Smith's Hill High School

Last updated

Smith's Hill High School
Smith's Hill High School.jpg
Location
Smith's Hill High School
35–37 Gipps Street, Wollongong, New South Wales

Australia
Coordinates 34°25′07″S150°53′45″E / 34.41861°S 150.89583°E / -34.41861; 150.89583
Information
Other nameSmiths Hill High School [1]
Type Government-funded co-educational academically selective secondary day school
MottoTruth, service, honour
Established1916;108 years ago (1916)
Educational authority New South Wales Department of Education
PrincipalDavid Deitz
Teaching staff54.3 FTE (2018) [1]
Years 712
Enrolment730 [1]  (2018)
Campus type Urban
Colour(s)Navy blue and gold   
SloganPromoting Excellence in a spirit of Trust and Cooperation
Website smithshill-h.schools.nsw.gov.au
Smith's Hill High School

Smith's Hill High School, also known as Smiths Hill High School, [1] is a government-funded co-educational academically selective secondary day school, located in Wollongong, in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia.

Contents

Established in 1916, the school enrolled approximately 730 students in 2018, from Year 7 to Year 12, of whom 32 percent were from a language background other than English. [1] The school is operated by the NSW Department of Education; the Principal is David Deitz.

Overview

Established in 1916, the school is situated in central Wollongong and caters for students from Year 7 to Year 12. Its close proximity to the beach, Wollongong CBD, the University of Wollongong, the Illawarra Institute of Technology, Wollongong Entertainment Centre, Illawarra Performing Arts Centre and Beaton Park sporting complex allows it to provide a balanced curriculum in terms of academic pursuits, cultural and sporting experiences. The curriculum is supplemented by relevant excursions and extra-curricular activities which include camps and national competitions of an academic nature. Students are expected to participate in sport and are encouraged to pursue their strengths in all fields of endeavour. Students who choose to attend the school do so from an area which stretches from the southern suburbs of Sydney to Batemans Bay in the south. All students are encouraged to become independent learners; make choices concerning their own learning paths; and to extend themselves through involvement in extra-curricular activities.

The application and testing process for students seeking enrolment into Year 7 at Selective Schools in NSW is centrally administered by the High Performing Students Unit of the New South Wales Department of Education. Applications for Year 7 are made in Year 5 with testing undertaken in Year 6. Applications open in mid-October and close in mid-November. Application Forms are available from local primary schools or can be downloaded from the High Performing Students Unit website when applications open. Students seeking a place at the school after Semester 1 in Year 7 make an application directly to the school. Application packages are available from late June and need to be submitted by late July. Further information and application forms are also available from the High Performing Students Unit website.

History

In 1906, Wollongong Primary School began to offered vocational education courses for non-academic students. This included courses such as Household Accounts, Cookery, Laundry and Dressmaking. Five years later, in 1911, secondary courses were offered to academic students which allowed students to achieve the Intermediate Certificate and with further study, the Leaving Certificate. [2]

A separate school for these courses was then established in 1916 under the name Wollongong Home Science School. This school was a single-sex education school for girls only and was based on a site in Smith Street, Wollongong. In 1957, the school relocated to its current location on the former site of Wollongong High School in Gipps Street and then in 1958, was renamed as Smith's Hill Girls High School. The school then allowed non-academic students to achieve the Intermediate and Leaving Certificates. [2]

During the 1970s, plans were underway to change the school into a comprehensive, co-educational High School and in 1979 the school was renamed Smith's Hill High School. In 1985, boys were enrolled in Years 7, 8, 9 and 11 drawing from feeder schools at Wollongong, Coniston and Mount St Thomas. By 1986, SHHS was completely co-educational from Years 7 through 12. [2]

Then in 1988, the NSW Department of Education decided to make the school a selective high school and from 1989 the annual Year 7 intake of students was to be filled through exam selections. The school has remained completely selective ever since. [2]

Higher School Certificate

Students of Smith's Hill High School have consistently performed well in the NSW Higher School Certificate examinations, with the school placing 38th in the state in 2010 [3] and having fifteen students make the All-round Achievers List. [4] As a result of strong HSC performances, a high percentage of students from Smith's Hill High gain university entrance each year. This tradition of success has been in the school for many years.[ citation needed ]

Smith's Hill offers a diverse range of subjects for both seniors and juniors in a number of key learning areas. For senior subjects which are unable to be offered due to lack of numbers, students are assisted to complete these subjects through distance education, in association with an appropriate distance education school.

Extracurricular activities

Rock Eisteddfod Challenge

For many years, Smith's Hill High School participated in the Rock Eisteddfod Challenge. The school was in the Grand Final every year from 2004 and was a regular Grand Final contender in years previous. Due to the preparation time required, and the high level of physical activity involved, the Rock Eisteddfod Challenge performance was worked on during weekly sport activities. Smith's Hill High School participated in two divisions of Rock Eisteddfod Challenge, the RAW Division for Years 8 through 10, and the Premier Division for Years 11 and 12. Unlike other schools, students were not required to audition and positions are filled with preference given to students based on their grade. Also, Smith's Hill was one of the few schools that offered Year 7 students an opportunity to compete, with the most recent Year 7 RAW production being 'Nelson Mandela: Son of Africa' in 2011, which came fifth in the state finals in Sydney. There were a number of teachers involved at Smith's Hill who were also part of the Rock Eisteddfod Challenge.

In 2006, the Premier Division team performed "Tibet: Roof of the World". The storyline included "Tibetan monks paying their last respects to the previous Dalai Lama, as well as the 1949 Chinese invasion and the exile of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama." [5] After this performance, the team were granted a private audience with the Dalai Lama who asked the students to "continue to spread his message of peace, spirituality and protection of the environment to others throughout the state." [6]

Tournament of Minds

Smith's Hill regularly submits teams to participate in the Tournament of Minds competition. The school has had several successes in the competition with the 1998 team being state finalists, the 2002 and 2003 teams being national finalists and the 2005, 2018, 2019 x2 teams winning the national final[ citation needed ]. In 2008, for the first time two teams were entered in the competition which resulted in the Social Sciences team placing second in New South Wales and the Language Literature team gaining second place at the Australasian Finals in Melbourne. In 2010, the Applied Technology team succeeded in becoming national finalists and in 2012 the Maths and Engineering team scored tournament honours in the Australasian Finals in Perth.[ citation needed ]. In 2013, the Language Literature team again placed second at the Australasian Finals in Canberra[ citation needed ]. In 2015, a Language literature team also made it to the Australasian Pacific Finals in Sydney and gained tournament honours. In 2017, a Language literature team once again made it to the Australasian Pacific Finals in Adelaide and placed 2nd with tournament honours. In 2018, the Tournament of Minds Language / Literature team won internationals, the biggest win the school had experienced. [7] In 2019 this was surpassed with two teams – Social Sciences and STEM – winning internationals at Hobart after winning the state tournament in 2019. [8] [9]

School productions

Smith's Hill High School has a history in performing school productions such as musicals and plays. In 2001, Smith's Hill High School produced its first musical in recent history, performing Little Shop of Horrors. Since then, school productions have been staged regularly including performances of Oklahoma! and compilations of various other musicals. In 2015, the school staged an outstanding production of Guys and Dolls.

In 2006, the production team of Ribbit Up Productions was formed by drama teacher Bryan Cutler and has since performed at least one original show per year including "The Little Country That Could", "How to Host a Murder", "The Big Box" and "Overbelly". A junior offshoot of the company was formed soon after known as Tadpole Productions which has performed shows such as "Earthwatch", "Noughts and Crosses", "When Books Go Bump in the Night", "Personal Space", "Escape From RealiTV" and most recently, "Earthwatch 2.0", a remake of the original with a brand new cast. In 2011, the company differed from its annual performance of an original play and instead performed an adaptation of Hamlet. In 2012 they performed "The Magic Mountain", and in 2013 "Macguffin". Returning again to Shakespeare in 2014, "Whatever you Will", a pastiche of Shakespeare's comedies, was performed. More recent names to Cutler's record include; "Beethoven's Summer" performed in 2015, which followed Cutler's personal recollections of his childhood and growing up in Australia, and in 2016, "221a" was performed which honoured the BBC's Sherlock (TV series). In 2017, Cutler returned to political satire in "You Can't Have One Without the Other" followed by an adaption of Shakespeare's Richard III in 2018, which saw widespread acclaim. In 2020, they performed "The Bubble," a sociocultural reflection on the inter-schools climate, followed in 2021 by "Squeak" and the story's prelude "Splat" as performed by the Junior School Play. 2022 detailed a return-to-form of one of the original plays with "How to Murder a Host". The penultimate play in 2023 was an adaptation of Macbeth, with the final performance by Cutler after 18 years being a musical entitled "Artificial" two-fold operating as a homage to all its predecessor through its littered references and backdrop being all the collections of prior plays.

Drama Teacher Bro Reveleigh hosted multiple "Comedy Revues" featuring slapstick comedy and skits written, cast, directed and performed by students. In recent memory, there have been 3 shows: One in 2016, one in 2017, and the final one in 2022. [10]

Due to the cancellation of Rock Eisteddfod Challenge in 2010, the Smith's Hill music department offered the opportunity to students to participate in a production of the musical The Pajama Game. Performed in July 2010, the production placed second in the Arcadian Theatre Group's School Musical Theatre competition which involved judging of school musicals in the Illawarra. In 2013, the music department produced another musical, this time performing "Anything Goes". Several years later, in 2015, the school also did a production of the critically acclaimed musical "Guys and Dolls".

Mooting

Since 2008 Smith's Hill High School has entered into the High School Mooting Competition of Bond University to promote and encourage Legal Studies students within the school. The school has achieved much success in the competition achieving second at the National Finals in 2009[ citation needed ] and reaching the National Finals in 2011. [11]

Debating

Smiths Hill High School has reached the NSW semi-finals for the Premier's Debating Challenge since 2007, winning the competition on six occasions, most recently in 2021. [12]

The representative NSW Combined High Schools debating team has also included Smith's Hill students over the last several years. In recent years they won the Hume Barbour Trophy in both 2019 and 2021.

Public Competitions

Ensembles

Smith's Hill also has a variety of music groups and ensembles. Each practice regularly and perform at special events, such as formal assemblies and open days including the School Expo, Presentation Nights and the 50th Birthday Open Day. At the end of the year, participating students get the opportunity to spend two days busking in Sydney. The music ensembles include:

String Ensemble

This ensemble is for students who play violin, viola, double bass and cello, accompanied by a piano player. The ensemble usually plays arrangements of the classical genre, and is instructed by a professional tutor.

Recently many folk, recent and more up-beat popular tunes have been played, such as compositions by Coldplay and Lady Gaga. It is available for anyone in the school who plays one of the instruments at a solid level.

The String Ensemble has played at eisteddfods, weddings and a number of other functions across the Illawarra.

Concert Band

This band is for students who can play brass or woodwind instruments, as well as percussion and instruments in the rhythm section.[ clarification needed ]

Vocal Ensemble

The Vocal Ensemble is for any student who has an interest in singing. Smith's Hill's most accredited musical piece was their rendition of Beyonce's "Halo", performed angelically by an aspiring historian in 2017. Open to all students of sc is willing to participate in practices after school. This ensemble is great fun and all students learn about harmony and create beautiful harmony with each other.[ citation needed ]

Chorale Group

The Chorale Group is an a cappella group and entrance is by invitation only.

Junior Jazz Ensemble

This ensemble is for students in Years 7–10 who have an interest in Jazz and can play an instrument suitable to the Jazz genre.

Jazz Band

Formerly known as the Stage Band, the Senior Jazz Band is a small performance group made up of experienced student musicians, and is designed to play at school events where it would be less practical for the Concert Band to perform.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wollongong</span> City in New South Wales, Australia

Wollongong is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound of the sea'. Wollongong lies on the narrow coastal strip between the Illawarra Escarpment and the Pacific Ocean, 85 kilometres south of central Sydney. Wollongong had an estimated urban population of 302,739 at June 2018, making it the third-largest city in New South Wales after Sydney and Newcastle and the tenth-largest city in Australia by population. The city's current Lord Mayor is Gordon Bradbery AM who was elected in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abbotsleigh</span> School in Australia

Abbotsleigh is an independent Anglican early learning, primary and secondary day and boarding school for girls, located in Wahroonga, on the Upper North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Ruse Agricultural High School</span> School in Australia

James Ruse Agricultural High School is a government-funded co-educational academically selective and specialist secondary day school, located in the Sydney suburb of Carlingford, New South Wales, Australia, long known for being the highest academically ranked high school in Australia. The school is also one of four New South Wales Government agricultural high schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merewether High School</span> School in Australia

Merewether High School is a government-funded co-educational academically selective secondary day school, located in the suburb of Broadmeadow in the city of Newcastle, Australia. It was established in 1977 following the merger of Newcastle Technical High School and Cooks Hill Girls High School. The school is named in honour of Edward Merewether, a prominent businessman and civil servant in the Colony of New South Wales who later became the Superintendent of the Australian Agricultural Company in Newcastle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baulkham Hills High School</span> School in Australia

Baulkham Hills High School is a government-funded academically selective secondary school. It lies within Baulkham Hills in the Hills District of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Normanhurst Boys High School</span> Academically selective school in Australia

Normanhurst Boys High School is a single-sex academically selective secondary day school for boys, located in the suburb of Normanhurst, New South Wales, Australia. Consistently ranked as one of the nation's top schools academically, it was ranked seventh in the state based on Higher School Certificate (HSC) results in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caringbah High School</span> School in Australia

Caringbah High School is a government-funded co-educational academically selective secondary day school, located in Caringbah, in the Sutherland Shire of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school was opened in 1960 as a co-educational high school and was nominated to become selective in 1989, over the neighbouring Port Hacking High. As of 2021 approximately 907 students were enrolled. Surrounding schools include Endeavour Sports High School, Woolaware High School, and Port Hacking High School. Caringbah High School is the only co-educational selective high school in the Sutherland Shire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Gregory's College, Campbelltown</span> School in Australia

St Gregory's College Campbelltown is an independent Catholic single-sex and co-educational comprehensive and specialist primary and secondary day and boarding school, located in Gregory Hills, near Campbelltown, a south-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. With specialist expertise as an agricultural school, St Gregory's College provides a co-educational environment for students in the Kindergarten to Year 6 primary school; and a boys-only environment for students in the Year 7 to Year 12 secondary schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose Bay Secondary College</span> School in Australia

Rose Bay Secondary College (RBSC) is a government-funded co-educational dual modality partially academically selective and comprehensive secondary day school, located in Dover Heights, an eastern Sydney suburb of New South Wales, Australia. The New South Wales Department of Education established the college in 2003 as a result of the merger of Dover Heights and Vaucluse high schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts</span> School in Australia

The Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive and specialist secondary day school with speciality in performing arts, located in Fairy Meadow, a suburb of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wollongong Showground</span> Multi-sports stadium

Wollongong Showground, known as WIN Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Wollongong, Australia. The stadium was officially opened in 1911. From 1982 until 1998 it played host to every home match for the Illawarra Steelers NRL team, and is still the team's home ground in the lower grade competitions. It is now used as one home ground of the St George Illawarra Dragons rugby league side and Wollongong Wolves of the National Premier Leagues NSW.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wollongong Conservatorium of Music</span>

Wollongong Conservatorium of Music is a centre for music education, community music-making and performance, serving the city of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manly Selective Campus</span> School in Australia

The Manly Selective Campus of the Northern Beaches Secondary College is a government-funded co-educational academically selective secondary day school, located in North Curl Curl, a suburb on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sydney Girls High School</span> School in Australia

Sydney Girls High School is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school located at Moore Park, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Saint Patrick's College is an Australian independent Roman Catholic single-sex secondary day school for girls located in Campbelltown in south-western Sydney, New South Wales. Established in 1840, it was the first school built by private enterprises in New South Wales and provides a religious and comprehensive education for approximately 850 students from Year 7 to Year 12, in the traditions of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Davidson High School (New South Wales)</span> School in Frenchs Forest, New South Wales, Australia

Davidson High School (DHS) is a school in Frenchs Forest, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on Mimosa Street. It is a co-educational high school operated by the New South Wales Department of Education with students from years 7 to 12. The school was established in 1972 as a result of the growing population in the Frenchs Forest and Belrose areas and is located on a site bounded by heritage-listed remnant bushland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Figtree High School</span> School in Australia

Figtree High School is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive secondary day school, located on Gibsons Road in Figtree, a suburb of Wollongong, in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Engadine High School</span> High school in Engadine, New South Wales, Australia

Engadine High School is a school located in Engadine, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on Porter Road. It is a co-educational high school operated by the New South Wales Department of Education, with students from years 7 to 12. The school was established in 1969 as a result of the growing population in the Engadine area.

Illawarra Sports High School is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive and specialist secondary day school, with speciality in sports, located in Berkeley, a southern suburb of Wollongong, in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Smiths Hill High School, Wollongong, NSW: School profile". My School. Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "About Page". Smith's Hill High School. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  3. "HSC Top 200 School Rankings" (PDF). The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  4. "All-round Achievers List". NSW Board of Studies. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  5. "Tibet Features in 2006 Rock Eisteddfod Challenge". Australian Tibet Council. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  6. "2007 Annual Report" (PDF). Smith's Hill High School. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  7. "Principal's message – 29 October 2018 – Smith's Hill High School".
  8. "19s_Awards Sheet.PDF".
  9. "Mind-blowing results for our schools".
  10. "2022 Comedy Revue".
  11. "Seymour College triumphs again over High School Mooting elite". Bond University. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  12. "Years 11 & 12 Debating Challenge".
  13. ASI (19 June 2023). "Australia's newest International Science Olympiad competitors revealed". Australian Science Innovations. Retrieved 16 May 2024.