THE YOUNGEST NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER,

MALALA YOUSAFZAI, VISITS HOLROYD HIGH SCHOOL

The Malala Fund is an international, non-profit organisation that

fights for girl’s education and was founded by Malala Yousafzai, the

Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel

Peace Prize winner, and her father, Ziauddin. Holroyd High School

had the privilege of welcoming The Malala Fund on Thursday 13

December 2018.

Malala was born in Pakistan. Her father was a teacher and ran a

girls’ school in her village. Everything changed when the Taliban

took control of her town. The extrements banned many things and

said girls could no longer go to school. In January 2008 when

Malala was just 11 years old, a masked gunman boarded her bus

and asked, “Who is Malala?”. He shot her on the left side of her

face. She woke up 10 days later in a hospital in Birmington,

England. After months of surgeries and rehabilitation, she joined

her family in in the UK. It was then she knew she had a choice: she

could live a quiet life or she could make the most of this new life

she had been given. She was determined to continue her fight until

every girl could go to school. With her father, she established The

Malala Fund, a charity dedicated to giving every girl an opportunity

to achieve a future she chooses. In 2014, she received the Nobel

Peace prize in recognition for her work and became the youngest-

ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She is now studying Philosophy,

Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. Malala travels to

many countries to meet girls fighting poverty, wars, child marriage

and gender discrimination to go to school and invests in developing

country educators and activists who will join her fight for education

and equality where together we can create a world where all girls

can learn and lead.

Malala inspires everyone she meets with her courage, activism and

her dedication to speaking up for education. Thank you Malala and

Ziauddin for choosing Holroyd High School as the first school in

Australia to be a part of your visit.

COMING EVENTS

19 December Last day for all students

20 December Staff Development Day

Term 1, 2019

29 January Staff Development Day

30 January Years 7, 11, 12 & IEC return to school

31 January Years 8, 9 & 10 return to school

Spotlights Excellence, Opportunity, Success - “50 Years 1968 – 2018”

Find us at: 7 Cumberland Road, Greystanes www.holroyd-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

P: 9631 9410 F: 9896 3074 Attendance SMS: 0429 456 348

Issue 8 – Term 4 – Week 10 18 December 2018

Issue 8 – Term 4 – Week 10 “50 Years 1968–2018” 18 December 2018

It has been a rather exciting end to the year with lots of

celebrations, festivities and preparations for 2019.

First of all, congratulations to all of our Year 12 students who have

successfully completed their HSC studies we wish them every

success and happiness as they embrace new opportunities and

challenges and continue with life beyond school. A special

acknowledgement must go to our first cohort of Year 12 students to

graduate from the Support Unit and an extra special mention goes

to Erik Bui who was accepted into Western Sydney University to

undertake a Diploma in Information, Communication and

Technology which is an outstanding achievement.

Year 7 orientation day and our Holroyd HS Roadshow to Widemere

Public School were a raging success. These events gave us an

opportunity to connect with our local community and to highlight to

our parents the opportunities we provide in knowing, valuing and

caring for their child as part of our Holroyd HS community. Some of

the new initiatives being offered for Year 7 in 2019 include:

GRIT BOOTCAMP – This is a program that will delivered the

first 3 days of High School and will focus on developing

students’ social, emotional and character skills, through the

framework of GRIT – Guts, Resiliency, Integrity and Tenacity.

We want to ensure our Year 7 students kick start high school

with the essential behaviours and skills to succeed as people

in school and life. This includes develop positive relationships

with themselves and others, enabling them to flourish and

grow.

BEST START YEAR 7 ASSESSMENT & PROGRAM - is a

new online assessment for students that helps provide

information for teachers on the literacy and numeracy skills of

students at the beginning of Year 7. The assessment covers

key literacy and numeracy skills that are important to a

student’s success in all subjects in high school. Students

come to high school with a range of experiences, skills and

abilities in literacy and numeracy and it is important that

teachers have current information about their students so that

they can plan programs and lessons that best support the

learning needs of each and every student.

2019 STAFFING

This term has been very busy in terms of staffing and planning for

2019. I am pleased to announce the appointment of staff to the

following positions for 2019:

Head Teacher Teaching and Learning Tony Diaczok

Head Teacher Learning Enrichment Louise Ciano

Head Teacher Administration Amy Ly

Head Teacher Intensive English Centre Louise Kleinbergs

Year 6 into 7 Adviser Zarifah Dowran

Year 7 Adviser Megan Bowmer

Transition Adviser Veronique August

Student Leadership / SRC Coordinator Jane Marquez

Stage 4 Adviser Intensive English Centre Valerie Rubie

Refuge Support Intensive English Centre Kushma Naidu

Refugee Support Mainstream Namarig Hadi

Best Start Teachers Frishta Shirzai

Natalie Tipene

Nilhan Turkoz

Sports Organiser Mohammed Moussa

Permanent Teacher PDHPE Joel Jasmin

Permanent Teacher IEC Valerie Rubie

Permanent Teacher TAS Anthony Buhagiar

I would also like to congratulate Evelyne Lettice, Wendy James and

Peter McBurney who are retiring at the end of this year and thank

them for their years of dedication in terms of serving students as

part of the teaching profession.

Jeena Dahiwalkar, Corrine McKay and Sarah Georgopoulos will

also be moving on from Holroyd HS in 2019. Jeena has secured a

permanent position as a Support teacher at Blacktown North Public

School. Corrine has gained a position at Prairiewood HS as a

temporary Learning and Support Teacher and Sarah has been

given a permanent position as a Support teacher at Dulwich Hill. I

would also like to extend my appreciation to all the staff who have

filled temporary positions at Holroyd this year who won’t be

returning and wish them well in their future endeavours.

This term has presented some exciting and unexpected

opportunities for our students at Holroyd to be acknowledged for

their great work and achievements:

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai and her father Ziauddin

recently made a surprise visit to our school to speak with a select

group of female refugee students and to sit in on a STEM class.

Malala fled Pakistan after being shot by the Taliban while

advocating for girls’ education rights. Our students were inspired to

hear her story of courage and resilience as she recovered from her

trauma and went on to study at Oxford University. Malala was very

impressed by the girls as they talked about their aspirations and the

amazing network of support they receive at Holroyd. Thank you to

Louise Kleinbergs for making this fabulous opportunity possible.

Students from across the school performed at the Seymour Centre

as part of Suitcase Stories also had the opportunity to meet the

Governor of NSW, His Excellency General The Honourable David

Hurley and Mrs Linda Hurley. The students were praised for their

courage in performing and sharing their personal and true stories

about being refugees. A special mention to Catherine Maguire-

Donvito who works tirelessly behind the scenes and on weekends

to put this performance together but also for her support in building

the confidence of our students and helping them to recover from

their trauma through drama therapy.

Holroyd High School was also shortlisted and received highly

commended for the state wide Linguafest Short Film Competition.

Congratulations to our Year 7 Language students for their

achievement and thank you to Ms Wafa Saboune and Ms Jane

Marquez for inspiring our students in developing their creative skills

in media production.

Lastly, I would just like to extend my gratitude for the

insurmountable support I have received from the staff, students and

extended community of Holroyd High School in settling in as the

Principal’s Report

Issue 8 – Term 4 – Week 10 “50 Years 1968 –2018”

18 December 2018

3

new Principal of Holroyd High School. Thank you also to the staff

for all their hard work in supporting our students and community

throughout the year. It’s hard to believe that I have been here for

two terms already and I can’t wait for all the exciting things that are

planned for the future of Holroyd High School in 2019.

I encourage everyone especially our staff to switch off from work

and to take the time to rest, rejuvenate and reset during the

holidays with a focus on self-care. Below I have shared an excerpt

from a Headspace article that gives us all some tips on how we can

best ‘sharpen our saw’.

https://www.educationreview.com.au/2018/12/self-care-the-critical-

reason-why-school-staff-and-leaders-must-prioritise-their-own-

wellbeing-without-feeling-guilty/

SELF-CARE FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Some of these recharging activities might include:

Sleep is the key: Sleep is one of the most central elements

to good or poor mental health. Good sleep hygiene can make

a world of difference to an individual’s functioning. Find a

consistent and healthy sleep pattern. Reduce light stimulus,

reduce screen time and stimulus an hour before bed. Have a

cool sleeping room temperature.

Get into nature: Oxygen, moving, fresh air and activity are all

perfect ways to regain your balance and improve your mood.

Being in nature and outdoors doing activities can release

serotonin and dopamine.

Connect: Being with other people, being a part of a club, or

connecting with others just to check in improves our sense of

belonging and connectedness and can help maintain positive

moods or help shift lower or flat moods. Often when we are

feeling “not great” interactions with others is the first to suffer.

Consider what goes in your mouth: Sometimes when we

have a flat mood we can make less healthy choices about

what we consume. Getting a balanced diet and having an

alcohol free day here and there can help with finding balance

over the Christmas and New Year festive period.

Switch off: The holidays are a great time to get away from

screens, emails, social media and switch off all devices. Be

conscious of how much time you are using on your devices

and take a break to enjoy other things in life. Find ways to

clear your head of busy-ness, head noise, ruminating

thoughts, and be conscious of being present and having a

clear mind. This can reduce feelings of anxiety or depressive

moods when you have a lowered threshold. Mindfulness and

meditation are a perfect 3-5 minute recharge and don’t

underestimate what a battery boost and balance it will give

you.

Great things happen at Holroyd!

Kylie Adams

Principal

It’s hard to believe that we are at the end of another school year! It

seems like only yesterday we were welcoming seventy seven new

Year 7 students into the school, and now we’re celebrating another

year of great Higher School Certificate results from our Year 12

students.

Our Annual Presentation Day was held on Wednesday 12

December and was once again a fabulous opportunity to

acknowledge the hard work and achievements of so many of

students. I was filled with such a sense of pride as so many of our

students across the mainstream, support unit and the Intensive

English Centre received a multitude of certificates, medallions and

trophies. As I said on presentation day, this ceremony was not only

a chance for our school to formally recognise the vast

achievements of our students but to also pause and reflect on the

achievements of the school in 2018.

To put it mildly, this has been a massive year at Holroyd High

School. In 2018, we have seen the retirement of our long standing

Principal and deputy principal, Mrs Dorothy Hoddinott and Mrs

Denise Carrick- who took with them over thirty years of experience

just at Holroyd alone! In August we hosted our extraordinary 50th

Jubilee Anniversary, welcomed our new Principal Ms Kylie Adams

and were awarded the Secretary’s Award for Outstanding School

Initiative for our parent program. In September we celebrated

Multicultural Day and were nominated for the NSW Secondary

School of the Year. And in between all that, we graduated our

seventy Year 12 students, extended our students through our

partnerships with University of Sydney, University of New South

Wales and Western Sydney University, showcased our students

journeys in ‘Suitcase Stories’ at the Seymour Centre, ran over 240

individual activities for students and delivered quality learning

experiences for every student each and every day! Wow! We do an

incredible amount of Holroyd that I am just so very proud of our

school!

This year, we had 5 individual achievers on the 2018 HSC honour

roll Baraa Omar who was placed 4th in the state for Arabic

extension, Geysah Halacoglu who was a distinguished achiever in

Turkish Continuers, Hamzah Orya who was a distinguished

achiever in Advanced English, Maryam Karimi who placed 2nd in

the state for Persian Background Speakers and Zainab Al

Sammak who was a distinguished achiever in both mathematics

and Arabic Extension. Many of our students have already received

first round University offers and we look forward to hearing about

more success in 2019. For those Year 12 students who didn’t

perform as well as they may have expected, the HSC is not the

end. It’s only the beginning and it doesn’t determine your future,

you do! Whatever avenue you wish to peruse after school, do it! We

are proud of each and every one of you!

At the end of such a busy year, it is also so important for students

Deputy Principal’s Report

Issue 8 – Term 4 – Week 10 “50 Years 1968 –2018”

18 December 2018

4

and staff alike to use the holiday period to truly rest. Throughout

the year everyone has been so busy completing assessments,

meeting deadlines and generally working hard. So at the close of

the school year, it is time to truly replenish. Take the time in the

holidays to completely revive, restore your reserves and connect

with your family and friends.

When we return in the New Year, we will once again rally together

as a Holroyd family to take on all the exciting opportunities ahead in

2019. I am genuinely excited about all the new initiatives and

existing programs running at Holroyd next year. Students in Years

7, 11 and 12 are required to start Term 1 on Wednesday 30

January, and students in Years 8, 9 and 10 will begin on

Thursday 31 January.

To all of our Holroyd community, I wish you a very Merry Christmas

and a wonderful new year. I look forward to seeing you once again

in 2019.

Rebecca Franklin

Deputy Principal Years 8, 10 & 12

What a year it has been! We have seen great change and success

this year and I cannot remember a year that has gone by as quickly

at Holroyd as 2018 has! This year we said goodbye to Ms White,

Mrs Carrick and Mrs Hoddinott, then we welcomed our new

Principal- Ms Kylie Adams! In the short time that Ms Adams has

been with us she has made a massive impact and we know that the

future of Holroyd High School is in safe hands as she works

tirelessly towards ensuring that every student in our amazing school

is known, valued and cared for.

Through all of this change, the Senior Executive have been very

busy, but luckily Ms Adams and myself were able to take some time

out of school recently to head to the Seymour Centre to see

Holroyd students perform in Suitcase Stories. I’m so glad that we

were able to do this because I can say without the slightest

exaggeration that it was the BEST day of my year by far. We were

absolutely blown away by this amazing performance and so proud

of our students telling their stories in front of a sell-out Seymour

Centre. This was not only a highly professional and well performed

production, but also funny, moving, powerful and heartbreaking- It’s

hard to believe that these students were not all professional actors!

I was so moved by this performance that as soon as I left the

theatre I booked tickets for the following evening to watch the

performance again with my parents. I wanted to share with my

family how brave, talented, creative and fantastic the students are

at Holroyd High School.

I was absolutely proud of all of our students in Suitcase, but there

was a small group of these actors that I was particularly delighted to

see on stage. To give this some context I

must explain that when I recently took on

the role of Deputy Principal I had to say

goodbye to many of the classes that I was

teaching. This was very difficult to do as I

was lucky to have some amazing classes-

one of those being our current Year 9 drama

class. So to sit in the audience at the

Seymour Centre and witness Toba Esmaeli, Fatima Karimi,

Shahla Bakhsh and Fereshteh Mirzaei from my drama class

perform so fantastically brought the biggest smile to my face that

you could possibly imagine. I would also like to give special mention

for Fereshteh, because she had a powerful and touching message

that I think we can all learn from. I won’t re-tell her story, because

it’s her story, and it’s not mine to tell! But the message of her story

was all about not giving up, even if things get in the way.

So my final thought to you all as we say goodbye to 2018 and start

to get ready for 2019 is this: No matter what your goals are for

2019, don’t give up on them. Things might not always go your way,

but keep trying. Some days will be harder than others, but if you

keep trying and learn from your mistakes then it will be a year filled

with success!

Have a happy and safe holidays and I look forward to seeing you all

in 2019.

Matthew Fields

Deputy Principal Years 7, 9 & 11

MONA VALE BEACH Once again we had an amazing day at Pittwater High School and

Mona Vale Beach on our cultural exchange with a spectacular

group of Year 9’s. Thank you to Mr Johns from PWHS for your

amazing organisation, and to all the PWHS students who made

meaningful connections with us. We loved it!

Veronique August

Transition Adviser

Deputy Principal’s Report

Issue 8 – Term 4 – Week 10 “50 Years 1968 –2018”

18 December 2018

5

SHORE SCHOOL AND HOLROYD HIGH SCHOOL CONNECT PROGRAM

Last week was the first ever running of the Shore School and

Holroyd High School Connect Program. After months of planning

and preparation between both schools, a group of fifteen boys from

Years 9 and 10 and the IEC represented our school in the program.

It lasted four days and saw the boys enjoy activities such as a

basketball and futsal competition (we won the futsal 1-0), a walk

around Circular Quay with ice-cream, making our own t-shirts and

an amazing cooking class at Sydney Cooking School, to make

Paella.

We thank the Shore boy’s school for their generosity in providing us

with an amazing opportunity to make new friends and meaningful

long lasting connections.

Veronique August

Transition Adviser

ENGLISH, EAL/D, LANGUAGES & LIBRARY FACULTY REPORT

Hello Holroyd! As we wrap up our final weeks

for 2018, it is a fantastic opportunity to reflect on

the many successes of our school and of the

English, EAL/D, Languages and Library faculty.

Our faculty is very proud of the effort and

commitment that has been shown by our

students in 2018. We have participated in many

speaking and debating events, entered

competitions, worked hard on assessments and

examinations and actively engaged in classroom activities.

In week 7, Holroyd High School received a Highly Commended

Award at the NSW MLTA Linguafest 2018 Competition with their

Celebration film. Congratulations to Mrs Saboune, Ms Marquez and

the Stage 4 students.

Ms Saboune & Year 7 students receiving their NSW MLTA Liguafest

2018 Highly Commended awards

Our Year 10 students also completed the Minimum Standards Test

for Literacy. A large percentage of the students achieved above the

required Level 3 and we congratulate all participants on their

focused attitude towards the tests.

We have been very busy in our faculty. Among the teaching,

assessing and reporting of the very busy Term 4, we have moved

staffrooms! We are now located in A13, just above the A Block

Office. Drop by and say hello! Our teachers have also been busy,

with many of our faculty teachers sharing their expertise at HSC

Marking at various times throughout the term.

Lastly, we hope you have a restful and safe holiday, full of fun and

memorable summer moments. We look forward to meeting our new

Year 7 students next year.

See you in 2019, Holroyd!

Rosy Montana

Head Teacher English, EAL/D, Languages and Library

Issue 8 – Term 4 – Week 10 “50 Years 1968 –2018”

18 December 2018

6

SCIENCE FACULTY REPORT

Selected Year 7, 8 and 9 students attended the

Science Spectacular at University of Sydney on

the the 20 November. The students listened to a

lecture by Dr Samantha Clarke on Marine

Geoscience, played maths games and learnt how

to be a physicist. In the afternoon there was a

spectacular science show by Dr Alice Williamson.

The students found the excursion enjoyable and

inspiring.

Abigail, Leticia, Kehkashan and Fatima enjoying the beautiful weather

during lunch at their excursion

On 21 November selected Year 7, 9 and 11 students went to a

STEM excursion to the University of Technology. STEM stands for

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING and MATHS. This

excursion provided provide an opportunity for Holroyd high school

students to participate in a range of hands-on activities plus they

were able get an inside look at life as a professional in the

engineering and IT industry. Some of the workshops students

attended were Programming Robots, Da Vinci ( students designed

the best parachute using limited resources) and Engineering the

body ( students made a robotic arm that could lift a bottle and throw

a ball). The workshops were very interesting and it was amazing

what the students achieved.

Science is fun

To keep the students motivated last week, some Year 9 students

designed and set off water rockets during their science lesson.

Jonny and Mahdi pumping the water rocket while Adam records the

time taken for the rocket to go up and fall back on the ground

The science faculty would like to wish all staff and students a

very happy and restful holiday.

Niru Kumar

Head Teacher Science

SRC REPORT

It has been a fantastic and busy term for the

Holroyd High School SRC.

Every Wednesday at lunchtime, we have an SRC

meeting in D18 which is run by our senior year 11

leaders. It has been a joy watching them grow in

confidence as leaders and guide their junior peers.

There has been lively discussion at these

meetings and I am so proud to see the SRC being the voice for

students and expressing their views.

Even more impressively, the senior leadership team have been

meeting regularly during other lunchtimes to refine their ideas and

plan events. I am so proud of this team and in such a short period

of time I have seen them grow and flourish as leaders.

One of our Senior Leaders, Roohullah, came up with the idea of a

Sports Tournament to celebrate the end of the school year. After

much planning and hard work with the team, and a proposal to our

Principal and the Executive teachers, the Sports Tournament has

been approved! It will be held on Tuesday 18 December all day –

stay tuned for more information!

Megan Bowmer

SRC Co-ordinator

MATHEMATICS & MUSIC FACULTY FACULTY REPORT

Advanced Mathematics students from Year 11

attended ‘A Day of Maths with Adam Spencer

and Eddie Woo’ on Wednesday 21 November,

at the University of NSW in Sydney. The HHS

students joined other schools from all over NSW

for a fun and interactive day of mathematics

with Australia’s two top Mathematicians. Five

hundred students spent the morning listening to

the way Eddie Woo feels about maths and how

he is ‘reimaging’ how the world sees mathematics. The second half

of the day was with Adam Spencer, who generously gave each

student a copy of his newest book. The students tried some

challenging activities that had their brains working! It was a great

day of learning and FUN!

Farid Awad

Head Teacher Mathematics & Music

Issue 8 – Term 4 – Week 10 “50 Years 1968 –2018”

18 December 2018

7

SUPPORT CLASS REPORT

As the 2018 school year comes to a close we

sadly farewell our Year 12 graduating students

and their families. Farewell Vikki Truong, Kevin

Tran, Kevin Ha, Max Kowald, Tyron Celik, Eric

Long Bui and Jian Jie Ooi. We had a fabulous

farewell dinner for these students and their

families at Cumberland Golf Club. Our night was

full of memories, fun, delicious food and dancing.

It was so successful many parents and graduates

have asked if they can attend next year. Thank you to all our

organisers of this special event.

The staff from the Support Unit would like to wish all our parents a

very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday. See you in 2019.

Support Unit Formal – Class of 2018

Kerrie Kimes

Head Teacher Support Unit

Communicate, collaborate, create, critical thinking and Science

Technology Engineering Mathematics

Balancing soft skills and STEM

Students, regardless of their choice of profession, need to learn the

art of speaking articulately and gain the proficiency to communicate

their thoughts clearly. It is a mandatory requirement.

Good communication skill are part of soft skills which include

attitude, creative thinking, team work, time management, critical

thinking and conflict resolution.

In recent years a huge value has been placed upon STEM

subjects, the value of a liberal arts education seems to have shrunk

and reportedly so has the acquiring of soft skills.

The STEM surge is here to stay, but not at the peril of a broad-

based liberal arts education. So how do educators balance and

integrate both STEM skills and soft skills to enrich students over all

learning experience.

Here I list some techniques that can be used.

Encourage students to participate in role play and group work

Reflect on their experiences at the end of a presentation

Build interpersonal feedback skills, for both the presenter and

the receiver of feedback

Participating in mindfulness and meditation exercises during

school time can help in overcoming stresses and develop

positive attitudes.

Include project based learning techniques while preparing

STEM projects

There should be no fear that an increased focus on STEM fields will

undermine soft skills, on the contrary STEM has more opportunities

to promote soft skills.

Skilful teachers’ needs to strive to integrate soft skills into all

subjects — especially STEM cantered ones — in order to train

students in the skill sets required for the 21st century skills.

Soft Skills: collaboration, Attitude, creative thinking Hard / STEM skills : Science of Green houses

Bhoopinder Masawan

PBL & STEM Co-ordinator

Issue 8 – Term 4 – Week 10 “50 Years 1968 –2018”

18 December 2018

8

PARENT CORNER

Hello parents and caregivers. As we approach

the end of another busy year, I hope you are well

and in high spirits. I cannot believe I am writing

my last Spotlights for the year, and might I say

what a wonderful year it has been! In the Parent

Unit, we have been busy engaged in English

conversation classes, excursions, information

sessions on health and well-being, study skills,

sleep, the Law, cooking, teenagers, cyber-safety, how to apply

make-up, yoga and swimming to name a few. The friendships that

have formed over the year between parents, staff and our school

are heartfelt and we hope to continue this great initiative next year.

In the parent unit, we have had many highlights throughout the

year. One of my favourites this term has been engaging women

from a refugee background in ‘Learn to Swim’ classes. They came

along and did their utmost best to learn the basics, even if it meant

choking on water. I am proud to say, these women inspire me

every day because they are fearless, resilient and always willing to

try something new. I hope to co-ordinate a Term 1 plan in 2019 for

women of Holroyd High School, conjointly with Granville Pools.

This information will be sent out in early in Term 1.

Our final event to celebrate all our achievements this year was our

Holroyd High Family Party. This was held on Wednesday 12

December in the Common Room. A fabulous time was had by all.

In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for

your support throughout the year. I have been inspired by all the

families and students I have come across. Your stories have

created in me a deeper feeling of gratitude and appreciation. Our

community is special and we in the parent unit will always strive to

find a way to connect, to celebrate and to honour you as part of our

Holroyd family.

To our amazing Community Liaison

Officers, Rana Asmaro and Sayed Zobair,

thank you for all you do. From engaging

with your community, setting up morning

teas, helping parents find their way,

translating at all our major events and just

by being there to listen to anything that

comes your way, makes your role extra

special.

To Kirsty Stringer from the Salvation Army, we are indebted to you

and your team for teaching our parent group Basic English skills,

which has dramatically improved their confidence within themselves

and in public spaces. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I wish your families a wonderful summer break, a glorious

Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.

Enjoy the next six weeks with your families. Till next time, happy

parenting.

Raja Yassine

Parent Engagement Officer

LIBRARY NEWS

It is hard to believe that we

are coming to the end of

the year and slowly

counting down till the

Christmas holidays.

This year has been very

busy and filled with some

interesting and fun

activities that we have organised for the students and staff.

In May, Paul Martins Australian Military Exhibition visited us over

two days. The exhibition was organised to mark the 100th

Anniversary of the end of World War 1. Paul and a couple of

volunteers engaged the students and staff with true stories about

the horrendous experiences and conditions the men and women

endured during both the World Wars. For those students and staff

that attended. It is hoped that they gained a deeper insight and

greater understanding of the importance of ANZAC day and

Remembrance Day and why we celebrate them.

Throughout the first half of the year Mrs Nagy and I were busy

going through and sorting out all of the archived artefacts that were

stored in the library. These have been scanned and stored

electronically but still a work in progress. This was in preparation for

the Schools 50th Jubilee celebrations. Many of you would have

seen the old photos, uniforms, newsletters and awards displayed

around the library. The open day was on Saturday 11 August and

we had hundreds of visitors coming into the library to look at the

displayed artefacts. Many of them were past students from 1968 –

1995.

As part of our Book Week celebrations in September we had the

Author Mick Elliot come to the library and speak with students in

Years 7, 8 and 9. He spoke about where he grew up, how he got

his ideas for his books and the time that he worked at Nickelodeon.

We also had the cartoonist Steve Panozzo conduct illustrating and

drawing workshops with the students in Years 7, 8 and 9. Students

and staff learned key tips for drawing people and objects. Learning

how we can make them look like they were moving forward,

jumping and flying.

We love having the students coming into the library at recess and

lunch times to play UNO, cards, chess, board games, read, do

school work , chill out with friends and at times watch a DVD in the

Fiction area. It is during these times that I find myself smiling the

most as we can have up to 170 students in the library during lunch.

I enjoy seeing you all laugh, smile, joke around and having fun.

Thank you to all the students that use the library for making it the

best place in the entire school.

Mrs Nagy and I would like to wish all of our students and their

families a wonderful Christmas and a safe, happy and healthy New

Year.

Marian Lopez and Jenny Nagy

Teacher Librarian and Assistant Librarian

Issue 8 – Term 4 – Week 10 “50 Years 1968 –2018”

18 December 2018

9

YEAR 7 REPORT

Our Year 7’s first year at

Holroyd has come and

gone in a flash! I would

like to take this

opportunity to thank all

our students for their

hard work and effort over

the course of this year, it

has been a pleasure for

us to teach you and to be your Year Advisers!

Next year Holroyd High School will see the return of grade sports

programs and it has been great to see so many Year 7’s put their

names down and participate in a number of sport trials to try and

make our representative teams.

Finally, we would both like to take the opportunity to wish all our

students and their parents a safe and enjoyable holiday! Merry

Christmas and Happy New Year, and we cannot wait to see our

students back at the end of January to begin Year 8!

Joel Jasmin and Anthony Buhagiar

Year 7 Adviser and Assistant Adviser

YEAR 8 REPORT

As 2018 comes to an end, we

would like to congratulate all our

Year 8 students for the

commitment and dedication they

have demonstrated towards their

learning and overall school life. It

has been a pleasure to see the

growth, maturity and

development of our students over the year.

We would like to take this opportunity to recognise the contribution

of our Year 8 students, Abdullah Khalki, Mohd Ehasan Ali Zada

and Ali Hazareh in this year’s Suitcase Stories. Suitcase Stories is

a theatre performance by young refugee students who share their

personal stories and experiences in a symphony of spoken word,

music and movement.

From left to right: Abdullah Khalki, Mohd Ehasan & Ali Hazareh

Congratulations Abdullah, Mohd and Ali! We are so proud of you!

We would like also to thank the following Year 8 students who

volunteered to be part of Holroyd High School Orientation Video. It

is so nice to watch our students oozing with confidence in front of a

camera.

Dylan Talabani, Keagan Sie, Abigail Nukuri, Adam Brais, Tarek

El Khazandar, Dhruv Sharma and Lara Muren.

Finally, we would like to wish all our students, parents and carers a

happy and safe holiday and we look forward to welcoming the

students to Year 9 next year on Thursday, 31 January 2019.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Mary Marquez and Jane Marquez

Year 8 Adviser and Assistant Adviser

YEAR 11 REPORT

We’ve come to the end of

another eventful year, and if the

tired faces of Year 11 students

around the school is any

indication, so have the students.

First of all, congratulations to all

our Presentation Day awards

recipients for their hard work, effort, and dedication.

In 2019, we have decided that our gift to the school is to raise

money to build a bus shelter. We are going to do this as a joint

project with the SRC, and we’re excited to be making such an

impact on the school. These holidays we will be running a

fundraising event at Bunnings, and we invite all Year 11 students

who are interested in participating to approach us for more

information.

And one final reminder, our Year 12 jerseys are currently sitting in a

warehouse somewhere in Sydney and so all outstanding payments

need to be made to the office as soon as possible. Thank you to all

students who have completed their payments on time.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our students and

their families a safe, restful and happy holiday. We look forward to

seeing everyone in the new year, ready to make that final push

towards the end of our HSC.

Amy Ly and Frishta Shirzai Year 11 Adviser and Assistant Adviser

WORK EXPLORATIION During the week of 3 - 7 December, selected Year 10 students and IEC students had the opportunity to participate in our Work Exploration program. Work Exploration introduces the students to the world of work and allows them to gain hands-on experience and learn new work related skills in an industry that they are interested in.

Students selected a variety of industries to work in such as automotive, hairdressing, retail, media, hospitality, IT, Business, Engineering and beauty to name a few. Having gained this experience allows the students to become more employable. Employers were most impressed with their abilities and working attitude and even indicated they would offer them employment. It has been a successful experience for the students and been a positive partnership between our school and local communities. Congratulations Year 10 and IEC!

Issue 8 – Term 4 – Week 10 “50 Years 1968 –2018”

18 December 2018

10

Year 10 students attending Work Exploration

Ellie Apostolopulos

Careers Adviser

SCHOOL COUNSELLORS’ REPORT

We wish al the students and families at Holroyd

High a festive, realaxing and safe break.

There are organisations available over the

holidays to support students well-being during

the school holidays. If your child is cyber-

bullied during the holidays, there are simple

steps you can take.

There are also organisations available for advise:

Annette Haggerty

School Psycholgist