Mrs Lea mentioned the Teachers Federation writing competition and strongly encouraged me to enter. I then ran the idea past my parents and they also encouraged me to enter it. At the time, my mind was not about winning, but it was the idea of participating and doing more external competitions, which I really enjoyed.

Of course, I would be competing against people who are also good writers and since this was an open competition about the theme of "Teachers Make a Difference", I believed that there would’ve been a lot of entries in an essay format. I also knew that many entrants would write poems. Finally, I took up the challenge and wrote this "epic" poem while I was busy with my Trials preparation.

My friends and teachers were inspiring me to write an epic poem. An epic poem has a distinctive form which allowed me to include some of my research into the journey of the history of Teachers Federation. I thought the epic form was suitable to reflect the long struggle of the Federation for better education of children. But I needed the appropriate vocabulary and tone for the epic structure.  I looked into epics such as the Odyssey and Beowulf which provided me with the register for the poem, but the research also made me realise how different my choice of words could be.

On Friday the 7th December I had the pleasure of escorting a group of fabulous young men to the High Tea that Strathfield Council hosts. This is a token of their appreciation for the boys’ enormous contribution towards the school and broader community. These boys are a small percentage of a group who selflessly give up their time week after week to make an impact. After having tallied their hours today many of these boys average 150 - 200 hours of volunteering per year. What an achievement, as they continue to excel in academic, sporting, community service and any other commitment that they pursue. Once again the boys should be congratulated on this outstanding achievement as they are a credit to their family and school.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Strathfield Council, in particular the Mayor Gulian Vaccari, the Volunteering Coordinators Yvonne, Kati and Alyssa for their ongoing support of our students. Volunteering is synonymous with a wonderful man by the name of Peter Smith who is a major driving force behind the volunteering that takes place at HBHS.

A final mention goes out to Ms Ikimis- Healey and Mrs Gock for being recipients of Citizenship Award!

Well done to all!

Written by Georgia Anton
Career Advisor

Tom and Harry received certificates for acting as literacy volunteers in 2018’s Speed Reading Program. As volunteers, the students are trained by Mrs Edwards and assist younger students to improve their reading skills. 

The Speed Reading Program takes place in the Library along with the Homework Help Centre after school Mondays and Tuesdays. Speed Reading is also available Thursday mornings from the opening of the Library before school to the bell. Help with Maths is available Friday mornings from 8:10 in the ILC computer room, so bring your Mathletics code!

Michael Lopes Year 11

On the 24th of August, a group of year 9, 10 and 11 students completed the 2 – day bronze Duke of Edinburgh hike with Ms Yong, Mr Howard and Ms Coutinho. With the threat of rain, it wasn’t until the afternoon before that we decided that we would complete the hike. We met at Strathfield station at 8:30am with our 65 Litre bags packed and covered along with our raincoats and jackets zipped up. We arrived at Cowan railway station just after 9:30am and were greeted by the sun, blue skies and about 2000 Oxfam hikers, who completed a 100km hike for charity.

We began our 14Km journey through Jerusalem Bay with the year 11’s leading, as they were completing their qualifier. After a long day battling the heat, we arrived at our campsite at Brooklyn Dam after 3:30pm. We set up our tents and prepared ourselves for the evenings events. This was dinner, bonding activities and fun with our friends. We ended the night early at around 8:00pm with marshmallows. The next morning began bright and early at 7:00am. We packed up our tents, ate breakfast and prepared ourselves for the rest of the hike. We left at 8:00am and arrived at Hawkesbury River train station before 10:00am making the train as the doors were closing. Our journey had come to an end.

In the the weeks leading up to our Multicultural Day festivities many boys got busy with their pens and entered a competition to produce the best poem to celebrate the wonderful diversity of our school community. The winners were presented with their prizes on the last day of term. They have proven that a skill with words not only lifts our spirits, but it can also bring tangible rewards! One hundred and thirty five dollars worth of prizes were distributed; there will be more opportunities for boys to exercise their pens for profit later in the year. Given the standard of entries for this competition the English department are in a frenzy of expectation about the next competition!

Congratulations to Eli Mansfield and William Knight who shared first prize. You can read their work, and see photos from the beautiful readings of the poems given on Multicultural Day. Congratulations to Darshan Neshabalan, Mohammed Hamza, Anargyros Kallos and Jay Silva who also won prizes. Many thanks to Avi Carleton and Billal Hassanzai for their beautiful readings on Multicultural Day.

On the weekend of 23rd, 24th and 25th of March, we got the immense pleasure to be a part of the NSW UN Youth Conference, joining forces with other 258 inspirational youths from every corner of New South Wales

The journey kicked off on the 23rd of March, departing from Homebush Boys' High School, we headed towards Collaroy Center, the place where the conference was held. As the bus stopped, we knew the incredible story ahead had just begun. After a while, we and all of the other delegates started to push it through and communicated with each other, friends were simply made. After Latifa Tapispale, the Conference's convener introduced us all to the welfare staffs, everything felt just like home. 

Congratulations to Bassam Maaliki who was announced winner of the Youth Medal at the NSW Premier’s Harmony Dinner on March 21, 2018.

Bassam nominated for a Premier’s Multicultural Community Medal by SSI, said, “With my campaign #uBelong, I want to reassure refugees that just because they have changed houses it doesn’t mean they are without a home."

“I want the voices of my fellow youth to be heard because it makes them feel truly valued. Most importantly they need to feel secure and a sense of belonging to assist them to reach their full potential.”

Please click on the link for the full article from https://www.ssi.org.au

(Photo curtsey of SSI)

On May 4th, 2018, there will be a combined disco for year 7 and year 8 students of Strathfield Girls and Homebush Boys. The event will be supervised by teachers and students from the prefect body. 

Event: Disco (Space Themed)

Who: Year 7 and Year 8 students from Strathfield Girls HS and Homebush Boys HS

Where Strathfield Girls Schools Hall, 116 Albert Rd, Strathfield

When: Friday May 4th, 2018, 5:30pm - 8:30pm

Cost: $15 to be paid to the front office (includes entry, food and drinks)

Please note there are limited tickets available for this event. 

Hope to see you there! 

Early on in the term. On Monday the 19th of February, I began my first day of Work Experience with Design Studio 407 for a whole week. At first I had no idea on what was to be expected of me or how anything works. But during that first day and the whole week after where I was tasked with measuring, drawing out and create an additional extension to a plan of my house using a CAD software called rivet. Which I soon began to become familiar with using. Throughout the various completion stages of this task, I was able to gain important insight and knowledge into the world of architectural designs. I learned not only how to manipulate and utilise the CAD software in my house modelling and remodelling, but also the regulations and standards a building had to follow according to certain restrictions. The different phases that a plan has to go through before it's accepted. The vast amount of details required for a plan before completion and approval given.

A very big thank you to everyone who baked, bought or donated money towards the supper for last Thursday nights Citizenship Ceremony supper at Strathfield Council chambers. It was a very successful and happy evening. Thank you very much! As you can see from our photo, we were able to put on a very yummy table of food for the Citizenship recipients to enjoy after the formalities. (We also had some party pies, sausage rolls and pastitzi’s in the pie warmer that are not shown in the photo).

Many thanks too to our school Captain - Fawad, prefect - Stuart and SRC rep – Ahmed, who helped us serve the hot and cold drinks cheerfully and professionally on the night. They were also wonderful helpers in setting up and cleaning up afterwards.

Thank you office staff for holding the food for us all week.

Our next evening will be Thursday 31st May 2018.

We’d really appreciate any help with food again if you are able.

Best regards,

Amy and The CitizenshipOrganisers (Maria, Megan and Janette)

Peer Support utilises a strengths based approach to build social and emotional skills for adolescent development. This week students have the opportunity to explore the positive things in their lives. They identify their strengths and achievements and also the people who support them. This is intended to provide a strong sense of purpose and affirmation.
Consideration of their character strengths helps to build a strong sense of self. Character strengths help provide accurate descriptions of their best attributes and in turn can shape how they behave towards each other. Your child may, at times, feel overwhelmed, by the expectations and broad array of relationships and situations at secondary school. Sharing some of the topics that they are doing at school can build a supportive ridge between home and school and help allay any concerns that they may have about secondary school.

Discuss with them what they have learned during Peer Support and encourage and reinforce their character strengths. Some of these may include happiness, kindness, patience, perseverance, honesty and good judgement.

Burwood RSL was abuzz last night with young speakers from neighboring schools as they took part in the inaugural Speech Craft Night organised by The Rotary Club of Burwood in conjunction with Toastmasters.  Tobias Buckley and Charles McLean had a tough battle on their hands as speakers from Years 7-10 took to the stage and gave their version of, What they would do to make the world a better place.

Unfortunately, our boys did not get placed but all the contestants received Certificates and  were given constructive feedback into how to be better Toastmasters in the future.

What: Symphonia Jubilate 5th Birthday Concert
When: Saturday, November 18th at 5pm
Where: Marie Bashir Public School Hall, Albert Rd, Strathfield
Tickets: $5 for Children/Pensioners, $10 for Adults

Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.

On 1st of August this year, I travelled to Malaysia in order to enter a robot competition conducted by the ‘International Youth Robot Association’. I went with my Nan, my robotics teachers and their daughters. The plane trip was around 10 hours, and once we landed it was another 4 hours trip via bus to a cable car. Since our hotel was quite high up in the mountains, the cable car ride was also roughly an hour long. It was already dark out by the time we arrived and we fell right asleep due to the lengthy trip.

The next day, we got up early, had breakfast and the competition began. There were many competitors ranging in age from children to adults. Lots of creatively built robots were brought from all over the world to compete here. For the first 2 days I was a spectator as the part my robot competed in wasn’t on until the final day. I didn’t end up winning, however the experience was really informative and fascinating.

Late last month, Samuel Livingston and Timothy Choong attended the local final of the New South Wales Legacy Junior Public Speaking Award. These boys travelled to Sefton High School and competed against 14 students from other schools within the local area. The boys were required to present two speeches, one prepared and one impromptu, in front of an audience for a place in the regional final.

Samuel ultimately found success, earning a place in the finals at Lewisham, which he attended on the 17th of August. This time, Samuel spoke alongside 10 of the region’s most formidable finalists, but was unfortunately bested as another student earned their place in the state finals.

Making it to this level of public speaking is a significant achievement, and both Samuel and Timothy deserve congratulations for their efforts in representing Homebush Boys High School.

There are no more public speaking competitions this year, but there is always next year. If you are interested in entering next year, see Ms Sahay in the English Staffroom for more information.

Ashfield Cricket Club is a not for profit organisation which assists disadvantaged children in the community play cricket and is run entirely by volunteers.

ACC-Cricket Club
Ashfield Croydon Centenary CC
Minis, Juniors & Seniors,

Cricket with Friends

Registrations open online from July

Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website: www.acc.nsw.cricket.com.au

FREE fun program to help kids become fitter, healthier and happier!

Do you have children 7-13 years old?
Are you worried about their weight?

The Go4Fun program is a free healthy lifestyle program to improve health, fitness, self-esteem and confidence in children above their ideal weight.

Go4Fun runs for 10 weeks over the school term for children and their parents. Sessions include fun fitness, hands on activities, tips on healthy food, label reading, portion sizes plus much more!

Join the Go4Fun program at The Dutton Centre, Strathfield every Saturday from 1pm-3pm in Term 3, starting on Saturday 19 July.

To find out more or to register, contact 1800 780 900 or
http://www.go4fun.com.au

 

On Friday, 19th May, Charlie Mclean and Tobias Buckley, two outstanding speakers in the recent John Symonds Public Speaking Competition, competed against several other schools in our Zone for the coveted local final of the Plain English Speaking Competition at Strathfield Girls High School. 

Students were required to deliver an 8 minute prepared speech as well as a 3 minute impromptu speech with 3 minutes of preparation time.

Both the boys presented extremely motivating speeches but they were pitted against students who were in Year 11 and 12, some of whom were studying Extension English.  Both our boys are in year 10. Taking part in this competition has no doubt given them the necessary experience to progress to the next level next year.  Great effort lads!

The Junior Legacy competition will be held at Sefton High on Wednesday, 26th July. The boys are undergoing vigorous training for this during lunch times. We wish them every success.

The annual Model United Nations Assembly (MUNA) was held on Saturday, 20 May, at NSW Parliament House. Our school was represented by members of the Year 11 debating team, comprising Charles Prentice, Fawad Faheem and, myself, Khushal Dogra. Nineteen teams from various schools, each represented a nation, took part in a mock General Assembly to discuss issues relevant to the United Nation’s global interests. We were assigned the Republic of Uganda.

We were given UN resolutions pertaining to global issues to debate and vote either in favour of or against. The resolutions were debated amongst the teams and each team expressed their allocated country’s stance on the resolutions. The resolutions regarded violence against women, the death penalty, the definition of gender and organ donation.

On the 17th -19th of March 2017, more than 200 students from across the state, met at The Collaroy Centre and took part in a global conversation. We learnt about leadership, diplomacy and advocacy that connected with issues that challenged the leaders of today and shape our national discourse. Most importantly we built friendships with a diverse array of students from all around NSW and become inspired to deliver change in our local communities, and eventually the world.

After school on Friday the 17th of March, 11 Homebush boys’ students travelled north to the Collaroy Centre where they spent the next two days in intensive workshops and on the final day a 4 hour debate on world issues that the UN faces daily at the University of Sydney Law School.