Happy Mental Health Month!

Mental Health Month is celebrated each year in the month of October in NSW. This month encourages all of us to think about our mental health and wellbeing, regardless of whether we may have a lived experience of mental illness or not It also gives us the opportunity to understand the importance of good mental health in our everyday lives and encourages help seeking behaviours when needed.

Take part this month by tagging and posting your photo on Instagram with the hashtag #TAKEMOMENT4U to help spread the word.

On Friday 25th August the Homebush Boy’s English Faculty wore purple in support of all our rainbow boys. The 2020 theme for Wear it Purple Day was “We Are The Change” and envisioned the importance of encouragement, empowerment and emphasis on making effective change for the LGBTIQA+ community and all minority groups.
For more information, resources and tips on how to celebrate and learn more about Wear it Purple Day please visit the website https://www.wearitpurple.org/
 

At Homebush Boys High School we are raising funds by running, walking or cycling 5km for refugees through a campaign fundraiser launched by the UNHCR. Over the last few weeks, teachers and students @HBHS have been completing the 5km challenge and sharing their experiences on this site and on Facebook. 

Avi Carleton (Year 10)

The 5km run that I completed was a harsh reminder of how unfit I have become. To summarise, I was sweaty throughout. Though what I experienced is nothing compared to the struggle others less fortunate face around the world. It is crucial that we help these people suffering, particularly because we are fortunate enough to have the resources that do so. We must join together and try to contribute in one way or another, because any donation, no matter how small, is important. 

I nominate:

1. Jackson Campton

2. Henry Gao 

3. William Knight

4. Elias Mansfield

5. Brandon Price

On the weekend, school captain Zain Ousmandcompleted his 5km Run for Refugees UNHCR challenge.

 Zain Ousmand's next 5 nominees are the following year 12 students:

1. Tom Nieser (Vice Captain)
2. Loklan Duong (Senior Prefect)
3. Minh Mai (Prefect)
4. Dylan Chau (Prefect)
5. Yahya Faid (Prefect)

The year 12 student body are taking up the 5km Run for Refugee Challenge. Vice CaptainTom Nieser was nominated by School Captain Zain Ousmand on the weekend and he was quick to complete the challenge.

Tomdescribed the experience as "Running is an escape from reality for a few moments, allowing you to take a break from the fast paced nature of everyday life and just focus on the bare necessities of life. It refreshes you and manages your stress and emotions, and being able to do something both fun and self-beneficial whilst supporting a great cause is great and feels great as well. Almost anyone can walk, ride or run, so everyone should give it a go and chip in for the good cause."

Tom's next nominees are: 

1. Mr Elgood (School Principal)
2. Mr Lee (English teacher)
3. Mr T (Science teacher) 
4. Hizryan Kodarusman
5. David Kadamani 

1. Carl Arthur  
2. Srikar Danthurty  
3. Alvin Sumadiredja 
4. Ryan Phan
5. Ms Napoli (History Teacher)

What a Day! Exciting, exhilarating and very engaging. The day took off with a conference in the creatively designed Hall at the University of Technology Sydney where our students caught the inspiring sparks of a groundbreaking speaker, Dr Joshua Chou, who’s innovative research in STEM has fast-forwarded our present into the future. Next, our students split into groups with students from various schools around Sydney, where we experienced hints of the different fields in STEM.

Shifting gears
The peer leaders and teachers organised a wonderful and engaging activity of building and racing self made cars with all the others. We were split into groups of six to design a car and use critical thinking attributes to solve problems such as air resistance, weight balance and the size of the cars considering many factors. Mechanical engineering is a main part of our lifestyle, cars, factories, machines all built by mechanical engineers. Almost all moving parts in a machine.

On the 19th of November, students from Homebush Boys High School attended the Western Sydney U Day at Parramatta South Campus.

The day started with an introduction of some of the courses offered at Western Sydney University. Followed by, Q and A from many Alumni and current students enjoying their time at the university. The interaction between students asking questions was very insightful for future references.

Workshops to gain understanding into different courses offered was followed by the Q and A. Lakshaya and I made our way to the labs, where we explored the interesting and revolutionary field of Data Science. We were given the opportunity to learn that the application of Data Science is very vast, therefore can be seen in many areas ranging from professional sporting communities to analysing data from astronomers.

Next, we visited the field of business, where we learnt many new things, such as where business concepts could be applied. We dived deeper into the topic of business by looking at the skills that could be used in an office environment. Stereotypes such as business being all about money were also broken. The engaging speech was supported by little gifts from the staff given to the students asking questions.

On the 25th June 2019, a group of Homebush Boys students had the privilege of attending the UTS STEM day. It was a great opportunity for us to discover and experience the different faculties of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) at university. It provided insight into the courses we could choose from to pursue our interests in UTS, and how it applies to the real world. We attended three workshops that varied in its field of study, each with its own uniqueness in STEM Transdisciplinary Innovation, Mechanical & Mechatronics, and Advanced Materials and Data Science.

Our first workshop was on exploring unknown possibilities which was part of transdisciplinary innovation where we had to use two categories to come up with an idea that benefits humanity. Our chosen topics was science and visual arts, and our second idea deriving from the topics was paint and physics. We had a lot of trouble attempting to mediate a plausible and creative idea. We originally had an impractical and over-the-top ideas that made no sense or were unnecessary and not unique. We came up with an idea relating to forensics which was how a blood splatter can determine how much strength is needed to create a blood splatter of a particular magnitude, hence being able to visualise the muscular build of the attacker.

Business Day

On a cold morning of the 21st May, a group of Year 10 students attended the business day at UNSW (Kensington campus) to experience what it was like to do business at university. There were many different schools attending from all over Sydney. We were greeted by a group of student ambassadors who directed us to the registration table. Soon after, we received a bag filled with UNSW merchandise (a journal, pen, water bottle, card holder that sticks to your phone and also can be used as a stand). After that we were directed into a lecture hall where the presentations began. Firstly, the Professor gave us a presentation about the introduction of what business was and the various courses involved. There were a couple of students who shared their experience with us about doing their degree at UNSW and why they chose UNSW.

They presented us with a summary of different courses and the requirements for each course. We then split up into our allocated groups (based on the various fields of business we chose online) to attend our first workshop. The first workshop I did was about marketing. We split up into groups - consisting of I (Justin Lam), Merton Cheng, Michael Wang and Sudharshan Sundaramurthy - and we had to create a poster on a new invention that would convince the community to drink water and we had to present to the other group members. After that we had the opportunity to purchase lunch from the food court, must I say, the food their wasn’t half bad. Afterwards we were instructed to head back into the lecture hall and we had the chance to have a Q&A session with the panel (Current and past students) using online program called Slido. They presented us with very well and informative answers. We then headed to our final workshop, economics, and the professor gave us an introduction on economics, the theory behind it.

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.