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High Notes, Vol 23 No 40, December 16 2022

From the Principal

High Talent

Well done to our Year 9 Volleyball team who were silver medallists at the Australian Volleyball Schools Championships (Honours Division) held last week on the Gold Coast. Congratulations to our first XI cricket team who competed in the 5 Highs tournament last week. The boys came home with the Cecil Rubie Trophy for annual competition with Melbourne High. Well done to Totoro Nakagawa-Lagisz (8R) who won the Science Teachers’ Association Scientific Investigation Award for Year 7-8 Biology, the Rowe Scientific Science Communication Award and was third in the K-12 Sebel Testing Award. Great work, Totoro! Congratulations to Max Russell (11T) on his fine running at the National All-Schools Track and Field Championships held in Adelaide. He won gold in the U18 boys 3000m steeplechase and bronze in the U18 3000m. Thank you to Mr Huynh and his wayfinding team for their signage installation around the school. This was a DT project for William Nguyen (11F) and Ahasan Kabir (11E) who designed the installations. Valuable input was provided by Jim Crampton, Daniel Xu and our IT staff. Congratulations to all involved.

Staff Changes

Lynda Pinnington-Wilson has taken up a CEO position with the Department and has kindly relinquished her position, effective from December 9. Lynda was with us for two of our most turbulent years due to COVID. She ran our curriculum audit, made various contributions to the Literacy program and was instrumental in organising and running several Old Boy reunions, helping us to engage more strongly with our alumni. We all wish Lynda well in her new role. A recruitment process for the DP position will commence in the first week or two of Term 1 next year. George Barris will continue in the relieving DP role until the position is filled. Natalie Luu will continue in the HT Teaching and Learning role until the DP position is filled. Brenda Kilmore (mathematics) is retiring to the Central Coast for a well-earned rest. After 22 years in music at High, Rita is putting down her baton to take up caring for grandchildren. Steve Marcos has taken up an EOI position as DP at Alexandria Park HS for 2023 and will be replaced by Hannah Jackson as HT Sport. David Smith will be coordinator of PDHPE for 2023. We say farewell also to Isabell St Leon who has taught German to our High Boys for 21 years - Auf Wiedersehen!

The Record Digitised

Joseph Waugh PSM, Old Boy, former President of the SHSOBU, with a day job at the Law Reform Commission, has been working after hours and on weekends for years, to digitise all editions of The Record. You can imagine the painstaking process of scanning page after page of old documents from 150 editions since 1909. Mark Gainford, former editor, rendered great assistance also. Joseph was assisted of late by our archivist Merinda Kavich to complete the project. High owes Joseph a great debt of gratitude for caring enough to confront this Herculean task and prevail. You can access files at /publications/the-record

Year 10 Drama Production

It was a privilege to be entertained by our Year 10 Drama class in their production of The Importance of Being Earnest. [A trivial comedy for serious people]. The protagonists in the play perform as actors in their own lives, adopting fictitious personae to manage social situations. While punning on the character Ernest’s name, the play teaches us the consequences of not being sincere in our relationships. It is an allegory on sincerity infused with irony. The ensemble cast were totally committed to the performance, helping each other on several occasions to recall lines and actions. Henry Lin, as Algernon, seemed to know everybody’s lines by heart. Joseph Britton starred as Jack Worthington in an engaging performance. Gurik Sall stole a few scenes as Lady Bracknell and seemed to inhabit her character. The female leads, Kridaya Singh and Dev Sood, did enough to convince us of the femininity of their concerns about love and marriage. Bhavesh, Eric, Pradeepan and Jonathan fitted in well in their support roles. The junior boys worked well as waiters with cucumber sandwiches and as stage crew moving sets. Dr Jassy is to be congratulated for her courageous and ambitious project.  She was everywhere – introducing the play, prompting the lines, moving the props. Her energy and commitment flowed through to the players. It was an enjoyable evening.

Final High Notes for 2022

I want to thank all of our staff for their collegial efforts this year to make our school operate efficiently and effectively. Thank you to the editorial staff – Dave, Meredith and Brooke – for pushing out an edition of High Notes each week. We have a large number of contributors each week – staff, students, parents – and much work is required in layout, editing and proof reading. Thank you to everyone who helped make the publication a success.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal