High Notes, Vol 16 No 26, August 21 2015

High Talent
Congratulations to Leonard Mah who was recognised for his
service to the community in the John Lincoln Youth Community Service Awards. Commiserations to
Ganeshmoorthy, Max Thomas and Masrur-ul who were runners up in the Hume Barbour PDC Debating
Competition. Max Koslowski and Thomas Shortridge won the NSW Dr Evatt Competition – a
great effort! At the 2015 Business Studies Competition the national winner was Nicholas Lee
(Year 11) where he won $400. Prizes were earned by: Anthony Rusli, Garry Huang, Daniel Xue,
Sung-Chan Kim ($200), Victor Lin, Ibrahim Hussain ($100), James Liang, Jeffrey Zheng, Alex Wong,
Shayan Vatandoust, Jack Zhou, William Chen, Dennis Huynh, Wesley Yu, Kieran Shivakumaarun, Yilun
Zhou ($75), Kevin Zhang and Danny Yu ($50). Congratulations to all our high level business
studies competitors! Not to be outdone, William Chen won the national 2015 Economics
Competition and $400. Prizes were won by: Roy Shen, Yichen Han ($100), Pajman Johnstone, Yi-Dong
Luo ($75), Jeremy Yang, Karthik Subbanna and Dennis Huynh ($50). Well done to our highly
accomplished economics competitors!
SBHS Canteen Committee
Sydney Boys High is proud to be one of the dwindling
number of school communities that run their own Canteen. The advantages include quality prepared
food, caring service and a policy of returning all the profits to the school. However, to keep
this highly desirable model going, we need parental support, particularly on the Canteen
Committee. We need people with experience in meetings or in financial management. We need
volunteers also to serve a day a month in the Canteen. If you can help either just as a Committee
member or as a volunteer, please call 96629350 and speak to Tracey or Karen.
Old Boys Afternoon Tea
Sydney High Development Director, Chris Brown,
welcomed Old Boys, Philip Lambert (1955) Ross Tzannes (1956), Dennis Schultz (1959), Alan Powell
(1960) and Ian Heads (1960) to an afternoon tea this week. The Old Boys were impressed by the
demeanour of the boys and the enhanced facilities the school now enjoys. Thank you to our
musicians Nathan Trinh, John You, Archie Woodhouse and Tiger Zhang for their fine playing and to
Niyaz Mostafa, our Vice Captain and Thomas George, our two host Prefects. These boys brought
great credit to the school.
High Achievers Evening
On 27 August at 5.45 pm in the Great Hall, the
SHSOBU is holding another High Achievers evening. This is a free event designed to
showcase the life and careers of High Old Boys as well as to gain publicity for the OBU and
demonstrate its relevance to current students. The inaugural evening, held last year, was very
informative and entertaining. The feedback from the boys who attended was very positive. This
year’s organisation promises to be even better, with a wide variety of professions and
experiences represented. I urge all boys who are starting to think about life after school
and possible vocation options to come along and hear from some great role models who attended
High. Register at: http://www.shsobu.org.au/high-achievers-2015-speakers/
Tell Them From Me – Survey for Students, Staff and Parents
We have
been collaborating with the researchers at The Learning Bar for a couple of years to
gather data about the school from the perspectives of students, parents and staff. We have
learned about our school climate, how students feel about having an advocate for them at school
and about how high the incidence of engagement with school life is. The surveys have certain
shortcomings in the wording of some questions and in the inferences drawn from answers to single
questions, but nevertheless the instrument s are valuable for the senior management team to
inform our planning. This year there is an opportunity for us to ask some of our own questions
and add them to the survey. By this means we hope to make the responses we receive more pertinent
to the context of High and consequently, more meaningful for school planners.
I commend the surveys to the High school community. An Award Scheme point is on offer as usual
for boys who complete the survey. The Partners in Learning Survey can be accessed from Monday,
August 17 at http://sbhs.co/pil15
They will be live until Friday, October 16. The survey window applies to all
three surveys: parents, teachers and students.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal