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High Notes, Vol 24 No 7, March 17 2023

From the Principal

High Talent

At the recent CHSSA Rowing Championships, High boys came up against a strong Northern Beaches team. The enhanced competition is good for us and makes the standard higher. Crews won 17 medals – 3 gold, 9 silver and 5 bronze.

Championship Men’s Single Scull – Gold (Jacob Yin), silver (Zhangbo Wang) and bronze (Jack Wang). U17 Single Scull – silver (Dean Johnsun). U15 Single Scull – gold (Roman Samsonov).
Championship Men’s Pair – silver (Zhou, Choi).
Championship Men’s Double Scull – bronze (Zhou, Choi).
U17 Double Scull – bronze (Li, Xin). U15 Double Scull – silver (Samsonov. Zhang).
Coxed Quad Scull – Championship - silver (Rusli, Wang, Ying, Wang c Ta); U17 – silver (Johnsun, Singh, Xin, Li c Park) and bronze (Park, Jouravlev, Zhang, Lee c Lai); U16 – silver (Zou, McCleod, Wilkinson, Varthakhavi c Denigan); U15 – gold (Zhang, Choe, Zhang, Samsonov c Miu) and silver (Liu, Hu, Lai, Ye c He).
Championship Men’s Coxed Four – silver (Rusli, Chen, Mustafa, Tran c Chen) and bronze (Wachsmann, Wong, Huang, Nguyen c Park).

Congratulations to the team, their coaches and Mr Barris as MIC.

Literacy Development in Years 7-9

As part of our literacy objective in our Strategic Improvement Plan, we intend all students to engage in literacy development. In a nutshell, we want our students to be more skilful, accurate, versatile and purposeful writers. We want them to read more widely, analyse more closely and listen more acutely. There is an ongoing whole school emphasis on closer reading, clearer writing. Students need to focus on audience, sentence construction, ideas generation and vocabulary. Examples of text types you should be able to identify when you read and compose when you write include – narrative, procedure, report, description, discussion, exposition, recount, poem, text response, analysis and evaluation. We want students to create more legible, coherent and accurate texts. In addition, to develop student vocabulary, we are asking for parental support to encourage wide reading using the Junior Library resources to assist in building student vocabulary. Dr Love has purchased many books recommended by the students themselves that can be borrowed from the Andrews Library.

Spelling Tests in Years 7-9

We have too many ‘cusp kids’ – at HSC mark 88 or 89. They don’t quite get Band 6. Why didn’t they get there?

Often, it is because their expression, sentence construction, spelling or handwriting or a combination thereof, produced what I call an ‘apprehension of flawed excellence’ in the mind of the examiner – conscious or subconscious – that led to a reduction in an assessed mark by the examiner on one or more questions, even if just by one mark.

Teachers can’t be expected to have to move students from band 4 to 5 at the HSC in two years if expression is holding them back. We need to fix this problem in the Junior School. Many faculties have vocabulary lists aligning with topics taught. It is easier to learn to spell words you will be using. The Executive has agreed (7.3.23) to commence 10-word spelling tests for every class in Year 7-9 once a cycle, to increase spelling accuracy in context.

More sophisticated, confident and accurate writers will deliver more Band 6 outcomes at the HSC in more courses from the same base of ability, knowledge and understanding.

2022 Budget Summary

Balance brought forward was $975,727. The total income from DoE was $12,408,411. Total income from school and community sources was $4,246,032, including grants and contributions ($4,154,651), sale of goods and services ($75,502) and investment income and other revenue ($15,879). Income from all sources was $16,654,443. Within those totals, donations to the SHS Building Fund and to the P & C were $ 677,760. Funds available $16,799,880.

Total payments were $16,767,771, predominantly salaries and wages for staff ($13,442,333) and operating expenses ($3,325,438). Fees for service rendered ($986,338), mostly coaching payments, and other operating expenses were $958,680. Key Learning Area expenditure was $274,507. Property Maintenance costs were $341,657. Furniture and equipment ($263,725).

Overall, payments as a percentage of funds available was 99.8%, meaning we do not build up reserves beyond a slender carried forward operating balance (which has now become very small). The 2022 payments percentage was again higher than normal, due to properties projects being brought forward during the period, rising inflation and more expensive equipment and services inputs. At High the very strong reliability of our income flows from parents through donations and contributions has allowed this very high expenditure percentage to be maintained for 23 years. I am counting on that great support continuing in 2023!

Sentence Conscious Pedagogy: Using Appositives

An appositive is second noun or phrase, placed beside a noun to explain it more fully. An appositive defines or describes a person, place or thing. eg The Head of the River, a prestigious rowing regatta for GPS rowers in Years 10 to 12 held at SIRC in March each year, is very competitive. Appositives are easy to construct and add variety and complexity to sentence composition. Appositives can help when writing topic and concluding sentences. They help add more variety, information and sophistication to your sentences. A knowledge of appositives can help your reading comprehension because appositives are rarely spoken.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal