Pennant Hills High School
Encyclopedia
Pennant Hills High School is a public, comprehensive, co-educational, high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 situated in the northern suburb of Pennant Hills
Pennant Hills, New South Wales
Pennant Hills is a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Pennant Hills is located 25 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of Hornsby Shire...

 in Sydney, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, about 15–20 minutes to walk from Pennant Hills railway station.
Established in 1966, the school had a student population of 1,270 students as of 2004, and has generally maintained these student numbers. The street address is Boundary Road, but all access is via Laurence Street. In 2007, Pennant Hills High School ranked 5th in Higher School Certificate results in the Hornsby region.

Educational structure

Pennant Hills High School offers many subjects, with the faculties including Social Sciences, Science, Agriculture, English, Music, Christian Education, History, Maths, Visual Arts, Industrial Arts or TAS, Languages and Physical Education. PHHS also contains a Special Education
Special education
Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...

system, helping physically and intellectually challenged students.

Prefects

Pennant Hills High School has a prefects program for students in Year 11 and 12. The prefects offer community service through hosting a variety of events and help teachers with uniform duties as well as an array of other tasks.

Physical buildings and grounds

Pennant Hills High School contains a multi-purpose centre (Robert Stacey Hall), new Design and Technology/Visual Arts buildings, the Alfred Gray Memorial Library, and many specialty rooms including science labs, cooking and computer rooms. It also has two fields for sports such as football, rugby and cricket. An agricultural plot is located at the rear of the school, housing crops, sheep, chickens and other livestock.

The school's buildings were constructed according to the hilly terrain of the area, so that there are no more than two levels at any single point. PHHS has 4 levels, and room numbers are determined by which level it is in: Level 1 is primarily Social Sciences (Business Studies, Geography etc.), but also has Portable Rooms, which were used while the school was recovering from the fire, in 2001. Level 2 has Language, Agriculture, Science, Cooking, and Drama, while Level 3 (located at the Laurence Street level) is where the main quad of the school is located, along with the library and reception. It too, has Science rooms, as well as math, history, and Wood/Metal/Plastic Technology Rooms. Level 4 is primarily English, History, Maths and Visual Arts classrooms. The Industrial and Visual Arts building (completed in 2005) has two main entry points, from the Main Quad (in Level 3) and through a pedestrian bridge on Level 4.

The school suffered from a fire on 11 June 2001, destroying the school administration building, Industrial Arts Block, and the English, History, Mathematics and Visual Arts staffrooms.

As is commonly the case with such school fires, many student works (notably Visual and Industrial arts HSC projects) were destroyed, causing considerable distress among affected students. Also as a result of this fire, many portable classrooms were set up for a number of years, near the main oval and where the COLA (Covered Outdoor Learning Area) is now situated. It is estimated that for at least 3 years there could have been up to 20-25 portables (this has not been confirmed). What we do know is that in 2005, the number of portables decreased, down to eight. In 2006, after the completion of the COLA and the new TAS/VA block, four of these were removed. Now (as of April 2009) these four remain. Three of these are used by English mainly. The other one is used for Special Education, as it has wheelchair access. Operation Phoenix Rising oversaw the completion of the rebuilding effort to be completed in 2012.

The school now has had an elevator installed between levels 2 and 4 (for use by disabled or injured students), and a new Design and Technology and Visual Arts building. In 2005, a new Covered Outdoor Learning Area (COLA) was constructed.

Sporting

Pennant Hills High School has a rich tradition of sporting culture. The school has enjoyed 18 years consecutive years of being crowned Champion School at Zone Cross Country and 17 consecutive years of being crowned Champion School in Zone Athletics. The school has 4 sporting houses within the school. These houses are Greenway, Yarrara, Bellamy and Redgum. Named for streets around the school.

Notable alumnae

William Rawlinson AM (class of 1976) - Awarded Member of the Order of Australia 2011.

External links

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