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High Notes, Vol 24 No 4, February 24 2023

From the Principal

High Talent

Axel Lam (8E) has been selected to compete in the Australian Youth Beach Volleyball Championships. Well done, Axel!

The Strategic Improvement Plan 2023-2026

High has been engaged in a strategic planning process, led by DP Junior School, Jamie Kay, for two years. All of our stakeholders were surveyed, and many meetings held. Ideas were crystallised and multiple drafts of aspects of the plan were written and discussed by staff teams. Our vision statement focuses on pedagogy and meaningful programs. ‘We strive to be at the forefront of educational practice, pursuing excellence while contributing positively to the world as scholars, sportsmen, educators and leaders.’ Unlike our previous plans we have a more bi-directional emphasis. Ours is a collaborative vision which sets out aspirations, initiatives, strategies, targets and responsibilities for students and staff. We are held to the same high expectations, measured against our agreed values as benchmarks, as those we require from students. Our three strategic directions are: student growth and attainment; nurturing personal wellbeing and closer reading, clearer writing. Each strategic direction is informed by purpose, stated initiatives, improvement measures, success criteria and an accompanying evaluation plan.  The improvement measures have system negotiated targets specified for each year of the plan. The accompanying evaluation plan for each strategic direction sets out the evidence sources that will be used to analyse our progress towards our targets. Our Strategic Improvement Plan has stretch targets that are demanding. During the next four years, we need to work together as a school community to support progress in each direction of the plan to nurture higher achieving, more involved and happier, students and staff.

Presentation Night 2023

On Tuesday we held our 140th Presentation Night – live and streamed. Thank you to Joanna Chan, supervising staff, the Media Team, James Rudd, James Walker, Brooke Ashton, student volunteers and to our guests. Everyone worked together harmoniously to make the occasion run smoothly. Our special guest, John Taylor (SHS-1967) recounted his remarkable career in construction, project management, consulting and public service from the perspective of ‘soft skills’ success. In work, the academic foundation is a given, but success stems from people working together, energised in pursuit of a cause. My speech is reprinted below:

"Special guest Mr John Taylor (representing the SHSOBU), Ms Angela Lyris OAM, Director of Educational Leadership, Mr Saheel Afiz (Vice-President  SBHS P & C), Professor Ron Trent (President SBHS School Council), Ms Virginia Flint representing Sir Roden & Lady Cutler Foundation, Life Governors Mr Geoff Andrews, Mr Dennis Briggs and Mr Phil Lambert, guest presenters Braham Basser, Katherine Morgan, John Pilger, Richard Halliday and Kelvin Widdows, guests’ partners and relatives, Old Boys, staff, parents and prize winners – thank you all for joining us this evening.

"In 2022, our society and our school gradually learned to live with COVID, even the third wave. Learning was again disrupted by very high rates of absence through sickness in Term 1, but nevertheless, we managed to carry out most of our planned activities. Due to the efforts of Jamie Kay and George Barris, we transitioned to Sentral for our school reports in both semesters and for all academic years. It was a steep learning curve for all. We made a solid start to our Literacy Support Project, headed up by Cassandra Pride. We will build on this with our ‘sentence conscious pedagogy’ initiative this year. We reformed financial management by integrating Schoolbytes as a payment system, thanks to the groundwork by David Isaacs and Jamie Kay. Parents and staff are pleased with the changes in communication and transparency. In Term 4, we introduced Clipboard as a sports training and competing attendance monitoring and information system, thanks again to the work of David Isaacs and George Barris. This year we have rolled it out across all sports and expect efficiency gains and time saving for staff, students and parents. Last year, we built a new science laboratory, replaced the COLA roof, constructed a distributor insulation area within the LOTE staffroom and extended the concrete playing area and drainage system on The Flat. Thanks to two Department of Education grants, the Cutler Drive was asphalted, parking spaces marked up and the tennis courts path re-laid. We also had a new perimeter fence installed – a major investment. In 2022, I took two periods of extended leave, allowing Jamie Kay, George Barris, Natalie Luu and Madeleine Rigby time to experience leadership at a higher whole school level. I think the leadership capabilities and corporate knowledge of our Executive team have been enhanced by the experiences gained during that time.

"Our HSC results for 2022 were somewhat lower than for 2021, despite the improvement in the League Tables, which diverted conversation away from our historically long tail of 62 boys below 90. High boys earned 539 band 6/E4s which was our lowest number since 2009. The ATAR average for 2022 was 90.93 calculated for 210 candidates with a standard deviation of 10.58. [The 22-year corresponding numbers are 92.64 & 8.59]. The 174 students who enrolled in 2017 earned a mean ATAR of 92.21. The 36 later-enrolling students had an ATAR mean of 84.73. [The 17- year numbers are 92.87 and 88.62].  In all, 31 students scored 99 or higher; 72 students earned ATARs between 95 and 98.95; but only 148 scored 90 or above – our smallest number since 2005. In terms of Band 5 & 6 percentages per course, 12 courses were at 100%, two at 95 to 99%, two at 90 to 94% and 13 below 90%. Our 2022 course means compared to 2021 – 14 increased and 15 decreased. When comparing High with its SSSG, 21 courses were positive and 9 negative.  Hao Yu Wu and Joshua Suto earned maximum calculated ATARs of 99.95. 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 – Eddie Zhang (20).

"Our boys won four GPS Premierships in two sports. Eleven individuals and three teams competed successfully at national schools’ level, while eleven individuals competed at state level. There were four teams successful at CHS Knockout Competitions. Additional significant individual and team achievements for 2022 are outlined for you to peruse at the end of your program.

"Tonight, we bid farewell to the Class of 2022, but before we do, I want to indulge in some unsolicited observations about the human condition. I was impressed by the recount of processes of self-preservation, mental discipline and resilience training when reading The Sixteenth Round and Eye of the Hurricane, written by Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter, who served 19 years in jail after being wrongfully convicted of a triple murder in the Lafayette Bar, in Paterson, New Jersey in 1966.  Rubin fought for a retrial which he achieved in 1976 after celebrity help from Muhammad Ali with bail and Bob Dylan in his 1975 song, Hurricane.  He was tried and convicted a second time. He never gave up his fight for freedom. After his release in 1985 under a writ of habeas corpus, Rubin went to Canada, eventually becoming a Canadian citizen.  From 1993 to 2004 he was the Director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted – a cause for which he dedicated the remainder of his life. He was later the subject of a 1999 motion picture starring Denzel Washington.  Nelson Mandela, also a boxer who spent a very long time in prison, understood Rubin’s anger and wrote a foreword to Eye of the Hurricane.  ‘Rubin chose to live, and his means of doing so was to seek out his inner self…Rubin woke up in prison and became a free man.’ In his writing, Rubin uses an extended metaphor about society being asleep as so many injustices and instances of corrupt practice oppress its citizens. The only wakefulness to be found is in self-knowledge. I commend to you the story of Rubin’s strength of mind in circumstances that should produce utter despair. I trust none of you will ever be tested in character strength or mental discipline the way he was, and hope that you will encounter your future challenges with a resilience built by strong and sure self-knowledge. I wish you all good health and good fortune. It was a privilege to serve as your Principal."

Sentence Conscious Pedagogy: ‘Say’ it another way

In your writing, when a person or character or interlocutor uses direct speech, try to avoid always using ‘say’ or ‘said’. Try using synonyms such as – announce, add, affirm, assert, declare, maintain, mention, pronounce, remark, answer, disclose, divulge, respond, reveal, tell, recite, rehearse, conjecture, report, convey, express.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal