̽»¨ÊÓƵ

High Notes, Vol 25 No 32, October 18 2024

From the Principal

Welcome back to Term 4

I trust students and staff had a relaxing break, except for the Year 12 students preparing for their HSC examinations. Good luck to all Year 12 and accelerants in the hectic weeks ahead! Term four is dedicated to reporting and planning. End of year reports are important snapshots of student progress. There is also usually time for revising or planning teaching and learning programs for the following year. I look forward to a productive term ahead.

High Talent

Congratulations to Harrison Guo (12T), Alex Huang (11R) and Harry Xin (12E) who had their HSC Design and Technology Projects set aside for possible inclusion in SHAPE. Six HSC students had their musical performances nominated for possible selection in ENCORE. Congratulations to Jerry Chen (11E), Andy Huang (12E), Ethan Hybler (12R), Ryan Kirkland (11S), Oscar Kuo (11S) and Christopher Lau (12R).

Tell Them from Me – Parent responses needed

Thank you to the 22 parents who have completed the survey. We cannot draw any conclusions for our Strategic Improvement Plan from such a small sample of our parents’ voices. Please share your views!

The survey window closes Term 4, Week 4 Friday 8 November 2024. The parent surveys take approximately 10 minutes to complete.

Surveys can be completed at any time during this window. All surveys will be automatically closed on Friday 8 November at 4:30 pm. Here is the link:

Foundation Day Assembly

We started off the term with a rousing Foundation Day Assembly, highlighted by Captain Elect Jin Shim’s thoughtful and impassioned speech. Guest Speaker, Glynn Gill, being avowedly iconoclastic, spoke at length about how choices are made and the profound effects they can have on lives. A novel addition to his speech was props, including a ChatGPT generated speech which he theatrically crumpled up and lobbed into the front row of Prefect Interns, and two pieces of fruit from his lunch box, which he placed carefully on the table covered in ceremonial cloth. His speech achieved his twin aims of being different and entertaining. My speech to the Assembly is reprinted below:

"Special guest Glyn Gill, School Captain of 1974, Ms Catherine Bavell, R/Deputy Principal Sydney Girls High School, Mr Jacob Ezrakhovich OBU President, Mr Paul Almond past OBU President, Life Governor Mr Geoff Andrews, Class of 1974 attendees, Old Boys Dr David Sweeting OAM, Joshua Suto (2022), Landrie Zuo and Matthew Lam (2023), Michael Fischer (1971), Stewart Wood, Alan Wong (2020), Ms Shalona Acharya and Ms Nazara Jones (SGHS), staff and students, welcome to our 141st Foundation Day Assembly held on Gadigal land. I pay my respects to Aboriginal elders, past, present and emerging and to any Aboriginal people here today. We are gathered again to re-connect with our traditions, reaffirm our cultural values, honour those who helped build them, and endorse the candidature of the Prefect Interns who will reinforce and renew them. We welcome back our eleven Old Boys who graduated fifty years ago and try to connect to their context in relation to ours. High has enduring continuity mingled with its contextual diversity.

"In 1974, Richard Nixon resigned as President of the United States as a consequence of the Watergate scandal, signalling the slow decline of America’s faith in its political leadership. After a hung parliament in the UK, Tory PM Edward Heath had to resign in favour of Harold Wilson, returning to lead the country for a second time. Gough Whitlam’s Labor Government was returned in the general election at home in 1974. Kheir Starmer won back the leadership of the UK for Labor in a landslide this year. In Israel in 1974, the Kiryat Shmona massacre of 18 people by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was a precursor atrocity to the October 7, 2023 attacks, both committed in the name of a war for statehood. The anniversary of the Hamas attack was held recently, with no resolution of the conflict in sight, as neither side recognises the other’s right to exist.

"Three legends were born in 1974. ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest with ‘Waterloo’; Muhammad Ali was immortalised by his famous victory over George Foreman in the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in Zaire; and the Volkswagen Golf replaced the beetle as the peoples’ car.

"In The Record of 1974, the Headmaster, Greg Bradford, observed in his Headmaster’s Report that the ‘School is suited to the needs of boys who wish to participate successfully, but not necessarily be the best, in a very wide range of activities. I ask you to make the necessary commitment which will allow you to benefit from the unique opportunities offered by the school’. Also in The Record, school captain Glyn Gill, declared that ‘within Sydney High the essence of a successful six years lies in the student participating in all areas of his interests, participation is in taking the offer’. My annual message to our boys is essentially the same. The modern context has more variety in offerings but also just as fierce competition at the elite level.

"On Foundation Day we can take this time to examine our historical foundations from October 1883 and our enduring traditions. While much about the school has changed in the last 50 years, the essentials that define High are the same. We prepare our students for university. We need to constantly rally support for GPS sport among students in Years 11 and 12. Our returning Old Boys today include representatives from 1974 from the First VIII in rowing, the first XI in cricket, first grade tennis, GPS athletics and the first XV in rugby. Others represented in lower grades in various sports but participated strongly to the level of their ability and training. They are united for over five decades in their appreciation of the opportunities and camaraderie that their lives at High afforded – enduring examples of High Spirit.

"Today in remembrance of the school’s founding and of its student leaders, we celebrate a new cohort of student leaders as they take the Prefect’s Pledge. These Prefect Interns have had to qualify against quite onerous performance benchmarks. They have had to show lived experience of leadership. They have had to meet academic benchmarks. They have had to represent their school in two GPS competition sports in each of their final two years at school. They have had to reach at least platinum level in the Student Awards Scheme and score at least 100 points in Year 11. They have had to comply with standards in terms of school uniform, behaviour and punctuality. They have had an opportunity to compose an online personal statement of why they would like to lead. They have faced an electoral college consisting of their peers in Years 10 and 11, the outgoing 2024 Prefects and the staff. They have been elected by their school community. They will have leadership training and be assigned specific roles. These representatives who will be standing before you are ready for the tasks ahead.

"We celebrate our founding as a school to prepare young men for tertiary study. We celebrate our institution that enlarges character through opportunities to pursue excellence. We celebrate a culture of camaraderie that has influenced positive character development in many cohorts of young men. The contemporary cohort’s representatives are being inducted today. They will prove to be worthy bearers of the High traditions of leadership by example, across many areas of school life. I offer my congratulations to them and remind them to preserve the best examples from the past while adding their own initiatives to enhance the leadership culture of the school. The measure of effective leadership is the legacy it leaves."
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal