High Notes, Vol 16 No 15, May 22 2015
High Talent
Congratulations to Nigel Zhang (Year 10) on his performance in
gaining 2nd place in the NSW Weightlifting Championships, U17 Division. As a 15 year old
competitor it was a great effort by him. Congratulations to our MUNA team (Ashish Nagesh and
William Sexton) who were runners up
Student Leave of Absence
Parents are reminded that DEC policy is that
students ought not to be granted leave of absence during term time unless for sporting or
co-curricular representation. Urgent family circumstances are considered also. Families are asked
not to plan family holidays during the school term. For any extended ‘Leave of
Absence’, parents must download the appropriate form from the parent portal, fill in the
details and submit the form digitally or otherwise, at least four weeks before the commencement
date of the leave. It is my intention to enforce the policy more strictly in term 3. Automatic
approval of leave of absence applications can no longer be expected. Students who take leave
anyway, without approval of the Principal, will have their student attendance record noted as
‘unexplained absence’.
Reports update
Year 12 students should all have their reports. Any
reports uncollected as of Friday, May 22, will be held. I will proceed to take boys out of class
from Monday, May 25 and then contact their parents about any outstanding items on their Clearance
Forms. Year 9 boys have been issued their reports. Any uncollected reports as of Friday, May 29
will be held. I will proceed to take boys out of class as from Monday, June 1 and then contact
their parents about any items on their Clearance Forms.
Co-curricular activities – season, semester or term payments
Parents
have been invoiced for activities undertaken by their sons in term 1. These co-payments should be
made promptly so that the minimum number of Clearance Forms needs to be issued prior to
the half-yearly reporting cycle. The DEC has imposed the 17.8.% on-costs charge to all billable
codes. This has the effect of adding nearly 18% to the costs of every coach employed by the
School. We always try to keep our co-payments down to the bare minimum to cover the costs of
coaching but this impost by DEC will has made the cost of delivering sport significantly higher.
Some co-payments, such as for football, have been increased substantially in order for us to
deliver quality coaching at all levels of sports participation.
Families are reminded that the Sports Levy is fully allocated to the
payment of MICs to administer sport. The levy raises c $90,000 but the cost to the
school budget to provide supervision, duty of care, first aid support, administrative monitoring,
results gathering and publicising, and organising teams and venues, is $168,000 and
growing. Co-payments are levied solely to meet the cost of coaching for
your boys.
SRC Interschool Conference
The SBHS SRC headed up by Arthur Chao, organised
and staged a successful interschool SRC Conference this week. The SRCs from several high schools
gathered to exchange ideas about how to be effective leaders. They listened to a keynote speaker
and had round table break out discussions with representatives from each school sharing ideas.
The objectives of the day appeared to be achieved as evidenced by the positive feedback of
participants.
Community Services Committee
The SHS Community Services Committee executive
has led a reorganisation of the popular co-curricular group. It has reworked its Constitution and
established a calendar of events. The Award Scheme points system for participation has been
tightened up to improve the equity of time spent in activities across the range of co-curricular
activities. The capping of points to 5 per term for an afternoon’s community service
each week seems fair. The CSC would welcome more engagement in its outreach programs, especially
in Kirra Kids, by students in the Junior School. Helping others is not just for Senior School
boys.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal
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