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High Notes, Vol 25 No 1, February 02 2024

From the Principal

Welcome or welcome back!

Welcome to all our returning staff and students to what I am confident will be year of deeper learning and better achievement for High. I want to welcome our 180 Year 7 students and our 45 new students in Years 8, 9, 10 and 11. I want to assure you of our commitment to foster your rapid and successful integration into the High culture. We have five priority actions. We nurture your academic growth through a wide range of subjects, courses, and competitions. We develop you as a whole person through the formal curriculum and a large variety of co-curricular activities. We try to promote in you a sense of belonging to High through encouraging full participation in our six-day programs. We endeavour to develop you as global citizens and future leaders through our community service and school leadership opportunities. We support you in all your activities through our numerous support staff, incorporated associations, committees, and governance organisations.

Our focus this year is on paragraph conscious pedagogy. We want to try and teach sentence building and combining explicitly to enhance the clarity, coherence, and quality of our written responses in all years. We have a small set of proven strategies that will be applied across the curriculum to support teachers and students in the collaborative task of improving whole-school literacy through sentence and paragraph building exercises. We have a single paragraph blueprint for developing more coherent and informative paragraphs.

Staff Changes

We welcome also our new staff members for 2024. Mr Kyle Caputo has been appointed as Head Teacher of English (replacing Cassandra Pride). Mr Zaf Valoulas is replacing Dr Andrew Carman for term 1. Mr Terry Fong is covering the job-sharing arrangement for Ms Manolios and Ms Damianos. Ms Eden Boundy is covering the 0.4 unfilled vacancy in Visual Arts. Mr Wesley Beare is replacing Mr Gainford who has retired. Mr Aidan Ryan is covering the unfilled vacancy for Mr Scrivener. Mr Phillip Johnson has returned to the Languages Faculty to replace Ms Matsos who is on Long Service Leave.

Holiday properties works maintenance and upgrades.

Teaching spaces: Rooms 105 106 107 202 were all repainted. The window security grilles in 105 106 107 108 were all removed allowing more natural light in. Room 402 was completely refurbished. New sink tapware was installed in one of the art rooms. The ceiling acoustic panels in The Governors Centre upstairs conference room (904) were all reinstated.

Public spaces: The back of the Great Hall foyer and stairwell were repainted and the floor revarnished. New cabinetry, sink and a hot water system in the First Aid room has been installed.

Grounds: The Tennis Clubhouse on Cutler Drive (designed by Year 10 DT students from 2023) is nearing completion. Safety speed humps have been installed on the roadway between the Gym and the outside basketball courts. The electronic sign on the Cleveland Street side of campus has been installed. Our wayfinding project to improve our public-facing information is now complete. Thank you to Jim Crampton and John Prorellis for their work in the holidays to make all these things happen.

Paragraph Conscious Pedagogy

A paragraph is a group of sentences about a main idea. A paragraph begins with a topic sentence telling us what the paragraph is going to be about. A paragraph has supporting sentences which develop the main idea, adding complexity, nuance and consequently, substance. A paragraph usually has a concluding sentence which restates and summarises the ideas in the topic and supporting sentences.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal