Mercurius issue 10 – October 2018 - 28 Oct 2018
From the Principal

From the Principal

Dear Parents, Carers and Fortians,

The first two weeks of Term 4, have been as usual a busy time at the Fort.
On the first day of term, year 9 practised pitching tents and cooking food in preparation for their mandatory Duke of Edinburgh Camp. Despite the inclement weather for camping and hiking, students and staff returned to school on Friday after four days away full of energy, stories and enthusiasm for all they had done. I would like to extend my gratitude to Mr O’Neill, Mr de Bres, Mr Prasad, Ms Arcamone and Ms Fentoullis for giving their time to enable such a worthwhile experience to be had.

On Tuesday 16th October, Mr Morrison held a Year 11 HSC information evening for all current Year 11 into Year 12 students. If you were unable to make this evening please ensure that you have picked up a copy of the Year 12 assessment booklet from Mr Morrison.

On Sunday 21st October the FSHS Chamber Choir performed with the Sydney Male Voice Choir at Petersham Town Hall.
Thankfully the sun shone on Tuesday October 23rd for the Year 7 excursion to Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi and a great time was had by students and staff. The following day Year 8 Japanese students enjoyed a day at the Nihongo Tanken centre in Kirrawee with Mr Gillespie and Mr Backhouse.

On Friday 26th October House Meetings were held for the election of House Captains.

I had the pleasure of attending the Fortians Union annual dinner on Friday 19th October. Ashley Challinor – Yr 11 (SRC President) and Sunil Jassal – Yr 11 (SRC Vice President) impressed the audience with their speech describing life as a student at Fort Street High School in 2018.

With one week done Year 12 have only two weeks left until all the HSC exams will be completed. I would like to thank students in Years 7-11 for observing the signs and keeping the areas around the Hall quiet and clear during this stressful time for Year 12.

Coming Up:
The FSHS Jazz Ensemble will play at the Taverner’s Hill Public School fair this Saturday 27th October between 12.30pm and 1pm. The group consists of Jack Coleman Year 9, Alexandra Kilham Year 9, Benjamin Hamer Year 10, Jonathon Kelley Year 10, Jaden White Year 10 and Andy Papadopoulos Year 11.

Congratulations to:
Milly Morinaga – Year 7: 2018 ICAS medal winner for the highest score in Year 7 Writing.
Jerry Zhou – Year 8: selected and played for NSW in the Australian National U14’s Ice Hockey Tournament in Melbourne last August, the NSW team won gold.
Chelsea Hoang – Year 9: awarded 3rd place in the NSW division of the Plan Your Own Enterprise competition. This prestigious competition required Chelsea to write a 3,000 word business plan on a hypothetical small business. Chelsea’s business plan was called ‘Freestyle’ and is based on selling a special type of swimwear. The plan is creative, well-researched, demonstrates a deep knowledge of business theory and fulfils a market need. Chelsea received $150 for her prize.
Aidan Limnios – Year 10: represented Fort Street at the ACYP’s Children’s Parliament on Monday 22nd October. Aidan will provide a recount of his experience for the next edition of Mercurius.
F1 in Schools team ‘Vertex Racing’ – Year 10: Anson Lee, Gabriel Thien, Cristina Koprinski, Edmund Derwent and Georgio Hawi have recently won the regional competition and will be heading off to the State Competition on 5th- 7th November.

Survey invitation – the use of smartphones

Survey invitation – the use of smartphones

The P&C has commissioned research to explore the whole school community’s observations of, ideas and attitudes to the uses and impacts (both positive and negative) of the use of smartphones during the school day and possible solutions to addressing these issues.

The link is https://www.surveymonkey. com/r/FSHSparents

All parents, students and teachers are invited to complete a short online survey on their experiences and opinions. It will only take about 10 minutes and even if you don’t have strong ideas we still want you to be involved and gauge your understanding of the issues.

Additionally, focus groups will be conducted with a selection of students from each year group on Nov 26 and 27th, a range of teachers and a handful of parents with a cross-section of views.  If you are interested in being part of these please indicate this at the end of the online survey.

P&C Special Focus Item: Guest Speaker from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner

P&C Special Focus Item: Guest Speaker from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner

The school and P&C are pleased to welcome Ms Kellie Britnell from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner to speak with parents prior to the P&C Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 14 November. The eSafety Commissioner is responsible for promoting online safety, and is committed to helping all Australians have safe, positive experiences online.

The Office offers a wide range of services including a complaints service for young Australians who experience serious cyberbullying and processes for identifying and removing illegal online content and for tackling image-based abuse. They also provide informative, practical and up to date resources for students, parents and teachers, on their website: esafety.gov.au/.

Parents may be interested in looking at some of the parenting resources (esafety.gov.au/education-resources/iparent) prior to the evening. There is also a particularly helpful page with information on popular smart phone apps, their potential dangers and how to navigate them safely (esafety.gov.au/esafety-information/games-apps-and-social-networking).

Ms Britnell will be discussing the role of the Office and the services they are able to provide, general cyber-safety awareness for parents, and the legislative framework and intervention powers relating to cyber-bullying/image based abuse.

The session will begin at 6:30pm in the school library, the P&C AGM will begin at 7:30pm. All parents are welcome, we hope to see as many of you there there as possible.

Joel Morrison
Deputy Principal

Parent Representatives for Staff Merit Selection Panels

Parent Representatives for Staff Merit Selection Panels

The school has a number of vacancies on staff that we hope to fill either before the end of this year or early next year. As a public school, half of our classroom teacher vacancies are filled centrally by the Department of Education’s staffing services, the other half, and all executive vacancies, go to a merit selection and interview process. This process requires the school to form a panel including staff, parent and community representatives.

We are looking to establish a pool of parents who can act as parent/community representatives as required throughout the year. This is an opportunity for parents to be involved in the appointment staff who will maintain the high academic standards and uphold the values of the school. If you are interested in being part of this pool can you please contact the school office by email (fortstreet-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au) to register your interest. No educational background or subject expertise is necessary. The role of the parent on the panel is to offer the perspective of our students, their families and the wider school community. Representatives need to complete a short online training module and be available for two separate whole day meetings, one to shortlist potential candidates and contact referees, and another to conduct the actual interviews.

Joel Morrison
Deputy Principal

Premier’s Coding Challenge

Premier’s Coding Challenge

The Technology faculty at Fort Street High School will be taking part in the inaugural Premier’s Coding Challenge. This activity is open to students in years 7 and 8. The event will run for 1 hour between 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM in K11 every Thursday in Term 4. Mr Adam Semaan will supervise the activity.

Students benefit from a range of comprehensive support materials that underpin this challenge, including; online video tutorials, sample units of work, learner portfolio templates, and our ThinkerShield online community of practice. Developed by the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS), the ThinkerShield and associated learning materials help to bring digital technologies into the classroom. Based on Arduino – an open-source electronics platform with easy-to-use hardware and software (based on the C programming language) – the ThinkerShield is the simplest, and most reliable way to get started with physical computing. Students will be able to choose from bronze, silver, gold, or diamond levels of difficulty.

Participating students are asked to pay a $70 levy to the office. This levy is used to cover the cost of materials in the course. Students will be able to take home and keep the electronics components which include an Arduino board and ThinkerShield. Any student who cannot attend after-school sessions is invited to participate as self-directed learners using online course materials at home. These students can pick up their kits from school after payment of the levy.​

Adam Semaan
Head Teacher – Technology

Tanken Cultural Centre visits

Tanken Cultural Centre visits

This term Japanese classes are visiting the Tanken Cultural Centre.  Thank you to Mr Gillespie for organising the excursions and colleagues for helping. The language and cultural activities take place in the surrounds of a traditional room and garden.

Mark Backhouse
Head Teacher Languages

2018 What Matters? NSW/ACT Winner – Alison Hwang

2018 What Matters? NSW/ACT Winner – Alison Hwang

The Colour of Words

You are in a room.

I stand before you,

fixed in one position.

In your hands,

you hold a large brush

and a wooden palette

holding squirts of

vibrant colours.

A sudden playfulness tickles your mind.

You sink the brush

into the paint,

raise your arm,

and flick it at me.

My naked skin

begins to be marked with

splatters and spots

of red, yellow, blue…

***

Within the twenty seconds that you have spent on reading up to this point, your brain has just processed seventy words, transferring them into images, thoughts, and memories. This is the single most fascinating and magical ability that we humans have – the art of language. The words we encounter throughout our lives, both spoken and written, each carry distinctive meanings, connotations, and tones that affect us in one way or another, and add a stroke of colour to who we are as individuals.

However, in today’s society, the power of our words is too often overlooked. In our daily lives, we carelessly throw words at each other without considering the destructive impacts that they can have. Every day at school, I hear friends swearing, making offensive remarks at each other, and using demeaning and disparaging words under the excuse of ‘banter’. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are loaded with hateful comments, cyberbullying, and intolerable jokes that minimise and condone misogyny, racism, rape, ableism, and terrorism. We are blind to the immense degree of influence that our language possesses, particularly in a world where communication has now become faster and wider than ever.

But if we can use words to hate, they can also be used to love. Instead of leaving scars, they can heal scars. A kind greeting on the first day of high school has been my first step to building long-lasting friendships. Compliments from parents and teachers put a proud smile on my face and inspire me to strive for higher goals. When was the last time you received unexpected encouragement and consolation from the lyrics of a song or a passage from a book?

Words matter. To me, and to you. Humanity has been gifted with the beauty of language, and it is time that we appreciate and cherish it. I want a world where children are taught to speak and write with respect, humility, and compassion. I want a world where individuals are defined not by their appearance, race, gender, or religion, but by the dignity of their words. I want a world where words give people the strength to live on, instead of being the blade that tears it apart.

Words should not submerge us in colours.

It should make our own colours shine more.

***

The colours of your words

trickled down my cheeks

oozed through my throat

splashed on my feet

Engulfing my whole body

Until you couldn’t even

really see

Me

Was I smiling?

Or crying?

You turn around

and walk away.

But what you don’t know is that

the colours of your words

have left the most vivid stains

on you.

 

Alison Hwang – winner of the Whitlam Institute’s What Matters? Writing Competition

(Photos by Sally Tsoutas)

Confucius Day 2018

Confucius Day 2018

Fort Street High School held its annual Confucius Day in the Hall on 24 September. Activities lasted the whole afternoon. Volunteer teachers from five other schools with Confucius classrooms were invited to help with a range of workshops such as lantern-making, Chinese chess and calligraphy.

The day happened to be Chinese ‘Mid-Autumn’ Festival which is the second most important celebration to Chinese people. During lunchtime a Chinese cultural group displayed excellent performances of lion dancing. This attracted many students and teachers’ attention and applause. Mooncakes were prepared for students and teachers to have a taste. On top of that, riddles were hung up on a tree for students to guess and receive gifts. Lots of students participated in the workshops and won many prizes. Ms. Cotton also enjoyed making lucky knots with them. Students who are studying Chinese stayed in the Hall to enjoy other cultural activities. They had a great time.
It was a successful event during which the whole school could experience unique Chinese culture.

Zoe Tian
Volunteer Chinese teacher

Year 8 German Masterchef

Year 8 German Masterchef

On Monday 24 September, classroom W1 was heady with the sweet scent of butter, sugar and chocolate. The students from the Year 8 German class had been busy baking and frying their entries for the class’ Master Chef Competition. Each team researched a traditional recipe from a German-speaking country and then went to work in the kitchen at home before bringing their mouth-watering creations to share with their classmates.

Well-known Fortian and University of Sydney student, Arkady “the cake man” De Jong, was our guest judge and he found it very difficult to decide on a winner amongst the home-baked pretzels, Lebkuchen, cheesecakes and Torten. We were both extremely impressed by the amount of care each student had taken in preparing their special dish.

In the end we had to award two entries with the first prize – William Randal and Yoon-Jae Lee for their Prinzregentenchocolate layer cake,  and Maia Vincent and Gabriel Peyrachon for their fruity Obsttorte. Congratulations to them and the whole class on their efforts.

Kristina Reynolds
Language Faculty ​

 

 

Business Studies Competitions

Business Studies Competitions

Chelsea Hoang, a year 9 accelerated Business Studies student, came third in the NSW division of the Plan Your Own Enterprise competition, winning a cash prize of $150. This competition is normally entered by year 11 students, and Chelsea’s success follows Max Tosello’s third placing in the same competition last year. Crystal Pham and Amy Pham were also finalists last year.

This prestigious competition required Chelsea to write a 3,000 word business plan on a hypothetical small business, and give a presentation on her plan at the award ceremony. Chelsea’s business plan is called ‘Freestyle’ and is based on selling leakage-proof swimwear suitable for menstuation or incontinence.

Congratulations for your success in this competition Chelsea!

Several other year 9 Business Studies students were also recognised for their achievements in the University of Newcastle Business Plan Challenge. Louisa Chen, Ashley Saipaia, Kevin Luong, Aiden Leong, Victoria Truong, Juha Narimatsu and Brian Nhan received a Certificate of High Distinction. Sascha Craney, Angelica Wilson, Paul Nguyen and Oscar Iwas received Certificates of Outstanding Achievement. Louisa’s entry was deemed to be in the top 20 submissions in the State.

Well done to all participating students!

Caroline Jerrems

Mental Health Public Speaking Challenge

Mental Health Public Speaking Challenge

The Fort St High entrants in the Mental Health Public Speaking Challenge came second in the annual competition on September 6 with their passionate defence of the impact of positive self-talk on mental health. Congratulations to speakers Allegra Caleo, Jess Lovatt and Genevieve Bivell, and to their team Alyssa Koit, Satvik Sharma and Kabilan Tiburtius, who provided brainstorming, planning and essential feedback.

Elizabeth Maddox
English Faculty

Year 9/10 Business Studies Excursion to Sydney Central YHA

Year 9/10 Business Studies Excursion to Sydney Central YHA

During Term 3, the Year 9 and 10 Business Studies accelerated students were given the opportunity to travel to Sydney Central Youth Hostel, which is part of YHA Australia – a youth hostelling association. YHA Australia is a member association of Hostelling International.

The Business Studies course is based on studying actual businesses, so we were fortunate to be able to visit Sydney Central YHA to find out more about how the business operates. The excursion was closely linked to the topics that are covered in the Human Resources and Marketing components of the Business Studies syllabus, to assist us with case studies that we will be required to include in our essays for the HSC. The information gathered was rather interesting, especially when it came to the way that they operated.

Although Ms Jerrems wasn’t able to navigate us to the YHA, the students were able to guide her towards the building and we were able to arrive there on time. Upon arrival, we were given a quick tour of the building and were able to see the facilities being used first hand by customers. The Manager, Sam Badans, gave us an informative presentation which gave us the answers to the majority of the questions we needed to ask and he was even nice enough to let us ask lots of questions. All the answers to the questions were extremely helpful and informative.

We wished the excursion lasted for the whole day; unfortunately, we arrived back at school during Period 3. The excursion was extremely beneficial to our education and we enjoyed ourselves very much.

We would like to thank Sam Badans, the manager of Sydney Central YHA, for allowing us this great opportunity.

Chelsea Hoang and Manit Anand, Year 9 and Ms Jerrems

Robotics and F1

Robotics and F1

Robotics report 

On the 21st of August the extra-curricular robotics group participated in the annual RCJA (Robo Cup Junior Australia) competition at UNSW. We competed in three competitions: Open Rescue, Secondary Rescue and Open Soccer. In Open and Secondary Rescue, the robot must navigate along a line course and rescue a victim. The robot must then locate and place a silver can on an orange block (Open Rescue) and push the can out of the spill (Secondary Rescue). In Open Soccer, two soccer robots compete against another school in a match, and must score by detecting and moving an orange ball into a goal. At the State Competition we received three awards:

2nd Open Rescue: Cristina Koprinski, Amelie Skelton
Rescue Innovation Award: Cristina Koprinski, Amelie Skelton
Rescue Innovation Award:  Gabriel Thien, Xavier Cooney, Manit Anand

Ten students were then chosen to represent the school at the National Competition in Melbourne on the 4th and 8th October. The students were able to enrich their knowledge in programming, electronics and engineering over the course of the week by participating in workshops and networking with industry mentors. We achieved:

The Best Robot Design for Open Rescue: Cristina Koprinski, Amelie Skelton, Georgio Hawi

Cristina Koprinski
F1 in Schools report 

On the 17th of September, Vertex Racing and NCAD racing, from the Maker Society participated in the F1 in Schools Regionals Championships. We competed at Newington College in the Senior Professional divisions. Prior to the day, both teams created two mini F1 cars, an enterprise and engineering portfolio and a verbal presentation. The aim of the competition is not only to have the fastest car on a 20m track, but is also to be well rounded by having the best verbal presentation, portfolios and manufacturing processes. The competition ended in tremendous results. Vertex Racing, consisting of Angelina Lee, Anson Lee, Cristina Koprinski, Gabriel Thien and Edmund Derwent, won overall first place and many other awards such as overall fastest car, fastest reaction time, best team portfolio, best team verbal presentation, outstanding industry collaboration and more. NCAD also received similar results coming overall second. Both teams will be progressing to the F1 in Schools State Competition on 5th-7th September in Penrith.

Angelina Lee

Congratulations Jerry

Congratulations Jerry

Congratulations Jerry who was selected to play for New South Wales in the Australian National U14’s ice hockey tournament held in Melbourne. New South Wales won gold, going through the tournament undefeated, and pulling ahead of Victoria in the finals for a close win in the shootout.

Jerry’s club were also gold medallists in the State Finals, where Jerry scored the winning goal against Liverpool in the shootout to take the win.

Jerry was selected to play in the Australian U14’s National team earlier this year at the biggest International youth hockey tournament  in the world, held in Quebec, Canada.  Jerry has also been selected to represent Australia again in the Japan International tournament next year.

Help with your career after HSC

Help with your career after HSC

Need help with your options after the HSC?  The Careers Advisory Service will be available to help on 14 & 17-18 December.

www.careersadvisoryservice.com

Graduation Day Parents’ Speech

Graduation Day Parents’ Speech

Good evening. I have the honour to speak on behalf of all the parents here tonight, and to represent some of our thoughts and reflections on the happy occasion of seeing our daughters and sons graduate from Fort Street High School.

I imagine I was asked to speak tonight mainly because I have been heavily involved with the school’s Instrumental Music Program over the past eight years. That involvement has given me some behind-the-scenes insight into how the school is run, the dedication of the school staff and of many parents, and also a chance to observe and get to know quite a number of students, including a good few who are graduating here tonight.

And through all that, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is a rather special place.

I would have loved to have gone to this school. I have been, over the last eight years, green eyed with jealousy for Sebastian’s and Julian’s opportunities here at The Fort. I may have occasionally subjected them, unprompted, to grumpy middle-aged rants along the lines of, “You don’t know how lucky you are!” Which really is not fair, because they are well aware of how lucky they are. I believe that most of the students at this school, particularly as they contemplate leaving it, are aware of how special a place it is.

So what makes The Fort special?

A great many things of course, but for me the stand-out aspect is Diversity. A culture that values and cultivates Diversity.

Diversity of interests. This school offers a myriad of activities and opportunities that the students enthusiastically embrace. Cultural interests, such as the astonishing 14 ensembles of the IMP. Educational interests, such as debating and robotics. And a healthy sports program. This school loves to celebrate effort and achievement in these diverse interests. Diversity of backgrounds, ethnicity and religion, among the students and the staff, reflecting Australia’s great multicultural social backbone.

It seems to me that two core values intertwine with that culture of Diversity: Respect and Balance.

Respect for, indeed honouring and embracing of, a wide diversity of interests, opinions, beliefs and religions. Respect for sex and gender diversity.

Balance between academic excellence, and the pursuit of diverse cultural and social activities. A tricky balancing act for a selective school, and something The Fort works hard to get right. Balance between respect for authority and the right to protest against perceived injustice. For example, earlier this year the students staged a solidarity walkout from school protesting against gun violence in US schools. But they made sure they got the school exec on-board first. Respect balanced with irreverence, a key characteristic of Fortians. For example, students respectfully honouring the traditions, pomp and ceremony of Speech Day, but also each year running a book on how long their principal’s speech will be.

A culture of diversity, respect and balance allows all sorts of different people to fit in – to feel that they belong. I think that most students at Fort Street believe that they belong here. And that is a wonderful – and I dare say unusual – thing.

The Fort, then, is a special place indeed.

Nothing this special ever just happens, and continues to happen year-on-year. People make it happen. Which brings me to my important duty tonight.

Being the fine young adults that they are, I am sure that our year 12 students took the opportunity this week to thank their teachers and the other school staff. It is important, however, that we parents also thank them. For of course, it is predominantly the Fort Street staff – the executive, the teachers, the office and other admin staff – who define that culture of diversity, respect and balance, who set the standards, who lead by example, who educate at the highest level, and who do all the work behind the scenes to enable all the diverse activities and opportunities.

I imagine there is a tradition on this occasion of the parent speaker offering some sage advice to the graduating students, as they leave school and begin their journey into the big, wide world. And this should not be a surprise, for what parent can resist the urge to offer un-asked-for advice to a group of teenagers, particularly including their own.

But I am going to resist that urge. For I really don’t think you need advice from me. You are, I believe – to a large degree based on your education at this school, the opportunities you have taken up here, the friends you have made, and the culture of respect for diversity that you have imbibed here and made your own – so much better equipped to move on from school and to the challenges and opportunities of adult life. You are more mature, more aware, more tolerant, more caring, more broadly educated, more inquisitive, and you form and sustain great friendships. You are so well equipped for the journey, to do remarkable and rewarding things, and to grow into true leadership roles within our wider community.

Fort Street Class of 2018, huge congratulations on graduating today. We all look forward, with much excitement and optimism, to seeing what you make of the journey from here.

Ian Daniels
Father of Julian van Gerwen Year 12

Important Dates

Important Dates

October
29        Japanese Excursion
29        Robotics Excursion

November
1          Geography Excursion
1          Maker Society
1          Premier’s Coding Challenge
5          Maths Ext 1 Excursion
5          IMP AGM
7          Years 11 and 12 Meet the Music
7          School Council meeting
7          Foundation meeting
8          Maker Society
8          Premier’s Coding Challenge
9          History Extension Excursion
9          Year 7 Vaccinations
12        Remembrance Day and SRC Induction Day assembly
14        P&C Meeting
14-15   School Spectacular
15        Premier’s Coding Challenge
15        UTS Maths Club
16        Japanese Excursion
16        Assembly

Notice of P&C Annual General Meeting  

Notice of P&C Annual General Meeting  

The P&C AGM will be held on Wednesday 14thNovember 2018 at 7:30pm in the school library.

The meeting will include reports on the activities of the school and the P&C in 2018, information about our finances and election of office bearers for 2019.

At the AGM we will be asking for nominations for all positions on the committee and would love to see more people join our committee. The positions on the committee are:
President
Vice president (2 positions)
Secretary
Treasurer
Executive member (up to 6 positions)

We also have the following sub-committees where one or more person holds the position of co-ordinator. These are:
Uniform Shop
Second-hand Uniform Stall
Canteen
Fundraising
Sports at the Fort
Foundation and School Council
IMP (decided at the IMP AGM)

We are particularly looking for people interested in a Vice President position, Executive member position and Uniform Shop and Second-Hand Uniform Stall co-ordinators. However, all positions are declared vacant at the AGM and any current member is able to be nominated for any of these positions. If you would like more information about the roles of the committee members please email fortstreethighschool@pandaffiliate.org.au

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

Instrumental Music Program News

Instrumental Music Program News

Annual General Meeting
The IMP Annual General Meeting will be held on Monday 5 November 2018 at 7:30pm in the school hall. This is an excellent opportunity to have your say on the direction the IMP will take in 2019, and all IMP parents are encouraged to attend. The meeting will include reports on 2018 activity, discussion of the budget, events and plans for 2019 and beyond, and election of office bearers for 2019.
If you would like more detail about any of the committee roles or to nominate yourself for one of them, please email fortstreetimp+convenor@gmail.com. Please let us know if you plan to nominate for a role, as it will help us plan the meeting.

HSC Compositions
Last term the Wind Ensemble workshopped and then recorded a number of HSC compositions, which was a great opportunity for composers to troubleshoot their works with live players. The Wind Ensemble sounded fantastic as usual, and sight read and offered feedback on these new compositions with maturity and musicality beyond their years. We encourage all HSC composers to consider writing for the ensemble they know best.

Performances

On Sunday Chamber Choir performed in concert with the Sydney Male Choir to a very appreciative audience at the Petersham Town Hall.

Keep up to date with all IMP events including performances via the IMP calendar:

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=fortstreetimp@gmail.com&ctz=Australia/Sydney&pli=1

Conservatorium Students at Fort Street
Last week a group of students studying jazz at the Sydney Conservatorium came to Fort Street to study the art of running a high school jazz rehearsal. Under the guidance of Ray Cassar, members of the next generation of band directors were put through their paces, working with Big Band in rehearsal. This is an invaluable experience both for the Big band and for the undergraduates participating. A number of IMP students have gone on to study at the Con, and it is great to keep the relationship between our two music institutions strong.

Congratulations to Pat Wu (Year 10) on achieving his Licentiate in Music (LMusA) in Piano, a diploma awarded by the Australian Music Examinations Board to outstanding candidates in the fields of musical performance.

Staff Training
The IMP is committed to offering opportunities for our conductors to undertake professional development. In recent months the IMP has arranged for Ray Cassar (jazz) to attend the Essentially EllingtonTeacher’s Workshops, and helped Rachel Pogson (strings) to attend the Australian National Band and Orchestra Conference in Brisbane.

Instrument Storage
From Term 4, school rooms will be locked when not in use. This includes the Cottage and R2, so instruments should now be stored in the basement or in the student’s own locker
The basement will be opened each morning, and will remain open throughout the day while tutors are there. There is plenty of shelf space for all IMP members to store their instruments in the basement. Instruments must not be left on the floor or on the stairs.
For students who rehearse in R2, the usual rules about storing small instruments still apply. For tuba and double bass students, your tutor will have access to R2 if you need to collect an instrument for a lesson.

Sydney Youth Orchestra
Summer school registrations now open, suited to students Grade 3-7 or equivalent.
https://syo.com.au/programs/syo-open-holiday-programs/2019-summer-school/

 

Have you ever been curious about the Mercurius?

The first edition appeared at Fort Street High School in March 1984. It was set up as a monthly newsletter to communicate more regularly to parents the activities of school. The function has not changed today but, clearly, the digital presentation has. Today’s Mercurius is a thorough and stunning digital summary of the activities and achievements whereas the first editions were purely utilitarian and specifically ‘made no apology for its appearance’. Regardless of the appearance, the regular publication makes for a significant documentation of the school’s history possibly on par with the annual Fortian magazine.

Interestingly, throughout all the early editions of the Mercurius there is no mention as to how the name of this publication came to be! This has been a regular question over the years. If you were at Fort Street during the early day of the Mercurius and know the origin of its name please send us an email!

Iain Wallace – School Archivist

Reunions

Reunions

From the Girls of 1958

The year of IC 1956 and LC 1958 gathered recently for their 60th anniversary.
Afternoon tea was followed by a hearty rendition of the school song, before the 60th anniversary cake was ceremoniously cut. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and catching up.
A group (who meet each year for a mini reunion) then gathered at the Sydney Rowing Club for dinner, where they had a front seat for the amazing storm on Saturday around 5.30 pm.

‘Come Fortians, Fortians All.
How privileged were we all to be able to attend such a wonderful school’.

Valda Barron (FSGHS 1958)

 

And the Girls of 1968

The girls from 1968 held their 50th reunion recently which was very well attended.  They enjoyed lunch at the Marigold Restaurant and celebrated their anniversary with a spectacular crested cake (pictured).

Photos – Marilyn Cruise (Bartlett) FSGHS 1968