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High Notes, Vol 24 No 24, August 11 2023

From the Principal

High Talent

Congratulations to Henry Lau (11S) who attended the Australian camp with the Australia Institute of Sport, for Fiba U16 Men’s Asia cup (AIS Aug 5-10). In the recent Science Olympiad Stage 5 competition, a rigorous and difficult test, three of our boys achieved a High Distinction (top 10%), Thomas Cao (10E), John Fang (10E) and Ryan Allen (9E), while William Zeng (10S) achieved a Distinction. Well done, indeed! At the conclusion of the NSW Schools Fencing League Foil Teams Competition all our teams had some success. Well done to our U14 team, Tom Ye (8T), Lyndon Chow (9E), Jeremy Yan (8F), Jentzen Lim (8F), Thomas Zheng (8F), Ty Traynor (8F) who came 2nd; our U16 team, Benjamin Dang (9R), Tony Guo (11T), Joshua Wang (10E), George Mermelas (9F), Raphael Xiao (9S), Pranav Gupta (10M) who finished 3rd ; and our U19 team Dean Johnsun (11F), Henry Lin (11S), James Pullinger 11T), Andrew Wang (11S), Daniel Kim (10M), Steven Zheng (11M) in 2nd place. Well done to Oscar Ho (7F) on his ‘Highly Commended Award’ at the St George Instrumental Eisteddfod for piano.

Sydney East Region Athletics Carnival Results

Successful competitors at the Regional Athletics carnival were: Ren-Shyan Balnave 17-19 years 1500m and 3000m (2nd), Reza Bassam 14 years 100m hurdles (3rd), Tim Chen 14yrs Javelin (3rd), Dylan Dutt 16 years 110m hurdles (1st – 19.19), Nicholas Fung 15 years 100m hurdles 3rd, high jump 2nd, triple jump 2nd, Oscar Greville 17-19 years shot put 1st – 14.16m, Shawn Handoko 13 years 200m (3rd),  Jayden Ho 16 years 110m hurdles (3rd), Ramin Hossain 17-19 years 110m hurdles (2nd), Kaden Kuang 17-19 years 110m hurdles (3rd), Lachlan Leung 15 years long jump 1st – 5.57m, James McLoughlin 15 years 100m hurdles (2nd), shot put (3rd), Aiden McManus 15 years 400m (2nd), 800m 1st – 2.06.82, Ezzekai Okoli 16 years Discus (3rd), Alex Ruhfus 14 years 100m 1st – 11.53, 200m (3rd), Max Russell 17-19 years 800m (2nd), 1500m 1st -4.11.57, 3000m 1st – 9.13, Mahdav Sunjeev 17-19 years 110m hurdles 1st – 16.71, William Stening 14 years shot put 3rd, Ryan Xu 16 years shotput 2nd. Relays: U14 4 x 100m 2nd, U15 2nd and under 16 (2nd). Congratulations to Thomas Chen (11S) - Oboe and Jiazi Chen (9T) - Alto Saxophone, on their selection into the Performing Arts Unit State Wind Band to perform at the Opera House.

Prefect Elections

Congratulations to our 29 new School Prefect Interns who were elected last week. Our new student leaders are School Captain Luc Tran, Vice-Captain Akila Gunaratne and Senior Prefect Samuel Hui.

New Bus Delivered

Thank you to the P & C and the Canteen Committee for providing the funds for our new Rosa Deluxe long wheel base automatic 25-seat bus. It is a terrific replacement for our end of life Higher bus which was traded in on the new vehicle.

Refurbished Toilets Reopened

Many parents and School Council members will be pleased to know that the major renovation of the school toilets beneath the Great Hall was completed this week and the amenities for the boys are very much better now. We thank the Department of Education for making the sizeable grant to complete the project.

Students Obtaining Unfair Advantage

I am writing to parents to urge them to exhort their sons, particularly in Year 12 around examination time, to refrain from practices which are contrary to school values – namely giving ID cards to others and asking them to scan in for them or obtaining Doctors’ Certificates for minor ailments in order to stay home and study. Neither integrity, nor respect for fairness, is being demonstrated by such actions. We all should play on an even field and share the experience together. Come to school punctually, go to lessons, study in the library if there is a short day and stay in our routines. No one should deliberately try to obtain an advantage in study time above his peers who come to school every day, attend all their lessons and engage in multiple sport and co-curricular activities. Such unethical behaviour should be discouraged strongly and I ask parents to support the school to curtail it.

Sentence Conscious Pedagogy:
Single Paragraph Blueprint (SPB)

Model the process of creating a paragraph outline, comprising a topic sentence, a concluding statement and notes for 3-4 possible sentences expanding on the idea in the topic sentence. Having students create an outline before they write: enables students to visualise the beginning, middle and end of the paragraph or composition; helps students distinguish between essential and non-essential material; guides students to place their ideas in logical order; prevents repetition; and improves students’ ability to stick with a topic. Practise writing topic sentences and concluding statements (give one, compose the other).  Teacher supplies details. Class puts notes into four categories. Students decide on what to eliminate. Generate a topic sentence, compose 3-4 supporting sentences and then a concluding one.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal