June 2021 Newsletter

On Saturday 5^th June, our school hosted an Open Day to celebrate the 100^th birthday of Pinjarra Senior High School. To be completely accurate, 2021 sees us acknowledging the milestone of the one hundred-year period that a school – in one guise or another – has operated on this site. Call it what you will, it was a celebration! The event was an undeniable success – a fantastic day for all of us –  and certainly one that will be remembered with great pride for years to come.

We welcomed people from many generations and all walks of life to enjoy a stroll down memory lane and to unite around their shared experience and affection for the school. The day was filled from start to finish with happy chatter amongst friends and classmates with lots of ‘catch-ups’ and conversations about how the school used to be and how it has changed. Overwhelmingly, people remembered their teachers with fondness and respect.

Visitors couldn’t speak highly enough about the organisation of the day and the great array of things to see and do as they made their way around the school. They especially seemed to enjoy browsing through the displays and records, finding their photos, names and other memorabilia from their school days. Along with the retrospective focus of the event, the Centenary Open Day included many activities that represent our current operations, such as the exhibition AFL game, barista services, tours of facilities, STEM rocket launches and the sustainable garden project.  The giant ‘100’ drone photo was a highlight, and the ‘Futures Room’ also provided a window into the great things to come, such as new facilities for Sports and Performing Arts and a reinvigorated House System. In terms of showcasing the hundred year history, our current operations and the future direction, the day could not have been better. Even the weather was perfect!

I think it is fair to say the event was a resounding success for our school! The feedback from the community has been overwhelmingly positive. It is testament to the vision, hard work and commitment of a great many people over a long period of time.  Huge thanks to our Centenary Committee, including Darryl Spargo, Adrian Toh, Lisa Nairn. Meredyth McLarty, Beth Aitken, Paul Galloway, Fiona Davidson, Caroline Green, Kelly Bain, Julie Gray, Sarah Kemshall, Lou Marcus, Michelle Cole, Sharon Gangell, Trick Cole,  and Jen Russell.  This team were tireless in their efforts to bring this event to life over years of planning and have obviously done an incredible job of putting together this historic event. We are very grateful and proud of what you achieved for our school.

To our army of staff, community and student volunteers who so ably ran the Open Day, you are nothing short of amazing. You are an inspiring example of what can be achieved when ‘school’ and ‘community’ become a ‘school community’. We are honoured by your service and sincerely appreciate your ongoing involvement in the life of Pinjarra Senior High School.  Thanks also to our cleaners – Bev Thompson, Narelle Powell, Tammy Crawford and Kath McDougall, and our gardener Jim Hooks for their work throughout the day to make sure the school and facilities were at their best!

To everyone who visited Pinjarra Senior High School during the Centenary Open Day, we appreciate you coming along to share in the celebration. It is an important reminder that we have a great school shared by brilliant people who together, can achieve amazing things. You have contributed to a rich and vibrant chapter in the school’s history and we are grateful for your support. We hope that you continue to be a part of our school community for many years to come.

The Arts department have been involved in the Alcoa and Pinjarra Rotary Art Exhibition for many years and this year we put on a large exhibition in the back room of the civic centre show casing our students’ talents in Visual Arts and Photography.

The exhibition highlights the wonderful work the students develop through the year and gives them an opportunity to be recognised further with awards and prizes donated by Griselda Hitchcock, on behalf of Pinjarra Senior High School we would like to again thank her for such generous prizes to our students.

Parents, students, and the general public enjoy the experience of viewing student art works in a gallery environment and the opening night is always a memorable community event.

We would like to thank the members of Rotary and the exhibition organisers for putting on this event and for inviting us to participate once more. We appreciate your efforts in setting up the exhibition area and making sure the Arts staff are welcomed and supported, we have a great respect for the work you do in setting up this mammoth exhibition each year and absolutely love being a part of this.

-Bronwyn Clark

On Wednesday, 24^th June, the ASDAN class were given the opportunity to attend a High Ropes Course at Fairbridge Village, to meet objectives in their ‘Adventure and Residential’ module.

Led by our fully qualified instructor Scott, students were given a safety talk before making their way around a course which progressively became more difficult and ended with a leap of faith style activity. Students had to muster all their courage to walk the plank before jumping to catch the mid-air suspended trapeze whilst being supported by a harness and rope.

Students ended the day with a sense of achievement and pride with their new found abilities. It was fantastic to see their team work skills and increased confidence.

A special thank you to Chappo for driving our bus, his words of encouragement and showing us his skills on the High Ropes.

-Leanne Reynolds, Corrina Thompson & Trish Trenorden

Congratulations to Year 12 student Nelson Agra for having a piece of work accepted into the META exhibition at North Metro TAFE. This year, a record breaking 130 entries from 42 schools were received by North Metro TAFE.

Nelson’s piece is titled Defiant.

On Tuesday the 22^nd of June a group of Year 8 and 10 students represented Pinjarra Senior High School at the STEM Enterprise Showcase at the Perth Convention Centre. With our school’s strong focus on STEM education, it was a great opportunity for the students to demonstrate the benefits of the student-centred learning model. Students were asked to share the projects they have been doing to enhance their enterprise skills of creativity, problem solving, teamwork, and communication. These are all essential capabilities that have been embedded in our learning programs to make sure our students are ready for jobs of the future, including those not yet created.

Harley Bevan, Teniesha Birch, Hayden Lindsay and Vanessa Lovelock shared their projects based around recycling and engagement. The waste recycling project has led to a whole of school initiative that is now generating an income through ‘Containers For Change’. This Year 8 Student led  project has seen the students design a recycling marketing campaign, research waste use at the school and manage a bin collection schedule, all while turning a profit for the school. Hayden shared his experience of building bikes from recycled and unwanted bike parts through the Dismantle program. These recycling projects link in to the broader school focus of environmental sustainability, which will be further explored in semester two.

Violet Moir, Emma Old, Corey Poolman and Vaughn Prowse shared their experience of developing their skills through the STEM Garden Project. This project has challenged the Year 10 AEP class to design and build a vegetable garden that can provide fresh produce to our cooking classrooms and the canteen. The students broke into smaller teams to tackle each part of the STEM garden build. The teams held regular toolbox meetings to set goals and negotiate processes with the class, including how and where to allocate resources. This project has been supported by other classes around the school getting involved. D&T, Science Explorers and the Airtasker students are all supporting the ongoing building and maintenance of the STEM garden.

The students who represented our school at the STEM Showcase did a wonderful job of presenting their projects to the community. It was great to see the learning and pride that the students have gained from being involved in these projects. The students shared their experience from a display booth, through Facebook live interviews and via a public lecture in “The Cube” that has been filmed and posted on YouTube. The presentation is below.