High Notes, Vol 17 No 32, October 21 2016
High Talent
Congratulations to Kieran Guan (8R) who placed second in the
Australian Short Track Ice Racing Championship (12-14 years’ division). Well done to Ricky
Pachon (12T) who won the Oceania Championship in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Congratulations to our
competitors in the Sydney Olympic U13 Cup Fencing - Kevin Fernando (7T) won gold in the U-13
Epée and Lachlan Ho (8T) won silver in the U-13 foil. Great work, boys! Our U15 basketball
team has qualified for the CHS finals in the Knockout Competition to be contested early next
month. Congratulations to: Alexander Bassil (9T), Noah Casaclang (9T), Campbell Green (9S),
Carl-Joshua Gunther (9T), Steven Li (10T), Julian Markworth Scott (9E), Carter Opperman (10T),
Brendan Purdon (9R), Kobe Shannon (10T) and Varun Narayanan (9F). Good luck boys!
Library After Hours Trial Discontinued
After many weeks of providing
supervised after hours’ library access for boys wishing to study, the program has been
discontinued. Thanks to the generosity of Mr Dowdell giving up his time to be the supervisor
during the two months’ trial, the experiment was cost neutral to the school. I want to
thank the SRC boys who followed up on student suggestions, created and administered the survey of
students, collated and analysed the results and argued for the proposal at the SBHS School
Council. The exercise was not a waste because it confirmed that while people are willing to say
that they would like a service provided, they are not making any commitment to use it if it were
provided.
External Validation Completed
An external evaluation panel comprising two
serving Principals analysed and sought clarification of the evidence supplied in a very well
annotated folder. They spent two hours reviewing and discussing the evidence with our team. The
Principals agreed that the evidence presented by the School was consistent with our
self-assessment of our performance in each domain – learning, teaching and leading. In
addition, they suggested that in several areas we had evidence which would have justified rating
ourselves at the highest level even though we did not rate ourselves there. Our school is
benchmarking very well against the School Excellence Framework. The two Principals were extremely
impressed by the organisation and presentation of the evidence and were lavish in their praise of
the work of George Barris, our Head Teacher, Teaching & Learning. George has put a mountain
of work into preparing our evidence and liaising with the District Principal who has the
responsibility for supporting the validation process. He has shouldered the burden of preparation
so that staff can continue the job of teaching with minimal impact from this accountability
process. He has had the focus and drive to keep the development of our responses to the School
Excellence Framework building during the last twelve months. He made us all look good. My thanks
are extended to all staff for their cooperation in making this process so professional and
painless. Thank you particularly to Joanna Chan, HT Student Wellbeing, who joined us for the
validation interview to provide a broad perspective on how our student support network functions
and to extol the virtues of our community service and social justice programs.
We have also distilled our next steps down into a few key areas where we see
potential for improvement. First among these is to develop a greater collective
responsibility for school wide learning. Our development of PEWCC skills, increased used of
dispositional teaching methods and visible thinking routines, and broadening of take-up of our
literacy continuum, will help deliver this goal in the next couple of years. We will improve the
provision of formative feedback across the school. We will also try to engage more closely with
our local community as well as with our parents and Old Boys. I am very proud of the work of the
staff and students at High and I believe that we can move from good to great in a few areas of
our practice in the medium term.
Scholarships Offered at High
SBHS offers only two scholarships/bursaries
– the Phillip Day Memorial Scholarship and the Sir Roden and Lady Cutler Foundation
Scholarship. All enrolled or enrolling students are eligible to apply for the Phillip
Day Memorial Scholarship. It is a one-year credit on the school
account for $1,500. The Selection Criteria covers talented boys in an academic area or a
co-curricular endeavour. Good all-rounders qualify as do students with special needs –
financial or otherwise. There are many boys in the school who would make good candidates for this
award. I urge them to take the trouble to download and complete the application form. The
Sir Roden and Lady Cutler Foundation Inc Scholarship is a
two-year award with a credit at the school account for $1,500 for each Year
– 11 and 12. Only boys enrolled or enrolling in Year 11 are eligible to apply. The criteria
for this scholarship are different. It has an emphasis on a prior record of service to others, to
the school and / or the community. Boys with initiative, compassion and leadership skills are
invited to apply.
Look for the details on the website www.sydneyboyshigh.com/scholarships. Do not
assume that you are not worthy or eligible. Applications close on November 25.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal
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