Parkes Phoenix Editor

The news that our school captain, Oliver Carlisle had tragically passed away on Saturday morning came with great sadness to the Forbes High school community.

Olly was well-known and well-liked by students, staff and parents. He was a charismatic character who had a great sense of humour and always enjoyed a chat, a laugh, a joke and a game of chess. Olly will be remembered for his contribution as a respected leader of our school both as captain this year
and as an active member of the Student Representative Council throughout his school years. His commitment will be remembered as will his input into a variety of projects at our school.

Olly was a great role model and always supportive of younger students. His active involvement in sports not only focussed on his strengths of long distance running and athletics, but spread to other team sports in which he was always happy to contribute to help Forbes High put on the best possible showing in knockout competitions.

In his final months preparing for the Higher School Certificate, Olly had a particular passion and skills in Design and Technology and was completing a multi-functional entertainment table as his major assessment project.

The entire Forbes High community joins us in extending our deepest sympathy and love to Olly’s family.

Five students of the Forbes High School Support Unit will have a fantastic experience later this year when they become part of the cast for the 2016 Schools Spectacular. Following the success of previous students, Support Unit teacher Lauren Jordan submitted an audition video. She was delighted when they were notified of the success, but not nearly as excited as the five aspiring dancers.

The dancers will now attend rehearsals in preparation for a week long excursion to Sydney where they will rehearse with their specific dance ensemble prior to two matinee and two evening performances at the Qudos Bank Arena at Sydney Olympic Park on Friday, 25th and Saturday, 26th November.

The Schools Spectacular is an outstanding showcase of talent in NSW public schools. The show is unparalleled in the world with a 2,700 strong choir, 2,300 diverse dancers, an 80-piece symphony orchestra, a world-class stage band and a huge number of outstanding solo performers.

This iconic cultural event engages and showcases students of varying ages,
cultures, skills and socioeconomic backgrounds from metropolitan, rural and remote regions of NSW. The Forbes and District Lions Club has shown their support for the Support Unit’s success with a donation of $1, 000 to assist with the costs of accommodation, travel, food and costumes.

Head Teacher, Debra Slack-Smith, recently attended the Lions Club dinner to accept this generous donation on behalf of the class.

White Ribbon ‘Boys Night In’
Forbes High School is a White Ribbon School and is continually advocating and raising awareness for the development of positive relationships and breaking the devastating cycle of domestic violence.

The second annual ‘Boys Night In’ takes place tonight. Male students and another significant males in their lives are invited to participate in activities at the school from 3.30 to 6.30pm with the aim to build capacity to support being a positive male role model. Forbes High is also in partnership with Forbes Domestic Violence and other organisations showcasing ‘Iceberg’, Kirrily
Dear’s documentary of her ultra-marathon run to raise awareness of domestic violence.

The screening will be at Town Hall from 7.00pm tonight.

“At the Forbes Preschool we celebrate Education Week every day.” According to Amy Shine, Director of the Preschool, “everything we do is play to learn”. The move to the Preschool’s new $1.3 million premises has gone well, and after a term in the beautiful, spacious and light rooms “Everyone is really settled and happy.

Best of all, the kids are really happy here.” With the addition of another room recently, around 150 children come and go over a week. As well as working with a speech therapist, an occupational therapist has also started working with staff and children recently.

An added bonus of the new premises is the community room that is used regularly by many community groups. “It is lovely to see the Preschool support the wider community with lots of different people coming here,” said Amy.