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High Notes, Vol 24 No 29, September 15 2023

From the Principal

High Talent

Congratulations to Eric Scholten (11R) for his Australian Mathematics Olympiad Committee - Senior Contest bronze award. Of the top 100 specifically invited mathematicians in the country, he ranked in the top 50. Joshua Li (9S) performed really well to be invited and earned a participation certificate. Congratulations, boys! Well done to Nelson Lee (10R) who is representing NSW in U17 volleyball at the Australian Youth Championships.

Athletics Assembly 2023

Current coach Lachlan Stanfield shared with the assembly his passion for sport and athletics and his lifelong journey as an athlete, doing the hard work, competing and loving the sport. He recounted also the sacrifices and emotional costs of dedication to sport. His on-balance assessment of why athletics meant so much to him was powerful.

My speech to the assembly is reprinted below:

"Special guest, Mr Lachlan Stanfield, Staff, parents, coaches, selected GPS athletics representatives and students, good morning and welcome to our annual athletics assembly. I acknowledge this morning the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet and pay my respects to elders past and present and extend that respect to any First Nations people here today. We are assembled together today to celebrate our short but hectic athletics season, which culminates in the GPS Carnival to be held on Saturday. Our athletes are special because they are making extra sacrifices to compete in athletics as well as in a summer sport. They show dedication to the team by earning points when competing in events – whether at championship or Division level – to help our overall standing in the competition. They are courageous to compete in front of a very large crowd, even when sometimes they have no real prospect of gaining a podium finish in their event. They show compassion for their teammates who try and fail in a fiercely competitive environment or who are injured. They model integrity by sticking to their training and meeting their competition commitments. They respect themselves, their opponents and each other in their events. Our boys need your support to cheer them on to give that extra few percent that makes the difference in gaining one place better or not.

"On behalf of the staff and students, I want to thank Kurt Rich again for his professional leadership of our program as MIC of athletics for many years. Thank you to Natalie Luu and Casey Writer for assisting with supervision and coaching. Kurt’s team contains a majority of Old Boy coaches who relate closely to our boys and inspire them with their passion for athletics and for the school.

"Congratulations to all our competitors in the Combined High Schools Athletics carnival held last week. Max Russell won the 1500m and 3000m double and bronze in the 800m. Our U14 relay team claimed silver as did Lachlan Leung in the U15 long jump. The U16s relay won a silver medal in a school record time of 45.32. Alex Ruhfus had a dominant win in the U14 100m in 11.59 with Owen Trinh placing third.

"Thanks to all our coaches. For 100m-400m and Head Coach - Neil Song (SHS-2015), assisted by Justin Nonis (SHS-2021) and Liam Scolari. For 800m-3000m – Daniel Ma (SHS-2018), Felix Cao (SHS-2020) and Lachlan Stanfield. For hurdles - Jason Huo (SHS-2017) and Nelson Cheng (SHS-2022). For shot put - Jack Bowditch. Thank you also to Davina Strauss, very long-term coach for long jump and Joshua Suto (SHS-2022) who assists. For high jump this year we have Casey Writer and Joshua Suto. Thank you to everybody in the athletics program for working so hard to raise the standard of athletics performance at High and to provide our students with the encouragement to have a go.

"At the World Athletics Championships, Australian athletes have had a tough time - winning only 36 medals up to the recent competition. Twelve gold medals had been won by nine individuals. This year in Budapest, only our women field athletes tasted success. Nina Kennedy shared a gold medal in pole vault with a clearance of 4.9m. Eleanor Patterson won a silver in high jump with a leap of 1.99m, with Nicole Olyslagers earning bronze. Mackenzie Little threw the javelin 63.38 metres for a bronze medal. It was inspiring to see the level of performance of our women athletes on the world stage. It is a pity that athletics doesn’t have a higher profile in Australia.

"At High, we run the athletics program free of co-payments because we want to encourage athletic fitness and wellbeing in our student population. Athletic competence is at the base of every sport. We have a goal of increasing the base level of strength and fitness in our school. We have resistance bands available for training all students. They are particularly effective during warm-ups. We want to encourage and support athletics in any way that we can. I want to congratulate the athletes who have been chosen for the GPS carnival championship and division places in our team. You have earned your places by turning up to train, meeting your commitments and competing in the lead-up carnivals. I wish you the best of luck on the Saturday."

Interpreting Semester 2 Year 12 Reports

All Year 12 students ought to have their final reports. The ATAR estimate for the second semester report is based on the results of the Trial HSC alone. Students can get a more accurate appraisal of how they would perform if the HSC were to be held now. Those who performed better at assessment tasks, practical projects or performances than in formal examinations, are disadvantaged by this method of calculation. However, unless the examination marks are earned, they cannot be distributed to those with the best ranks in the course. Unless students take radical steps to address areas of weakness highlighted by their teachers, or until students adopt rigorous study schedules and stick to them for weeks at a time, then the ATAR predictions given to them at interview based on the Trial will, in all probability, closely reflect the actual HSC ATARs they earn. Intensive effort for a month or so can make a very big difference to examination scores. Students are urged to take the short-term pain for the long term gain.

Sentence Conscious Pedagogy:
Guided Practice on Someone Else’s Text: The Unelaborated Paragraph

Students revising unelaborated paragraphs - helps them learn to use paragraph writing strategies with careful scaffolding and then apply them to their own writing independently; enables them to practise revision techniques on text for which they don’t feel a sense of ownership; and deepens their understanding of content. Give students a bare-bones paragraph consisting of brief, simple sentences and then guide them through the process of improving it. More experienced writers will be able to improve unelaborated paragraphs with less scaffolding.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal