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High Notes, Vol 25 No 40, December 13 2024

From the Principal

High Talent

Cricketer Saharsh Subramaniam (7F) was the first Year 7 student picked in a 5-Highs Championship Team in the history of the competition – a startling achievement. Advaith Ilavajhala (SHS-2024) has had his Musicology work selected for inclusion in ENCORE – an impressive achievement! Oliver Buikema (10F) won the V Fest Junior Competition for his film made at school. Congratulations to Cassiel Yun (10T) whose artwork on the theme – ‘Everyone has a story’- was judged the winner of the Judy Cassab Prize of $1000, sponsored annually by her son, Peter Kampfner. Some more Year 10 Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Medal awardees – Alexander Pidcock, Adrian Wang, Lachlan Yuen and Lucas Zhang. Well done, lads!

Final High Notes for 2024

I want to thank all of our staff for their collegial work this year to make our school operate efficiently and effectively. Thank you to the editorial staff – Rosa and Brooke – for pushing out a proofed edition of High Notes each week. We have a large number of contributors each week – staff, students, parents, coaches – and much work is required in layout, editing and proof reading. Their efforts to disseminate current news to our school community on a weekly basis takes a lot of time and is much appreciated. Thank you to everyone who helped make the publication a success – contributors and editors alike. I urge more parents to have High Notes emailed to them each week so that they can keep abreast of everything that their boys are doing at High. Thank you to our properties staff- John Prorellis, Jim Crampton and Daniel Xu for the long list of repairs and improvements to the buildings and grounds. We farewell Eden Boundy (Visual Arts) who will be leaving us at the end of this year and thank her for her service.

Scholarships Awarded to Accomplished Applicants

Congratulations to Jude Ou (10R) was a worthy winner of the Sir Roden and Lady Cutler Foundation Inc Scholarship, focused on social justice, community service and civic consciousness. He has $1,500 for both Years 11 and 12 credited to his school account. Matthias Elgawly (11R) was awarded the Phillip Day Memorial Scholarship, emphasising all-round academics, participation and sport. He was credited with $1,750 against his account for 2025. Encouragement Awards went to Dylan Dutt (11F) for $500 and Joshua Chen (8E) for $250.Thank you to the 27 able applicants for this year’s scholarships. It was a difficult and painstaking task to find those who fulfilled the goals of the scholarships most closely.

Collection of Reports

All students except Year 8 should have collected their reports by now. Students in Years 7, 9 and 11 have been very cooperative and all reports have been collected. There a very few left, mostly belonging to students on extended leave and a few Year 10s I have not been able to catch up with so far. I will complete the process early in the new year. With 1207 reports and interviews to schedule, the cooperation level from parents and students has been very high indeed. Thank you to Year Advisers and office staff who have assisted with co-payments and book returns. Thank you to all the teachers who have had students coming and going from their classes to have their interviews with the principal.

Music Awards Assembly

Cameron Morrison (SHS-2011) spoke about the importance of music in his life as enjoyment, stress relief and as an aid to gaining employment in his legal profession. He reinforced the benefits of wide participation in co-curricular activities while at school. My address is reprinted below:

"Special guest Mr Cameron Morrison (SHS-2011), members of the Music Committee, participants in our Performance Music Program, staff, tutors, parents and students, welcome to our Music Awards Assembly for 2024. At this morning’s assembly, we again recognise and honour the accomplishments of our performance music program performers. Many of our students join a variety of ensembles to perfect and perform a varied collection of compositions in a range of styles. High has produced many good musicians, some of whom will perform for you today. The purpose of our assembly is to honour those current students who are upholding the school’s fine performance tradition. I congratulate those boys being acknowledged today and urge them to continue their efforts in musical training and performance.

"I want to acknowledge and thank our performance music staff - Sarah Kim, Suzanna Lim and Peter Aoun. Thank you also to Annette Dilling - Administrative Assistant for Music. Our music staff organise soirees, concerts, music camps, recitals, overseas tours and supply performers for our assemblies and special occasions, such as the Anzac Day marching band. I extend our warm appreciation to you for your work on behalf of the boys, much of which occurs outside of school hours. Specialist tutors provide expert mentoring for our aspiring musicians. The Music Committee raises funds to purchase large instruments and sheet music to refresh our performance repertoire. Our boys are given many opportunities to perform.

"Our music performance program is a very large co-curricular activity. Music and musicians are integral to the many assemblies, formal occasions and special events that define and build our school culture. Musical performance is integrated vertically at High and access to ensembles is based on merit. Performing in an ensemble is an activity that builds teamwork, self-confidence and social cohesion. More importantly, being in an ensemble provides opportunities for students to perform for an audience, which is one important reason why people learn to play instruments. Musical performance publicises the talents of our students to the wider community. It has many styles.

"Country music originated from the combination of English ballads with Irish and Celtic fiddle songs, with a touch of European influences from the old continent’s immigrants. It became popular around 1900 in the Southern States in America. Unlike other music genres, country music doesn’t rely heavily on non-diatonic chords, which are notes that are not in the scale. So, all the notes of diatonic chords are in the scale, but one or more notes of a non-diatonic chord are out of the scale. Instead, this country style of music utilizes traditional chord progressions. The chords are major, meaning that they contain the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the major scale. Country Music artists like to work on duet pieces with fellow artists. It’s also not uncommon to find entire families performing together in the same band. Country music is all about string instruments. These include pedal steel, lap steel, bass, guitar, fiddle and banjo. Country artists often sing with a twang in their voice to separate country music from other music genres. Country Music heavily relies on storytelling. Country music artists often share stories about work, heartache, pride, and love. Some songs are full-blown ballads that narrate a story from its beginning to its end. Country Music is a very popular genre today thanks to Taylor Swift.

"Our special guest today is Mr Cameron Morrison, who is a senior lawyer at the Australian Government Solicitor’s Office. Cameron graduated from SBHS in 2011. While at SBHS, Cameron was heavily involved in the music program - including touring France with the marching band and senior stage band in 2010.  Following high school, he attended the University of Sydney for his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of laws, graduating with honours. Following university, Cameron worked as the Associate for Justice Thawley in the Federal Court of Australia, before practicing as a lawyer for several years with a private law firm. He holds a Master of Taxation Law from the London School of Economics. He currently works as a senior lawyer at the Australian government solicitor where he acts for the ATO in tax controversy and litigation. Please welcome to the stage, our guest speaker, Mr Cameron Morrison."
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal