Principals Report

Dear Fortians, Parents and Guardians,

During last week’s P&C meeting, several finance requests were approved. These approvals encompassed funding for two piano wheeled Y-frame trollies intended for use in the school hall, as well as the acquisition of necessary parts and materials to support our RoboCup Nationals team. Additionally, the meeting gave its approval to purchase a particulate monitor for the Geography and Social Science Department.

Last weekend, our community support and dedication was evident as 38 students, 12 teachers and several parents volunteered for our first 24-hour row for mental health. It is with great pride and gratitude that I extend my thanks to all the participants and to the generous individuals who contributed via donations for this great cause. I wish to express my appreciation to Ms Ezekiel for organising and supervising this event. Her commitment to the wellbeing of our students is truly inspiring. Additionally, I would like to extend my gratitude to Mr Morrison for taking the 12am to 4.30am shift during the row, his unwavering support for our school community is commendable.

As we approach Term 4, we are preparing for a number of staff changes. We bid farewell, albeit temporarily, to Mr Scudds and Mr O’Neill, both of whom are taking a well-deserved term of long service leave. In their absence, we welcome a new permanent member to the English staff and Head Teacher Wellbeing, Ms Kristina Strati, who will be joining us from Cronulla High School. To cover Mr O’Neill’s classes, Mr Chan will be stepping in for Term 4.

It is also with mixed emotions that we announce the departure of our Deputy Principal Joel Morrison. Joel along with his family, will be embarking on a five-term adventure in Alice Springs. Please rest assured that Joel will return, and we eagerly anticipate his homecoming to the Fort. We extend our best wishes to his wife Meredith, in her new job in Alice Springs, and we hope that the entire family enjoys this incredible journey together.

Sadly, we must bid a permanent farewell to several valued members of our staff:

– Mr Boyle (Head Teacher of History and Languages) has led the History faculty with academic rigour for the past 9 years. Not only have students reported year after year of their love for My Boyle’s History classes but the HSC results for Modern History under his leadership have been outstanding.

– Ms Starr (Head Teacher Wellbeing) has been an integral part of Fort Street High School since 2002 and taken countless cohorts through to completion of their Visual Art major works. We are fortunate to have Adrian Mok (Fortian Class of 2018) stepping in to cover Ms Starr’s teaching load.

This week marks an emotional moment in our school year as we bid adieu to our Year 12 students. On Monday Year 12 spent the better part of the day at Bicentennial Park enjoying a whole of year picnic. On Tuesday they spent the morning in the hall with their Year Adviser Mr Guy and assistant Year Adviser Ms Tidon, playing Trivia and then made their way to the school oval for a colour run. Wednesday morning is the annual Year 12/teacher breakfast followed by the school farewell assembly and a formal graduation ceremony in the hall for year 12 and their parents in the evening. We send Year 12 off with our best wishes as they embark on their final preparations for the HSC exams. We have every confidence in their abilities and look forward to celebrating their achievements in the near future.

In closing, it is the incredible sense of community and commitment that makes Fort Street High School so special. Together, we can achieve remarkable things, and I am excited to see what the future holds for our school. I hope that all our students enjoy a well earned break these holidays and look forward to seeing everyone back in term 4.

Congratulations:

Senior Science Olympiad – the following students have been awarded High Distinctions in the senior division of the Science Olympiad: A. Parmintuan (Physics), S. Poudel (Physics), M. Burriss (Chemistry) and R. Miers (Biology).

Last week the 16s and opens girls’ futsal teams played at the NSW state futsal championships. Both teams played incredibly well. The opens team made it through to the final 8 out of 23 teams. They lost to PLC in this game. The students in the teams were Ashley Huang, Lucie Atkin Bolton, Joey Lu, Grace Zarb, Avni Aneej, Beatrice Shimada, Eva Yuan, Joyce Chen and Vera Liang.

Upcoming Events:

Thursday 21 September – Friday 22 September: SRC Camp

Thursday 21 September: IMP Workshops with visiting school from New Zealand

Friday 22 September: Whole School Assembly

Friday 22 September – Sunday 15 October: German Study Tour to Germany

Friday 22 September – last day of term 3 

Saturday 23 September – Thursday 5 October: Japanese Study Tour to Japan

Term 4 commences Monday 9 October for all students

Monday 9 October: Year 12 2024 HSC Information Evening for parents and students 6pm Hall

Wednesday 11 October: HSC Exams commence

Wednesday 11 October: P&C Meeting 7pm

Wednesday 11 October: Year 8 History Incursion Medieval show and castle building

Thursday 12 October: Year 9 History (ANZAC Memorial) and Geography (Barangaroo) Excursion

24 hour Row for Mental Health

On the weekend of the 9^th and 10^th of September Fort Street High School pariticipated for the first time in the Gotcha4Life 24-hour row. It was an excellent event organised by the PDHPE faculty, raising close to $3000 for the organisation who raise funds for Mental Fitness programs in the community. Over the 24 hours, 40 participants across years 7-12 as well as friends, teachers and families rowed for 30-minute intervals, with Year 10 having the largest cohort participating!

Well done to all of the participants and a huge thank you to Ms Ezekiel for organising this event. Thank you also the teachers who gave up their time over the weekend to support such a good cause.

SRC Election Results

Congratulate to those students who were elected to be a part of the SRC and well done to all of those students who put themselves as candidates. The nominated students have a busy year ahead being a part of our very active and productive SRC tea.

Titration Nationals 2023

From the eight Fort Street teams that competed at Wenona School, back in June, three teams made it to the Nationals which was held at the University of New South Wales earlier this month. Two of the three teams was awarded two gold and one silver medal, an excellent achievement. They were:

Team 1: Jiani WEI and Emma ZHAO were awarded gold and Rebecca WONG: Silver

Team 2: Shraya ACHARYA and Harrison ANDO were awarded gold and Cherry LU: Silver

Finally I would like to thank all the teams for their time in preparing for the competition.

Mr T. Leondios

Titration coordinator

Legacy Junior Public Speaking Award

Fort Street Debating

Congratulations to the Year 10 Debating Team (Gina Hong, Min Park, Ella Lo, Eleanor Alonso Love, Alexa Salmon) for being undefeated and winning their preliminary rounds for the Premieres Debating Challenge. After a strong defeat of Macquarie Fields High in their first knockout stage they will be facing up against East Hills Girls in Round 5, Term 4. We wish you all the very best of luck! 

Congratulations to Year 7 and Year 8 who tied for second place in their preliminary rounds of the PDC, with some promising results from the Year 7 team they will be a force to reckon with in the future. Unfortunately, their season comes to an end for 2023.

A solid year for Fort Street Debating teams all round.

Students in the Teen Chorus at the Sydney Opera House

*Content warning: this article contains references to refugee experiences

In May this year, I performed at the Sydney Opera House in the premiere season of a professional chamber opera called Three Marys as part of the Teen Chorus. It was a truly amazing experience to work alongside extraordinarily talented industry professionals, and I feel so fortunate to have been involved.

Three Marys is inspired by the medieval legend (which has many versions) of the biblical women Maria, Magdalena, and Sarah-Marie banished from their homeland and forced out to sea in an oarless boat. Their story is interwoven with that of Tunisian fisherman Marzoug, a real man who collects the anonymous bodies of drowned refugees who wash up on shore, giving them dignity in burial. The Teen Chorus are the spirits of refugee children lost at sea whose memories and names are slipping away. It’s a story with powerful contemporary resonance, as today’s refugees from war, famine and climate change also journey across oceans in search of safety.

I’ve been involved in this opera since a week-long workshop in 2022 through the Arts Unit, when the score was still being developed, and I auditioned to be in the chorus (over zoom while in Germany!) later that year. Through the production’s many rehearsals, I made friends and met some amazing people. We were conducted by Simon Kenway, who taught us the Italian for energy (ENERGIA!!), a prompt used liberally on full-day rehearsals. Composer Andrée Greenwell was present for rehearsals, which meant that our performance was shaped by her intent and enriched by the resulting deeper understanding of the piece. Christine Evans’ beautiful libretto added poetry to each moment, but I won’t reveal too much so as to not spoil it! Our director Angela Chaplin lit the room and had consistently excellent shoes (it was a Thing). Kirsty, our stage manager, was literally the most organised person I have ever met, and our costume designer Meg was so lovely and skilled. Sorry to bore you – I know you don’t know these people – but they truly deserve shout outs!!

The Teen Chorus was an auditioned group from the Arts Unit Senior Singers and included Fortian Andy Bestel, ex-Fortian Caleb Mayo, and myself.

I was honestly starstruck by the amazing cast of four professional opera singers – Heru, Eddie, Samantha, and Jessica. Definitely a pinch-me moment when we got out of chorus rehearsals and note-reading to fully stage the opera with the cast. I was on such a musical high after our Sitzprobe [German: sitting rehearsal], the first rehearsal with the orchestra, and it was so exciting when we got to the actual venue with mics, costumes, and the final acoustics.

Opening night on 11 May was electric: our stage manager Kirsty had left the message “toi toi toi!” (theatre talk for good luck) across our dressing room mirrors and given us baskets of fruit and snacks, composer Andrée gave us beautiful orchids and seashell bracelets, and singer Jess gave us a card addressed to “Dearest Water Children.” The post-show high left me and a fellow chorus member laughing deliriously on the train back home; opening nights are truly special! 

Now for the reason I’m writing about this now and not back in May: the opera was recorded live on one of our performances, and from 12pm Sunday 24 September 2023 this will be available at https://stream.sydneyoperahouse.com/videos/green-room-music-three-marys-2023 to stream! I’m so excited to watch this and relive this amazing experience. If you’re interested in watching it, please do – and let me know what you think!!

Thanks for reading all this way 🙂

Sofie Andersen, year 11 soprano

School holiday works notification

P&C News

Thanks to Mr Chapman, Head Teacher Social Sciences, for presenting at our last meeting. We’re sure a lot of parents had conversations about superannuation and money at the dinner table afterwards!

During the meeting the P&C also approved funding the following items for the school:

2 x Grand Piano Trolleys for the Hall – $4510

Maker Society Parts for the upcoming RoboCup National Finals – $2000

Social Sciences data logging equipment – $3660

You can read the minutes from the meeting on the school website.

The next P&C meeting will be held on Wednesday 18th October at 7.30pm, in person in the school library.

Elephant Ed will be running an in-person Online Safety seminar from 6:30pm – 7:30pm beforehand. This 1 hr session, paid for by the P&C, will focus on how parents can talk with their kids about issues including consent and online bullying. We encourage all parents to attend and take advantage of this great seminar. for more information on Elephant Ed visit https://www.elephanted.com.au/about

The P&C holds meetings at 7:30pm on the second Wednesday of each month during school terms. The first meeting of the term is in the school library and the following meetings each term are held via Zoom. These meetings provide an opportunity to learn more about what is happening in the school, how it operates, to ask questions and to meet other parents. The Principal usually gives an informative report on the recent happenings within the school.

Before each P&C meeting is a presentation on a focus item, for example on Wellbeing, eSafety, or how a particular subject is taught.