Faculty Focus: PDHPE

The PDHPE faculty have had a very busy, productive and enjoyable year to date. Overall, students have been keen and enthusiastic, working well in both practical and theory lessons. The PDHPE team is motivated and excited for the remainder of 2024.

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.

Term 2 will see all years complete the Athletics and Dance units of work, perfecting their skills and techniques in a range of track and field events, dance styles and genres.

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, ‘the impact of digital/social media on our health and wellbeing’ in Year 9 and ‘determinants of health and epidemiology’ 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. These include: Y8 Analysing Sport/Human Movement, Y9 Physical Activity and Sport Studies (PASS) and Y10 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”!!

Swimming Carnival 2024

The forecast and weather conditions did not deter our students as they turned up in numbers to participate in our 2024 Swimming Carnival. Again, we showed why Newcastle High is known for it's swimming ability, with some seriously competitive times! Well done to everyone who attended!!

Athletics Carnival 2024

The Newcastle High School Athletics Carnival will be held at the Fearnley Dawes Athletics track on Wednesday 29 May 2024 . We strongly encourage everyone to turn up in your house colours and get involved!

A friendly reminder of the houses:

Sport

U15s Girls Football Win

The U15's Girls Football team advanced into the 2nd round of the Bill Turner Trophy with a comprehensive 7-0 win over Callaghan Campus Waratah. Well done to all involved, and good luck in the next round!!

State Touch Football Champion

Congratulations to Nate J. (Y8) who played in the Hunter U15s Touch Football team at the CHS State Championships in Mudgee. The Hunter team won the State Title for 2024. Well done Nate, we're very proud of you!!

Rugby League U14s Knockout

Well done to our U14s Rugby League team which competed in the Buckley Shield on Wednesday 3 April. The boys went through the first three rounds undefeated and kept every opposition team from scoring. They played a great style of footy in the finals and impressed a lot of people on the day ... but, unfortunately, Warners Bay High scored on the final bell to win 10-6 and progress to the next stage of the competition. Well done U14s, we are very proud of you!! And well done to Mr McCafferty, who has nominated himself for 2024 Coach of the Year!

Open Girls Footy Double Win

The Open Girls Football team played the first two rounds of the Puma Trophy Knockout, defeating Glendale 4-0 in the first round and earning a come from behind win against West Wallsend 4-3 in the second round. The team now moves on into the next stage of the competition. Well done to all involved!!

Open Girls Basketball

The Open Girls Basketball team played in the CHS Regional Knockout Gala at Broadmeadow Basketball Stadium. The girls showed tremendous sportsmanship and finished the day undefeated. They are now off to the State Championship. Congratulations!!!

Hayley's Cycling Success

Hayley D. in Y12 continues to shine in the sport of cycling. Since our last update she has won three Gold medals for the NSW U17 State Road, Time Trial and Criterium championships. At the U17 Australian Road Championship she won Silver in the Time Trial, Bronze in the Road Race and Bronze in the Criterium U17. She was then awarded the 2023 NSW Junior Female Road Cyclist of the Year.

At the NSW Track Championships she won Gold in the U19 Individual Pursuit, Silver in the Points Race, Silver in the Team Sprint and was 4th in the Time Trial. At the Australian National Track Championships she won Silver in the Team Pursuit, Bronze in the Madison and 4th in the Points Race.

At the Oceana Track Championships in New Zealand she won Gold in the Madison, Silver in the Scratch, Silver in the Team pursuit, Bronze in the Elimination, Bronze in the Omnium U19, was 4th in the Points Race and 5th in the Individual Pursuit. Wow, what an amazing record and student at NHS, we are very proud of Hayley and look forward to hearing more about her cycling achievements!! Well done!!

Netball Fast5 Carnival

In Term 1, 43 of our senior students participated in the Netball NSW Y11/Y12 Fast5 Netball Carnival at Westlakes Netball Association. All students had a fantastic day despite the dampness, demonstrating true NHS spirit through their sportsmanship, respect and participation!!

Y12 Colour Run & Wellbeing Day

Our amazing Year 12 students participated in a wellbeing day last Friday, which culminated with a very dynamic and vibrant Colour Run ... all part of our commitment to their growth, health and success!!

Alex Wins Ironman Gold

During the holidays Alex W. (Y12) competed at 'The Aussies', the Australian Surf Lifesaving Championships at Maroochydore in Queensland and won the gold medal in the U17 Ironman race. Congratulations!!!

Open Boys AFL Team

Well done to the NHS Open Boys AFL side who took on the strong Hunter Sports High team at Warners Bay. Despite losing the game, the boys showed determination and the spirit renowned in AFL sides from Newcastle High. A number of our boys were playing their first game of AFL and were amongst the side's biggest contributors. Well done!!

Representative Sport Trials 

Hunter Sport Trials

Any students wishing to participate in Hunter trials for 2024 are to complete the online nomination form through the 'DASH' platform. The majority of sports will require nominations to be made 2 weeks prior to the trial occurring, so please keep up to date with the Hunter Trial Calendar for your respective sports at http://tinyurl.com/5dbpd3vc

Please see Mr McCafferty in the PDHPE staffroom for more information.

The DASH login page is at https://nswschoolsportunit.dashapp.com.au/auth/login

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 – Head Teacher PDHPE