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High Notes, Vol 25 No 12, May 03 2024

From the Principal

Welcome Back to Term 2

I trust that everyone had a safe and relaxing break during April. It was a privilege to address the 1959 Old Boys in TGC at their 65-year reunion luncheon during the holidays. The Old Boys were impressed by the facilities the school now has to offer. Thank you to Michael Silva for his time spent as caretaker and tour guide on the day. I was proud of the dedication and skill of our cadets and staff at the dawn service at the Anzac Parade Obelisk on Anzac Day. The catafalque party acquitted themselves well. The service was attended by several hundred people. Thank you to Lieutenant Meredith Thomas for her organisation of the cadets and to Captain Kelly for her supervisory role. Later in the day our marching band performed well again and was featured positively during the broadcast of the Anzac Day March. Term 2 is always a very busy one, with assessment, reports and interviews rolling out nearly every week towards the end of term. Students need to check their calendars daily to ensure they know what their commitments are and when they are accountable for them.

High Talent

Well done to our Theatresports team (Macallister Giles, Nathan Nguyen, Gabriel Zhang and Michael Zhuo) who placed equal first in the first heat of the Theatresports Schools challenge this week.

Staff changes

Thank you to Natalie Luu who relieved as Deputy Principal 7,9 11 during Jamie Kay’s paternity leave and to Sarah Kim who filled in for Natalie as Head Teacher, Teaching and Learning. Your very professional efforts were appreciated by staff, students, and the High community. This term we welcome April Kang, appointed to Science, Shane Jennings, appointed to Industrial Arts and Matt Cotton, appointed as Careers Adviser. For the first week George Barris is on leave and Madeleine Rigby is relieving DP 8,10,12 and Elly Harcourt is relieving HT History. Thank you to you both for stepping up.

Digital Communications Policy

The proliferation of social media, computer apps and text messages has removed any boundaries between work time and personal time for teachers. Sydney Boys High is a six-day school, and many communications are needed between the School and staff, students and parents. Nevertheless, hazards such as stress and burnout may arise due to the excessive number of communications that are expected to be processed by staff, inside and outside of ‘working hours’. We are concerned that staff should have the ability to ‘switch off’  and balance better their personal and professional lives. There needs to be a healthier balance between convenience and intrusion. Sydney Boys High School has two forms of after-hours communication – Clipboard and email. Members of the wider school community seeking information should monitor and use these two forms of communication only.

We have always held to the belief that teachers, as professionals, can work outside of school hours if they choose to do so. However, 24/7 communications with colleagues, students, parents, coaches, and Old Boys, have increased MICs and teachers’ workload and stress levels. We are concerned about the psychosocial harms that excessive digital communications are having, and may continue to have, on school staff.

School staff will only be contacted outside of our school working hours for ‘emergency communications’ ie ‘notifications of misadventure, natural disasters, utility emergencies impacting school operations, and serious student or employee health, safety and wellbeing issues’. Where colleagues, students, parents and members of the community send non-emergency communication to employees outside of their agreed and usual operating hours, employees are not expected to respond until they resume their school working hours. We are encouraging ‘guilt-free’ disconnection for our employees outside of their agreed and usual working hours.

Community members e-mailing school staff on non-emergency matters should expect a reply within 48 hours or two school days. We already enjoy a culture of considerable communication. This policy formalises the approach to digital communication at Sydney Boys High. [Ratified by SBHS Executive on 29.04.24]

High’s Regular Giving Scheme  

For new and existing parents – there is a really painless way to help the school reach its capital development objectives – the Regular Giving Scheme. Having successfully completed building the Governors Centre, our next objective is to complete the Junior Library Air-conditioning Project. The Table Tennis Centre will move into design and preliminary construction stage in 2H24. We still need some fit-out finishing touches to The Governors Centre. We need to build a retaining wall and disabled entrance into the Outterside Centre. The basketball courts need to be weather protected and lit for night-time use and day-time shade. The Regular Giving Scheme allows you to make a deduction each month from your nominated credit card account. Deductions occur around the 15th of each month. In late June each year, the ̽»¨ÊÓƵ Foundation sends you a statement for taxation purposes including the total of your donations for the year. I urge you to do as I do and make a regular financial investment in public education. If you are interested, please click on  .  I find that philanthropy in a public cause is bidirectional - it benefits the donor and the recipient.

Closer Reading

What am I reading? An extended narrative in which the characters and incidents symbolise underlying moral or ethical ideas is called an allegory. Allegories are symbolic narratives with a didactic (teaching) purpose. They typically employ the devices of personification and metaphor. Shorter narrative forms can also be allegories. A fable is a short narrative in which some moral truth or principle is explained by means of a story. An apologue is a brief story, conveying a lesson or pointing to a moral, using animals and things as characters (Aesop). A parable (putting side by side) is a short tale told with two senses, one illustrating the other by analogy. Its object is to persuade or convince about a point, usually moral or ethical. An exemplum is a short story, stating a point or principle (purporting to be true), and then illustrating it. An anecdote (unpublished) is a short story containing a single incident. Anecdotes are often unwritten tales passed on by oral tradition.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal