SEPTEMBER 2022
GIRRA
GAZETTE
GIRRAWEEN HIGH SCHOOL
GIRRAWEEN NEWSLETTER
By students, for students
NOTE: Welcome back to the Girra
Monthly, or currently, the Girra
Gazette. Excuse our temporary
absence (rebranding takes time!).
Aspire - Respect - Unite
GIRRA GAZETTE
CONTENTS
Welcome to Girra Gazette 1
Book Week 3
Commerce Stalls 6
Work Experience 8
Mental Health Week 11
Roe V. Wade 14
Wear It Purple Day 16
Mindfulness 17
Creative Challenge 18
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 02
GIRRA GAZETTE
BOOK WEEK
In Week 6 of Term 3, Girraween High School celebrated its first ever Book Week, led by our inspiring
teacher librarian, Ms Arnold. With the help of other teachers, Ms Arnold put together a week that some
could say, rivalled spirit week in Term 2. The events of each day all had a competitive element to them
which was perfect for our school. Murder Mystery Monday, was everyone’s dream school-wide game of
'Cluedo', 'Bookface Tuesday' made us feel one step closer to living in a book, 'Whaddya Know Wednesday'
was a trivia event (so of course Girra could not resist participating), 'Throwrug Thursday' meant hot
chocolate free of charge and 'Transfiguration Friday' was our chance to finally become our favourite
characters. The response from the school was overwhelmingly positive and on behalf of the Girra Gazette
we’d like to thank Ms Arnold for planning such a wonderful week and we can’t wait for next year!
If you would like more information on the Children’s Book Council of Australia and their initiatives, head to
https://cbca.org.au/.
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 03
GIRRA GAZETTE
Interview:
with a winner, Dhishana
If you had to pick a favourite event this Book Week, what would you pick and why?
Hands down Transfiguration Friday. I love books and I love dressing up and it was so fun to be
able to get decked out in costume and see everyone else's costumes and characters.
Dhishana, I have it in good confidence that you and your friends won the group
costume category. As the people from…?
Cruel Prince.
And who were you dressed as?
So I was Jude Duarte, Sienna was Cardan (my love interest), Gurnoor was Taryn, Prajukta was
the Ghost and Kavisha was the Bomb.
Is there any part of Jude Duarte that you particularly admire?
God, yeah. She’s such a powerful female character, and I love that I got to embody her and
dress up as her. I love her outfits and costumes and to finally get to dress up as her was really
fun.
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 04
GIRRA GAZETTE
Interview:
Ms arnold
Interviewer (Kshiti): Hello Ms Arnold!
Ms Arnold: *Waves enthusiastically*
You are the reason Girra has had its first ever Book Week, how does
that make you feel?
I’m super happy to have the whole school get behind Book Week
celebrations. Obviously it’s my job to be a champion of literacy as a
teacher librarian, but I know not everyone is as insane as I am so it’s
really exciting to see people take part in all the activities, whether it be
Throwrug Thursday or Whaddya Know Wednesday or Murder Mystery
Monday. It makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something but also like
this school cares about literacy.
Okay, go on, what was your favourite event?
Actually I think I’m going to for an outlier here
and say it was the guessing competition that
Ms Marchant and I ran every day which was a
really last minute thing, but a lot of people
were really passionate about the competition.
I was opening up my email to see people’s
guesses at 6:15am which was insane because
the clue went up on Sentral at 6 am and I had
a whole bunch of complaints from students
on the day that it glitched and didn’t put up
my clue.
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 05
GIRRA GAZETTE
Interview:
Ms arnold
On a more serious note, What does the CBCA (Children’s Book
Council of Australia) mean to you and what do you think it
achieves?
I think in all aspects of my job, representation matters and I hope people
can see that from the display I put up. I know, as a teacher librarian, that
Australian books don't get as much promotion as books published in the
US or UK and I think it's really important for students to be exposed to
books with students of an Australian voice represented. We can see the
iconic language, landmarks and our slang and stresses unique to
Australia. That’s why the CBCA is so important to me, because of
representation.
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 06
GIRRA GAZETTE
COMMERCE STALLS
In Week 5, Year 9 elective commerce students were able to run food stalls in 2022, an
event that didn't run in the past two years due to Covid-19. The stalls were unanimously
a success, with the Year 9 students putting a lot of effort into marketing their stalls,
making the finest food products and operating on the day as well as encountering
teachable moments, such as lack of storage space, crowd control and cooking meat a bit
too late. The rest of Girra also got involved, supporting their favourite stalls both online
and by buying their products. All rent paid by the commerce stall owners went to helping
efforts to help affected families cope with the floods. Thank you to all the commerce
students and teachers who made August 16th possible.
If you’ve forgotten them, our wonderful stalls were:
Nanny Plum’s Kitchen
Drake’s Cakes
Three and a Half Asians
Off With Your Stress
Friesty
Sausage Hub
Namaste Tokyo
Pancrepe
The Cookie Zone
Tasty Pastries
Brownie and Spider Paradise
Damm’s Pizzeria
Tealicious
Frosty Dream
Food Topia
Turban’s Takeout
Waffle Daddy
Nacho Shaq
Charlie’s Chocolate Bar
Taste of Saigon
We hope to see just as many great stalls next year!
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 06
GIRRA GAZETTE
Interview:
sTALL OWNERS
Your stall definitely got a lot of recognition on
the day so can we hear the name again?
Aditi: Our stall was “Nanny Plum’s Kitchen, selling
butter chicken”.
I’m curious, what inspired the name?
Zenia: Sienna (their friend and fellow group member)
Aditi: Yeah, Sienna. In all seriousness, we thought since it's based off of Ben and
Holly’s little kingdom, it would adhere to younger audiences really well. What was
surprising was that apparently, on the day, we got more customers from the older
grades. That was probably all thanks to our excellent quality butter chicken.
For future students that take commerce, do
you have anything to say to them?
Aditi: For future students, definitely take
commerce, the stalls are so much fun and
they teach you a lot about marketing and
organisation. I’d say be careful about what
product you choose. Assess your market,
make sure to choose a product that not many
people are selling so that you have less
competition.
Zenia: I’d also say, if you’re cooking food, don’t
cook it on the day, because you won’t have
enough time. Especially if it’s meat because
you can risk undercooking it.
Interviewer (Kshiti): Yeah, please, future
commerce students, don’t give us
salmonella!
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 07
GIRRA GAZETTE
WORK EXPERIENCE
In Week 4 this term, Year 10 took part in work experience which is a
program in which Year 10 Girraween students apply to workplaces and
roles that are relevant to what they are thinking about pursuing in the
future. The aim is to get a feel of what being a part of the workforce
essentially encompasses as well as to learn the skills helpful for their
possible occupations, for example, organisation, time management and
communication. Work Experience is formally known by the Department of
Education NSW as SBATS (school-based apprenticeships and traineeships)
and is available to all Year 10, 11 and 12 students.
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 08
GIRRA GAZETTE
Interview:
yEAR TEN STUDENTS
You’re in Year 10 and recently, you did work experience. Could you give
us a brief summary of what that is and what that entails?
Student 1: Work Experience is basically a week where we get to have a kind
of “preview” of what it's like in the actual workforce. I went to A.I.E which is a
gaming company course of sorts and for the whole week, we made a game
while learning about game design and different parts of game development.
Student 2: For work experience, I went to Girra Public. I kind of just hung
around classes and helped the kids. It was surprisingly really fun.
What sort of skills do you think Work Experience has taught you for the
future?
Student 2: I wouldn’t exactly pinpoint any skills, but it definitely helped me
solidify what I want to do in the future, which I find very helpful. It really
helps you narrow down why you want to do what you want to do or makes
you realise that a certain career is not how you expected it to be so it
definitely aided in my decision making process.
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 09
GIRRA GAZETTE
Interview:
yEAR TEN STUDENTS
For future students doing Work Experience, what’s some advice you
would give to them?
Student 2: I’d say take it seriously.
Student 1: I agree, but also have fun because there are so many aspects
of it that you don’t get at school. For example, I had to travel to the city
every morning on public transport, which is very different from my usual
commute because normally I just have a 5-minute walk here (school).
Work Experience definitely teaches you a lot of practical skills even if it's
not from the work itself.
Student 2: I would also say that work where you know you want to work
and apply ahead of time because you definitely will get rejected a bunch
of times, some people won’t respond at all, so definitely ring them up and
constantly chase up your applications. The wording is also very very
important when you apply so be very careful about how you word your
applications.
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 09
GIRRA GAZETTE
MENTAL
HEALTH WEEK
Last term Miss Wong, Ms Gerges, the SRC and the volunteering committee,
especially the well-being and community sectors, worked extremely hard to
put together a week full of activities that encouraged well-being and
highlighted the importance of checking up on each other and having tough
conversations as well as practising mindfulness. Some highlights of the
week included stress ball making in the library and the games held on the
top courts for R U OK day. The Girra Gazette would like to thank the
teachers and everyone else involved in the set-up for this week for all their
effort and for taking the time to show us you care about our mental health
and we should too. Below are some interviews taken during the week in the
lead-up to R U OK day.
For more information on R U OK visit: https://www.ruok.org.au/
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 11
GIRRA GAZETTE
Interview:
SCHOOL STUDENT
(Tanishka)
What do you think are some ways we can work on our Mental Health in
your opinion?
Talking to people, (a therapist), if that feels accessible to you. Exercising can
also be a good way to practice mental health for some people, but it definitely
relies on personal preference.
Do you remember R U OK Day in Year 7 and 8 and what did you enjoy
about that, why do you think it’s important?
I definitely remember, I think it’s really important because it opens up the
conversation about mental health and is a step towards taking it a lot more
seriously. I think it was particularly well done last year, despite being on
lockdown, because they were able to get the whole school community involved
despite us being on lockdown and it was great to see everyone band together.
I’m looking forward to that same kind of enthusiasm this year.
Interviewer (Kshiti): Thanks so much Tanishka,
Tanishka: You’re welcome (rice falls from her stress ball) Oh no, the rice fell
out!
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 12
GIRRA GAZETTE
Interview:
MS WONG
Miss Wong, you are who’s been in charge of the preparation of
Mental Health Week and R U OK day, so could you give us an insight
into what that’s been like and what this week is all about?
Yeah, of course, I’m working with Ms Gerges, the SRC and the volunteering
committee and I am making sure this week is dedicated to the well-being of
students as well as other members of the school community. Ms Gerges
has arranged some really interactive and engaging activities focused on
mental health, that allow you guys to take a bit of break from the pressures
of school and these will run all throughout the week. Then, Thursday is the
day we’ll have some serious conversations about well-being and “are you
okay?”. Having that conversation is really important because we all need to
talk to each other, but more importantly, it’s about understanding where we
take the conversation if the answer is “no I’m not okay.” and how do we
provide support or react when we get that response or whom to talk to if
you are feeling that way. But this week we also want to have a little fun, and
boost your connections with people from the school or people from other
grades, which is why we’ll be running some games in the top courts and
hopefully we’ll all come together to celebrate our well-being!”
More personally, what does mental health mean to you, in relation
to yourself and the school community?
Mental Health is knowing your boundaries and knowing that it’s okay to be
unapologetically you, which personally I’m still learning but I think that’s why
this week is so important because we can all come together and support
each other and remind each other that everyone is valid and cared for.
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 13
GIRRA GAZETTE
ROE V. WADE
The United States of America, ruled abortion a constitutional right in 1973, following
the Roe vs Wade case in which Norma McCorvey, who went under the pseudonym
“Jane Roe” petitioned and sued for her right to have an abortion. The case was made
against the Dallas County District Attorney, Henry Wade, and made the argument
that the current laws in the state were a violation of privacy and vague, hence going
against the aspects and freedom referenced so often in the US Constitution.
Nearly 50 years later, the US Supreme Court overturned this decision, handing the
choice of whether abortion should be legal or not back to the state, with five voting
against Roe and three voting to keep the law intact, effectively banning or restricting
legal abortion in 26 of the 50 states, that were primarily right or conservative
leaning. Many have received this decision with a lot of grief, mourning their loss of
choice and right to exercise their bodily autonomy, because if they do not live in a
state that supports their wish for an abortion, they will be forced to come to term
against their will.
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 14
GIRRA GAZETTE
ROE V. WADE
Some restrictions present include:
All people have the right to abortion but only in the first trimester.
States have a right to regulate but not ban abortions after the second trimester.
States are allowed to ban people after the third trimester in relation to the foetus’s chance of life
outside the womb increasing.
There is an exception if the pregnancy causes a direct risk to life.
Those on the pro-life side argue that abortion is inhumane and that a developing foetus should have
the same right to life as every other person, bringing up options such as the American foster care
system, while those leaning towards pro-choice argue that it should be the pregnant person’s choice
what they do with their body and taking away the right to abortion is fundamentally taking away their
freedom, using the slogan “My Body, My Choice” and wearing green as the main colour for the
movement, adopting the traditions of the abortion rights movements of Argentina. Recent
developments on the Australian front, such as a member of parliament from Adelaide playing a
major role in what was reported to be a pro-life agenda event, show that there may be implications
for countries apart from America. We at the Girra Gazette, cannot give you a political opinion
however we do urge you to educate yourself, on the matter, using reliable sources and government
news websites as well as thinking about the effects that this could have on Australians.
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 15
GIRRA GAZETTE
WEAR IT PURPLE DAY
Last term, Girraween celebrated
its first ever Wear It Purple Day,
with Ms Arnold being on the
forefront of the organisation,
handing out bracelets and
adorning students' faces with
purple glitter, as well as putting
up a display of queer books, as
an expression of allyship and
support for the LGBTQIA+
community and compassion for
the struggles they have faced.
While currently, it is often a day
of celebration among those in
the queer community as well as
allies, it is also to be noted as a
day of commemoration, as it
originally started in 2010 as a
response to all the anti-
LGBTQIA+ hate reported on the
news, targeted towards
teenagers in Australian schools.
Wear It Purple Day is known to
be championed by 'minus-18'
and wearitpurple.org.
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 16
GIRRA GAZETTE
TO IMPROVE
S
MENTAL
EP Y
OU
5S
R
HEALTH
Mental health refers to cognitive, behavioural, and emotional well-being. It is all
about how people think, feel, and behave. People sometimes use the term “mental
health” to mean the absence of a mental disorder. Mental health can affect daily
living, relationships, and physical health. So it is important to look after it.
BREATHING EXERCISES
Deep breathing is one of the best ways to lower
stress in the body. This is because when you breathe
deeply, it sends a message to your brain to calm
down and relax. The brain then sends this message to
your body.
SCRAPBOOKING
Writing down how you feel or just taking a few minutes
to distract yourself can be really helpful. Sometimes
all you really need is an escape from reality, to be
able to calm down, and doodleing or journalling can be a
very therapeutic activity.
CREATE OR LISTEN TO MUSIC
Because of its rhythmic and repetitive aspects,
music engages the neocortex of our brain, which
calms us and reduces impulsivity. We often use music
to match or alter our mood. It is a way to express
our emotions and feelings.
PICK UP A NEW HOBBY
Spending time on an activity that you enjoy can improve your
mental health and wellbeing. Research shows that people with
hobbies are less likely to suffer from stress, low mood, and
depression. Activities that get you out and about can make you
feel happier and more relaxed.
LOOK AFTER YOUR BODY
The mind-body connection is real. This means that taking
care of your physical health can help improve your mental
health. Making simple changes to lifestyle habits — such
as physical activity, diet, and sleep — can go a long way
toward boosting how you feel inside and out.
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 17
GIRRA GAZETTE
CREATIVE CHALLENGE
A classic hero vs villain arc but this time
instead of the villain slowly becoming
good, the hero slowly gets more and
more corrupted.
Setting Suggestion: A modern world,
but with magic.
Participate and win to get 2 free drinks at Girra cafe!
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 18
GIRRA GAZETTE
Introducing the candidates for the new newsletter mascot!
Greg the gorilla, Gambino the Gecko, Gary the Goldfish,
Gertrude the Gazelle, Gael the Gopher Snake and Geralde the
Giraffe (left to right).
Stay tuned for more on them!
OCTOBER 2022 PAGE | 18
*doodle dump pg,
remove when publishing*
