̽»¨ÊÓƵ

High Notes, Vol 24 No 28, September 08 2023

From the Principal

High Talent

Results from the Sydney Philosothon competition held at Newington College last week. Andrew Pye (10R) was 1st in Year 10. Joseph Britton (11S), Fynn Hopkins (11S), Andrew Pye (10R) and Jude Ou (9R) came 1st in Teams. Congratulations to all our competitors. Thank you to Ms Eggleton for mentoring the team at the event. Well done to Kevin Bui (8R) who is representing at the U14 Australian Youth Volleyball Championships. Well done to our competitors in the 3rd GPS-CAS - ISA athletics carnival held last Saturday. In the U13s 100m Owen Trinh (7E) - 1st 11.87, our 4 x 100m relay 1st in 49.8. In U14s Alex Ruhfus (8E) 100m 1st 11.6, 200m Tim Chen (9R) 2nd, 1500m Nestor Chan (9R) 2nd, long jump Roger He (8E) 2nd, 4 x 100m relay 1st 47.01. U15s 100m hurdles James McLoughlin (10R) 2nd and 100m 3rd, Lachlan Leung (10E) 200m 1st in 24.41 and long jump 2nd, Aiden McManus (10R) 800m 1st in 2.07, 4 x 100m relay 2nd. U16s 4 x 100m relay 2nd - 1500m Tanish Sarathy 2nd, Aidan Lee (11R) 3rd Long jump Dylan Dutt (10F) 2nd, high jump Mahesh Karki (10S) 2nd and James Nguyen 110m hurdles 3rd. U17s 110m hurdles Madhav Sanjeev 1st 15.28 and 4 x 100m relay 3rd. Opens – 3000m Max Russell (12T) 1st 8.57.20 and 1500m 1st 4.08.56, 200m Edward Ly (12M) 3rd, 110m hurdles Ramin Hossain (12T) 3rd and Oscar Greville (12M) shot put 2nd. Congratulations to all our competitors!

Events of the Week

History Week (2-10 September) asks the question – How well have we listened to the voices from the past? Do we learn from our history? George Santayana’s famous 1905 quote is apt – ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’. The importance of learning history is that what we do or don’t learn from it shapes our future. National Child Protection Week (3-9 September) challenges us to ask whether every child in every community receives a fair go. The aim is to make the concept a reality in every home and school. School Support Recognition Week (4-8 September) aims to recognise the School Administrative & Support Staff (SASS) and non-teaching staff who provide integral support to us in our school life. We held a morning tea for our SASS, financed in appreciation by the SBHS P & C. Thank you all for your dedication!

Tell Them from Me Survey 2023 (cont.)

In our SIP (Strategic Improvement Plan), we are focused on the learning process and how well certain skills are being acquired. It is agreed that explicit instruction is a good way to build capacity in students. ‘Students feel classroom instruction is well-organised, with a clear purpose, and with immediate feedback that helps them learn’. Yes at High 71% v State 64%. During the life of our SIP we would hope to raise this perception to 75% or higher. ‘Students understand there are clear rules and expectations for classroom behaviour’. SBHS 68% State 56%. Our class rules relate to enacting our stated values of respect, comparison, dedication and integrity.  We have some work to do to operationalise these values as virtues (values in action). We will display the Department’s Code of Conduct in every teaching and learning space.

The learning environment is an important catalyst (positive or negative) on student learning. To what extent are your learning spaces – equipped with technology that helps me learn 76% (agree/strongly agree); the learning spaces help me learn 55%; the learning spaces are neat and tidy 60%.  I am not completely confident that the respondents understood the statements fully in respect of learning climate.  Also, having had BYOD access to CANVAS and the network for many years, as well as Vivi, students take their environment for granted.  Overall, the survey provides us with large scale data on our core business from the perspective of our students.  While the survey is flawed and students are sick of redoing it annually, at least the weaknesses are now constants, so we can look at changes and trends more carefully to inform our future practice. We know some areas need improvement in the eyes of our students. We are listening and acting.

Sentence Conscious Pedagogy: Revising and Editing the Draft

Revising means clarifying or altering the content of structure of a draft to make the writing clear, accurate, fluid, sequenced and coherent. Anticipate what information that the reader will need or want to know. Practising revision activities helps develop clarity and coherence; enables students to use sentence strategies when writing at length; provides a way of incorporating substantive changes into a piece of writing in addition to mechanical ones; and leads to more smoothly flowing and more logically connected prose. Editing involves identifying and then correcting errors in grammar, punctuation, capitalisation, syntax and spelling. Revising needs to come before editing. Practise applying the processes to a teacher-provided bare-bones paragraph. Practise inserting transitions and varying sentence structure. Clarity and accuracy are the goals.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal