High Notes, Vol 16 No 29, September 11 2015
High Talent
On Friday night last, our first grade GPS debating team made
some school history when they defeated a spirited SGS team to become GPS champions and to take
away the coveted Louat Shield. It is hard to win all seven rounds in GPS debating. Max
Koslowski, Ganesh Chandrasekaran and Thomas Shortridge braved the Grammar ‘tunnel’
reception of their team, refused to be intimidated by the partisan crowd and the comedy
chairperson, and held tight to their proposal ’that the media should not be allowed to
report on the mental health of accused criminals’. Our very promising 10A debating team -
Akeed Ahamed Ramzi, Louis Saunders, David Wu and Louis Shapiro – were undefeated in the GPS
debating season. With Hugh Bartley to come back from second grade GPS, the boys are looking good
in the PDC as well.
On Saturday our U16 cross country team ran at the Macquarie University course and won the
team’s event. They have won every cross country meet of the season and are deserved winners
of the GPS Premiership. The telling factor in High’s success was its depth. All of our
runners contributed even when not earning points because their positions in the field denied
points to our opponents. The main point scorers who consolidated High’s win were:
Luke and Jayden Schofield, Eric Holstrom, Nicholas Katsilis, Conor McGrath, Stevie Young and Jake
Rowlands. Congratulations to Rebecca Dam and her staff for developing these boys into a
formidable team. At the All Schools Basketball Competition High was edged out by Newington to
finish second in the state – a great result! Congratulations to Ben Hayman and his team:
Brendan Fattore, Jack Hutchison, Nathan Sutton, Anthony Wu, Bailey Musulin, Noah Fowler, Ethan
Merrick, Max Menzel and Luke Schroeder.
Volleyball GPS Inaugural Competition: Clean Sweep
High’s 1st
grade volleyball team finished the season undefeated making them Champions for the first year of
GPS Volleyball as an official sport. In just recognition of his long and highly successful career
as MIC of High Volleyball, the Michael Kay Shield was assigned to be the official GPS Volleyball
trophy by the AAGPS for first grade competition. The Premiership in 2nd Grade was also won by
High undefeated. The 16As were undefeated in their competition. In the unofficial U14 and U15
matches our 14As and 15As finished in first place. It is a tribute to the coaching staff and to
the strength of the program that these terrific results were achieved this season.
Congratulations to all concerned!
Student Leave Requests – Reminder
Too many parents are ignoring or
pleading ignorance about the school policy on Student Leave of Absence Requests.
Last year in Term 4 I enforced a last two weeks of term ban on processing or approving student
leave requests. Parents are reminded that in Term 4, 2015 leave will not be processed or approved
unless four weeks’ notice has been given. The effect of this decision is
that all leave requests that involve that last four weeks of term must be lodged with me for
approval by the end of week 7, Friday 17 November.
Parent Information Evening
This week Mr Dowdell explained the process of
selection elective subjects for Year 9, 2016 at an evening meeting in the Great Hall to more than
150 people. He also outlined how students in Year 10 could access the courses of their choice in
Year 11, 2016 to a similar number in the second session. He pointed out the constraints that
exist for qualifying in certain courses such as mathematics extension, physics and chemistry. For
those who missed his presentation, the PDFs can be found at: http://www.sydneyboyshigh.com/curriculum/subject-choices
Also at that location are PDFs of Handbooks of Subject Choices for Years 9, 10 & 11. I urge
parents to help their sons become fully informed about all the subjects and courses on offer at
High. Additionally, students should look at the content of these courses on the BOSTES website,
particularly in the sciences, so that they know what they are going to be studying in Years 11
and 12.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal
Publications 
