探花视频

High Notes, Vol 25 No 19, June 21 2024

From the Principal

High Talent

Our fencing teams are continuing to have a great deal of success at tournaments. At the Australian Schools Intermediate Fencing Championships our Intermediate Foil Team of Tom Ye (9T), Jeremy Yan (9F), Jentzen Lim (9F) and Xavier Xie (7T) won Silver in their event. Our Intermediate Epee Team of Daniel Zhu (9R), Alexander Howe (9M), Luke McLoughlin (9T) and William Huang (8F) won Gold in their event. While Oliver Xie (9R) won Silver in the Individual Men鈥檚 Sabre event, with William Cahyadi winning equal Bronze in the same event. Congratulations boys!

Combined P&C Meeting

Last week our P&C held the combined P&C meeting with Sydney Girls, inviting guest speaker 鈥� Ruby Otero. This session focused on anxiety in students and the resources available to help students in managing this. Research shows that two thirds of anxiety is learned, and we can teach children to focus on what鈥檚 in their control to manage their feelings of anxiety effectively. The following is a short film clip shown on the night which goes through some of the cognitive distortions humans may have, where irrational thoughts enter their minds

As discussed on the night, evidence indicates that bone strength develops as we put our body under stress, and inoculation allows the human body to get stronger. Similarly, when we鈥檙e put under emotional stress and allowed to struggle, we can learn to manage our emotions and grow. Patterns of behaviour won鈥檛 change until we鈥檙e educated and guided on how to behave differently. Giving in to the anxious thoughts of adolescents encourages them to continue with their mindset and hinders their growth to manage the situation. Instead, we can acknowledge that it鈥檚 hard but tell them that we know they can do it. By showing we believe in them and their abilities, reinforcing times they鈥檝e done similar things in the past, we can help them manage anxious feelings more effectively. I鈥檇 like to thank Mr George Barris and Ms Catherine Bavell for their work is organising Ruby Otero to speak at the event and we hope to get more opportunities to develop the boys through organisations such as Parentshop.

Importantly, the co-curricular activities on offer at High allow the boys to push themselves and become more resilient, providing one way for them to better manage feelings of anxiety. As always, we strongly encourage boys in all year levels to be involved in co-curricular programs in their areas of interest, as they can challenge themselves, while creating closer friendships.

World Refugee Week

Relating to resilience, this week is World Refugee Week, with the theme for 2024 being 鈥淔inding freedom: Family鈥�. The determination and strength refugees must demonstrate while facing adversity is central to the week鈥檚 activities. Refugees develop very close bonds across their journey that have a profound impact on their lives, with family ties enhanced as they manage the complex situations they face. On Thursday, for World Refugee Day, a group of students in the Equality Committee attended a Refugee Day event to gain more understanding and support for refugees and the plights they face. We hope that in sharing what they鈥檝e learned, they can play their part in creating a supportive culture around the world.

Year 7 Reports and Parent-Teacher Interviews

On another note, this week it was a pleasure to meet with each of our Year 7 cohort to issue them with their reports. The excitement many of them have been experiencing in their first months at High was great to hear, with many of the boys commenting on the academic challenge and sporting experiences as highlights of their time so far.

Impressively, the very large number of Year 7s demonstrating exceptional learning behaviours - a record 50 boys in total - bodes well for their year group as they continue their secondary school journey. I highly recommend that parents discuss their son鈥檚 report with him to look at his areas of strength and what goals he could set himself for Semester 2. Each year from 7-10 the two semesters鈥� results are reported on separately, so the boys have a fresh start commencing this week to show what they鈥檝e learned from their feedback on this report.

Coming up in Week 10, we have the parent-teacher interviews for Year 7. History shows that there will undoubtedly be substantial interest in year 7 parents meeting with their son鈥檚 teachers. Since 2023 we鈥檝e held a separate event for Year 7 parents to maximise the number of interviews possible. If you haven鈥檛 received the email from Edval to sign up for interviews please check your junk mail first, before contacting the front office if further support is needed. Requests for interviews must be placed through our Edval system by Wednesday next week, so ensure you enter your preferences before the deadline. Unfortunately, with each year 7 student having so many different teachers, the schedule is very densely packed. For this reason, parents may not be able to meet with every teacher so please add your priorities. Similarly, we cannot add any late requests for interviews.

On a final note, in order for students to continue developing their written responses, peer marking is an important tool at their disposal. Evidence shows that peer assessment is beneficial to both the assessor and the one assessed. The boys are encouraged to read each other鈥檚 work and provide feedback on what they did well and what could be improved. Doing so will allow both students to enhance the quality of their future responses.
Jamie Kay
Relieving Principal