High Notes, Vol 17 No 27, September 02 2016
High Talent
For the third consecutive year, High students have dominated
the Australian Economics and Business Studies Competition. National winners with $400 cash prizes
were: Benjamin Wu (12F), Kevin Zhang (11M) and Jeffrey Zheng (11E). Six students earned
$100 prizes: Raphin Hossain(12S), Sung-Chan Kim (12E), Anthony Rusli (12R), Nathan Sheng (10S),
Ryan Sun (12F) and Kalvin Xu (11E). There were 16 winners of $75 prizes and 11 winners of
$50 prizes. Great work boys! Congratulations to Benjamin Kernohan (8S) who competed at the recent
Robotics Championship, 'Robocup Junior Australia’ at UNSW. Benjamin won the
contest ‘Rescue’ against 39 other teams and will go on to represent NSW at the
National Competition.
Illuminate Festival
For four days this week we took time out to celebrate
‘cultural intelligence’ in the CQ quadrant in our enlargement model of personal
growth. Much of what defines us as a culture can be found in the music, art, drama and film we
produce. Scott Adams shed light on the idea of creativity when he said that it consisted in
“allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep”. Making
mistakes is an integral component of the creative process. Having a critical eye and a perceptive
discernment are others. It is in the small but passionate group of students who follow their
individual drive to create something different, original and non-derivative, where we will find
the people who will someday change our tomorrows by invention, creation or production. They are
the people who will make the future. We welcomed special guest, Oscar Winner, Damien Martin (SHS
1991), as our model of the path that a creative life can take.
A team of teachers, staff and students has put together an exhibition of students work and a
series of student performances, celebrating students who articulate, create and innovate. There
is impressive creativity and diversity of self-expression in the program. We have contributions
from the English Faculty (coordinated by Xanon Shirley, Courtney Powell, Miri Jassy and Jo
Curry): HSC students presented a film, a Drama monologue, a group performance, a poetry reading
and a speech. From Music, Sarah Kim and Rita Miller showcase one of their extension students
performing one of his examination pieces. The Visual Arts staff led by Jenni May and Lynnea
Stewart curated the exhibition of HSC student artworks and Year 10 sculptures. Rebecca Dam and
Paul Scrivener brought together Software Design and Design and Technology to exhibit an eclectic
array of projects and games from Industrial Arts students. Staff from IT (David and James), our
GAs (Jim and Stewart) and senior students (Vishal and Oliver) supported the exhibition through
creating and displaying the publicity banners.
It is gratifying to be the leader of a school in which a multidisciplinary team can conceive of
and work on an idea so autonomously and bring it together for an event such as this. Thank you to
all staff and students involved in this initiative.
Parent Information Evening – Year 10 Acceleration and MOOCs
Next
Tuesday in the Great Hall (6pm-7pm), there will be a presentation on the availability of Subject
Acceleration for qualifying students going into Year 10. We will also present our inaugural MOOCs
Elective option for self-selected, self-managed online learning modules (aggregated indicative
time of 120 hours) as a potential third elective option for Year 10 students in 2017. The
proposed Elective will be restricted to a maximum of 20 places in 2017, supervised by Careers
Adviser, Mr Cipolla. Access to special Electives is dependent upon the completion of an
Independent Learning Plan and selection interview. There are also academic pre-qualifications for
acceleration but for MOOCs technological proficiency and research capability will be important.
Year 12 References Assembly
Year 12 boys need to attend the Great Hall at
12:05pm on Friday 2 September to be briefed on the system of personal reference preparation. The
type of information that is required and the sequencing of it in the document need every boy to
be there. References for many boys need to be finalised during the holidays and uploaded onto the
UNSW Co-op Scholarship site, so it is important that the process has all relevant data available
by the end of term.
UNSW Research Project – Parent Participants Needed
High has a
partnership with UNSW for professional learning. We have access to research resources at the
University. One such resource is Dr Jennifer Jolly who is working closely with us in professional
development, practicums and mentoring for early career teachers. Dr Jolly is interested in
researching what influence parental beliefs have on the learning motivation and academic
self-concept of gifted students. We need parent participants to find out more, using an anonymous
survey. Their sons will complete a parallel questionnaire as comparison participants. We think we
might find out more about how students are socialised and how they feel about their learning.
Please be a part of this research. More than 30 parents have responded so far but we need at
least another twenty before Dr Jolly can get a sample size to work with. Contact
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
for more information about the
research or to register as a participant.
Harvey Norman Sponsorship
The Sir Roden and Lady Cutler Foundation which
is the Year 11 Project, makes >9000 trips annually helping immobile people get to medical
appointments. Our Year 11 students have a major collection day each year for the benefit of the
Foundation and High boys help as volunteers for the Foundation’s major fundraiser – a
golf day. Major retailer, Harvey Norman, have agreed to a two-year sponsorship arrangement to
help fund the work of the charity valued at $75,000 per year commencing this week. I would like
to express my thanks as a member of the Management Committee to the Harvey Norman Group for their
generosity and compassion in assisting some of the most vulnerable members of our society.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal
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