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High Notes, Vol 24 No 3, February 17 2023

From the Principal

High Talent

Congratulations to Tommy Xu (10E) who has been selected to represent Australia in Epee at the Asian cadet Fencing Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan at the end of this month. Congratulations also to Rahul Pant (SHS-2022) who was our second student awarded a UNSW Co-op Scholarship.

Early Bird Discounts

For much of what we do as a six-day school, particularly on Saturdays, High is a self-help, self-funded organisation. In order to help maintain all of our many activities we offer a substantial discount to parents who pay all their invoices in full before Friday, March 10. It is not only a great demonstration by them of their commitment to the ethos of the school but also, it’s an encouragement for others to follow their lead and it helps to create a critical mass of financial support for our programs. The rest comes from the support of parents and the efforts made by School family volunteers, helping in fund raising. Having substantial funds early in the year allows us to make sure that capital works are completed in the holidays, orders are made promptly and that the boys get the maximum benefit out of equipment and services deployed for them this year.  Quality services, extra staff and high standards come at a high price. A very large number of parents see the package as value for money and contribute in full.

The early bird discount is available for students who were invoiced in 2023 and doesn’t apply to new students who were invoiced in October 2022 and subsequently came to Orientation Day in November and had the opportunity to pay all invoices on that day and obtain the discount. New Year 7-11 boys who were not made offers before Orientation Day and hence could not attend, are eligible for the discount. Returning students in Years 8-12 have the chance to make a saving by paying in full by Friday, March 10.

Last year, 66.8% of families saw the benefit of supporting the school in all of its activities early in the year and thereby earned the early bird discount. Together they saved $199,125. I thank them sincerely for their support. We achieved our target and reset our 2023 target to attract 67.5% of parents this year. Let’s carry on High’s self-help culture to make sure we achieve our goals for your sons in 2023 and beyond!

HSC 2022 High Achievers – State rankings

Mathematics Advanced – Venkatesan Darshan (8);
Mathematics Extension 1 – Stan Tse (3), Eric Qin (7);
Ancient History – Yu Ming Lee (10);
Chemistry – Hugo Leung (10), Aggarwal Saarthak (11), Addison Chen (14); Hao Wu (19);
Music 1 – Allen Fang (5);
English Advanced – Hao Wu (14); and
Biology – Ruiyu Zhang (20).

Congratulations to all our highly successful students!

The ̽»¨ÊÓƵ Building Fund

The ̽»¨ÊÓƵ Building Fund is a capital fund managed by the Sydney High School Foundation Ltd on behalf of the school. The object of the Fund is to provide facilities and resources for the use of students at High. Some of these assets are located off-site. The Foundation owns, maintains and operates the Outterside Centre and manages the Fairland Pavilion. It also negotiates and manages Deeds of Licence with third parties for medium and long-term legal arrangements for the High Store and the Tennis Courts which the Principal cannot do.

It delivered finance for one half of the c $14,750,000 major project the Governors Centre, a joint endeavour with SGHS completed in 2021 after 10 years of effort. Contributions by parents for 2022 were $530,240. Monthly Giving from parents added another $24,010. This culture of ongoing generosity is the principal reason why High has acquired the assets it enjoys over 139 years and the access it has to facilities at Moore Park, Abbotsford, Malabar, Sydney International Shooting Centre, Rose Bay and Centennial Park.

The Foundation funded half of the installation of our new demountable science lab, c $475,000 in 2022. Our current projects are to air condition the Junior Library for $75,000; build a retaining wall, pathway and entrance way at the Outterside Centre c $100k and build a meeting/lunch/physio room for the tennis courts c$85,000. Please help us to achieve these important goals in 2023 by making your annual contributions to the Sydney High School Building Fund as so many of our existing and previous parents have done over many years.

SBHS Parent-Operated Canteen

Our school is one of a declining number of schools with a parent-operated canteen. With the help of parent volunteers, our managers Karen and Eirini, deliver high quality, low-cost food options for our boys. They offer seasonal variety and nutritious foods in a certified operating environment. Each year we need parents to give some of their time, once a month for a few hours, to help keep prices low and quality high. Last year some of our Committee members retired once their sons left the school. We are relying on new and existing parents to fill the gaps under the leadership of our new Canteen Committee President, Alison Dao. We need volunteers to act as Treasurer and Volunteer Coordinator.  The commitment is a few hours each month. Our High community has always filled these roles, helping to make possible a donation of c$65k annually to school funds from Canteen profits. If you have financial management or organisational skills please contact Andrew Hybler, P & C President or Alison Dao for more details and a role briefing.  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Sentence Conscious Pedagogy: Choose descriptive words more accurately

The adjective ‘good’ is used very frequently by students in writing. There are 15 discrete contexts for ‘good’ where more accurate words could be used. Here are two examples each for five contexts: acceptable, admirable; estimable, exemplary; able, accomplished; adequate, auspicious; uncorrupted, untainted.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal