Principal’s Report

Dear Fortians, Parents and Carers,

I would like to thank Mr Galvin and congratulate the newly elected SRC for 2019/2020 for an extremely productive SRC Camp in which role statements were clarified and solid plans made for a productive year ahead. Eleanor McLeod and Meg Raven have been elected as President and Vice President and other executive positions will be held by Tom Cannane, Ava Corey, Oscar Iwas, Martin Vu, Jennifer Dang and Jordan Mai. All SRC members will receive their badges and induction at a formal assembly on Friday 22nd November.

Year 12 students will complete their final HSC exam on Monday 11th November, congratulations to all Year 12 and their teachers. Year 10 also completed their formal examination period on Friday.

New School Photographers – after much discussion and negotiation the school has entered into an agreement with a new school photography provider. MSP will be undertaking school photo day shoots as well as providing the school with professional photos in and around the school and a promotional video.

I would like to congratulate in particular two of our fine Language teachers who will be receiving ‘Outstanding Teacher Awards’ at the upcoming 2019 Canterbury, Georges River, Kogarah and Marrickville Principal Network Awards Ceremony. These awards will be presented to Ken Gillespie and Kristina Reynolds from Fort Street for their dedication to languages and enormous work and effort that goes into the schools International language trips and sustaining our sister relationships with schools in Japan and Germany.

Congratulations also to our teachers of the week – Mark Backhouse (Head Teacher Languages) and Michael Galvin (History Teacher) for weeks 3 and 4.

School Spectacular 2019 will be held again at the Qudos Bank Arena with performances on Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd November. We have once again many Fortians participating this year. Max Tosello (Year 11) will perform in the featured dance ensembles, performing in the instrumental ensembles will be Cadence Ing (Year 9), Luca Ittimani (Year 11), Emily Miers (Year 11) and Jaden White (Year 11) and in the Orchestra Alexandra Kilham (Year 10), Jamie Kwon (Year 11) and Jasmin Young (Year 11). Performing in the Core Choir are Eleanor Mcleod (Year 11), Phoebe Lim (Year 10), Caleb Malo (Year 9) and Jan Miller (Year 8) and participating in the combined schools choir will be Ben Alpert, Maleeka Prabhakar and Phoebe Rosser from Year 10 , Gigi Chen, Tilly Kearnes and Emma Richard from Year 9, Harrison Ando, Billie-Rose Gill, Alyssa Khaw, Sebastian Lenehan Choo, Jan Miller, Daisy Millpark, Calvin Mitchell, Aslesha Nepal, Cassidy Newman, Ben Skrbinsek and Byron Whitely from Year 8 and from Year 7 –  Sophie Anderson, Elise Bestel, Katherine Lee, Ingrid Lyford and Chloe O’Keefe. It is a huge commitment and enormous honour to be chosen to perform at this prestigious event and I am certainly looking forward to seeing these performances live.

Behaviour on Public Transport – from time to time on assemblies and year meetings I do raise with students the expectations that the school has of their behaviour toward members of the public when travelling to and from school. Although I am sure that the majority of Fortians are courteous and mindful of the public when travelling, it is always disheartening to receive emails from individuals expressing their concern that our students are not giving up their seats for full paying fair passengers or that they are taking up multiple seats with their bags sitting next to them. Most recently I received an email of this nature regarding students travelling on the bus on Parramatta Rd toward Central Station. I would appreciate the assistance of parents in speaking with your child about manners and responsibilities when travelling on public transport to and from school and we will also continue to discuss this issue here at school.

Seven Bridges Walk

Congratulations to the students who took part in the Seven Bridges Walk on Sunday 27 October.  They walked 28km and raised $11,404 for the Cancer Council.

German Exchange

Towards the end of term 3, just as the school was getting ready to wrap up exams and settle in for a relaxing holiday, fifteen students from the year 10 and 11 German classes, Ms Reynolds and Mr Morrison packed their bags and headed out to Sydney Airport International Departures to embark on a two-week exchange and cultural immersion trip to Berlin and Munich. Several months prior, most students had connected with a German penpal from the Georg-Büchner Gymnasium in Berlin, getting to know each other, talking about German and Australian schools, planning out activities.

After a 23-hour flight, we landed at the Berlin airport, already excitedly pointing at German street signs and billboards that we could understand. The waiting shuttle bus took us through the city, pulling up outside the school with a crowd of host-students and parents waiting outside to greet us. We later learnt that they had been waiting for nearly 40 minutes, and had already held up a “Wilkommen in Berlin!” banner to several other buses. We split up, finding our host families, who took us off to their respective homes for a much needed rest. Everybody was so friendly and welcoming, we felt very grateful to be so lucky and quickly became comfortable within the families.

Over the next several days, we attended some lessons at the school, went on walking tours around the city, constantly checked to make sure Mr Morrison was on the bus, and visited many fascinating museums, learning a lot about Berlin’s history and the beautiful city itself. Lots particularly enjoyed the Stasi museum, which taught about a part of East Berlin’s history that some of us knew next to nothing about. After those days of sightseeing, we split back up into our host families and enjoyed nearly a week with them. The families, as well as being lovely and hospitable, took the time to take us around the city, outside of it to Potsdam and Schloss Sansouci, the Wannsee, and Dresden, as well as other interesting places such as the Jewish museum, ice hockey games and the Olympic stadium. Some of us visited the Berlin Oktoberfest, singing and dancing to traditional German songs. We drank Apfelschorle and ate Wurst, and I believe we had a truly German experience with a perfect mix of sightseeing and getting to see real people’s lives.

We also, of course, had the great opportunity to exercise our brains, speaking as much German as possible, and learning new words, expressions and tongue twisters.

With teary eyes (partially from a lack of sleep but mainly because we were sorry to go), we packed up and headed out to the train station with our host-families to say our final goodbyes and make our way to Munich. A few of us got a head start and hugged and cried as we waved our new friends goodbye, only to find out that the train that had pulled up was not in fact heading to Munich, and we still had another 30 minutes to waste. We finally boarded the train and watched Berlin roll away from us as our exchange partners ran alongside the train to see us off. It took almost four hours to arrive in Munich and we were immediately treated to a tour guide of Marienplatz before settling in to the youth hostel.

The next day was by far the all-time favourite; a trip to the Zugspitze. We started the day frantically checking weather reports and adding layers upon layers of clothing to protect our fragile, Australian temperaments. The scenery on the train was absolutely breathtaking but nothing could match the end result; seeing snow (something our little Australian hearts hadn’t even considered!) We spent hours rolling around the snow and engaging in valiant battles with snow balls as our weapons and snow men as our soldiers (and collateral damage.) Unfortunately the actual peak was shrouded in a blanket of fog, so we all headed back to the cafe for a hot chocolate and strudel.

We took another day trip to Salzburg, Austria and explored medieval fortresses before heading home in the rain to prepare for our last day in Germany. We headed out with partially packed bags to the Allianz Arena, a highlight for the soccer fans in our group, to tour the stands, lockers and press rooms. Upon a group discussion, we decided to bypass the BMW Museum in favour for the Alte Pinothek; an art museum including Van Gogh, Klimt and works from the 13th century!

We woke up bright and early on our final Friday to journey yet again to International Departures and reunite with our families in Sydney, with new friends and improved language skills.

Ivy Johnston and Bridget Gard, Year 11

Australian Mathematics Competition

​In August 2019, Fortians participated in the annual Australian Mathematics Competition offered by the Australian Maths Trust.

Four students were awarded Prizes: Loic Chiang, Andrew Yu, Peter Sandbach and Asher Howes (Best in School). These students performed in the top 0.3% of the state and have won a prize voucher at the AMT bookshop. An additional 24 students achieved a High Distinction, performing in the top 3% of the state in their division. Students who achieved Distinction or above should consider participating in the Maths Challenge and/or Enrichment Stage in 2020 – keep an eye out for notices early next year. Congratulations to all participants and we look forward to the AMC in 2020.

CHS15s Girls Waterpolo

On the 22nd of October, our enthusiastic team of eleven arrived at Ryde Aquatic Centre, optimistic and ready for a day of fun-filled water polo. This was preceded by over three terms of learning and preparation to properly attack and defend in the water polo scenario.

As we walked through the entrance, scanning the centre for competition, it dawned on us that the other teams were much bigger and were much more intimidating. In order to show the other teams what we were made of and flaunt the many skills that Ms Wilkins and Mr Semaan had taught us throughout the year, we promptly jumped in the pool and commenced a game of ‘Piggy in the Middle’ as “warm-up”. When the matches commenced, the more recent additions to the team were able to familiarise themselves with the rigorous game, whilst the more seasoned helped to direct the play.

Over the course of the day, there were more defeats than wins, but as we continued, we learnt from previous matches and concluded the round-robin with a victory against one of the hardest teams in the competition, with Anne Sophie in Year 7 and Maia in Year 9 scoring many goals for the win. This win was sufficiently deserved and celebrated with hot chips and lolly snakes.

All in all, throughout the day, the effort put in by all the girls in the team to train for the tournament as well as their increasing ability and experience was evident. Personally, I could not have been prouder of how our team performed.
Thank you to Mr Semaan for coaching us throughout the year, showing up on cold mornings and having to deal with grumpy teenage girls. And to Ms Wilkins, our mentor, our coach, and the person who has been motivating us this whole time, thank you so much for your dedication and commitment to the team, we really appreciate it!

Audrey Truong (Year 9) 

P&C

2019 Annual General Meeting Wednesday 13th November
Fort Street P&C AGM will be held on Wednesday 13th November in the Common Room at school. The AGM is an opportunity for current members to nominate for a position as an office bearer in 2020 as a number of our office bearers are leaving this year as their child at the school completes the HSC. We are inviting any current members to take this opportunity to have a guiding role in the P&C.We also really want to encourage parents who may not want a role but would like to be a general member to come along to find out about the activities of the P&C in 2019 and plans for the future. We hope to see you there!

Second hand Uniform Stall

The P&C’s second hand uniform stall runs once per term before school from 7.45-8.45 am in front of the school office (the next will be in 2020).
Parents and students are welcome to come and grab a bargain. Price guide: shirts, skirts, shorts, IMP (music program) and sports uniform items all $5 each, jumpers $20, trousers $10, winter jackets $40. Cash only, please bring your small change, condition of clothes as found, no change rooms, no refunds.
The second hand uniform stall relies on uniform donations from the school community. You can do your bit to recycle our uniforms and save landfill. If you have clean washed uniforms to donate, please take them to the school library and they will be placed in the donations bin. All proceeds to your P&C. If you are a parent who would like to volunteer on the stall please contact Sally at mceastonland@gmail.com. Thank you to everyone who has donated and to our volunteers, our front office and library staff for supporting the stall.