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High Notes, Vol 13 No 9, March 30 2012From the Principal
High Talent Congratulations to the teams who competed in the UNSW debating tournament involving 34 teams. The Year 12 boys won and Year 10 were 3rd. Christopher Chiam won the best speaker award with Julian Edgtton and Robert Sternhell joint 3rd. Well done to Lokesh Sharma (Year 10) who won his local round of the Rostrum Voice of Youth competition. Congratulations to our CIS swimmers who were selected after the round of GPS carnivals. Kevin Guo (13 years) Kazuo Nakamura and Kim Kyne (14 years) Leonard Mah and Michael Sawang (15 years) Darren Chien (16 years) are our representatives.
Living Skills and Values Education The Record All summer sports reports are now due to be submitted to Ms May. The quality of our publication relies on the full participation by captains of teams in writing a summary of their season. Old Boys visiting the school frequently reminisce about their experiences in sport, brought back to them by the team photo and season report available in The Record. Co-curricular Supporters Groups are also asked to send to us any good action shots or team photographs that promote their sport or activity to enhance school publications. Some warm up or training shots from close range would add colour to the text about our activities. Email jpeg files and Word season summaries to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
The Annual School Report On The Shelf - Junior LibraryHighlights from one shelf a week will be displayed on the newspaper table in the Junior Library The purpose of this is to allow boys to think about the variety of resources they can find in their library from magazines to DVDs to Reference Books to the latest popular Fiction. Michael Alexandratos in Year 10 has very kindly agreed to give his opinion on the worth of the Collection and this is his first article. If you do not agree with Michael’s observations I would love to publish your counter arguments here. Feel free to comment on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . I was recently given the task by Mrs Crothers of detailing the non-fiction section in the junior library. I was told that this "piece" had to be as vivacious and humorous as possible. I was unsure though, how one could be entertaining whilst describing dry tomes on computer software and the countless, inane editions of "Guinness Book of Records". Nevertheless, I managed to find something worth noting in the rather prolific junior library. As soon as I glanced at the selected shelf I immediately grasped two books that could be of interest. One of them was named "Great Mysteries: The Stories and Myths of the Unexplained" and the other "UFO: Evaluating the Evidence". I had mixed feelings about these two books, as most UFO and conspiracy theory texts were usually worthless pieces of tripe. The UFO book had the usual fare of phony eye witness accounts, blatantly staged photographs and questionable scientific reports. It also included the illusive Roswell incident and other obscure UFO sightings.
I then proceeded onto the "Mysteries" book. The text did not focus on specific events but
instead detailed particular themes, such as: clairvoyance, vampires, lake monsters, the
"abominable snowman" and of course the infamous UFO. The two books that I skimmed over seemed to
be presented from an objective standpoint. This was not so. One cannot expect these texts to have
been taken seriously, except by raving lunatics and fantasy infused school children. The
non-fiction books, however, did have a curiosity value. If one is interested in the paranormal
and extra-terrestrial, by all means borrow them. As for myself, I gave these fallible texts a
well-earned pass.
Interestingly The Guiness Book of Records remains one of the Library’s most scanned
items as it illustrates the bizarre as well as the extraordinary. I am a little surprised that
Michael’s sense of humour did not acknowledge this. The dry computer tomes reveal
some secrets regarding software to the computer uninitiated/frustrated or we hope they will do
that. In fact when I looked over the contents of shelf 001-004, .some quite juicy tomes emerged
and they are illustrated at the top of this article. Silicon Snake Oil could be worth a
read and The story of the Internet (not illustrated) also looks interesting. The How
to books like The Complete Idiot’s Guide to FrontPage and World Wide Web
Searching For Dummies could teach me a thing or two. Careers NewsAll Year 12 students are expected to have a ‘Beyond High School’ interview with the Careers Adviser during Term 2 or Term 3.
Students can make their booking through the ‘Careers Interviews’ section of the
Student Portal. Bookings can be made now – don’t delay or you may miss your preferred
time! Die Deutsche Frage - Die AntwortAm Freitag, den 23. März um 13. 31 Uhr bekam ich eine Email von Herrn R. Boros mit der richtigen Antwort!!! Gestern (Dienstag, den 27.3.) standen James GOH, Liam Jepson und Stratton Vakirtzis (alle Yr 8) vor der Tür – and their co-operative effort had finally produced the correct answer. Knut - of course, was the abandoned Polar Bear baby raised by the Berlin Zoo (he fell into a moat and drowned), Paul – was the octopus (squid? whatever) who picked the soccer winners with great dexterity (he died of old age) and the missing third was Til – the rabbit born without ears, whose fame was very short lived as he met with an untimely end which sent the sales of tissues in Germany to unprecedented heights.
Die neue Frage: Was fehlt auf dem Juli Bild? SBHS DebatingMIC’s Report
Not much space for me this week because in addition to Christopher’s usual report Lokesh
offered to write something about the UNSW tournament which was an outstanding success for SBHS. I
would like to share a comment from the Convenor of the competition who said about Christopher,
our debating prefect “Chris is an amazing speaker. Completely dominated the speaker tab and
the grand final.” Very well done to all the boys who went and a big thank you to Ms Munro
who accompanied them. Debating Prefect’s Report
Last week's results against FED were disappointing, with only wins to the Year 11 team. However
don't be disheartened - Newington is not in the ISDA (the big private school preseason comp that
runs concurrent to Eastside/FED) and hence send their A sides to these debates, where as we
rotate our teams to give everyone a fair go. In the long run this pays off, with more depth in
our Years which leads to better results. We performed much better in Eastside however, with wins
to our Year 9, 10, 11 and 12 teams against our arch rivals Sydney Girls. The rivalry always
brings something extra to these debates, and it was great to see us come out with 4 wins to 2
against them. FED is now finished for this term, however Eastside still has one more debate today
at SCEGGS. Good luck to all teams as we aim to qualify as many teams as possible for the semis
and finals! Report on UNSW
The UNSW Network Schools Debating Day was a very challenging, intellectual, creative and
thought-provoking day. The purpose of the day was mainly to increase our exposure to university
style debating and allow us to practise mentally challenging topics. There were 34 teams from a
variety of schools, with Sydney Boys High School sporting the highest number of teams. The
competition was fierce with some of the teams previously having won the Premiers’ Debating
and it proved a day of hard opposition. The topics were based on controversial issues in the
fields of Medicine, Social Policy and Politics. The first round topic was “That doctors
should be forced to report suspected cases of domestic violence, with or without the
patients’ consent”. All teams were given 30 minutes to prepare 5-7 minute speeches.
At the end of each debate, all speakers were provided with expert feedback and ‘tricks of
the trade’ by very experienced debaters. This process continued for another two gruelling,
engaging yet fun rounds of complex, elaborate and at times contentious topics. After the end of
the three rounds, High finished with 3 teams that were undefeated and in the top 5. Our Year 11
team finished fifth, while one of our Year 10 teams finished third. The best performance on the
day was given by our Year 12 team consisting of Robert, Julian and Christopher. They finished
first after the Round Robin stage and went into the final to debate the topic “World
leaders who commit atrocities should be given immunity, in return for stepping down.” We
were arguing the affirmative side and came up with an intricate and successful model. The team
debated with vigour and skill to win a deserving battle against Abbottsleigh Girls. Deservingly
Christopher Chiam (Year 12) won the Best Speaker of the Day after stellar performances throughout
the day. Congratulations to Christopher and all the teams that took part in a very well planned
and stimulating day. I am sure everyone found it to be a very enlightening experience.
More information can be found at and will be emailed to
you on a weekly basis. Music NotesKuringai Philharmonic Orchestra Concerto CompetitionCongratulations to Ennes Mehmedbasic who auditioned last Saturday for the KPO Concerto Competition and has made it into the next round to be held on Saturday 28th April 2012 at Abbotsleigh School. We would like to invite you to come along and hear him perform at the next round and we wish him all the best in the competition. Music Performance ProgramStudents in the Music Performance Program, ALL Music Ensembles are now up and running, please ensure that you are attending the appropriate Ensembles as 80% attendance to rehearsals is required for award scheme points. The 2012 ensemble rehearsal timetable is provided below:
The Marching Band will be playing in the Sydney City March on ANZAC Day in 2012. Anzac Day Marching Band Holiday RehearsalsMarching Band holiday rehearsals will held in the 2nd week of the holidays on Thursday 19th April from 10am-1pm with a break in between and Monday 23rd April from 2-3:30pm. ALL students in the Intermediate and Senior Concert Band are required to attend, please let the Music Staff know if there are any concerns. Annual Music CampThe Annual Music Camp will be held at The Tops Conference Centre, Stanwell Tops this year from Monday-Wednesday (28th - 30th May 2012). We invite ALL students in the Music Performance Program to attend the 3-day camp. Music Staff and instrumental tutors will rehearse new repertoire that will be performed at the Camp Concert upon return to school Wednesday afternoon. Please collect a note from the Music Staff if you have not yet received one and make payments to the Main Office. SBH Zone Cross Country CarnivalCongratulations to the top 10 runners in each age group, at this year’s school Cross Country carnival. These finalists are now representing the school at the coming Zone Carnival on the 24th of May, 2012.
2012 SBHS Athletics CarnivalOver two great days late last term the School Athletics Carnival was held at nearby ES Marks field. The Carnival is designed to cater for all standards and boys are encouraged to participate in at least three events on the day. The Carnival went very smoothly thanks to the efforts of staff, student volunteers and willing competitors. Particular thanks once again to our Data Team who donated their skill and computer expertise over two days. Also I would like to thank Wayne Baldock, Steve Codey, Mick Aldous, Mina Genias, Rachel Powell, Con and George Barris who came to ES Marks to get the carnival started at 8.15am. Thanks also to Paul Scrivener for transporting the tent and the high jump bags. Our Carnival is now one of only a few large school Carnivals held at the track and it continues to be a great spectacle when it is in full swing. Senior boys in particular seem to appreciate what, for most of them, will be the last such event they participate in.
Congratulations to the Age Champions –
Special Awards from the Carnival include Full results of the School Carnival will be published next week. Rubie was the winning House this year.
Moodle and Athletics
THE JAGGAR GIFT: The Race of Champions
When: Lunch Time Thursday, 5th April, 2012 Make sure you see Mr Devlin to get your handicap on the day Athletics Invitational CarnivalsReport on Athletics Invitation (SJC) 25/3/12 and Information about Athletics Invitational (SBHS) 2 31/3/12Last Saturday marked the first representative athletics fixture of the season and there were some promising results at the SJC invitational carnival held at Blacktown International Athletics Centre. The following is a list of some notable performances by High Athletes:
This weekend (31 March 2012) we are hosting an Invitational at ES Marks Field starting from
8:30am. It is essential that GPS Athletics athletes attend this meet. There are only 3 more
invitational carnivals left before the “big one”, the GPS Championships on 5 May at
SOPAC, so now is the time to be experimenting with different events when you have the flexibility
to do it before the ‘taper’ period begins. With exams starting next term, it would be
wise to attend this carnival in order to meet the required number to make you eligible for Award
Scheme points and for those athletes in Year 12, this will be your last ever High Carnival, so it
would be fitting to attend it and show your service to the School. Best of luck to all competing
athletes this weekend! Regards, SBHS Football Annual General MeetingThe Sydney Boys High School Football AGM will be held on Monday 2nd of April at 5:30 in the Staff Common Room. It is a fantastic opportunity for parents and supporters of High Football to play an active role in the most popular sport in the school. All are welcome to attend and encouraged to help shape the program going forward. No football experience is necessary, just a desire to see your son participate in a strong and growing school sport.
Where: School Common Room (near main office) SBHS Athletics AAGPS Invitational Meet
ES Mark Athletics Fields, Kensington
Please note: Timings are only a guide and numbers of competitors and events will determine the exact timings for the Carnival. 4 jumps/throws for every athlete. Maximum of 5 athletes from each school for field events
Mr Robert Devlin SBHS RugbyHigh Rugby = High SpiritYear 8/9 Oz Tag competition Congratulations to the team of Bosco Tran, Brian Chan, Julian Vo, Ben Dang, Anthony Huynh, Garry Chen, Daniel Haslam, Stanley Si who won the Year 8/9 Oz Tag competition.
Training has started
Training will continue like this until the full rugby program commences the 7th of May.
I look forward to seeing everyone at training Sports DonationsGPS sports competition is very demanding on people and resources. At High we have ongoing needs for facilities development, equipment and development through expert coaching. If you would like to help through a tax deductible donation for a particular sport, the appropriate form can be posted to you by calling 9361 6910. Alternatively, you can go to our website click on Sport /Sports Donations to download either Development Donation Form or Equipment and Facility Donation Form. In the Swim
LATEST NEWS – 6 HIGH SWIMMERS REPRESENT GPS SCHOOLS AT CIS (Combined Independent
Schools)
MIC’s COMMENT ON GPS 5 CARNIVAL Our best swimmers, Leonard Mah 15s (2nd in the 15 Free) (2nd to Matthew Clifford’s Record 15 Breaststroke) and Kazuo Nakamura 14s (2nd - 100 Free) (2nd- 50 Fly) and Kevin Guo 13s(2nd - 50 Breast) all swam into second place unfortunately in the Championship Swims. Eugene Lee swam a respectable 3rd (50 Free)in the 16s. However on a brighter note there were some unexpectedly good 3rd places in Championship Races from James Chee 15s - (3rd 15s Backstroke Championship) and Kyne Kim, (3rd 14s Breaststroke Championship) Overall the lessons we take home are that the Opposition (especially Newington) are developing hard and large training Squads. Our team is well aware that our swimmers who are competing well at Championship Level are the boys who train and the Division Swimmers generally with some exceptions are the boys who used to train. Congratulations to Harvey Luo – 12 Years (who uncomplainingly entered every swim), Jason Guo and Kevin Luo - 13 Years , Kazuo Nakamura - 14 Years, Leonard Mah and Michael Sawang – 15 Years and Eugene Lee 16 Years for their strong swims and good results all GPS season. These swimmers all put in 2-4 hours a day training. This is a meritorious effort compared to all other GPS Sports and does not finish with this short 5 Meet GPS season. They could not represent their school so successfully without their parent’s continuous support. Thanks to all concerned – sterling efforts!
REPORT ON GPS SWIMMING, CARNIVAL 5, SOPAC, FRIDAY 23/3/2012 Overall, we achieved some amazing results in four of the Championship events:
Congratulations to all our other place getters Championship and Divisional races. High FamilyThe Bulletin Board for Sydney Boys High P & CIf you would like to have any parent community news or upcoming events included in High Society, please contact Ian Sweeting P&C President This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it SBHS BIG NIGHT OUTSunday 1st April 5:15pm The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting- SUNNY, 27 Degrees, Light Winds s Perfect for listening to music in the Courtyard, watching the entertainment, all while enjoying the marvellous food prepared by our parent volunteers. TICKETS WILL BE ON SALE AT THE DOOR.
NOTE the change in time from 5:00pm to 5:15pm due to an overlap with event parking. Upcoming Parking EventsPlease find listed below the upcoming parking events.
Saturday 31 March 7:30pm – Sydney Roosters v NZ Warriors (School) Upcoming Meetings & Events
Basketball Dinner: Great Hall – 6:30pm, Friday 30 March. Ian Sweeting SBHS and SGHS Junior DanceDear Parents and Guardians, The annual Junior Dance, for currently enrolled students in Years 7, 8 and 9 at Sydney Girls High School and Sydney Boys High School will be held here in the Multi Purpose Hall on Monday April 2nd, commencing at 6pm and finishing promptly at 9pm. The dance is fully supervised by staff of both schools. Music will be supplied by Mobydisc. The theme of the evening has been selected by the SRC at Sydney Girls: “High school stereotypes”. The SGHS Prefects will award prizes for Best Dressed and will also judge a Dance-off, awarding prizes for best performances. The SRC are responsible for selling tickets – they will announce via email when tickets will be available. Soft drinks and bottled water are available for sale on the night. Proceeds from the dance, after costs have been taken out, will go to the Stewart House charity. Parents are asked to collect their daughters/sons promptly at 9pm. It is not anticipated that staff would be required to wait beyond 9pm for any student to be collected. Any students who expect they will be driven home by a friend’s parent MUST have the relevant section on this Permission Note properly filled in. Otherwise, the student will be released into the care only of her/his OWN parent/s. Best regards
Ms Andrea Connell
Dr Kim Jaggar The SBHS/SGHS Junior Dance 2012 permission note is available in the PDF version of this edition of High Notes Big Night Out 2012Sydney Boys High School P&C presents
Big Night Out
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