Acknowledgment of Country

The TGIF team would like to acknowledge the traditional owners and storytellers of this land, the Awabakal people and pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

Wear It Purple

During Week 6 at Cooks Hill Campus (CHC) we celebrated Wear It Purple Day!

Purple is worn on this day to acknowledge the LGBTQ+ community and help make queer teens feel seen in their school life.

To celebrate, we had mufti day, bake sale with cupcakes made by the cooking Social Action Project Group (SAPG), a face painting stall, balloon animals and music! This year's theme for Wear It Purple was 'Colours of Courage', which symbolises the different ways young LGBTQ+ people show bravery in their day to day lives.

We would like to thank TJ from Advisory 3 for showing initiative and organising the activities.

Learning Through Internships

We all know how valuable learning through work experience can be! CHC students have been developing their communication and teamwork skills. They have also been building their confidence and knowledge for future career decisions. See below for a look into all the great businesses students have been interning with.

Bella at an aged care facility.

Parker at a childcare centre.

Creative Industries group at Ted Noffs Street University.

Ivy at a dog groomer.

TJ & Vivian at an aged care facilty.

Hunter at a book store.

Lara at a gym.

Hope at a lapidary club.

Students on a tour of Newcastle Art Gallery.

Forensics workshop with Crime Story

Crime Story is a specialist provider delivering an immersive, full-day crime scene investigation and forensics workshop, designed to build real-world transferable skills, including: problem solving, communication, evidence-based reasoning, and workplace readiness.

During Week 5, Crime Story brought this wonderful opportunity to CHC. They took the time to set up two crime scenes for a group of students to solve. Evidence such as as broken radios and left footprints was set up and students were given worksheets to complete. Within these worksheets students could write down evidence and how items might correlate to the case.

Pupils got the chance to work collaboratively with peers and develop their skills in communication and teamwork.

We would like to thank Crime Story for this wonderful experience, this was a great example of the opportunities we have the privilege of participating in at Cooks Hill Campus.

Social Action Project Group: Sports Coaching

For this issue we are spotlighting another new Social Action Project Group (SAPG); Sports Coaching. This group was put together by Jacob from the Learning Support Team with an intention to give Cooks Hill Campus (CHC) students an opportunity to develop personal skills, confidence, and an understanding in communicating and working with young people with disabilities.

Sports Coaching's social action is to give Newcastle High School (NHS) support unit students an additional practical PDHPE lesson: further providing them with engaging, new and fun ways to stay active and learn outside.

At the moment Sports Coaching SAPG students have been planning and running sessions each week in pairs. This has given them the opportunity to develop skills in communication, social confidence, time management, working with people who have disabilities, fundamental and specialised movements, and coaching. All of these personal qualities can align with potential future careers in social work, disability support work, teaching or sports coaching.

Jacob began this group because he believes sports coaching is an engaging, fun and effective way to increase physical activity and skill levels for his group and the participants from NHS. He hopes that the number of coaches and participants increase as time goes on, with the higher numbers this group gets partaking in sports coaching he will be able to run multiple coaching groups at the same to develop the skills and physical activity in even more students.

We also got the chance to ask a student how they were enjoying sports coaching. Read on for the interview:

How are you enjoying sports coaching?

I am enjoying sports coaching a lot, it's really nice to be outside for a couple hours on a Friday and break up the day.

Why did you decide to choose sports coaching as your social action project group?

I chose sports coaching because I really enjoy playing sports and learning more about it and I think that it is a really nice idea to work with the additional needs classes at Newcastle High to get them outside and active, while still learning useful skills.

Do you think you’ve learnt anything new by participating?

Definitely it is really developing my leadership skills and puts me out of my comfort zone.

What are your goals for sports coaching?

To improve my confidence and teaching skills, especially when working with a larger group.

What new skills have you developed?

Developing my own lesson plans, public speaking and I am learning sports skills from the other students who are running lessons.

Would you choose to do sports coaching again?

Yes I would!

Have you done anything sports coaching related in the past that has caused you to choose this as your SAPG?

No, I have had multiple coaches but I have never looked into the planning side of it. I think being outside and active with the students from NHS is what made me choose the SAPG not any teaching component.

Announcements

Creative Industries

Join us Tuesday 8th September for 2 hours of creative entertainment. This event is completely student led! If you have an LTI on a different day or finish early on a Tuesday, come along! [Parents need to give permission - see emails.

Take 3 For The Sea

Connie from Advisory 7 is organing a Clean Up! Join her and the Take 3 For the Sea SAPG to help out and earn yourself some hot chippies as a thank you.

Thanks for reading, feel free to follow our school's socials!

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