HouseNews

Also in Week 5, we saw our Year 3 students develop their Outdoor Education and team skills at the Year 3 Camp. Our Years 5 to 11 students participated in the da Vinci Decathlon, our Year 10 Students attended the Northern Beaches Careers Expo, Year 7 participated in a Forensic Science Incursion and our Year 8 students participated in Drama workshops. It was also amazing to have our second week back in the Hall holding proper assemblies. In the assemblies on Friday, the students were treated with our Dance Ensembles performing, and the secondary students were provided with a meaningful message about reconciliation by the Prefect team, as part of the commencement of Reconciliation Week.

This busy program continued into Week 6, with Subject Selection Evenings taking place for the 2023 Year 9 and Year 11 Students. We were thrilled to be able to hold these events face to face. This has not happened since 2019. Having the Hall filled with parents and students, provided an amazing opportunity to re-engage with our community in a way that cannot be achieved via zoom. With this in mind, our Year 10 parents will be the first group this year to have face-to-face parent teacher interviews next Tuesday night in the Hall. I am sure this opportunity to engage with the community, will also be again welcomed, at the Year 7 Mother and Child Evening, that will be taking place in the Hall next Wednesday night.

There have been a great number of sporting team and individual events taking place over the last week by our students. These are outlined in more detail in the sports area of this HouseNews. However, I wanted to make a special mention of how proud I was of the Pittwater House Opens Rugby team who played valiantly, with respect and passion, against St Luke’s Grammar on Monday afternoon 30th May. This event I will single out, as many of these boys are in Year 12, it will be their last season of school sport, the team has a varying degree of Rugby experience, but they have trained hard and play with such enthusiasm and spirit. Although, the team led for the majority of the game, a late try to St Lukes Grammar resulted in a draw. However, all the players, led by the team captain Troy (G12), ably supported by our Head Prefect Jared (G12), did their school proud.

As we enter the final three weeks of term, I would like to encourage all of our community to make sure they attend planned events, reach out to the appropriate Year Coordinator, Assistant Head or Head of School if they have concerns, and we finish the term with the same positive spirit the term has commenced with. 

On Friday at our K-6 assembly the audience was treated to a stunning and heartfelt performance by the Junior Dance Company as they presented their final dress rehearsal before their competition on Saturday. There were 9 schools competing with a total of 11 entries and they were up against some very tough competition.

The troupe placed second and are so very proud of them! 

A note was sent home yesterday to all families via Skoolbag, as a reminder about the Junior School Athletics Carnival at Narrabeen Academy of Sport on Friday June 24.

We are looking forward to seeing as many families as possible on this day. 

Tilman and Nakita in Year 9 have written about an interesting upcoming opportunity at our school which requires high levels of collaboration. 

If you would like to contribute to HouseNews then please email our Co-ordinator of High Potential and Gifted Students at: Victoria.james@tphs.nsw.edu.au

Years 7-11, 2022 Australian Mathematics Competition

The Australian Maths Trust (AMT) is offering your child an opportunity to participate in the Australian Mathematics Competition. 

The Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC) has been held annually since 1978. One of the largest annual events on the Australian education calendar, the AMC was the first competition of its kind in Australia and is now one of the largest of its type in the world. More than 30 countries participate each year. The competition aims to be accessible to all students from Years 7 to 11, not just the mathematically gifted. There is an emphasis on problem solving, a valuable life skill, and the questions are designed to be fun for the student. The AMC consists of five separate papers, each with 30 questions in the Middle Primary (Years 3 and 4), Upper Primary (Years 5 and 6), Junior (Years 7 and 8), Intermediate (Years 9 and 10) and Senior (Year 11) divisions.

The AMC is run by the not-for-profit Australian Maths Trust (AMT). The problems created for AMC papers are set to the highest possible standards by volunteer teams of the most experienced mathematics teachers and academics in the country. In order to prepare students for the AMC try the online practice problems. The website www.amt.edu.au also provides details of other valuable mathematics and informatics enrichment programs offered by the AMT.

 AMC: 

• is an annual skills development assessment program in key areas of learning for students in Years 7–11; assessments are available in Mathematics.
• gathers performance information through a 60-minute supervised online in-school test
• provides a continuous, independent and comprehensive record of a student’s performance, and maps their development over the full period of primary and secondary schooling
• enables the progress of each student to be mapped in each skill against their previous performance, demonstrating personal improvement no matter the starting point
• accessible to all students, not just mathematically gifted.
• provides an excellent preparation for online testing
• medals are awarded to the top students per state in each subject and year level (when sufficiently meritorious and the test was sat on the official sitting date)
• achievement certificates are awarded to all students at a range of levels.

For Years 7-11 we are offering students the opportunity to participate in Mathematics on Wednesday 3rd of August. This assessment is now only available online. As this assessment is offered on an opt-in basis, the cost is not covered by the incidental charges. The cost of this assessment is $7.50 which will be charged to your school account.

To enrol your child in the AMC Mathematics assessment, please complete the Skoolbag permission form no later than 3rd of July, 2022.

For more information about AMC go to: www.amt.edu.au, contact AMT on (02) 6201 5136.

Your child can also prepare for AMC using the Resource section via the website. Find out more about Practice Online at: https://competitions.amt.edu.au/index.php?action=user_competitions

Note: See below for an example of the type of question in the Australian Mathematics Competition.

Are You Smarter than a Year 6 student?

As we continue to explore the wonderful, and creative world of Problem Solving in Year 6, we thought we would share some of the problems that the Year 6 students are tackling.

So… Are you smarter than a Year 6 students???

Here is one of Week 9s problem from Term 1:

Apartment Windows

An apartment block has a number of square apartments and a number of square gardens. Apartments must have at least one window: either to the outside or to a garden.

For example, in the 3 X 4 block shown, one apartment (labelled *) has a window to an internal garden (labelled G), and ten apartments have windows to the outside.

What is the smallest number of gardens required for a 6 X 6 square block?

If that was easy… then what about:

• if it is a 5 X 5 apartment block,
• or a 7 X 7 apartment block?

Can you detect a general pattern?

Please feel free to email your response to maths@tphs.nsw.edu.au to see if you are correct.

Green Level - Problem of the Week

The cells in a 20x20 grid are labelled with numbers 1, 2, 3, … , 20 in the first row, 21, 22, 23, … , 40 in the next row and so on.

In the middle of the 20x20 grid, there are four numbers at the very centre of the grid.

Q. What are these four numbers?

Red Level - Problem of the Week

A circle of radius r and a right-angled isosceles triangle are drawn such that one of the shorter sides of the triangle is the diameter of the circle.

Q. Find the shaded area.

What to Do: Send your answers in to your Maths teacher (or your childs' Maths teacher if you are a parent!) to see if you get it correct.

Solutions will be posted in HouseUpdate - Week 7!

On Tuesdays and Thursdays after school, Mrs Rouse and Mrs Tristram (respectively) offer their support in the Maths Study Centre directly after school until 4:20pm in the school Library. This provides an opportunity for students to work with our staff to address any concerns or problems with their mathematics. 

Week 5 was an exciting week for the library. Two staff members presented at the Australian Library and Information Association’s National Conference held in Canberra. Kayte Eyre spoke on ‘Diversity in the School Library’ and Michella McIntosh spoke on ‘Lessons learned from Covid for libraries’. A rewarding and exciting experience.

The library was also very excited that our library technician Ms Michella McIntosh was presented with a national award for ‘Library Technician of the Year – 2021'. This is awarded to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession and the advancement of library technicians.

We’ve also been excited to have Jake the Therapy dog come and visit us in the Senior and Junior library.

Scholastic Book Club

The newest edition of Scholastic Book Club is out. Copies of the catalogue will be going home with students, but you can browse through it from the link below and orders can be placed via the Scholastic Loop portal.

Issue 4: https://scholastic.com.au/media/7123/aus-bc4-final-web.pdf

Orders due by 10th June 2022 (If you haven’t ordered before you will need to register): https://mybookclubs.scholastic.com.au/Parent/Login.aspx

Jake the Therapy Dog

Jake the Therapy Dog has settled into his new role and the students love him. Jake visits the Pittwater House Library every Thursday afternoon, splitting his time between the Library and the Year 12 common room. 

2022 ALIA National Simultaneous Storytime

Last week was the 2022 ALIA National Simultaneous Storytime that was hosted at the National Library of Australia and broadcast across multiple locations in Australia and Internationally. The story this year was Family Tree by Josh Pyke and illustrated by Ronojoy Ghosh. It is a lovely inferential text that uses the growth of a tree to symbolise our personal growth into adulthood. Pittwater House took part and other classes had the opportunity to review the recording too. It sparked discussions of how people, places and important moments shape our lives and help us grow into who we become as adults.

Please Note: All Junior School students must have written permission in their diary from a parent/carer for purchases from the School Uniform Shop. Alternatively an email can be sent to: teresa.spark@tphs.nsw.edu.au .

In Stock Now: Girls/Ladies Navy Pants