Faculty Focus: PDHPE

The PDHPE faculty have had a very busy, productive and enjoyable year to date. The team is motivated and excited for the remainder of 2023. We wish Mrs Blatchford all the best for her 12 months of R&R!

Across semester one, all students in Years 7-10 PDHPE enjoy a wide variety of learning experiences in their theory and practical lessons.

Practical

Practical 7-10 PDHPE classes have focused on a variety of units this semester, including Fundamental Movement Skills (Y7), Hitting Skills (Y8), Throwing and Catching games (Y9) and Court Games (Y10). During these units, students have demonstrated some outstanding coordination and transferral of movement skills in a variety of contexts, including: volleyball, hockey, racquet sports, oz tag, ultimate frisbee, netball and basketball.

Students have also participated in a 5 week Gymnastics unit in the second half of Term 1, developing their form, balance and safety on apparatus, such as: beam, floor, vault, trampoline and double mini-trampoline. Term 2 will see all years complete the Athletics and Dance units of work, perfecting their skills and techniques in a range of dance styles and genres.

Athletics Carnival

The Newcastle High School Athletics Carnival will be held at the Fearnley Dawes Athletics track on Wednesday 24 May (Week 5). We strongly encourage everyone to turn up in your house colours and get involved!

A friendly reminder of the houses:

Theory

In semester one, Year 7-10 PDHPE classes examine a range of key health and wellbeing issues in their theory units of work. These include ‘health, wellbeing and identity’ in Year 7, ‘positive relationships and online safety’ in Year 8, ‘mental health and the impact of social media’ in Year 9 and ‘risk, responsibility and safe, respectful relationships’ in Year 10. Students have really engaged in lessons and thought critically about health issues relevant to their lives.

Elective Courses

PDHPE electives have once again been very popular in 2023. These include: Year 8 Analysing Sport/Human Movement, Year 9 Physical Activity and Sport Studies (PASS) and Year 10 PASS.

Year 9 and 10 PASS classes have experienced a variety of engaging and practical-based learning activities that expand on the traditional 7-10 PDHPE programs and lead students into some exciting topics such as: Body Systems/Anatomy, Australia’s Sporting Identity and Nutrition and Physical Activity. 

The Year 9 PASS cohort have recently completed their Body Systems Assessment Task, with many achieving commendable results. Whilst the Year 10 cohort have been challenged by planning and delivering a coaching session in a sport of their choice. In this task they were required to coach their fellow peers in a training session they had designed. It was certainly very interesting to see how the students dealt with the “shoe being on the other foot”!

SPORT

NHS Sports Representatives

Congratulations to the following students who have qualified to represent Hunter or have already played in Hunter teams at CHS carnivals. It’s great to see so many students reach a high level in their chosen sport. Newcastle High is very proud of their efforts already and wish them all the very best!

Representative Sport Trials 

For all relevant information and trial/carnival dates please visit the NSW School Sport Unit website. 

Hunter School Sports Association (click ‘view calendar’ for trial dates) 

https://app.education.nsw.gov.au/sport/hunter

State-wide information and key dates 

https://app.education.nsw.gov.au/sport/

Carnival Age Champions

Five-A-Side Champions

A big shout out to our U14 Boys five-a-side football team who won the Hunter Region competition recently. The boys were undefeated throughout the competition and beat Warners Bay High School 3-1 in a dramatic final. The U16 team also played exceptionally well, undefeated throughout the competition, but unfortunately, they were beaten in the grand final; finishing second. Well done to all our players for their incredible success and representing our school with genuine pride!

Girls U15 Soccer - Bill Turner Trophy

Congratulations to the girls for a very convincing win against Morisset HS in the first round of the Bill Turner Trophy. All the best for the second round against Kotara HS!

Girls Netball

Competed extremely well in their knockout gala day, winning several of their games. Outstanding teamwork and a positive attitude was a feature throughout the day. We would also like to say a huge thank you and farewell to two girls who are in Year 12 and have played every year since Year 7 - Lily F. and Tori F.

Open Girls Basketball

The Open Girls Basketball team had a successful knockout competition last term. After showing a dominant performance against Swansea High winning 97-9, the girls progressed to the final 4 in the Hunter. The girls faced Hunter Sports High School in their first game where they showed exceptional skill and sportsmanship, narrowly going down by 10 points. They finished the day on a high, beating Hunter School of Performing Arts by 70 points. Well done girls!

Boys Open Basketball Team

Our Open Boys Basketball team recently played a very competitive game against Tomaree High School, but eventually lost 51-44. They represented our school with great pride and manners, well done!

Swimming

In Term 1 we had a strong squad of swimmers attend the City Zone and Hunter Region Swimming Carnivals at Lambton Pool. They were busy days for many of our competitors with multiple races on their program and we congratulate everyone in attendance for representing the school with pride. Wishing students good luck as we await the results of the recent NSW State Swimming Championships.

A HUGE congratulations to Alexander W. in Year 11 for his incredible achievements at the recent NSW State Swimming Championships - full results below! The school is very proud of him - well done Alex!

1st - 400m Individual Medley, 1st - 200m Individual Medley, 1st - 100m Fly, 2nd - 100m Freestyle, 3rd - 200m Freestyle, 5th - 100 Breaststroke and 5th - 50m Freestyle.

Baker Shield Cricket Win

Congratulations to Newcastle High's U14 Cricket team after their comprehensive 107 run victory over Glendale High in Round 1 of the Baker Shield knock out. Fantastic batting from Archie W (60 not out) and Elijah T and a great all round bowling performance saw seven different wicket takers. The team looks forward to taking on their opponents in Round 2.

Active Lunchtimes at NHS

All happening simultaneously during lunch time on Wednesday 10th May.....

We look forward to a fabulous and rewarding year ahead, where students are given every opportunity to grow and develop into respectful, hardworking, resilient and responsible young people, who enjoy the benefits and rewards of a healthy lifestyle.

Nick Johns – HT PDHPE