High Notes, Vol 16 No 33, October 23 2015
High Talent
Well done to Kieran Guan (Year 7) who came 2nd in the
Sub-Junior Men’s division at the 2015 Australian Short Track Open Championship for Ice
Racing. Edward Lin (Year 11) placed 8th in the Junior Men’s division. Congratulations,
boys! At the Mini Series Fencing competition, Matthew Pellen (Year 7) won the Gold in the U13
Epee and Max Huh (Year 7) won Bronze in the U13 Sabre. Congratulations, boys.
Year 11 Reports
All Year 11 boys should have their reports to be discussed
with their parents. Year 11 accelerants should also have theirs, describing their Preliminary
Certificate results. Students are making final course selections now and deciding upon future
university courses of interest. Parents are asked to discuss with their sons the quality of their
results in each course and their intended HSC pattern of courses. The recommended number of units
of study for the HSC is ten. More units can be taken by boys who have a vocational plan or ILSP
that is not ATAR sensitive, so long as they have a predicted ATAR cushion. Fewer units can be
taken by boys doing acceleration, but only after their HSC results have been published and
analysed. Some boys cannot finalise their suite of courses until they know whether they have
earnt a spot in mathematics – extension 2. They may not occur until week 8. Students
enrolled in extension history or LOTE should be confirmed in their courses by Mr Dowdell this
week.
Summer Sport Co-payments: Term 4
The rolls for summer sports and activities
have now been finalised. In many activities co-payments are levied for the season – in this
case Term 4 2015 and Term 1, 2016. Other sports have a policy of fixing co-payments on a
term-by-term basis. In either case, invoices have now been posted. For Years 7-10 this means that
the summer invoice will be included on individual Clearance Forms. These will need to be cleared
prior to boys receiving their reports. The base co-payment for sport for a season is $148 for
2015-16, as adjusted for on costs. Term charges for other sports, proposed and ratified by sports
supporters groups, include: tennis ($165), rowing and rifle shooting ($190), water polo ($200)
juniors - ($250) seniors, and sailing ($305). It would help the MICs for these sports greatly if
families could pay for their sports in the next ten days.
The Co-Curricular Supervision Levy
In order for us to run a six-day school with after-hours activities for 15 sports, debating,
music and chess, we need to provide a teacher/ MIC / manager supervision structure to meet our
duty of care obligations. Some parents are asking: ‘Why should I pay this co-curricular
levy when I’m paying quite a lot in co-payments for a sport or activity for a season? The
money from the levy is used to pay for the time that supervising teachers/MICs have to spend
hiring and managing coaches, organising teams, fixtures and venues, buying and managing
equipment, supervising coaches during training sessions, as well as travelling and being there
for competition on Friday nights or Saturdays. All these duties take time for which personnel
must have some compensation, by way of time, money or both. The levy has to pay for the extra
allowance given to the Head Teacher Sport to manage the overall sports program. The levy has to
meet the cost of running athletics and swimming programs which are provided free of charge to all
students. The levy does not cover the running costs of sports – coaches’ fees, venue
hire, equipment, consumables. All these have to be funded through co-payments.
So as to clarify why the levy is necessary and should be supported by all parents, I want to
share with you the direct costs to the school of management, supervision and duty of care. Staff
members are remunerated by way of allowances (time free from face-to-face), or the period
equivalent in money or a combination of the two. Non-teachers are paid the equivalent of the
period allowance that would be offered to teachers. Sports organisation and supervision
estimates for 2015: $197,174. Co-curricular organisation and supervision: $73,028. So far this
year the Sports Levy has raised $95,500. Consequently, the co-curricular supervision levy
is contributing only c. 35% of the supervision and management costs borne by the school.
The remainder has to be taken from general contributions.
Cars Travelling on School Grounds
Parents and visitors to the school must
travel at a safe speed whilst in the school grounds, enter from Cleveland Street by Gate 2 and
park rear to the buildings or tennis courts. Parents and visitors should not use the Anzac
Parade entrances.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal
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