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High Notes, Vol 24 No 37, November 24 2023

From the Principal

High Talent

Well done to Liam Nottage (10S) who was selected into the CHS Junior State Debating Team.

Scholarship Applications

There is only one week left for students to apply for the Phillip Day Memorial and Sir Roden and Lady Cutler Foundation Scholarships. If you have financial needs due to family or special circumstances; if you are a great all-rounder; or if you have a special talent that needs extra resources to help you develop; or if you are going into Year 11 and you have a strong background in community service, please consider applying. Scholarships are valued at $1500 in school credit per year. Application forms can be downloaded from the school website – .  Applications close on Thursday, November 30.

End of Year Reports

All boys in Years 11, 9, 8 & 7 should have discussed their reports with me. Boys requiring ‘Clearance Forms’ who have not collected their reports have time slots available to book in for interviews next week. Thereafter, they will join the other Years in having appointments only out of school time or in breaks. Please make sure that your son meets his obligations to the school and then books in for an appointment. Bring your device to the appointment so that you can show the Principal that you have a clear portal.

Student Awards Scheme

The Student Award Scheme for points to be earned for this calendar year will close on Thursday, November 30.  All students will have their points calculated as of this date. Check your points’ status on  the Student Portal to see how close to an award you are so that you can make up the difference. If you see something missing, contact the MIC for the activity to make sure a text file is created and sent to Mr Kay. Year 11 Prefect Interns will have their final points calculated and must have qualified to continue as Interns by earning an award this year. Even if they have carry-over points, they must earn 100 this year to stay as a Prefect Intern. The 2024 Scheme commences on December 1, 2023. Boys who are close to getting an award should fire up now. Look for service areas in parking, school-related working bees or volunteering, in order to reach the threshold required. A reminder that the Student Awards Scheme for 2024 will have a new look and be more visible through Sentral. More details will be released before the end of the year.

Interpreting Year 8 Reports – Semester 2

When coming to the end of Year 8, some boys do not put much effort into subjects they do not intend to continue. This behaviour is regrettable but understandable. Parents should realise that such a lack of interest in one or two subjects can result in big fluctuations in grades awarded by teachers, and in turn, cause large movements in overall ranks. Some boys are better at geography or history and the semesterisation of subjects might not suit them for half the year.

Such fluctuations will be reflected in ratings on ‘learning behaviours’ by teachers on reports and by comments from the Principal. From one perspective, parents can appreciate better what sort of learner their son is not. It is better not to persist in a discipline that does not excite you and motivate you to excel. For other students, doing well in the Yearly examination is their objective. They can turn around their cruising first semester with much more self-disciplined effort in the second half of the year. Elective choice going into Year 9 is very important. Students need to follow their interests in a low-stakes choice environment. Some boys change both electives again in Year 10! We offer a wide range of electives for students to experience different learning contexts, with varying content and required skill sets. By the end of Year 8, the generalist focus for secondary education is completed. That is, compulsory experiences in music, visual arts and technology have now finished. Stage 5 is characterised by learner exploration and enlargement of perspective – more student choice. Students start to prepare for stage 6 selections by trialling subjects. Of course, the core subjects are vitally important, and students need to be held accountable for their satisfactory progress in them. At our school, the expectation is state grade ‘A’ performance in core subjects. Discuss your son’s report from the two perspectives – core and future electives. Talk about their selections with them. Let them follow their interests.

Sentence Conscious Pedagogy: 
MPB for an Argumentative Essay

Introduction (state position and acknowledge counterclaim); background and introduction of claim; counterclaim and evidence; claim and strongest evidence; and conclusion. Students encouraged to use precise keywords in their online searches, more sophisticated words, use databases, Google Scholar, Searchasaurus, Grolier Online. Start by having the whole class write about the same topic, chosen by the teacher. Set out a detailed schedule listing due dates for each stage of the process: gathering material, developing a thesis, making notes for expansion into detailed sentences, writing the thesis and concluding statements, and writing body paragraphs. Converting the MPB into a draft, students will need to use their notes to create general and specific statements for their introductions and conclusions, topic sentences for each of their paragraphs, and detail sentences.  Use the different categories of transitions to connect their paragraphs.

[This is the final entry for sentence conscious pedagogy. All the major strategies from The Writing Revolution have been summarised and adapted for chunking in paragraph bites each week. Next year we will be focusing on paragraph writing.]
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal