ISSUE 199

2024 - Term 3, Week 6

Welcome

Acknowledgement of Country

Cooks Hill Campus acknowledges the Awabakal and Worimi Peoples, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which our school is built. We respect their long history, ancestry and culture. We pay our respects to the Elders, past, present and emerging for they carry the memories and traditions of past times.

We acknowledge their strength and resilience, and enduring connection to the local lands and waters.

We would also like to extend our acknowledgment to other First Nations Peoples, and our Aboriginal students, teachers, parents, carers and community.

Alma Granites Seven Sisters Dreaming

CHC 10 year Anniversary

A wonderful celebration took place on Monday to mark the 10th anniversary of Cooks Hill Campus. We welcomed past students, advisors, and everyone involved in its founding for an afternoon of reflection and connection. The event began with tours of the advisories, where guests had the opportunity to meet current students, learn about their projects, and reminisce about their own advisory experiences.

The formal celebration followed, featuring speeches from past and present principals, as well as the CEO of Big Picture. These speeches provided valuable insights into the leadership and challenges involved in establishing a new school — starting with finding a site and building it from scratch, with nothing (not even carpet) but the determination to offer Newcastle a genuine alternative education model.

After the speeches, guests enjoyed refreshments while exchanging stories. Past students reconnected with their advisors, read archives of the TGIF newsletter and shared updates on their achievements. The handball court was alive with a spirited game involving current and past students, along with one of the previous Deputy Campus Leaders. It was a perfect celebration of 10 years of innovation and success.

Advisory 8 - The Nebula

Advisory Science experiment

After welcoming four new faces into our advisory, we embarked on a class experiment as part of the "Who Am I" projects. We (Sam) decided to tackle the age-old problem of preventing cut avocados from turning brown. Each of us proposed different methods, ranging from oil to lemon juice. All avocados were covered and refrigerated, with one even placed in the freezer.

On day five, we evaluated them based on taste and appearance. Interestingly, most scored similarly in terms of visual appeal, except for the half submerged in water, which looked particularly unappetising. There was minimal difference between the oil, lemon juice, and our control (which was simply wrapped in plastic and refrigerated). In fact, many of us felt that the control fared the best in terms of appearance, though the lemon juice did enhance the taste by day five.

This fun little experiment was a great way for students to build confidence in applying the scientific method to solve real-world problems.

SAPG focus

Cooks Hill Campus tailoring

The sewing SAPG group (crafting with cause) is starting a tailoring group. Feel free to bring in you or your friends and families clothes for fixing up. We are able to sew on missing buttons, fix tears and rips, adjust the size or shape to fit you better, and adjust the hemming on your garments.

Bring your clothes to the wellbeing hub during SAPG time for a consultation of what you want changed. Be mindful we are just students so abilities are limited. If you need something mended or tailored and are unsure of whether we would be able to do it you can send an email to Alison, Antonia or me (taking photos is good) or come talk to us in the wellbeing hub.

alison.ayling@det.nsw.edu.au

antonia.skene@det.nsw.edu.au

florence.bishop1@education.nsw.edu.au

Words by Florence

Book Week

Cooks Hill Campus celebrated this years’ book week with an out of uniform day, where students and staff were encouraged to dress up as their favourite book characters. At Town Hall, Advisories elected two students with the best costumes from their own class to walk in a fashion show so that everyone could see some of the amazing costumes. The teachers then walked the runway. Many reading responses were created from bookmarks to fan art and "bento box" collages.

Words by Sarah

Pet of the Week

PET OF THE WEEK: CHUNKIE (HAZEL)

For this edition of TGIF’s pet of the week we have… Chunkie! Chunkie AKA Hazel is Syd from Advisory 8’s cat. Chunk is a mix between a Persian and a Himalayan long hair, at least that’s what we were told. She is a clingy smaller cat who is very vocal and will not let you miss a meal time. She has an extremely good temperament even when I make her put on lots of outfits. She also has a genetic mutation where her tail is curly!

Words by Syd

Thank you for reading TGIF!

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