Penrith High Towers-Alumni

Welcome to our first edition of Towers Alumni for 2021.

Congratulations to our newest Alumni-the Class of 2020

Our Dux for 2020 was Eugenia Kim who achieved a very impressive ATAR of 99.80.

Holly Epps, Holly Gerrard, Sophia Hadjimichael, Eugenia Kim, Junyi Ma, Hasanga Malasakera, Erick Rajan, Ethan Shackley and Anna Sharma all attained the top band for all HSC courses and will be included on the HSC Excellence Honour Board in the hall. This is the largest number of students in this group for many years.

The list below reflects how many high performing students were recognised at and beyond school and are a credit to themselves, their families and the school. A special thanks to the Careers team of Natasha O’Regan and Chris Buchli, our Head Teacher Co-Curricular Program, Antoinette Pipio, Year Adviser Tom Hoekstra and all of the staff who supported students with their large number of applications, reference statements and all that goes into receiving these awards.

In summary:

· The Class of 2020 had a median ATAR of 92.00

· 160 students graduated in 2020, and 100% of these students have received an offer to an Australian University.

· There were a total of 250 University offers made through UAC.

· 86 early entry offers were made through either: The Macquarie University Leaders and Achievers Program, UAC Schools Recommendation Scheme or The University of Sydney E12 scheme.

· 141 students received an offer in the main round of offers. The remaining 19 students had already consolidated their offers during the early round offerings.

· 1 student accepted a medical placement at UNSW - Jun Ma

· 1 student accepted a position in the very prestigious UNSW Cooperative Scholarship program - Nicole Huang

· 1 student accepted a position at The College of Wooster Ohio, USA on a NCAA (Women’s Soccer) Sports Scholarship - Zoe Peters

· 1 student received the Inspired By Business Scholarship by The University of Sydney

· 3 Sydney Scholar Scholarships were awarded by The University of Sydney

· 19 x E12 University of Sydney Scholarships were awarded.

· University of Sydney Leadership Award – Ethan Shackley and Eugenia Kim

· ANU Tuckwell Scholarship (Final Round) – Sophia Hadjimichael

· ADF Long Tan Leadership and Teamwork Award - Hasanga Malalasekara

· Rotary Club of Nepean Youth Award – Eugenia Kim

· ADF Future Innovators Award – Alan Raphel

· 2020 Dame Marie Bashir Peace Award - Sophia Hadjimichael

· Ministers Award for Excellence in Student Achievement - Sophia Hadjimichael and Wendy Li

· Lions Club Citizenship Award – Imran Sarwar

· Caltex Award for Best All Round Student – Holly Epps

· Susan and Isaac Wakil Foundation Scholarship –Ricardo Irving

· The Unions NSW Jeff Shaw Memorial Scholarship – Eugenia Kim

· 2020 Stuart Ayres All Rounder Award – Lizaveta Drozd

70th Anniversary Luncheon Update

Thank you to the committee who are moving ahead with last years postponed luncheon. Some early details can be found in this edition of Towers Alumni and after the next meeting in April, we will update everyone on the Alumni mailing list. Capacity is limited to 200, so please support the committee by responding quickly when more details are available. I’m very much looking forward to reconnecting with many of you who have visited the school in my time as Principal and to meet many of you in person.

Reunion Plans for 2021

The current COVID rules have allowed us to begin school tours again, which means that if possible, we would be very happy to welcome reunion groups back onsite as part of your event. Weekends are difficult for us to do, but many reunion groups in 2018 and 2019 visited the school on the Friday before a Friday or Saturday night event. We are also happy to share reunion details in Towers Alumni or on the school website: https://penrith-h.schools.nsw.gov.au/alumni/reunions.html

Please feel free to contact the school to see if we can help.

Updated Athletics Board and Dux Board

Long term (and now retired, but ever reliable casual) PE teacher, Maxine McNally, has been working at the school this year in a number of casual roles including the library. During this time, she has thrown herself into the archives to find all of the current records and then updated the Athletics Record Board which now resides with all other boards in the hall. A before and after photo can be found in this edition.

After completing the Athletics Board, Maxine completed a task that I thought would take all of 2021- compiling the names of all Duxes since the school opened in 1950. Her deep knowledge of PHS history means that we have around 95% of the names. Many of the earlier Duxes are listed on the Leaving Certificate Honour Board and then we had a large gap from the long and important years of Penrith as a comprehensive school, before having all of the Duxes listed since the school’s transition to a Selective High School.

The entire history of the school is important, so to have this almost completed is exciting and I hope that the new board with all names will be in place by mid year.

My sincere thanks to Maxine for taking this on and doing it so quickly so our history is captured for the years ahead.

Floods

Finally, very few would have missed the news that had Penrith leading the news recently with the floods. The school remains in good shape, the hall roof sprung a number of leaks and we are hopeful that a new roof will be funded by the Department of Education later this year but as you would expect, there is little that can slow Penrith High School down.

I hope that all former students and staff who live in the area were not affected and if you were, that all matters are improving.

Enjoy this edition of Towers Alumni and I hope to see you for a school tour, at our mid-year Alumni Night (Details to come) and/ or at the 70th Anniversary Luncheon.

Warm regards,

Mark Long

Principal

At this early stage Penrith High's 70th Anniversary Luncheon hopefully will go ahead this year.

WHEN: Saturday 11 September 2021 with a fall-back date 18 September.

WHERE: Penrith Paceway which comfortably holds 200 persons at the Covid restrictions existing at the moment.

There will be a committee meeting on Saturday 24 April 2021 after gathering more data.

More details will follow when available.

Paul Hansen for the 70th Anniversary Luncheon Committee

After the P&C Annual General Meeting there was a panel on Zoom which featured 5 students from the class of 2020 who spoke about what they learnt from last year and how they got to where they are now. This was one of the most valuable forums for the year.

Ethan Shackley - School Captain 2020.

Having transferred to Penrith Selective High School in Year 10 from my local Comprehensive High School, I have experience in both selective and non-selective education. During my HSC years at Penrith, I studied English Advanced, English Extension 1, Mathematics Advanced, Mathematics Extension 1, Chemistry, Biology, and Legal Studies. Through this schooling, I have been lucky enough to enrol in a combined Bachelor of Veterinary Biology and Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Sydney - a long term goal of mine that will allow me to practise as a veterinarian in the future. Until then, however, I plan to spend my next few years doing what I've always done: balancing work and fun, and taking any chance I can to merge the two.

Sophia Hadjimichael - School Captain 2020.

I am Sophia and I was the School Captain at Penrith Selective High School in 2020. During the HSC I studied English, English Extension 1, Music 2, Mathematics, Biology and Studies of Religion. This year I have accepted a position at the Australian National University to study a Bachelor of Psychology Honors.

Eugenia Kim - Senior Prefect 2020 and DUX 2020.

I have accepted a position in the Bachelor of Laws (Comm/ Law) at the University of Sydney on a scholarship. I studied Accelerated Business Studies, English, English Extension 1, Mathematics, Mathematics Extension 2, Economics and Legal Studies. Whilst studying law, I am also currently working as a legal assistant at a personal injury law firm.

Holly Gerrard - School Vice-Captain 2020.

My name is Holly Gerrard and I was the Vice-Captain at Penrith Selective High School in 2020. During my HSC I studied English Advanced, English Extension 1, English Extension 2, PDHPE, Studies of Religion, Society and Culture and Italian. I also feel very privileged to have had my English Extension 2 piece shortlisted for publication in the Young Writers Showcase 2020. I am currently undertaking a gap year but I will be studying a Bachelor of Arts/Law at the University of Sydney in 2022. My plans for 2021 include working in order to move into the city next year. Despite COVID, I hope to be able to travel to New Zealand at some point as well.

Candy Ma - Prefect 2020.

I'm Candy Ma and I recently graduated from Penrith last year. I am currently on a gap year and I will be undertaking a Bachelor of Medical Studies/Doctor of Medicine at UNSW next year. My plans for this year is to take a break from studying, earn money for university and undertake some volunteering work. For the HSC, subjects I took were English Advanced, Mathematics Advanced, Mathematics Extension 1, Biology, Chemistry and Business Studies.

Aim:

The aim of The Penrith Perception is to appeal to the changing social media landscape of our students, and provide a platform for students and teachers to give advice and inspire students in an entertaining format.

This term, the Prefects and multimedia team kickstarted “The Penrith Perception”, consisting of two sub-podcasts: PrefecTalk and the Penrith High Press. Several prefects and the multimedia team have been working very hard to release an introductory and 2 official episodes.

Here’s a rundown of the process and production:

• Sinduja Sureshkumar, Alyna Arago, Zach Wan, Jahin Khandoker and Elizabeth Santoso are the coordinators of PrefecTalk, which is a podcast run by Prefects wherein they talk about various topics, both personal and professional, to give a new perspective on how our students perceive themselves, others and the world around them. Teachers may be involved in the podcast as ‘special guests’.

• Kokulaan Santhakumar, Jamima Rumey Jiffrey, Shameer Iftikhar and Aditya Kumar are the coordinators of Penrith High Press, which is an interview series also run by Prefects through Zoom, where we interview famous Australian celebrities, chief executives and role models. The aim is to ask these renowned people questions that the school community may have about their profession or life to get their professional insight and provide a basis for individual decisions.

• Multimedia Leaders - new leadership body - are in charge of editing, polishing and uploading the podcast to Spotify. Simultaneously, they are in charge of running the podcast’s instagram page @thepenrithperception and creating graphic designs to appeal to the younger generations.

If you have any suggestions to improve the podcast, please feel free to contact the instagram page or use the Prefect suggestion box to help us out.

Podcast link:

https://open.spotify.com/show/5XRsX7by50diB1FNBSkNhD?si=re3rTxddTAiKrVibvjC8BA&nd=1

The School Tour held on the 9th of March was an outstanding success for both the participating students and families. This was a heavily anticipated event that the school was eager to hold, due to the cancellation of previous tours as a result of Covid-19 restrictions. Parents of prospective students were guided throughout different locations of the school by student leaders from Multimedia, who answered any queries they had and the opportunities that the school had to offer. These visitors consisted of parents who were interested in this school as a potential pathway for their children and parents of students who were already attending the school and wished to gain a better understanding of its environment and opportunities. The successful organization of this event was attributed to the manner that the Multimedia Leaders handled the tour according to the Covid-19 restrictions. Through deliberate precautions such as sanitation stations, mandatory masks, checking in at the entrance as abiding by Covid Safe practice and social distancing, the student leaders effectively presented the school in a respectable and professional approach that contributed to this accomplishment, and hence, the tour was highly regarded by all visitors. From the positive feedback received, the school is aiming to make available more tours in the following terms to allow a greater number of parents to understand the well-established spirit that has accommodated and developed the success of the students within the Penrith Selective High School Community."

The next School Tour will be Friday 23 April 2021 at 11am - 12.00pm

Bookings: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=740727

Thank you

Kind Regards,

Biswas Simkhada- Student Leader

Congratulations to 2020 Alumna, Zoe Peters, who has accepted and signed with the College of Wooster, Ohio for a 4 year US College (NCAA) experience playing soccer. Well done Zoe and thank you to our Careers team for working with Zoe throughout the process.

Congratulations to alumna, Mithia Zaheen, for this impressive acknowledgement and for all the work she is doing to lift others - a highlight for International Women's Day that we can all be proud of.

"Being a woman presents you with many challenges but we shouldn't be afraid to rise to those challenges". Dr Mithila Zaheen.

Despite her challenging work and study load, Mithila makes time for many volunteer commitments including a tutoring service for Sudanese refugees, a homework club with Baabayn Aboriginal Corporation in Mt Druitt and health education for refugee and migrant communities with the Water Well Project.

On top of her work, study and volunteer commitments, Mithila is a conjoint Associate Lecturer at the Western Sydney University School of Medicine and is studying a postgraduate Master of Medicine in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Sydney.

She has just started her basic training at Blacktown Hospital and is considering specialising in cardiology or respiratory disease while staying focussed on helping the people of Western Sydney where she grew up.

Excerpts from thepulse.org.au

Larissa Moore, 28 of Penrith advocates for children to feel a greater sense of autonomy and power within themselves. Larissa has been an Early Childhood Teacher with Penrith City Council since 2015. She has been a lead educator, actively implementing services curriculum standards and supporting and mentoring those around her. The curriculum is interest-based, child-led and heavily revolves around the emotional and social development of children - which particularly supports vulnerable children. Larissa plans and designs e-learning modules for educators. For her ongoing commitment to the education and care of children aged 0-12, she received the 2020 Educator of the Year Award within Penrith City Council.

NSW Department of Education

I was a pupil of PHS for 5 years from 1A in 1952 to 5A, 1956, doing French for five years under the very capable tutelage of Miss Elizabeth Butt, who managed to get the majority of us through with As and good oral scores. I still enjoy using French phrases from time to time.

I often played my violin on stage at school functions, and frequently was also asked to give speeches. I enjoyed debating. There were only three pupils who played violin back then. Students today are so fortunate to have so much music in the schools. For a couple of years I was in the school dance band with Jim Short on piano, John Davies on drums and Ian Smith on Sax. Jim was School Captain in 1955.

We all loved contributing to 'The Towers' Annual School Magazine. (I cringe when I read the doggerel verse I wrote in those days). I was a prefect from the end of 1954 to 1956. Students came from far and wide to attend PHS, as there were so few High Schools around. I think there were about 1000 in the school at the time, coming from areas like Plumpton and Springwood each day.

I was offered a Teachers College Scholarship to Bathurst, but because of my mother's health, elected to become a librarian locally instead. In Dec.1961 I married Lawton Owen, a primary school teacher, who also went through Penrith, doing his LC in 1951. We had a son( Engineer) and a daughter (Psychologist), and lived at Lapstone.

After seven years in library work, then a break for children, I worked in schools as a Teachers' Aide. My husband and I could now share the same holidays, caravanning with our kids.

While at Lapstone I joined the Fellowship of Australian Writers, and my writing which had so far been tucked into a bottom drawer, took off again. I've had many poems and short stories published in anthologies, written for Jacaranda Press for their 'Primary English Projects' series, been commissioned to write 12 poems to complement an art calendar, and am still churning out poems and stories... currently trying to select groups from my 550 plus poems for adults and children in many styles, to put into book form.

In 1991 I did an evening college course in watercolour. I had always drawn, but knew nothing of painting. It was a disaster! But a couple of months later I tried quietly on my own. It worked, and the next one also. I exhibited them and they both sold.

So I was off on another adventure!

In 1998 as part of a two-person Art Exhibition in Morpeth, we left the paintings there for 3 weeks while we caravanned on the Mid North Coast, falling in love with a home on a couple of acres at Bonny Hills. Now the big move!

We lived there for 13 years. Soon after we settled there I decided to seriously return to my music, which had been sadly neglected for twenty odd years! Hardest thing I have ever done, but also probably the most rewarding! I had a Gallery of my own work on our property for three and a half years. We loved living there.

My husband's health began to deteriorate, so we moved to a modest home in Laurieton. I added an enormous, sun-filled, raked ceiling music room. I lost Lawton three and a half years ago. Now my days are filled with music, writing and gardening.

I do not seem to have time to paint, though I do still sketch sometimes. My beloved violin takes up a lot of my time. I play each week in our local Baptist Church, and before Covid was taking part in a monthly 'Music Exchange' evening, and giving a couple of house concerts each year, with 31 people squeezed into my music room, in aid of the Read Triplets. I now have one adult violin student.

I feel truly blessed that God has given me such a rich life. Usually when I look at where I've been and what I've done it seems like so little. I have never been out of Australia but I have had so many blessings in different ways. To be still playing, still writing, still active, enjoying driving, and on the ball at 81 is a rare blessing in itself. I thank God for all His gifts.

We arre your Alumni Prefects for 2021, Aditya Kumar and Elizabeth Santoso(Liz)! We’ve been busy interviewing and getting to know the Head Teacher of PDHPE, Mr Rutherford. He’s a returning Alumnus, and we got his thoughts and advice on life and school, while finding out a bit about the school’s past, Mr Coburn, and Disneyland. Enjoy!

A - Adi and Liz

R - Mr Rutherford

Interview:

A: How’s it going sir?

R: Good.

.

A: How was the Zone Swimming Carnival?

R: Pretty good actually. We are waiting on the points to get our final position in the carnival but we came maybe around 3rd or 2nd depending on how we went without relays, so we might have been able to jump ahead of Nepean I think it was, to make it to 2nd because we have more swimmers in our relay teams who are good.

A: Participation well that's the thing. You know if you fill teams, more people, more races you just accumulate more points so it's really important that even when we have students that are not the best swimmers, if other schools don't race than they can’t get points and we can. Sometimes just playing a small role can make a difference at the end of it which is what I always say to people.

A: That’s huge. OK so when did you attend school at Penrith and how was your experience?

R: So I was here in 1998 when I started year 7 and graduated in 2003 and overall my experience is pretty good - there are definitely some challenges along the way but probably the first challenge I found was a case of going from a big fish in a small pond to a little fish in a big pond but I think a lot of year 7 students generally find that regardless of what school they went to. Often there's physically more people but I’d sort of gone from being one of the brightest kids at my primary school to suddenly, “ I’m just in the middle of a 150 kids, I’m no longer the smartest”, and that can challenge your identity a little bit too You feel like you probably have all these strengths and then suddenly you’re like ”So do all these other people”.

A: And how did you go with that?

R: It was really important just trying to, there was a group of students that did come from my primary school as well but it was really just as important to build that friendship network, so I had a few students that I knew already, I reconnected with old friends as well so I had friends from my previous primary school then going to a different primary school for 2 years to be part of an OC class, which I made as well but didn’t go to because I wanted to stay with most of my friends and my younger siblings It was easier on my mum instead of having to take us to 2 different places, so another challenge I found was that the school group was based on your locality, so that wherever you geographically lived If you are in the class with kids from a similar area then you would hopefully be transporting to and from school with that same group. Initially I was disappointed that the kids that I was in a class with weren’t a lot of my friends from primary school because I’d recently moved, so there were all these kids " I don't know any of you guys" but we were all catching the bus to school every day and suddenly that helped expand my social network. So I think by the end of term one you were like “Ok, I’m not the smartest kid here anymore”, you found your place because you had this strong social connection which was really good.

A: That’s great, so have you kept in touch with any of your friends from high school?

R: Not really, no. I'm still on Facebook, don’t really use it that much, more professionally just to Network with other teachers and I used it to keep up with family who are overseas but I’ve got a few Facebook" friends" that are still like people you went to high school with. There was one particular guy that I probably stayed in touch with for the longest but now I don't think we've spoken properly for about 3 or 4 years. It's one of these things where as a PE teacher, when you talk about relationships a lot in PDHPE that you say, your relationships will evolve and change and you’ll naturally just drift apart from people. That's quite normal and when you get to adulthood it becomes a thing where you really whittle down your friendship group to a core group of people who stick with you for life, and I have those people. Unfortunately, it's just not anyone from high school anymore…

A: People from Uni, and work?

R: Yes, Uni and work are the other major ones and also hobbies and interests outside of school so a few people that, when I left school, I got into a particular sport, AFL, umpiring. That's where I developed a good network of friends. Sometimes not that you have a falling out with anyone it's just that naturally life takes you in different ways.

A: So while you were at school was there a particularly memorable moment in your school life that shaped you?

R: There were quite a lot of fond memories that still stick with you to today. I suppose when I think about what shaped me was, well, who am I now? what am I doing? Obviously I'm still in schools, as a teacher, so there's certain things that shaped me along the way. Obviously I’m a PE teacher so naturally reflecting, what was my time like at school and particularly PE, there was, for me personally, not one key defining moment, but certain fond memories I have particularly within sport and PE so, again, trying to find my identity. Term 1, I signed up for grade cricket and turns out it's an open team and I never played cricket, just played, hitting a ball round in the schoolyard and the Sports Coordinator at the time, she still does some casual work around here, Mrs McNally, she was my Sports Coordinator when I was here and she said "I’ll let you have a try but there will be some 17 year olds bowling really fast, and you might struggle” and sure enough I was scared trying to bat and I said “I want nothing to do with this” so I went back to her and I said “I just don't know what to do when I can't really afford any of the rec sports, but I love playing for team sports” and she's like “Well, why not volleyball?”

So I got into volleyball, loved it to pieces and the strong bond that I continue to have with Mrs McNally all throughout my 6 years here probably just continually shaped me along the way. She put a lot of faith in me and really supported me with my endeavours and there were times where my mom was like “I love that you’ve been doing all this grade sport, but we've been struggling to find the money to pay for buses” because I came from a poor background. Mrs McNally was really good about helping me and because I was representing the school, and she thought, no, this is really important to this person's development of character. So I think that was really important and something that really reinforced that I was fortunate enough to win the Junior Sportsman of the Year Award in 2001. So that was probably a fond memory and presentation evening was in the Joan Sutherland. I can't remember how I did this or what I did but I injured myself somehow and to accept the award I came hobbling across the stage on crutches and I just got this amazing reaction from everyone in the crowd, cheering as if I've been putting my body on the line for 4 years. That was particularly a big thing, in terms of shaping me, also leads into where I am today and sort of, where I was when it came to year 11 subject selection choices. One of the choices I picked was PDHPE and my mom came to the school and spoke to the head teacher back then, Mr. Marshall and said…

Us: *confused sounds*

R: You may not know him, I’m thinking he retired 2009? But my mum asked, how’s this going to be any use for him and she walked away from that meeting really confident that it was a good choice for me because he talked about how passionate I was about the subject and that would drive my motivation to succeed, and and that it could open up all these career pathways for me. She really oozed that confidence, and I think something else that shaped me was the fact that:

1. I had such supportive teachers, and

2. I have really supportive parents, in particular mum who, even though she might have had doubts about where this would take me instead of maybe other subject areas she went “No, I’m going to back my child even though I don't know where this is gonna take him right now”.

A: It's pretty cool of her to do that for you, but I want to ask, how did the choices you made in high school end up influencing you in Uni and life? How did it end up helping overall?

R: So there were my subject choices - I had English Advanced, Maths Advanced, Extension One Maths, Physics, PDHPE, and I had 1 extra. I took up to 12 instead of 13 and back then the school offered SLR which is how the school is a bit different now compared to nearly 20 years ago, that's Sport, Lifestyle, Recreation and it’s 1 unit but it’s a category B course so it doesn’t go towards your ATAR. Part of how the school’s changed now is that we don’t offer it anymore... so I had that, my other choice was initially Chemistry and I spent 2 weeks in Chemistry and my teacher happened to be the Head Teacher and I struggled with the basics and I came up to her one day and I said “I’m struggling with this, that’s not a good sign”, she's going “Nope” and I go, “can I switch to Biology?” She said “absolutely” and off I went and actually really enjoyed Biology because there was a nice crossover between that and PE. I really picked those subjects based on the things I was interested in, you know, and that's always been what I’ve tried to encourage students to do in the future based on my experience: pick things you are good at and enjoy because if you are going to succeed it depends on intrinsic motivation which we teach in PE and it comes from within. If you are relying on external motivators, so parents and teachers, other people, offers of rewards or things like that, eventually that's going to get stale. If something really means something to you, you’ll chase it with everything you've got and that's why I picked those subjects, because I knew I would work hard in them and that I wanted to do well. Picking those subjects I didn’t know what I wanted to do at University, did not know what I wanted to do as a career and so when it came to the end of year 12 and we’re trying to think about University preferences, I was like “Oh, I love sport and I love the sport industry and there’s so many options but I still don't know what.” So, I eventually managed to say I want to do Exercise Science or something like that and Sydney University, that is my number one preference, UNSW is number 2 and things like that. The problem was the ATAR requirement was really high because people use that as a backup if they miss out on Physio and so you get all these people getting into Exercise Science because their subjects are the same in the first year of Uni, They get really good credit and then transfer into Physiotherapy so I was never going to get into one of those units because my ATAR was not quite high enough, so I still got into the course I was interested in Australian Catholic University and really enjoyed that after 3 years and there were particular things I really like about their course where I could've kept going with it and gone into the field of the sports industry. My experiences as a student particularly some of the great teachers I had in PE made me just keep going “I feel like they've done so much for me and I want to do the same for somebody else”.

A: Mrs McNally was really carrying that decision.

R: She was one of them, and Mr. Newell, who’s still here, I actually had 2 teachers for year 11 and 12, he was one of them and he actually took over as my group's Year Adviser, when I was in year 10 so there's this bond as well. All of my teachers I just had such fond memories, and I went “I want to offer that to somebody else” so I stuck around the University and did my Graduate Diploma in Education and went “Ok, well I’ll give teaching a go and if it's something I enjoy then I’ll stick with it, if not I’ll go back to my original bachelor degree and maybe look at something in sport” What are we near? It's been about my 13th year as a teacher? So you know, I’ve stuck with it!

A: That’s a noble motivation…

R: I think I trusted my gut and what really interested me, but don’t get me wrong, I think sometimes it's ok to have options and to not feel like you're set on one particular path because if something happens on that journey, you feel like you’re lost, whereas if you have other paths to take you can navigate around and find the right area where you want to be.

A: Some good advice for the students

R: Yes, I hope so.

A: You mentioned it was your 13th year? How has it changed at Penrith since you’ve been a student?

R: Yes, 13 years of teaching and 4 years of university, its been 17 or 18 years since I have been here myself, from 2003 now it's nearly 2021. So there's a lot of things that are the same like obviously the buildings have been here for 50, 60, 70 years roughly so structurally it's all pretty similar. When I first got back here I went “It’s still a big plot of land compared to previous schools I've been at but suddenly everything seems a lot smaller...” and I finished growing when I was about 16 so I was like “No, I was a fully grown human by the time I left here, but everything suddenly seems a little smaller”. It is a bit different just the vibe. There’s so many things that I remember that happened that are still here today. The mural on the brick wall from the Hall that's facing towards the canteen, that was painted when I was here.

A: Woah, I heard that was from Duke of Ed, when they sit on the boulder.

R: Yes! So the people there, that was the uniform that I used to wear, that sort of lemon yellow. In fact I was here when the uniform changed to the blue and because we had a new principal coming in and the colours weren't popular. My group was the group that buried the time capsule in the IA lawn, so that was when I was in year 9 in 2000.

A: They haven't dug that up?

R: No, they said they’d dig it up in 50 years, and I wouldn’t have a clue what's in there, probably a floppy disk, you know the save icon on your computers. I’m fascinated to find out. There’s still some of the teachers here, things like the cafeteria that is completely different, the table tennis tables, Oh! We used to play table tennis under the cafeteria there, it just used to be a table and we had these trestles and you just put the table on top of the trestles, so quick to set up and really good. Some things that have been done I think fairly recently around the school in terms of upgrading the external environment and the gardening and the oval now looks so much better compared to the dirt it used to be. I know Mr. Long's organised irrigation systems being put in. The basketball courts outside used to be concrete, cracking, weeds all through them, The weight room was just a store for their PE equipment so the shipping containers are new, the cricket nets and surfaces, and certain things.

A: So, it seems like a lot has changed…

R: Yes so we talked about it earlier, probably one of the biggest things changed is the strong academic focus now, it was a selective school when I was here and probably the entry scores required were lower, don't know what they were. We used to have all these other courses that were run including category B courses, not everyone went to University. So it was still in that transition from when it became a selective school in the late eighties, it was a long transition to where it is now.

So while you were in school did you ever think of coming back and teaching or was that just after school?

R: Coming back to teach here was never a particular goal of mine. When I got into teaching in my 1st term I was just a casual teacher, I met my now wife at University, she's a PE teacher as well, and we both had plans to save up a bit of money and then go and move to London and teach in London, so then we could travel around Europe because its cheaper, and everything's so much closer to other countries. Then the department rang me up and offered me a permanent job so instead of applying for anything, they said “We want to offer you a job at Granville Boys High School” and I went “Oh that puts a wrench in everything” and so I said “yes, it would be silly not to get a permanent job” so I did. Then I was looking at getting promotions and moving to a different school, they moved me to the Pond's High School before coming here for 5 years.

A: With Mr. Coburn?

R: Oh, we literally were like sliding doors. So he was here up to the end of last year and there were so many things that were quite similar about our lives. I work here, I actually live near Penrith and he lived in the Ponds and the reason why he was trying to get a job closer to home was similar to me, because we both already had a child and my wife and I just had twins a bit over a year ago and his wife just had twins also last year. So, yes, that is really funny how we've had this sliding doors moment where our lives really sort of mirrored each other.

A: Did you see him here?

R: Yes. We knew each other for a term, we developed this really close bond and it was really cool for me to say “Hey, go and meet all these people in the school, they’re really great and you have so much in common with them” because he's a mad Liverpool supporter. That was really good and I actually touched bases with him just a week ago and he had settled in really well which was great. Some students have come from the Ponds and are here as well, there are a couple of guys and a girl, they probably don't want to be mentioned. It's funny, kids come up to me and go “wait weren’t you at the Ponds?” In terms of coming back it was never really a goal and I’d known some teachers that had gone from school to Uni and straight back to the old school…However, I was still a Relieving Head Teacher not permanent at the Ponds, so I was looking to get a promotion, and I didn't want to just go for any job. I wanted to try to find something closer to home because it would be a benefit to my family.

When this job came up I was very excited because this is the next step in my journey so in the end this is definitely the right choice.

A: So have you been enjoying coming back?

R: Overall I think I've still had a positive response because everyone has been so lovely, students and teachers so supportive so friendly, welcoming, arms open, and it’s helped build that confidence in myself as well to really establish myself and go “Why am I here? Because I want to try to make it a better working environment for the people in my faculty but also make it a really enjoyable experience for the students.”

A: Then, have you got any plans of going to London in the future?

R: Right now, not really, so the whole purpose of that would have been to make travel easy, and cheaper because you’re not travelling as far so flights are a lot cheaper while leaving Australia costs a fair bit of money… A lot of our kids here would know about that, because they would visit their families in their countries of birth, and that's been a common trend in my last few schools as well. But no, my wife and I were fortunate enough to actually do a fair bit of travelling anyway but now, we wanted to buy a house and have children so, no, we have slowed down a great deal on things we want to do from a travelling perspective. We still want to continue to travel when things get better in terms of COVID but now things will be more family related so like little trips to Disneyland…

(The last section was omitted as the recording ended, but Mr Rutherford has visited a frightening amount of Disneylands. I am jealous.)

The servicemen and woman shown are a few whose names have been recognised or are on the list to be updated.

If you are interested please email the school on: penrith-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Attention Cathie in the library for further details

NOTE: the school was not established until 1950 so bear this in mind

In addition, if the Alumni listed below could also reach out to update some details:

Harry Grimes

Jason Peterson

Alan Jones(Somalia)

Stephen Thompson

Barrie/Barry Brown

Brian Carney

Alan Ormerod

David Stevens

John Glennon

Bill Wheeler

Frederick Eddington Messer attended the Penrith Superior Public School, the then High School of Penrith, and was the first reported boy from Penrith to fall at Gallipoli in1915.

My Daughter Alexandra Williams, PHS 2010 to 2016, was invited by the school to be guest speaker at the Penrith High School's 2015 ANZAC Day Service for the 100th Gallipoli Anniversary.

Courtesy of Trevor Williams Captain '78

We are in the process of updating the Honour Boards in the hall.

We would like to confirm the Duxes:

1.from the 50s

2. 1966

3. 1989

In Addition, we are also trying to find the Junior Sportsman and Junior Sportswoman of the year for;

1987

1990

1991

1992

1993

If you can help please email the school on:

penrith-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Attention Cathie in the library.

Thanking you

Email: penrith-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au
Website: http://penrith-h.schools.nsw.gov.au
Location: 158-240 High Street, Penrith NSW, Australia
Phone: 02 4721 0529
Facebook: facebook.com/penrithselectivehighschool