Principal’s Report

Dear Fortians, Parents and Carers,

Last week all Year 9 students completed their participation in the connected curriculum program. The final projects were judged by science journalist and broadcaster Robyn Williams host of the Science Show on ABC Radio National. I would like to thank Mr Williams for his ongoing support of this program and Elizabeth Maddox for coordinating the program. This week Year 11 will commence their first HSC assessment period, we wish Year 11 the best of luck in their assessments.

Industrial Action Tuesday 7 December
The NSW Teachers Federation has called for a 24-hour strike on Tuesday 7 December 2021 based on negotiations with the NSW Government.
As a result of the strike action, Fort Street will be non-operational on Tuesday 7 December except for scheduled Year 11 exams which will go ahead. The department’s learning from home resources will be available for ongoing curriculum support. You can access these here: Learning from Home Resources
Students should learn from home for the day and return to school on Wednesday 8 December. I do apologise for this additional disruption given the past 6 months disruptions already.

Year 12 Graduating class of 2021
Following the final exam on Wednesday 1 December, Year 12 were given many wonderful opportunities to reconnect with each other and to say goodbye to teachers and friends. On Wednesday night Mr O’Neill hosted a movie night. The hall was decked out with red carpet, a photo booth and popcorn as students watched their very own Year 12 peer Tyla Young starring in Marvel’s Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. On Thursday following ‘sign out’ Year 12 gathered in the new undercover Rowe Quad seating area for a picnic and ended the day with a colour run on the oval.
Friday kicked off with a special breakfast in the Fountain Quad followed by the student FLOP assembly which consisted of farewell speeches from students in all year groups, a thorough roasting of almost every Year 12 student from Mr Morrison, clever videos put together by Year 12 followed by singing outside the hall and many tears.
The week ended with our formal graduation ceremony in the hall on Friday evening followed by supper in the library. It was a very special evening, and I would like to thank all of the staff and student volunteers for their hard work making this event so wonderful.

Congratulations
Phoebe Lim of Year 12 whose Year 12 HSC major work has been selected to be included in ARTEXPRESS 2022. Phoebe’s work will be exhibited in the Bank Art Museum in Moree.

Stella Sharwood Year 12 for the selection of her individual HSC Drama project for exhibition in the Seymour Centre, Sydney from 14 February to 18 February 2022.

Min Park of Year 8 for her participation in the recent NSW Public Schools Digital Drama Physical Theatre Ensemble Project contributing to the NSW State Drama Festival.

Peter Tran and Audrey Truong of Year 11 who have been awarded certificates and badges for the Macquarie University Emerging Leaders Awards.

P&C
The next P&C meeting will be held on Wednesday 8 December in the school library. We will be commencing with a tour of the school to showcase the work that has been done around the school this year. If you would like to join the tour, please meet at 6.30pm at the entrance to the school outside the administration office. The P&C meeting will then commence at 8pm.

Conservation Works
The Wilkins building is about to undergo major heritage stonework repairs being undertaken by Heritage Stoneworks – Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. This work will take the most part of 2022 and as such a work compound has been set up beside the canteen near Andreas Street. The work compound has been fenced off and workers do not have access to school grounds outside their fenced area.

Farewell Class of 2021

SRC Report

Dear All,

Hope you are well and safe. As the end of the school year draws near and students are finally settled into their classrooms, the SRC has been busy organising several school events and initiatives!

Halloween
Mufti, candy and (mild) costumes, Fort Street students celebrated Halloween on Monday Week 6. In the early hours of the school day, spiders, webs, and other spooky crafts were decorated across the school. Many students were found fond of the lollies handed out (some much more than others). In reference to the inaugural 2020 Halloween celebration, students may look forward to a costume contest in 2022!

Year 12 Message Wall
Prior to the beginning of HSC exams, students and staff wrote messages to Year 12 students. These messages were then collated for a message wall, positioned in the Cohen undercroft for all Fortians to read. From “good luck” to “loo duck” (some letters were switched around!), Fort Street wishes you all the best.

SRC Term 4 Projects
Keeping in line with DoE COVID restrictions, the new SRC held their first face-to face meeting Friday morning (12/11/2021) in the library. All members have been incredibly enthusiastic, and have produced great work within their year group.

An enormous effort has been seen from the Year 7 SRC* who created and presented a ‘Welcome to Fort Street’ Powerpoint and video at Year 7 2022 Orientation Day (23/11/2021). Well done!

*Year 7 SRC — Chinmay Dixit, Bhavnish Jain, Miranda Leighton, William Ly , Neil Razdan, Aaditya Venkatraman, Elisa Wong, Grace Zarb

Festivities Week
The SRC Festivities Week (Week 11) aims to raise school spirit and wellbeing through various activities and events (see below).

Monday – BBQ
Tuesday – Candy Cane Drive + Jar guessing winner announced
Wednesday – Talent Quest

All staff and students are encouraged to enter the Talent Quest!
Student prizes are Mastercard gift cards valued at:
$100 x 1 (1st place)
$50 x 1 (2nd place)
$25 x 2 (3rd and 4th place respectively)

Teacher prize:
Hamper of assorted goods.

For more details re other Festivities Week events, see the following promotion video:

As always, the SRC is keen to hear from the Fort Street community. For any comments, feedback or inquiries, please contact the SRC via email (srcfshs@gmail.com), Instagram (@fshssrc), or notify an SRC member.

Chantelle Hoang
SRC Vice-President
Year 10

P&C School Tour

It seems like a very long time since we’ve been able to welcome the Fort Street community onto school grounds, but in that time the school has completed a number of fantastic upgrades that enhance the learning environment of our students.  Many of these upgrades have been financed by the P&C or the Fort Street Foundation, in part or in full.

The P&C has organised for interested parents and carers of current students to tour the school before the P&C meeting on Wednesday 8 December.  Please meet outside the front office.  The tour will leave at 6.30pm.

Sustainability Connected Curriculum 2021

The Year 9 Sustainability Connected Curriculum delved deep into the “wicked” problem of Climate Change last week as students grappled with the realities of the world they will inherit. Students from last year inspired the Year 9s with a few of their innovative projects, ranging from the launch of a new fashion brand, complete with website and Instagram account, and a case study of the devastating impact of the fast fashion industry on people and on the world’s waterways, to a talk show of “politicians” promoting a draft climate emissions bill. Visiting climate scientist and medical specialist, Dr Lai Heng Foong, who is a Fortian parent, and climate ethicist Dr Byron Smith, shared their concerns and their confidence in our ability to mitigate and adapt to climate change with student climate activists Daisy Millpark and Lucie Atkin-Bolton in a Q&A panel, for which the Year 9 students had prepared questions.

After a crash course in international negotiations at the Climate Action Simulation, led by HT English Mr Ed McMahon, students studied a range of selected texts exploring technologies and lifestyle strategies to deal with climate change and plunged into their own search for ways to address it, locally and globally. Working closely with a team of dedicated teachers and Year 10 mentors, and with ex machina advice from a panel of expert community mentors who read over the students’ questions every evening throughout the week offering insights and suggesting resources, the 36 groups in Year 9 produced some excellent research and planned creative solutions which they explicated in 5-minute video productions. A selection of these were presented to ABC science journalist Robyn Williams AO and Ms Catriona Arcamone in a final presentation on Friday afternoon. In their feedback the students expressed their appreciation of the dedication of staff and of our remarkable Year 10 mentors, and of the opportunity to gain deeper understanding of the nature of climate change and ways to tackle it.

Elizabeth Maddox
Sustainability Connected Curriculum Coordinator 2021

Student2Student program

The daily commitment and generosity of a group of 24 Fortians has made a significant difference to the life and future of 24 young children, whose reading age has risen by an average of one year and one month over the course of an 18-week online reading program.

Fort Street students have been active in the Smith Family’s Student2Student reading program for several years now, and the results are transformative and calculable.  Readers are deeply grateful for their buddies, often thanking them with hand-drawn cards or bookmarks for their practical and moral support in negotiating one of civilisation’s biggest hurdles – learning to read.

Knowing their role in improving the lives of these children must itself be an incomparable reward.

Congratulations to the Year 9 members of the Student2Student team and to those from other years, including Year 12, who have freely given of their precious time and energy to help others.

Elizabeth Maddox

Student2Student Coordinator

Year 8 German Master Chef Competition

Year 8 German Master Chef Competition and Fortian student teacher, Herr De Jong

Former student and baking legend, Arkady De Jong, recently returned to Fort Street to complete a seven-week internship as a part of his Master of Teaching degree in French and German. Herr De Jong taught the Year 8, 10 and 11 German classes both online and in the classroom, employing a range of engaging activities to develop students’ communication skills and broaden their knowledge of German-speaking countries. The students all thoroughly enjoyed Herr De Jong’s time back at the Fort.

Food was a common theme in Herr De Jong’s lessons and Year 8 German completed a unit about German cuisine. They discovered the joys of a culture that has produced hundreds of famous cakes and thousands of styles of bread and sausage. They also learnt about some less appetising dishes such as Milbenkäse, a cheese ripened by cheese mites and Tote Oma (Dead Grandma), fried blood sausage.

Hidden talents were discovered when the class competed in the annual German Master Chef competition. Students researched a dish from Germany, Austria or Switzerland, cooked it at home and then brought it to school to share with their classmates. The results were amazing. Students produced everything from hearty schnitzels and Kartoffelpuffer through to delicate Christmas biscuits and every single entry was delicious. Congratulations to 8I on their outstanding effort and thanks to our guest judges, Ms McMurray, Mr Morrison and Mr Gillespie, for taking on the impossible task of finding a winner.

Competition results:

4th place – Milo and Edain for their Currywurst

3rd place – Nam and Kevin for their Schwenkbraten

2nd place – Abbie for her Käsespätzle

Equal 1st place – Gina, Toby and Nicole for their Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte and

Poppy and Emma for their Sachertorte

Mathematics Challenge and Enrichment Competition

In 2021 FSHS entered over forty Years 7, 8 and 9 students in the Australian Mathematics Trust Mathematics Challenge and Enrichment Competitions. A few highly motivated students even decided to enter in both competitions.

Well done to all the students who were able to continue to submit their answers and solutions to the problems through the difficult months in lockdown and learning from home. It would not have been easy to complete all your school work then extend yourself to independently solve these challenging problems. The competition enables students to practice interpreting and applying mathematical ideas and techniques to solve interesting problems and in doing so also develop their problem-solving skills. A huge THANK YOU to Mrs Baker, a past Fortian Maths teacher for over 30 years, for being our marker and who always provides lots of positive feedback.

Congratulations to the students who achieved the following outstanding results:

To read students’ comments on the maths challenge and enrichment, and to see examples of questions please click on the following document:

Maths Enrichment 2021

Respectful Relationships and Violence Prevention Forum

On the 1st of December, the Inner West Council invited two Fortians (Jadyn Chen and Aden Nguyen, Year 10) to participate and speak as panellists for the Inner West Council and Women’s and Girls’ Emergency Centre Respectful Relationships and Violence Prevention Forum.

The forum was held to discuss a whole-of-school approach to teachers, student support officers and school counsellors across Sydney, regarding issues surrounding healthy and respectful relationships. Jadyn and Aden were invited to speak at this forum, along with 4 other students in high schools across the Inner West, to voice the opinions and ideas of students.

The student panellist spoke at length about how the teaching of topics, such as consent and domestic violence, starts too late for meaningful prevention, and how these issues need to be treated at the same importance that bullying is within schools. The panellist also discussed the accessibility of support services for victims, both within and outside of schools, and how education and workshops on concepts, such as consent, need to be discussed in primary school, instead of leaving it to a one-off program in Year 9 or 10.

In addition to the numerous teachers, student support officers and school councillors present, Zoe Robinson, the Advocate for Children and Young People, was also in attendance and commended the ideas that Jadyn and Aden spoke about in regards to the stigma that surrounds the discussion of these issues within schools.

Overall, the forum was a highly engaging and informative session, with many new proactive and reactive measures regarding healthy and respectful relationships being shared across numerous schools.

We thank Tash Turner-Cohen, Aunty Jenny Thomsen, Matt Balane and Charlie Coorey from the Inner West Council, Moo Baulch and Sasha Brown from the Women’s and Girls Emergency Centre and Shellie Atkins from Relationships Australia NSW people for organising and facilitating this important forum.

Jenny Xu

Debating in the time of pandemic

After a long lockdown where students from the Year 7-10 Fort Street debate team spent many Monday afternoons strengthening their debating skills with online workshops, they were super keen to put their knowledge and skills into practice. Sadly, the Premier’s Debating Competition was abruptly cancelled due to the extensive lockdown. Nonetheless, I was able to give them the opportunity to do practice debates against other schools and in this process, they learnt valuable lessons, faced formidable competitors and won some competitions on the way.

On Tuesday the 16th of November 2021, the Year 8 Debate team consisting of Min Park, Eva Yuan, Eleanor Alonso Love and Ella Lo debated against Sydney Girls High School. The topic was “that all casts in Australian productions should be required to closely reflect the country’s racial diversity” and we were given the negative side to debate which in itself a very difficult moral obstacle to surpass.

On Wednesday the 17 of November 2021, the Year 10 Debate team consisting of Rose Kenyon, Ethan Lin, Sebastian Lenehan Choo and Hugo Ceran-Jerusalemy debated against James Ruse Agricultural High School. The topic was “financial assistance for higher education should be needs-based” and again we were given the fickle negative side to debate. The same Year 10 Debate team with the exception of Hugo and Dennis and the new addition of Johnathan Bonnice from Year 9 and Yexuan Yang then debated Sydney Girls High School on the subsequent Thursday the 25th of November 2021. The topic they were given was “that we should have a compulsory politics class for high school students” and we were given the affirmative side. Even though they proposed a very strong case, there was one small but crucial point put forth by Sydney Girls that our team did not sufficiently rebut, so we narrowly missed victory.

On Tuesday the 30th of November 2021, the Year 7 Debate team consisting of Aidan Sen, Miranda Leighton, Henry Huang and Aaditya Venkatraman debated against Sydney Girls High School. The topic was “that adults should be banned from being spectators at school-aged sports” and were given the negative side. The team was very well prepared, meticulously composing their points in a beautiful manner on their commercial grade palm cards and listening very carefully to the other team’s case so they could make their rebuttals more precise. Their attention to detail and poise speaking manner allowed them to defeat Sydney Girls. Moreover, Sydney Girls is the first school that this Year 7 team got to debate against since starting high school at Fort Street so this is an excellent way to begin their learning journey. It is also testimonial to the hard work and effort they put into their learning in every debate workshop, online and face to face, this year.

Win or lose, the most valuable thing that the Fort Street Year 7, 8 and 10 Debate teams gained from these experiences was the opportunity to practice debating against fierce competitors. As their Debate Coordinator, I was extremely proud of the efforts and dedication that each team brought to these practice debates. Every student demonstrated courage, intellectual integrity, resilience and teamwork skills which can only be learnt through seizing these challenging opportunities and discovering these skills for themselves. The feedback they received from the adjudicators in each respective debate will certainly be useful and help them win future debates for the school when the PDC competition resumes in 2021!

Ms C Truong

English Teacher/ Year 10 English Enrichment Coordinator/Year 7-12 Debate Coordinator

IMP

IMP Returns to live outdoor rehearsals and lessons

STIVE – Christian ministry, fellowship

STIVE (Students Alive for Christ) is an open and encouraging Christian religious group that discusses and analyses topics within the Bible to students of all years. We encourage socialising between various grades to build our Christian community at Fort Street and share experiences of dealing with criticisms and hardships that come with being Christian. STIVE welcomes students from different walks of life and other faiths as well, expressing fellowship and love for all those that attend. Biblical principles are foundational in STIVE, along with life-applicable sermons being offered from leaders to students. STIVE runs on Friday lunchtimes supervised by Mr Fischer who makes sure the teachings align with the teachings of Jesus Christ. The STIVE leaders and Mr Fischer aim to create a relaxed environment that promotes the confidence of all students to share their experiences as well as to introduce some of their friends to Chrisitianity.

In 2021, STIVE aimed to welcome and grow the Christian community among the Fortian cohort. Led by the Yr 11 leaders, Sean Lee, Zhanhao Xu, Rowen Saputra, Michael Do and Ethan Chan, many students from year 7 – 11 joined either KS2 or K13 to enjoy a time of fellowship, teachings and food (meat pies and doritos!!). The STIVE community grew in term 1 and 2, with many of the younger grades joining every Friday afternoon, which was encouraging to see from the leader’s perspective. Although lockdown and term 4 interfered with plans for STIVE, we hope to see many students come back and hopefully new students to join in 2022 to steadily grow and share our amazing faith.

Environmental Committee

The Environmental Committee plan to recommence meetings in 2022.

In the meantime we are looking for students who would be interested in helping us with the HOPE BUTTERFLY project for Parliament House. There will be a special all members meeting on Thursday in Week 10 (9 December) in K19A where students can pick up a template and tracing paper to help colour in butterflies for the 2022 art installation by artist Nick Baldas at NSW Parliament House. For more information on the art work please refer to this link. The project celebrates environmental themes each year and involves butterfly artworks donated by primary and secondary children from around Australia. https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/visit/events/Pages/Hope-and-Gratitude-.aspx

Sydney Dance Company Holiday Camps

For information on holiday camps at Sydney Dance Company please follow the link:

2022SHW flyer