Year 10 Course Counselling

Following the submission of course selections for Year 11 in 2024, our staff have been working to build a grid that best fits the majority of our student choices.  During Week 5 we will be confirming placement into classes.  For those students unable to select courses with pre-requisite grades, we will be working on individualised plans to reach these goals by the end of the year.

Language Week

Thank you to our Language teachers and our students who helped us celebrate Languages Week during Week 4 by hosting virtual trips to Italy, cultural and food activities in class and visits to local primary schools.  It was a fun week celebrating culture and language.

Building Update

I am very pleased to share that our main building project is up and running again, with a new builder having been appointed.  The company, BROAD Construction, have taken site procession and building should commence soon after the preliminary assessment and planning is completed.

Our STEM building project, being undertaken by Hyde and Sons, is travelling well and these facilities are due for completion by the end of this year.

NAPLAN results – Year 7 and 9

Individual student reports have been distributed recently, and parents will notice a change in the achievement levels – moving from band levels (1 to 10)  to 4 proficiency bands (exceeding, strong, developing, needs additional support (NAS)).  If you have not received your child’s report, please contact the school.

NAIDOC Celebrations

Each year NAIDOC week falls in the school holidays, and we took the opportunity to celebrate during Week 1 this term.  Thank you to our student leaders who organised a range of activities each day and all those who participated in our special assembly on the Friday.  In particular we celebrate the talents of our former students by acknowledging the artwork of Olivia Kalin (which has been on display at the Art Gallery of WA in the Pulse Exhibition) and also thank you to Coen Fowler for sharing his music during our two assemblies and over our lunchtime. 

Staffing updates

We welcomed some new staff this term to our school – Emily Wilkinson (English), Corey Zinnecker (Year 7 team), Sunny Allsopp (Maths).  Kelly Walker (Year 7 Coordinator) and Teagen Smith (Year 8 Coordinator) have each also taken on the respective Program Coordinator role while Mark Pettit is on leave this term.  Gareth Postans will be Program Coordinator for Year 9 and 10 during this time.

From Week 5 – I will be acting in an Assistant Director of Education role in the North Metropolitan region until the end of term.  Our Associate Principal Melissa Shepherd will be acting principal during this time, and we welcome Nik Maurer from the School of Special Educational Needs – Behaviour, as Associate Principal.

Helen Deacon
Principal

Sharon Andrews
Year 11 and 12 Program Coordinator

Hitting home the significance of Humanities

Humanities and Social Science students have hit the ground running this term with a number of excursions that have intrigued and inspired them.

Perth Law Courts

Firstly, our Year 11 Politics and Law students made their way to the courts in Week 1.  The students have been studying the processes of our adversarial system and were not disappointed in their exposure to the real-life events that take place day-in and day-out in our judiciary.

They sat in the Supreme Court to learn about the different roles of the court and saw how the grand 1902 building is adapting to the 21^st century.  Students then moved to the Magistrates Court and saw the efficiency with which minor matters are heard.  Arrest warrants were issued for no-shows and fairness was dispensed when the Magistrate recognised offences that were based on “need and not greed”.  Their eyes were further opened with viewing the video link-up to Hakea Prison which inspired conversations on the effectiveness of imprisonment and lastly, they sat in the District Court to witness a sentencing hearing, where the offenders were warned their lives were at a turning point.  Students saw first hand how our judicial officers do not sit in ivory towers, but are faced with some of the worst aspects of our society on a daily basis.

The students shared their insights in the Supreme Court Gardens – how relevant the Politics and Law course is, how personable judges and magistrates are, how we are able to witness the deeply personal matters of fellow citizens and gauge the immense resources put into our justice system. 

The Politics and Law students would like to thank Mr Watson from Phys Ed for the use of their bus and to Mr Guthrie for driving us.

Tourism

After a fascinating tour to the Fremantle Prison and Fremantle City Council in Term 2, this term, our Year 11 and 12 Certificate II Tourism Students attended an excursion to the WA Museum Boola Bardip and the Art Gallery of WA. Students gained valuable industry experience, visiting two of Perth’s popular tourist attractions. At the WA Museum, students enjoyed a self-guided tour of the Ancient Egyptian exhibition and proudly viewed previous student artwork of the Pulse Exhibition at the art gallery. These experiences offered students insight into providing information to tourism customers and advising products and services. 

The Tourism students would like to thank Mr Watson from Phys Ed for the use of their bus and to Mr Stead for driving us.

History and the Holocaust

On Monday of Week 3, our Year 11 and 12 Modern History students took part in a three hour workshop run by the Holocaust Institute of Western Australia.  The students learnt that Jews in Germany lived the typical lives all German citizens enjoyed prior to the Nazis coming into power.  There was a big emphasis on the role propaganda played and the process of discrimination, dehumanisation, segregation and then finally the extermination of millions of people. 

The students were given an identification card of a person who had lived through the Nazi era and who met their fate in one of the six death camps in Poland.  Their empathy was further developed when they joined as ‘families’ and were told they had five minutes to pack one suitcase of belongings and make their way to a ghetto. 

We also heard inspiring stories of hope, survival and resistance, and listened to the story of a Holocaust survivor living in Perth

At the end of the workshop, students were asked whether the world had learnt anything.  The different arguments made by our students indicated strong engagement with the issues they had been immersed in.

This workshop ensured there is no doubt of the importance of learning history.

Term 3 is well and truly underway and there is a lot of Maths learning taking place! We have welcomed Sunny Allsopp to our teaching team and farewelled Tom Byrne and Jenny Bell at the end of Term 2.  We wish Tom and Jenny all the best for their new adventures.

In the first week of August, selected students from Years 7-12 took part in the Australian Maths Competition.  This competition aims to develop the capacity of our students to solve problems.  Furthermore, it assists in their development of resilience, persistence, confidence and creative thinking.  The Australian Mathematics Trust, the group who runs this competition, is passionate about empowering students to become better problem solvers in school, so they can be creative solution finders in the future.  Thank you to Debbie Yeoh for coordinating this event for us.  We look forward to sharing the results from this competition later in the year. 

I would like to remind everyone that we run a Maths homework club on Wednesday afternoons between 3 and 4pm in A5, to provide support for students across the school.  Numbers in Homework club have been steadily growing and we encourage anyone who is interested to come along and take the opportunity to get some help with all things Maths!

Alanna Webb
Head of Mathematics Learning Area

Deja Supadi and Manami Teo were invited to perform at the GHPS leadership breakfast recently. They performed several of their own original songs as well as some covers to a lovely audience of students and parents. It was fantastic to have them represent the school and our flourishing music program!

CERTIFICATE II CONSERVATION ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT CAMP 2023

Camping in the forest in the middle of the year can be a wet event but our senior students in the CEM course managed to stay dry and enjoyed a successful field experience. 

Overnighting at the Hills Discovery Centre in Mundaring combined a traditional timber cottage stay with the quiet solitude of the bush, all within easy reach of the Kalamunda town centre. 

Students participated in a trapping activity involving setting 20 Sheffield (cage) traps and 2 Elliot traps overnight to capture and monitor nocturnal mammals for the Western Shield Program. This important and long-standing conservation program aims to provide real-time data on endangered species numbers in the fight against feral invaders like the cat and the impact of habitat loss.

We caught one chuditch, one brush tail possum and four mardo (yellow-footed antechinus), which is a good haul for what is often an empty cage outcome. The traps are designed not to harm the trapped, who are released after measurements are collected. 

We also participated in a night spotting activity where we saw a tawny frog mouth, orb weaver spider, two brush tail possums and a barking gecko, indicative of a healthy level of biodiversity and abundance. 

Students also had the chance to get up close and personal with some native fauna in an animal encounter session. They got to cuddle joeys and euros as well as meet Spike the echidna and Trevor the Woylie.

How to Help Your Teen Be a Good Person

The following is a redacted transcript of an interview between Eden Pontz (Greater Good in Science Magazine) with Ken Ginsburg author of the book “Congrats - You’re Having a Teen! Strengthen Your Family and Raise a Good Person”

Instead of just surviving the teenage years, parents have an opportunity to help their teen grow and to strengthen their relationship.

Adolescents are adults coming into focus. When we prepare adolescents to be good people, to care about others and to want to contribute to the world, we are changing the future. When we prepare adolescents to understand that there is nothing more powerful than human connection, that we rely on family for advice to grow, and to help make our wisest decisions, we’re producing adults who are going to lead us into a better future.  How does that happen? Not by telling your kid to be a good person, but by seeing what’s already good and right about them. Celebrate that and build on it.

Role Models

We want to raise good human beings, people who care about themselves and care about other people. And adolescence is an amazing opportunity where people are developing their sense of identity, who they are and how they want to walk through the universe. They’re looking for what or who they might be as an adult, and they’re looking around for role models. If you’re in the position of being a role model for your child, show them you have struggles and complexities and are always trying to right yourself when something goes wrong. It’s in that transparency of showing how hard you work to be good and maintain a balance, even when life seems unsteady, that your kids are watching. They’re not looking for perfection, they’re looking for how you grow, how you navigate, and how you interact with other people, even when things are not going your way. That’s how you learn the essence of a human being. 

But is role modelling enough? It’s the start. What follows is open communication and talking to our kids about what matters, our values. How we make decisions. How we calm ourselves when we’re not feeling so calm inside. And, at times, saying nothing and listening to them. As young people try to figure out who they are, they’re going to be testing their own values. And a lot of the decisions that they’re going to be making daily are things like: What does it mean to be a good person, to be a good friend, to be patient, to be humble, and to listen to other people’s ideas? They’re learning all of these things. That takes a lot of inner thought and inner dialogue. When they have a human being who’s ready to listen to them—that’s you—to be a sounding board as they are debating the complexities of life, they’re going to find it easier to find their own footing and be the kind of person you’re hoping for them to become. 

Adolescence is about learning how much independence you can handle and learning to stand on your own two feet.  The first thing you need is to have them approach the world with a feeling of security, so that they know that they can make a mistake and recover. You can build that security when you raise your kid to know that they can’t lose you, that you will love them unconditionally and stand by them, even when they make mistakes. It doesn’t mean you approve of everything. But it means you’re not going anywhere. 

Family Code Word for Tricky Situations

Another thing I want for all kids to be able to do is to learn how to use a healthy way of getting out of a situation, if they can’t talk their way out of it easily.

That’s why I suggest every family early in adolescence—maybe even before adolescence—has a code word. So, if a kid finds themselves in an uncomfortable situation, they just need to text their family a code that says, “Mum, I didn’t get to walk Spotty today.” Spotty, in this example, is the code word. If the parent hears that, they know their child needs to get out of a situation, and texts back. They might write, “You were supposed to be home an hour ago! Where are you? I’m picking you up now.” The parent takes the blame. 

Nurturing Their Social Idealism

As adults, we’ve learned to sometimes avert our eyes to problems in society. But adolescents ask why. They ask, “How did you just walk by that man experiencing homelessness? Do you not see his suffering?” Things we’ve learned to ignore, they’re not willing to ignore. That is our greatest hope for the future. The fact that they have that righteous indignation that says, “What did you do wrong? I can do better.” We want to nurture that because our future is every generation figuring out things we haven’t. 

How do we nurture this in our kids? Listen to them and don’t shut them down. If they have something to say that is frustrating to them about the current state of the world, listen, and celebrate the fact that they care. Then listen further, as they offer solutions. And if those solutions need a little bit of back and forth, have that back and forth, to get them to sharpen their ideas. Create opportunities for them to go out and make a difference in the world.

We know a protective thing in a young life is to have a sense of purpose and know that they matter. How do you learn that? By “mattering.” So, let’s get our kids out there. Let them volunteer to clean up the neighbourhood, work on an environmental project, or help the neighbour who’s ill and can’t grocery shop or put their bins out. Find out what your child’s interest is and give them opportunities to be able to know they make a difference, and they matter. This will build their strengths, give them more confidence, and they will lead us into a better future. 

For the full article visit: How to Help Your Teen Be a Good Person (berkeley.edu)

By Aundraea Stevens

Convenor of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Committee