduation ceremony

Mr Jurd, Ms Chapman and Mr Innasi with our school leaders Ali El Kheir and Phillip Simios

Parents of Yr12 students eagerly await the graduation ceremony

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The year 7 and 9 students received their NAPLAN literacy and numeracy assessments in the final week of term 3. Although the NAPLAN is only a “snapshot” of how our students are progressing, it adds to the bank of knowledge we have on our students and we use the data to 1. Refine our teaching programs and 2. Develop learning plans for stu-dents. This analysis is led by the Literacy and Numeracy team and the Learning Support team.

To look at some of the school results is interesting because it supports our direction in our teaching and learning pro-grams. The following table shows our school average standardised scores compared to state average

School Mean (State Mean)

7 9Reading 533 (547) 572 (580)

Writing 520 (521) 546 (558)

Spelling 567 (555) 602 (587)

Grammar/Punctuation 544 (553) 585 (579)

Numeracy 573 (546) 649 (595)

Data 569 (545) 640 (592)

Number Patterns Algebra 573 (546) 662 (597)

One of the most important measures is “Average School Growth” and this is very pleasing. The table below shows how well our students have “grown” in their reading and literacy.

Percentage of students achieving greater than or equal to expected growth

YEAR 7 YEAR 9Reading 50.3% 67.6%

Numeracy 68.5% 82.5%

Quite clearly our priorities are to address Reading and Writing capabilities whilst maintain and strengthening the numeracy capacity. Our NAPALN results show our learning programs support the needs of our students, most of who come from a non-English speaking background. Numeracy is an area of strength which continues to be strengthened.

Finally we look forward to our students’ HSC results in December. They have already achieved excellence such as Daniel Collis ‘ Long Tan Leadership Award and our wonderful results in the UMAT tests. This test is developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) on behalf of the UMAT Consortium universities. The test is used specifically to assist with the selection of students into the medicine, dentistry and health science degree programs at undergraduate level at the universities. Well done to Frank Day and Manovarman Selvanathan.

Have a wonderful term 4 and a well deserved summer break.

Tim Jurd

Yr12 students and their families enjoy lunch after the graduation ceremony A slightly emotional Ms Chapman gets support

from Ali and Phillip

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Mr Jurd congratulates School Captain Phillip Simios on a great year

Daniel Parkee, Matthew Lee and Lachlan Foster play a musical item at their graduation

Mr Simon Ford, Ms Simone Burton, Ms Fiona Murray and Mr Nick Miller were special guests at the Yr12 graduation

The Official party at the Yr12 graduation Daniel Collis recieves his ‘Long Tan Leadership’ award from Mr Jurd

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18 October 2012

Principal Jurd Homebush Boys High School Bridge Road Homebush NSW 2140

Dear Principal Jurd

Workshops for parents and supervisors of learner drivers

An important component of the Graduated Licence Scheme is that all learner drivers under 25 years must complete a minimum of 120 hours supervised on-road driving experience prior to presenting for their provisional P licence.

RMS and Strathfield Council are holding a free two hour workshop to offer practical advice to parents and supervisors on how to help learner drivers become safer drivers. This workshop will provide information about:

Understanding the current laws for L and P licence holders. Completing the Learner Driver log book. Understanding the benefits of supervised on-road driving experience. Supervising learner drivers.

The details of Strathfield Council’s upcoming workshop are as follows:

6:30pm Wednesday 7 November at

Strathfield Community Centre, 1B Bates Street, Homebush.

Please bring the workshop to the attention to your staff, parent organisation.

Please find attached a JPG version of an advertisement promoting this workshop for inclusion in your school newsletter if possible. Posters and flyers for display in the foyer and other locations around the school are also available by phoning Elisabeth Sacco on 0449 247 495.

Bookings are essential and should be directed to Kym Warner, Road Safety Officer, Strathfield Council on E: [email protected] or P: 9748 9619.

Thank you for your assistance.

Yours sincerely

Elisabeth Sacco

RMS presenter for Strathfield Council

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English Faculty ReportAs the year draws to its inevitable conclusion, I would like to recognize some excellent achievements over the past term or so. Congratulations to Ms McGuinness and her Year 11 deabting team for reaching the region’s (Western Sydney) final. A wonderful achievement by the coach and the team. Well done. We wish Ms Yong and her Year 7 debaters in their zone final to be held this week (week 2) against Model Farm. A fantastic effort by the coach and the team.

The results for the English, Writing and Year 7 Spelling Competitions arrived late last term. The English Competition, which was yet again well patronised, had some 20% of the participants were successful in achieving a credit or a distinction. The recipients of the Distinction and Credits certificates in the three competitions Yusuf Ali, Jeremy Xeng, Denis Mulya and Benjamin Nguyen from Year 7; Domenic Yates, Jun Wei Kha, Samuel Mansfield, Gabriel Prosser and Daniel Wan from Year 8; Panayioti Constanti from Year 9; Akhilesh Dhanekula, Hamish Swanson and Dillon Halder from Year 10. Congratulation to all the award recipients and thank you to all who entered these competitions in 2012.

With Year 11 students beginning their HSC course, I must emphasise the importance of a regular and constant approach to all their courses, not just English. The HSC exam will come around very quickly and a steady study programme is crucial in the long run. As well, students MUST ‘use’ their teachers more often when they need further assistance or explanation of aspects of the course.

Can I again remind you of the importance of reading at home regularly! Your son should be reading for at least 30 minutes per night. With the holidays approaching fast, there is no better, or cheaper, activity your son can do than to read as many novels as he can. He should choose novels he enjoys, but the novels should also be a bit challenging for him.

Cheiban Elaro

HT English Yr 7 DEBATING

The Year 7 Homebush Boys debating team have performed extremely well in the Premier’s Debating Challenge 2012. As the Winners of our Zone, Yusuf Ali, Ibrahim Taha, Benjamin Nguyen, Wilfred Knight and Peter Koungoulos competed suc-cessfully against Auburn Girls High School and even our own Homebush Boys Year 8 debating team. They were Runners-up in the Quarter Finals of the Western Region to Model Farms High School.

Ms Yong

The team have shared their experiences with debating this year. What is your favourite part about debating? By Peter Koungoulos

The best part about debating is the opportunity to interact and compete against fellow students from other schools. It is a privilege to represent Homebush Boys and it allows the school to show case the highly talented students that form the various debating teams. Although only a few students are selected to participate in the program, the chance is open to anybody interested in debating and public speaking. There is always a sense of accomplishment when you win a debate, however whether you win or lose, it is still tons of fun!

What has been the most interesting debating topic so far and why? By Ibrahim Taha

The most interesting debating topic so far for me would be ‘ Music videos should be banned on morning T.V ‘. The reason it’s the most interesting debating topic is because there are so many arguments that pop up in my head when reading this topic, and it took me 10 minutes to understand this topic before I could start my debate.

What is the greatest challenge in debating and how do you overcome it? By Wilfred Knight The greatest challenge in de-bating, at least in my eyes, is creating a good speech which is not too long or not too short. As well as this, you must stick to the guidelines given, so your team cannot be challenged about it later on. This includes a coherent model, usually a teamline, coherency with your other team’s speeches, and a good definition. If you do not have these things, your debate will fall apart, and you will most probably lose. Overcoming this challenge requires good time management, communi-cation with your team, concentration, and being able to help your team and work together. To sum up all of this, all you need is teamwork to be successful in overcoming most challenges in debating.

What advice would you give to students who experience anxiety when public speaking? By Yusuf Ali The fear of public speaking is one of the most common phobias in the world.

Everyone has had to deal with it at one stage such whether it being talking in front of your class, grade or even the school.

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However as daunting as public speaking may sound there are many ways to conquer the anxiety which comes from it. Rehearse, and I mean a lot! The more you rehearse your speeches, the more you become confident and used to them, thus less likely to become frightened. You can rehearse in front of the mirror, friends or others. Once that big moment has come you will look more prepared and will think to yourself, “I’ve done this before, I’m ready.” Deep breaths always help to calm you down. It’s good for you and keeps you composed. Make sure you breathe deeply just before you are called up to get yourself ‘in the zone.’ Ms YongEnglish Teacher

Ms Yong with the Winners of our Zone, Yusuf Ali, Ibrahim Taha, Wilfred Knight, Benjamin Nguyen and Peter Koungoulos

On the Tenth of August this year the Homebush Boys Year 11 Debating Team consisting of Alex Feofiloff, Gagan Jalandhra, Perrin Tasker and Scott Worthington with Coach Ms. McGuinness, went to UWS Parramatta Campus to compete in the 2012 Regional Finals Series of the Premier’s Debating Challenge. The team made it to the finals after gruelling debates against a variety of different schools including Arthur Phillip, South Strathfield and Penrith High school.

The final debate was a battle between titans and the topic was ‘Should Australia have another federal election due to the Carbon Tax?’ Homebush took the affirmative stance on the topic. It was neck and neck until the opposing teams from Penrith were just able to edge ahead.

The teams were awarded trophies by the Dean of the Law Faculty at UWS. Homebush was awarded second place, and the Dean remarked on the high quality of all speakers involved. The day ended with tea and sandwiches and all in all every-one had fun!

Yr 11 DEBATING

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Prefects 2013Our Prefects body has decided to contribute to HBHS through the establishment of 3 main groupings. The Prefects want to actively participate in school life and have a presence across the school community. We are sure they will all be exemplary in their endeavours and no doubt will display their organisational and leadership skills across a range of activities and opportunities available at HBHS.

The areas are School Service, Community Relations and Mentoring, Tutoring, Peer Mediation. Those involved in each group will help in the organisation of specific events. All Prefects will have the opportunity of participating in any group’s activity if they desire. Scott Worthington, our school captain, is already viewing calendar events for Term 4, 2012 and for the 2013 year and we already have a number of prefects who have volunteered for the numeracy men-toring project established by Ms Edwards.

We have a committed and enthusiastic bunch of fine young men!!

Mr Kamie Khurshed, Deputy Principal

Ms Janelle Horiatopolos, Prefect Co-ordinator

PREFECTS 2013 ROLES

School ServicePerrin Tasker IC

In School promotion and partici-pation

· Assembly (All)· Carnivals- House Groups· School Competitions· Assembly Presence (ALL)· Anzac Day Assembly /

School Ceremony· Parent / teacher Evenings· Performance Evenings· Year meetings· Canteen Roster· Liasing with SRC· Year 12

Students

Dean Bardas, Gagan Jalandhra, Dylan Kang, Anthony Loc Phan, Steven Luo, Christopher Wale, James Ford, Alexander Filippoy

Community RelationsNayan Bhathela IC

Co-ordinates and facilitates re-lations between the school and wider community

· Promotion of HBHS· Anzac Day Activities-

outside school· Year 7 Orientation· Citizenship Meetings /

Activities· Prefect afternoon teas· Year 6 Open Day· Charities- Red Shield

……..· P & C Activities· School Council· Support Local initia-

tives- Council…..· IFTA· Promoting connections

with other schoolsStudents

James Burton, Rowan Castro, Serge Houlias, Leandros Pan-doulis, Ibrahim Saker, Riley Tasker, Peter Totidis, Leonardo Pane

Mentoring, Tutoring,Peer MediationScott Worthington IC

Assists Welfare initiatives and promotes relations with the student body

· Assembly Presence (All)· Harmony Week· Refugee Week· Multi-Cultural- student

assistance· Literacy / Numeracy

Groups · DEAR· Assisting Year Advisors· Anti-Bullying Mentors· Tough Guise program· Promotion of Prefects

as mentors and buddies in junior years

Students

Henry Tran, Charles Brian, Am-brose Hill, Sebastian Rosser, Andrew Chen, Alexei Feofiloff, Cameron Murray, Celalacan Eyvaz

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LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ENGLISH FACULTY REPORTTerm 4 began with yet a new face in the LOTE staffroom. Mrs Zammit has joined the elite group of Language teachers this term, replacing Mrs Gabor who has taken long service leave. I would like to take this opportunity to wish Mrs Gabor all the very best during her time off.

Mrs Zammit brings with her an abundance of experience and enthusiasm, as she mesmerises her students with fun-filled Year 7 LOTE and Year 8 French classwork and even has been heard to break out into a French or Italian tune! Boys- be aware, Mrs Zammit can sing! Join in and challenge her with European songs- “The Voice” may have a new contestant in 2013 and maybe she can be joined by one of her Language students!!!!!

The H.S.C examinations have begun with William Wu being the first LOTE student to face his Chinese Heritage paper. All the LOTE staff wish Year 12, 2012 all the very best in their examinations. May they take from our efforts all they need for a successful performance. Beyond H.S.C is a big world, full of many opportunities-grab them and hold on tight. Enjoy the ride boys!

At the time of writing, teachers are busy assessing, marking and reporting on students. The Year 11 Preliminary reports have been completed. I was very impressed with the performance of most students and the grades attained. As we believe in the LOTE Faculty, their results reflect the level of aptitude, dedication and study habits. Congratulations to the following award recipients in Year 11. These students will be acknowledged at this year’s Presentation Evening which will be on the 17th December, 2012.

Dong Hyun Lee

Il Tae Park

Min Suk Yang

1st in Korean Background Speakers 2nd in Korean Background Speakers 3rd in Korean Background Speakers

Burney Yin Ho Wong

James Ford

Rowan Castro

1st in Italian Continuers

2nd in Italian Continuers

3rd in Italian Continuers

Kyo Ho LEE 1st in Italian Beginners

Jie Yang

Yupuchan Du

Cheng Huang

1st in Chinese Background Speakers

2nd in Chinese Background Speakers

3rd in Chinese Background Speakers

Mark Shen 1st Chinese Background Speakers-Life Skills

Year 12, 2013 has begun for the above three cohorts as they prepare to face the challenges the H.S.C next year. Ms Yu is very excited about our first Stage 6 H.S.C Korean class- the class of 2013. Korean “Gangnam style” she calls them! Let’s hope they “take off” like the superstar!

Year 7 Language students have been asked to select a Language of their choice for study for 2013. Mrs Gilchrist is compil-ing the summary of selections and I will report on these in my next submission. All Stage 4 & 5 LOTE classes are continuing their coursework which will also include interactive activities using “Languages on-line”. This program aims to promote the study of Languages through progressive on-line scheduled work that aims to increase understanding and reinforce classwork, at the student’s own pace. This ICT initiative together with EDMODO remains the focus for Term 4.

Year 8 French, Italian and Chinese classes have been very busy working on assessments, bookwork and cultural projects. Although course work has NOT ended, the following students are to be congratulated for their performances. They, too, will be acknowledged at this year’s Presentation Evening. Well done boys!

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Arun THEAGARAJAN

Ty CHOE

Emmanuel VARDAKIS

Equal 1st in French

3rd in French

Tony MEI

Justin TRINH

Yifei ZHAO

Equal 1st in Chinese

Oscar VERRELLI

Dominic YATES

Hugh BLACK

1st in Italian

2nd in Italian

3rd in Italian

A few reminders….

The following tenets remain in the heart of all dealings in our classrooms in 2012.

· Come prepared for every lesson. Make sure you are punctual, have all resources and have completed all neces-sary homework tasks.

· Participate in all language classes. Italian, French, Chinese or Korean classes are NOT for spectators only.· Make sure you are using your DIARY to record homework, incomplete class work, assessment tasks, projects

and any other reminders· Abide by the LOTE Faculty classroom rules· Abide by the HBHS Student Code of Conduct and· Respect the learning in ALL classes.· As Richard Branson (Founder of Virgin Australia) says, Just do It, Have Fun, Be Bold, Challenge Yourself,

Stand on your own two Feet, Live the Moment, Value Friends & Family, Have Respect!· For parents, once again, please feel free to contact me at school, if you have any queries and/or questions

regarding your son’s language studies at HBHS. I will try to assist you in any way possible.

Personally, I had the opportunity of participating in the Hanban Confucious Institute program during the September holidays. These workshops were conducted in Beijing, China and I was one of 139 teachers chosen from Australia and New Zealand to attend the 7 day program. The program focussed on introducing non-mandarin speaking executives to the resources and strategies used in the teaching of Chinese students.

Below is my daily diary account of Beijing September, 2012. Hope you enjoy the snippets of my experiences and my photo account.

Beijing, China: September 23rd-29th, 2012

Day 1 - Monday 24th September, 2012.

Dear Diary,

Arrived in Beijing 2 am Sunday morning local time after a very interesting 14 hours air travel, including a 2.5 hour stop-over in Ghuangzhou. I have not met anyone I know yet, but I have seen many faces carrying the same paperwork as me and looking very tentative in a hot and very foreign country. Check in and breakfast scheduled for 7 am.

Yes, I did make breakfast and met my first friend- a Greek lady from Randwick Girls. Now I have someone to hang around with.

Opening ceremony at the Beijing University was interesting. Very formal. Met the Professor of the Uni and the President of Hanban in Beijing. Also, finally put a face to the name Irene, the lady from Sydney, coordinating our program. Lunch at “The Good Luck “restaurant-nice name, then off to the Forbidden City. WOW!!! What an experience. Walking around with another new friend, Principal from Epping Heights Primary school, we were in awe of the grandeur, the architec-

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ture and the history of this fascinating group of temples, housing and lifestyle of past Chinese Emperors. I am grateful this is now open to the public!

On the bus again and off to the Beijing 2008 Olympic site. The Birds Nest was spectacular and I took a moment to take in what it would’ve been like at its time of glory. I am truly blessed to be having these experiences.

Day 2- Tuesday 25th September, 2012.

Dear Diary,

A bit frustrated this morning. Unable to stomach my breakfast and disappointed that Facebook is NOT possible in China. I am unable to reach my family. Well hope they realise-NO news is GOOD news. Must learn to SKYPE!

Met 5 new friends today, all from Sydney. A little older than me but we enjoyed our calligraphy workshop and our first lesson on “Speaking Chinese” . Ni hao everyone! Xie xie for reading my diary entries! This afternoon’s adventure was Tianammen Square- not on the official program. BUT we (my new Sydney friends and I ) decided to use our map reading skills and brave the subway experience and get to this site. Slight problem-all maps are in Chinese and locals speak VERY LITTLE English.

Even a wet, sandal free (they broke after walking 4 hours in the rain) and extremely crowded afternoon did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm of this fabulous place. The 6pm lowering of the Chinese flag ceremony was an added bonus. I LOVE China!

Day 3-Wednesday 26th September, 2012.

Dear Diary,

The Heavens opened up and bright blue skies were on order for our long awaited, highlight of the trip- climbing the Great Wall. WOW. WOW.WOW.WOW!!! Get the picture? I now know why The Great Wall is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Breathtaking, spectacular and jaw opening…….I climbed 600 steps with two of my 5 new friends from Melbourne. (Happy to have met a group of teachers closer to my age!). Many photos that hopefully capture my feelings and the best day so far. Didn’t think the Peking Duck restaurant would beat it and I was right. How can anything beat this magnifi-cient historical and tourist attraction of China. I was happy to climb down but one of the ladies (who claimed she was not scared of heights) started feeling the altitude and we decided to take the cable car. Was it a better alternative? Only slightly. The string was thin and the car was swaying from left to right despite absolutely no wind outside. The first time I was scared…really scared. But we made it to the bottom. A bit of market retail therapy also helped to ease the nerves.

A well earnt Chinese massage was worth every one of its 139 Yuan (approx. $20 AUS for 110 mins)! Finding a French patis-serie with real cappuccinos added to this perfect day! Guess where I’m going for breakfast tomorrow morning??

Day 4-Thursday 27th September, 2012.

Dear Diary,

The Wedome French patisserie was well worth the 25 minute walk and the cappuccino was up to standard. Luckily the owner allowed us to point to the menu behind the register, to pick our coffee and delicious pastries! Felt I walked off the calories after the walk back and the walk to the local government primary school. I was asked to follow a young, gorgeous looking Year 2 girl for a whole morning. I learnt all about the Apps she was using on her tablet and how to tweet, Skype and VC all around the world. As they say, young kids are born with technology in their blood. Every classroom we went in had IWBs and the teacher began the lesson with a 6 digit code that allowed all students to log onto to the day’s activi-ties, complete them and have them assessed by the teacher, all in the same hour. Wifi was quick, easy and a part of life for these 7 years olds. Student engagement was high and I made a new (much younger) friend. Thanks Liana. I hope you enjoyed your little soft koala toy and that you remember me every time you look and play with it.

Another dash to Tiananmen Square with my Melbourne friends this time and with better weather. Gee the locals love taking photos with tourists. They practically give us their kids to hug in photos! A bit scary at first, they just crowd you for attention and endless photos…..some of them are grown men! Also scary was the China bank experience to exchange money-paperwork galore! Don’t think I look suspicious?

More retail therapy in the afternoon-the Chinese silk market! A whole 6 floors of “good quality”copies. I was in Heaven! Four hours were NOT enough…I need to go back tomorrow. My Melbourne friends agreed. Back tomorrow after the closing ceremony. A planned shopping expedition-strategies discussed at dinner tonight and back at the motel, after the Karaoke Club-yes, it is confirmed. I cannot sing!!

Six hours of walking today and a very needy massage at the end of it. Thanks Jasmine!

P.S. Rang home tonight-Christian (my 10 year old son) is competing in the National Taekwondo Championships. Today’s

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results-4th in Australia in Poomsae and Team Poomsae- well done mate! Mum happy. Fighting on Sunday.

Day 5-Friday 28th September, 2012

Dear Diary,

Last day of the official program. Closing ceremony was wonderful. Formal occasion but a bit more friendly, now that I have met some new and lifetime friends. Certificates to acknowledge participation in 45 hours of workshops and a surprise panoramic photo of all attendees, taken on our first day outside the Beijing University (the place for most of our workshops). My friends signed my photo. I will put it up in my office at school to remember my experience and test my memory with names and faces!

Silk market retail therapy, second appearance, was every bit worth it. Got enough to keep my son and fami.ly happy. After 5 days seeing new places, meeting new friends and sightseeing, I am really home sick! Shed a few quiet tears.

Ready to go home, see my son in his sparring match and be a Mum! Final photos with Melbourne friends!

Thank you Hanban for this opportunity of a lifetime. Thank you God for giving me the strength to experience this!

Day 6- Saturday 29th September, 2012.

Dear Diary,

Thank you China Southern Airlines for the A380 airbus trip from Beijing to Guangzhou. Happy to be going home. Home sweet home. Teary farewell at the airport. Amazing how you can miss people after 5 days friendship!

Happy to see my family. And yes-Christian won the Gold medal. National Champion for the second year in a row. I ‘m proud of you mate. I’m glad I got back in time to watch the fight!!

P.S. Anxious to go through my 2000 plus photos and share the week with my family and my staff at work!

China- you excelled yourself!!

Dear Diary,

The week that was. A week to remember and a week to treasure-an opportunity of a lifetime!

Mrs Matina Shadwick

Head of LOTE Faculty

Beijing Hotel Chinese calligraphy

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Chinese kungfu Aboriginal artwork donated to the Beijing Musuem

Forebidden City temples Guard at Tianamen Square

Mrs Shadwick and a tradional celebratory drum

Mrs Shadwick climbs the Great Wall of China

Mrs Shadwick learning Chinese calligraphy

Tianamen Square

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SCHOOL CALENDAR 2012Week 5November

B5

678

9

HSC WRITTEN EXAMS to 8/11 Principal ConferenceSchool Council Meeting(6pm)Sport - Round 9 Period Rotation 1,2,3,4Director’s Choice Concert Rehearsal (all day) Director’s Choice Concert (Opera House 5pm)Year 9 Korean Excursion to Korean Cultural Office

Week 6November

A1213141516

ESSA Online - Year 8Sport - Round 10 Period Rotation 1,2,3,4SRC & Prefects Induction

Week 7November

B1920

21

22

23

Year 10 - AMOW ProgramYear 10 - AMOW ProgramParents and Citizens Meeting(7pm)Year 10 - AMOW ProgramSport - Round 11 Period Rotation 1,2,3,4Steven Herrick (poet) with 120 Yr 11 students Hall pds 3 and 4Year 10 - AMOW ProgramESSA on-line Year 8 (t.b.c.)Year 10 - AMOW ProgramWHITE RIBBON DAY

Week 8November

A26

2728

2930

Australian Business WeekCHS Waterpolo Australian Business WeekAustralian Business WeekSport - Round 12 Period Rotation 3,4,1,2Australian Business WeekAustralian Business Week

Week 9December

B34567

Sport - Home Period Rotation 1,2,3,4PSVA Morning TeaYEAR 7, 2013 - ORIENTATION DAY

Week 10December

Week 11December

A1011121314

B1718192021

PRESENTATION NIGHTMULTICULTURAL DAY - SRCSport - Home Period Rotation 1,2,3,4Year 9 campYear 9 camp

Last day for studentsSchool Development Day 4School Development Day 5

SUBMISSIONS TO BUSH BULLETIN

If you wish to submit a photograph or article to the BB please send it to Mr Kamie Khurshed email address:[email protected] for the Bush Bulletin at :[email protected]

Mrs Zammit preparing her lessonson computer

Mrs Shadwick visits Beijing University in China

Mrs Shadwick visits the Forebidden City in China

The view from the Great Wall of China

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MATHEMATICS COMPETITIONS 2012The students at Homebush Boys continue to participate in many mathematical competitions and enjoy great success in these. The high participation in mathematics competitions reflects the positive attitude most of our students have towards mathematics. Students like to be challenged and enjoy the thrill of success.

The Australian Mathematics Competition

The Australian Mathematics Competition, the largest mathematics competition in the world, was held in early August and over 500 of our students participated in this event. It was disappointing that this year’s competition date again fell in the middle of our year 12 exams and as a consequence these students were unable to participate. I would like to thank all teachers and students for their cooperation in ensuring that the day ran smoothly. The table below summarises our results.

Year C a n d i -dates

Prize High Distinction Distinction Credit

Junior 7 102 3 29

8 76 1 5 24

Intermediate 9 111 12 46

10 114 7 43

Senior 11 67 13 26

12 -

The following students (in order of merit) need a special mention as they were recognised as the top students in our school:

Year 7: Edwin Li, Jinhyung Lee, Jeff Chen

Year 8: Ty Choe, Anthony Wu, Dinesh Sritharan

Year 9: Seungyo Yeom, Edward Ye, Jiazheng Cao, Lalith Vudata, Matthew Qian

Year 10: Andrew Chau, Janarthan Kumarakuruparan, Rafid Sarker

Year 11: Shuaike Zhang, Daniel Lee, Akshay Singh, Anthony Ye, Keshavan Manokaran

The students below received merit certificates. The names appear in order of merit.

Year 7

Distinction: Edwin Li, Jinhyung Lee, Jeff Chen

Credit: Rajat Lal, Denis Mulya, Andy Wu, Sumon Majumder, Jacob-Jun-Aek Oh, Gabriel Prosser, Matthew Wong, Peter Koun-goulos Anthony De Pasquale, Hudson, Arjav Malla, Ganeshan Manoharan, Jafar Sartawy, Madhav Sunderram, Andy Tang, Divik Nigam, Nicholas Burns, Benjamin Nguyen, Jackson Coleman, Pradyumna Vedantam, John Bilsel, Hudson Perry, Kabiram Thevanesan Kathirkanth, Yusuf Ali, David Chen, Daniel Choi, Sam Kim, Walid Bahbah, Mohamad Farrpukh, Jer-emy Lopes

Year 8

High Distinction: Ty Choe

Distinction: Anthony Wu, Dinesh Sritharan, Jeremy Sum, Nicholas Jorgensen, Jun Beom Park

Credit: Tony Mei, Jonathan Shaw, Jathusanan Yogesan, Kaya Bremner, Adam Yoon, Sangwoung Yoon, Chao Wan, Khan Mil-ligan, Vincent Ngyuen, Zheng Sun, Yeonseo Choi, Seong-Gwan Kim, Pirannavan Kumaralingham, Oshi Barkat, Marcus Boroczky, Matthew Ho, Junyong Lee, Yifei Zhao, Eric Deng, Chris Lee, Johnny Qian, Harley Zheng, Kevin Kadamani, Daniel Wan

Year 9

Distinction: Edward Ye, Seungyo Yeom, Jiazheng Cao, Matthew Qian, Lalith Vudata, Adam Saker, Diyao Chen, Panayioti Con-stanti, Bain Zhang, Liam McLachlan, Elton Cheng, Eric Son Trinh

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Credit: Mahardhika Hidayatullah, Chul Woo John Park, Seongwon Yeom, Jianyi Zhou, Ramtin Momen, Daniel Yuan, Kevin Kim, Luckshun Selvarajah, Akhilesh Dhanekula, Hyungbin Ju, Allan Lai, Freeman Lin, David Su, Shashank Sasha Srikanth, Krish Kumar, Sonshin Yong, Yeun Su Kim, Shankaran Kiritharan, Daniel Lopes, Richard Nghiem, William Phan, Richard Tran, Victor Ding, Jason Mulya, Tianshu Bai, Momin Khan, Jonathan Wong-See, Sean Baek, Simon Cho, Jonghyeon Choi, Paul Kim, Keshavan Kiritharan, Daniel Jesuthasan, Deon Lin, David Sun, Dhrushil Brahmbhatt, Srinivas Byreddy, Nivedh Dwaraknath, Craig Miller, Vipullan Puvanendran, Joshua Shanthikumar, Vincent Chung, Jacob Efendi, Igor Gainulin, Vince Lam, Tarek Zraika

Year 10

Distinction: Andrew Chau, Janarthan Kumarakuruparan, Rafid Sarker, Jovan Tanu, Ryan Cuthel, Jona Gao, Muyun Zou

Credit: Sultanul Arfeen, Sunghoon Kim, Qi Yi, Andy Chen, Francis Shin, Scott Choi, Jordan Lin, Vidhushan Paheerathan, Mashrur Shan, Isaac Zhong, Vincent Christy, Danny Lee, Hongyi Harley Su, Jai Tamta, Siu Wai Sham, Chris Ko, Nathan Nguyen, William Nguyen, Rafid Noor, Henry Prentice, Adithya Sriram, Tao Wei, Paul Habashy, Dillon Halder, Ajith Iyappa-kumar, Finian Leung, Santosh Sapkota, Zhiyuan Ian Zhou, Kayin Chan, Murtaza Kanpurwala, Anthony Ming, Jimmy Gao, Anuraj Talati, Arjunasingam Abayasingam, Nicholas Everitt, John Heo, Seong Kyeong Yeom, Alex He, Tony Lee, Dilawar Gill, David Woo, Michael Choe, Gobickishan Parthibhan

Year 11

Distinction: Shuaike Zhang, Daniel Lee, Anthony He, Keshavan Manokaran, Akshay Singh, Burney Wong, Galen Feng, Adri-an Tang, Rouein Momen, Jiee Yang, Edwin Guo, Athi Thirunanthakumar, Michael Xu

Credit: Leonardo Pane, Nirushian Parthibhan, Bavithran Indrakumar, Steven Lee, Edmond Vuong, Edmond Dien, Nayan Bhathela, Zaheer Ebrahim, Cheng Huang, Matthew Yu, Brian Lee, Donghyun Lee, Harsharndeep Singh, Ahmed Mah-mood, Kai Ng, Jiekeng Pan, Hardikkumar Patel, Niruban Sivendra, Ibrahem Al-Atyyia, Koray Cetindag, Jinwoo Park, Kiie-ren Sritharan, Cheng Zheng, Steven Luo, Dylan Kang, Henry Tran

All the students who participated in this event need to be congratulated on their effort and the way they conducted themselves during the competition.

MATHEMATICS CHALLENGE FOR YOUNG AUSTRALIANSThe Mathematics Challenge for Young Australians targets the top 15 per cent of primary students in Years 5 and 6, and secondary students in Years 7 to 10. The Mathematics Challenge Stage (held during a 3 week period in Term I or II) comprises six problems for the secondary school students. Students take these questions home and are required to present written solutions to as many of these problems as they can. The problems are challenging and require time and persistence, but are based on mathematics which should be known at that level. All but two of the problems are to be attempted individually while the other two problems can be discussed in pairs before individual submission of solutions.

This year, 38 students from the junior secondary years attempted this prestigious Mathematics Challenge (organised by the Australian Mathematical Olympiad Committee and the University of Canberra). Congratulations to all the par-ticipants and thanks go to the Excellence Fund for the generous assistance. Mr Sivasothy needs to be congratulated on the time he spends coordinating this activity.

The results are summarised below:

Distinction: Mayun Zou, Jan Zhou, Fawaz Mahfouz, Krishnath Maharasa

Credit: Harri Jani, Kevin Kadamani, Sultanul Arfeen, Srinivas Breddy, Andrew Breddy, Praveen Jarasu, Murtaz Kanpur-wala, Gobickishan Parthibhan

As can be seen, our students show talent in mathematics and excel in activities beyond those encountered within the classroom.

Photos of all students that were awarded Credits, Distinctions and High Distinctions can be seen on the pages that show assembly awards and recognition of student achievement.

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Mathematics in Surveying ExcursionHave you ever wondered how early mathematicians calculated the radius of the Earth, in a time when satellites and probes were not yet launched?

On the 10th of August, a group of year 10 boys from our school were granted the opportunity to attend an excursion to Bicentennial Park. Along with our school, students from eight other schools were invited, and were present. During the excursion, our boys were given the chance to take part in various mathematical activities, of which one involved mea-suring the radius of the Earth. The main focus of the excursion was to promote and encourage students to step into the field of surveying. Hence, throughout the excursion our students worked with volunteer surveyors who encouraged us to use various tools and instruments from the past and present days.

Many primitive tools, which were used for surveying, were exhibited, including the calculator, the theodolite, chains and links. Imagine winding the lever of your car window. Entering a simple arithmetic question into one of the calcula-tor was equivalent to winding open a car window. It seemed simpler to use pen and paper than the calculator. Other instruments and devices used in surveying were also on display, including laser scanners, various compasses and incredible software.

Students took part in various activities and at the end of the day were each presented with bags, filled with valuable items. Students who had feverishly completed their booklets were startled to hear that it was optional. It was an enter-taining, informative and unforgettable experience.

Thanks to Ms K. Kaur and Mr Carrozza for organising and conducting such a wonderful excursion. We all simply enjoyed it.

By Adithya Sriram

Yr10 Maths students at their surveying excursion

Students check out the different surveying instruments

Term #4.1

201219

No Stopping•Stoppingisnotpermittedatanytime•Droppingofforpickinguppassengersisnotpermitted

Minimum penalty $298 and 2 demerit points

No Parking•Driversmaystoptodropofforpickuppassengersforamaximumof2minutes•Drivermustremaininorwithin3metresofvehicle•Vehiclemustnotbeleftunattended


Bus Zone•Stoppingisnotpermittedinabuszoneduringtimesofoperation


Double Parking•Stoppingnexttolegallyparkedvehiclesisnotpermitted


Driveways•Donotparkacross,oronadrivewayoranyothervehicleaccess.


School Zones•SchoolzonesoperatearoundallschoolsinStrathfieldbetween8-9.30amand2.30-4pmonschooldays.•Thespeedlimitis40km/hinschoolzones–pleasedrivecarefully.


SCHOOL ZONE PARKING

School zone rules are for your child’s safety. Please drive carefully around Strathfield. A safety message from:

8 - 92 4 40-

30AM

PMSCHOOL

DAYS

30

SCHOOLZONE

Understanding the rules

Penalties correct as at 1 July 2012

20Term

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FROM the Department of Education and Communities for HIGH SCHOOLS

HSC-university pathways

Talented students can begin their university studies while still at school. They can study by distance with the option of a weekend residential, or attend university on campus for an early experience of the university environment.

Find out about the courses on offer: www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pathways.htm

Career options

Is your child trying to decide on a career pathway? These videos show 25 young apprentices and trainees telling inspirational stories while on the job.

Find out more: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL78g8-WmjFKvFrtgPCB5CalbSAJCX7MAh&feature=plcp

Budding artists

Young aspiring artists could get off to a great start by entering this competition to design the look for Youth Week 2013. Winners get to showcase their work and win $1000.

Find out how to enter http://www.youthweek.nsw.gov.au/

A degree at TAFE

If your child has decided to embark on a degree course at TAFE in 2013, remember their application needs to be in by October 26.

Go to the application: http://www.highered.tafensw.edu.au/applying-and-fees/how-to-apply.html#.UHJaLK5Nt8E

About R U OK?Day R U OK?Day is a national day of action dedicated to inspiring all Australians to ask family, friends and colleagues, ‘Are you ok?’ By regularly reaching out to one another and having open and honest conversations, we can all help build a more connected community and reduce the tragedy of our country’s high suicide rate. R U OK?Day is on the second Thursday of September (12 September 2013). Most people don’t openly share their feelings, particularly if they’re struggling. The best thing we can all do is regu-larly talk to the people we care about - regardless of whether they are at risk - because connection is good for us all. In the time it takes to have your coffee, you can start a conversation that could change a life. Who will you ask? Help make a difference.

Yr7 students help out with the RUOK message on assembly

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CREATIVE AND PERFORMING ARTS REPORTStudents in the Creative and the Performing Arts have continued their success both within and in the region this year. Congratulations must go to Jason Park, Baki Redzeposki and Daniel Choi who had their artworks selected from the Operation Art exhibition held at the Newington Armory, and then displayed at the Art Gallery of NSW, which is a real honor. Only 50 artworks are chosen from over 790, which makes this an exceptional achievement for these students from our school. Jason Park also had the privilege of being invited to be part of a video conference with the highly ac-claimed Australian artist Ben Quilty to talk about Operation Art. Dylan Tran of Yr7 was also recognized in Operation Art and had his artwork selected for the Teacher’s resource CD.

Another highlight saw eight of our YR 9 students selected for the four day gifted and talented Artsmart workshop at Campbelltown Art Gallery. The artworks created by the students in painting, sculpture and printing will be exhibited at the regional ‘Directors Choice’ Gala event in Homebush in early November.

There was also success with Angus Jin, Aravindra Sundravel and Jeremy Chung having their prints selected for the Silk Cut Awards in Melbourne, whilst we also had Anthony Lopes, Oscar Verrilli, Brian Lu and Ray Lee having their drink coaster designs selected for White Ribbon Day that focuses on issues of anti violence against women. Year 10 Visual Arts student John Lee won the Peoples Choice award with his artwork at the Derivan painting exhibition.

Jason Park with artist Ben Quilty

Operation Art award winners Dylan Tran,Baki Redzeposki and Jason Park

Abdul with his artwork Kartik works on his print Igor and his sculpture James works on his painting

Award winners from Visual Arts Hyungbin’s printDion with his sculpture

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And just when you thought nothing strange happens in Visual Arts, there is a life size fiberglass cow that Mr Letsios and his Yr10 class are painting for the ‘Archibull Prize’ which is an innovative and fun program that provides student partici-pants with opportunities to meet young farmers and engage in genuine farm experiences, gain knowledge and skills about the production of the food they eat, fibres they use and the environment they live in. The theme celebrates the role Australian farmers’ play in feeding Australian families and many other families around the world. You have to see it to believe it!

The Yr12 Graduation saw musical performances from our school orchestra who performed the National Anthem, with Rio Kang leading the singing to make it a memorable occasion. Our orchestra is currently rehearsing for the Director’s Choice 2012, a regional celebration of student, staff and community achievements, on Thursday 8 November at Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre. It is one year since the International Music Program started at our school and its success is a testament to the leadership of our inspirational director Ms Tracy Burjan, the inspirational director.

Mr Kim AttwoodHead Teacher Creative and Performing Arts

Farmer Lauren Crowthers with Yr10 students that worked on the cow.

The Cow, no bull!!!

Joel Perik performs at the Yr12 graduation

Members of our fabulous orchestra

Ms Eliza McInnes , John Lee with his painting and Mr Attwood

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Kaya Bremner of Yr8 is Recognisedas a Junior Sport Star

Term #4.1

201225

National Robotics Trip 2012It’s Thursday, our luggage is packed, the boxes are packed, the robots are safe, our road trip songs are loaded onto the iPods and the year 12 graduation has just ended. It’s road trip time! During the 20-23 September, four students (Thom-as Goth-Towney, Shinoy Jabobs, Edwin Guo and Ansaf Ahmed) travelled to Canberra to compete in the Robocup Junior Nationals.

Before we go on further about the trip, let’s explain what Robocup really is, otherwise it’s like watching the Matrix’s final fight without knowing why there is one. There’s got to be a build up to the hype that makes you anticipate the showdown. Robocup is a project-oriented educational initiative that facilitates local, regional and international robotic events for young students. The aim is to promote research into robotics to meet the vision that by 2050 robots will autonomously play soccer against the most recent winners of the FIFA world cup. The focus of the junior league (under 18’s) is education by fostering artificial intelligence and a standard of problems that we face today where a wide range of technologies can be integrated and examined.

Like any other road trips, it had to be a safe one. Casual 2 hour breaks at the nearest rest area, lots of snacks and singing to keep us occupied. Occasionally there’d be casual talks about the robots and planning on what we’d do when we arrived. We stayed at a Holiday Park in our own cottage house. It was spacious, lots of beds, our own digital TV, kitchen, fridge and a bathroom. We immediately settled in and got to work unpacking the boxes, tools, robots and gear. One moment the place was a nice family setting; in the next it was a workshop for the team to revel in our academic engi-neering (this included our 10.2 sound system that we blasted throughout the night).

As a team of engineers you would expect us to be organised and tidy. That….was…not…the…case. We had forgotten torches, power boards and basic kitchen cleaning equipment, toothpaste, scissors and a lamp. We immediately set out to find the nearest grocery store and got the items. You could describe us as robot in the sense that regardless of the time of day or night if we had a task or command to execute, we’d be performing it. It’s not that we were forced to work but as engineers we force ourselves to work. This mental discipline probably came into effect with the day we set eyes on our new toys in the engineering package. We just couldn’t stop playing with them.

Friday was the first competition day we could familiarise ourselves with the venue and perform testing. The venue was at ANU (Australian National University). Throughout the whole day….you guessed it, WE WORKED! The most annoying thing about robots is that just when you think it does what you’ve told it to do, the next hour it does something com-pletely different. Our robot took us 8 months to design and construct and you would think it would be enough time for us to complete it. It really isn’t. The biggest problem in engineering is timing. There just never seems to be enough time to debug all their weird behaviours. Perhaps it’s an omen that robots are going to take over the world in the near future? Hey wouldn’t that be exciting!

For all the “tech-heads” out there who want a scope on our project, the division we competed in was Opens Soccer. The objective of the division is to make the robot autonomously (no remotes) seek an infrared ball and shoot it into the goals. Our robots have a set size and weight limit however all integrated technologies were allowed as long as they do not interfere with other robots’ performances. The specs of our robot include a solenoid to kick the ball, compass sensor to get a sense of direction, light sensor to navigate around the field, 3 Omni directional wheels, 3 high power motors, motor controllers, radio communications, arduino micro controllers to process information, infrared sensors to find the ball, a lipo battery and various transistors.

Ok so now that the technical side is out of the way, you’re probably wondering how we went in the competition, what was exciting, what did we learn and what problems did we face. This year the competition was the fiercest I have ever seen. Using the same limitations other competitors have worked out how to implement all elements of human soccer functions (dribbling, finding the ball, kicking the ball, stopping the ball). In previous years teams would have at least 1 element missing such as dribbling or applying a kicker to their robot due to size and weight limitations within the Soc-cer Lego league. This year the engineering design has raised its bar of standards. More impressively a team managed to create Omni directional wheels out of pure Lego. This consists over 20 pieces per wheel. For those who do not know, an Omni directional wheel is a base wheel with smaller wheels attached all around it. The use for Omni wheels allows any vehicle to move in any direction without changing the direction it is facing. The effect of the robot almost appears as if it is gliding. By doing this, it reduces the time needed to reach its destination.

Apart from soccer there was some very interesting builds in the Rescue and Dance leagues. In the Rescue league there has been a slow transition from Lego based robots into microcontroller units. It’s not very much of an advancement however it’s a start. Even though the advancement was very tiny, the innovation award was awarded to a competitor in Rescue for their effort to steer away from a Lego based approach.

In the Dancing league more amazing engineering architecture has arisen. It’s not often that you see humanoid robots and this year there were PLENTY of near humanoid robots. I would imagine these humanoids would’ve taken months and months and months to build. The humanoid robots were still made of Lego however it did make their performanc-es much more interesting than any other year.

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Now for the exciting part, how did we go? Can I just say how challenging it was to compete in Soccer? Soccer is the most advanced and complicated leagues because you’re dealing with live readings and hoping the artificial intel-ligence you’ve created is sufficient enough to make the right actions and decisions. You have absolutely no control of the robot. You may think that building and programming the robot is sufficient enough to compete, however on the day you arrive you would need to calibrate them according to the environment and then modify them to adjust against oncoming opponents. Occasionally you would find flaws and breakthroughs in your program or the opponents which can be exploited and implemented into the artificial intelligence. A combination of good mechanical and software en-gineering where both software and hardware compliment and compensate each other is pretty much what’s required in soccer.

On the first day, we managed to qualify into the finals. It was intense as our robots had a substantial amount of sensors offline. However reluctantly the efficiency of microcontrollers gave us the cutting edge to win as most of our rivals were using Lego based robots (please note Lego is actually a very powerful piece of machinery). On the second day we were still eager to compete despite our robot still having a substantial amount of sensors offline. We came close to winning as our robot won the first round however on the second round we lost by four points. We were eliminated however this was the top 16s round. Our overall rank placed us 11th out of the estimated 50 teams (I told you the competition was going to be fierce).

One of the most enjoyable things about Robocup Junior Nationals is that there is a social on a selected night during the three day period of the competition. Here we get to socialise and meet new people around the country. We are also able to discuss and talk about robots and experiences or exchange stories about our greatest engineering obstacles. This year the social was held at Questacon where for the night it was only open to Robocup competitors. The most interesting exhibit there was a robotic arm that was programmed to play air hockey against human competitors. It was impossible to score a goal against it however we managed to see all the physics, schematics and programming the robot goes through to calculate the route and decisions it makes to play air hockey.

Although the competition is over, there was a lot we had learnt over the three day event. We now have new ideas, technologies and innovations that we are considering to implement for next year’s competition. The knowledge we have gained over the entire robotic year will be contributed back into training others who wish to take on robotics as an extra curricula.

- We are currently looking for bright young minds who wish to take on robotics. If you are interested please contact Edwin Guo or Ansaf Ahemd. Skills gained include electronics design, mechanical engineering and C++ programming.

Dressed up as robots!!!

Edwin and Ansaf work through the night Thomas with his big breakfast

Term #4.1

201227

ASSEMBLY AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

Mr Pearson with students thatrecieved Australian Business awards

Yr7 Mathematics competition winners

Mr Wilson with History competition winners in Yr8 and Yr10

Ms Kumaralingham with students that recieved Daffodil Day certificates

Yr10 Mathematics competition winnersMr Everett with Chemistry

competition winners in Yrs 10, 11 & 12

28Term

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Mr Jurd congratulates Michael Napolion his trampoline championship success

Yr9 Mathematics competition winners Yr11 Mathematics competition winners

Mr Pearson with students that recievedBusiness Studies awards

Mr Jurd with Vidushan Paheerathan of Yr10 with his Community Citizenship Runner Up award

29Term

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Frank Day and Manovarnam Selvanathan congratulate each other for their UMAT results

Jason Park’s artwork which was on display at the Art Gallery of NSW

Baki Redzeposki’s artwork which was on display at the Art Gallery of NSW

Daniel Choi’s artwork which was on display at the Art Gallery of NSW

Mr Attwood and Baki Redzeposki at the opening of Operation Art at the Art Gallery of NSW

Ty Choe of Yr8 with his high distinctionin Mathematics

Documents

HOMEBUSH BOYS HIGH SCHOOL