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High Notes, Vol 5 No 5, February 27 2004
From the PrincipalHigh and the HSC League tables I have been asked to explain why High has 'slipped' in the League tables of HSC results. It is fashionable to take the total 'subjects' of a school and divide that number into the total Band 6 or 4 score of the school and express the result as a percentage. Schools are then ranked on their ability to produce high results in the total number of 'subjects'. I have several difficulties with simplistic interpretations of these figures. First, when comparing selective schools, the original intake needs to be taken into account - The table should compare the best 120 students for selective schools other than James Ruse that take 150 or 180 students in Year 7 (like SBHS). Second, 'subjects' really means 'courses' so the question of rigour arises. Are all the distributions of rigorous courses taken by schools at the HSC comparable? I suggest that as a school offering no Standard English, no General Mathematics and no VET courses, while presenting over 100 4-unit mathematics candidates, High is unusual. Third, English courses figure too prominently in the statistics because a 4-unit student who does well earns three Band 6 or equivalent mentions, while a 4-unit mathematics student can only earn two. Fourth, given the difficulty and refined candidature of extension courses generally, Band 3 performances might well be of greater UAI value than Band 4 (or 6) results in other courses. Fifth, at High, we don't encourage boys to do more than 10 units in Year 12. Many boys have significant extracurricular commitments. Schools that encourage or structurally design 12 or 14 unit programs for their better students are likely to gain more band 6s for their school. Finally, our school focuses on UAI value and does not chase 'league table' results per se. Having said that, we obviously still have plenty of work to do to raise the percentage of our candidates who do earn Band 6 results. On the measure of overall Band 6 numbers we rank 9th. Teachers in all courses need to adjust upwards their expectations of band 6 performance from their students. Our boys need to understand that a mark of 85 these days is ok but not highly competitive, as it would have been some years ago.
Saturday Sport 21/2/04 The tennis victory by our first grade against the very strong Riverview outfit was the best team effort in tennis in living memory. The first two doubles matches were comfortable victories. Riverview put 2 and 3 into the third doubles which they won. A cooling southerly breeze helped the players later in the afternoon as Michael Hayes struggled a bit against a good baseline player but overcame him in the third set with a clever change of tactics - slowing the pace and hitting backspin balls that stopped on his opponent, drawing him into the net, where he was forced to play low volleys or risked being passed. Dejan was untroubled, breezing past his opponent 1 and 0. Brian also had an easy match. Ivan fought hard at No 4 but was beaten by a strong player. Tim Neville fought hard in the second set to secure a win. Peter Pereira scored another vital point when he won on a tie break with six minutes to spare. The whole team, the coaches and the stalwart parents stayed on until the last play, supporting Peter. The 10-2 result was very impressive. Everyone must now stay focussed and motivated and take one week at a time. We are still only a few points in front of Riverview! Back at the cricket at McKay I was very pleased to see that the first XI had bowled and fielded well on a pitch that kept fair to both sides throughout the match. Scots could not match our 1st innings score. The second dig started disastrously for our team at 4 for very little, but they regained their composure and batted out the overs and posted Scots a nearly impossible 7 runs an over to win. The first innings points will give the team a boost going into its next match, knowing it is competitive.
Speech Night 04 Speech Night - Thank youLast Tuesday night was a wonderful night despite the rain and potential for delays. Boys were impressively attired and superbly behaved and the music was fantastic, certainly a highlight for me. There are many people who work tirelessly every year to ensure parents and students are given a celebratory evening to remember with pride. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Mrs Robyn Meakin, Mrs Gayl McLachlan, Mrs Sue McGuinness and Ms Sharon Smith for their good humour, calm and ability and at the same time to thank the administration who manage to carry on with business amidst all of the Speech Night preparations. Thank you to Mr Dowdell and Mr Beringer for their awesome editing and rather frightening ability to pick up the slightest discrepancy and for everything that gets done behind the scenes to ensure success on the night. Thank you to Mr Barris for brilliant traffic control, Mr Gainford for camera work and editing, Mr Patterson for hall organisation, Mr Ockert, Ms Luithle, Ms Dam, Ms Berger, Mr Prorellis and Mr Storey for their role in the evening and for ensuring their boys were the most beautifully behaved they could possibly be; to Mr Farrington for the engraving and supply of sports awards and a huge thankyou to Mr Pearson for ensuring each student was provided his due award and to James Gerofi for his unflappable assistance. Tom Miller's professional MCing was very impressive and thank you to Liam Bennett and Thomas Lung for their role in the evening. Thank you to all of the prefects for their efforts as well. To Mrs Varady, Mrs Shepherd [for her stunning artistry with flower], Mr Stein, Mr Ambler, Mr Kay, Mr Fittler, Mr Girdler, Dr Kaldor, Mr Smee, Mr Baret, Mr Livingston, Mr Pullinger, Miss Lever, Mr James - thanks for your help on the night. The audience were entertained by the words of Mr Peter Crittle in his occasional address and awestruck by the recount of achievement given by Dr Jaggar. To the Symphony Orchestra and Senior String Ensemble [listed below] and their conductor Ms Kathy Jackson, your music was superb - thankyou for your efforts.
Jason Kok, Justin Chow, Adrian Flores, Lewis D'avigdor, Adam McKenzie,
All of these people made this job less overwhelming and kept me smiling. Thanks. From the English DepartmentCompetitions Cartoon and Caricature Competition. Entries close 1st March. Entry forms available from Olympic torchbearers relay school essay contest for 15 year-old students.
"How does the Olympic Torch Relay help to unite the world?" Write for fun Poetry Competition.
First prize $1000 and an Xbox. Courses
Intensive Journalism Course for Yrs 11/12.
NSW Writers Centre Courses for students
YOUTH FILM FESTIVAL See Mr Selway From DebatingThankyou to all debaters parents and coaches for a successful evening at SCEGGS Darlinghurst last Friday. Apologies to Year 7 for the typo re time to arrive.
Re this Friday:
Year 7/8 arrive 6.45pm for 7pm start.
Year 7/8 topic:
Two Year 7 teams Go straight to debating room on notice 6.55pm.
Topic area for Years 9-12: One Year 9 team and two year10 teams toss for sides at 5.45pm in foyer
One Year 11 team and one year12 team Each team is to provide its own chairperson. Chairperson to take chairperson's bag and chairperson's sheet from table in foyer, check it contains working bell, and return bag to Mr Selway after debate. The WHOLE team is responsible for putting the room back in order after the debate. All students are to bring supper. You should put the supper in the common room at 6.45pm.
*** SATURDAY 28th February DSG Parking: 4pm-7pm at school.* * *
Debating Supporters Group Meets first Tuesday each month
Term two:
Term three:
Term four: Coaching times 2004 Head Coach/Coordinator: Mr Selway. English Dept.
Year 7 coaching: Every Wednesday
Year 8 coaching: Every Wednesday
Year 9 coaching: Every Monday morning Room 403 8.00am
Year 10 coaching: Every Monday afternoon Room 401 3.20pm - 4.20pm
Year11 coaching: Every Monday afternoon Room 403 3.20pm -4.20pm
Year12 coaching: every Monday afternoon Room 402 3.20pm-4.20pm Mathematics2003 Australian Mathematics Competition The AMC is one of the largest competitions of its kind in the world and in 2003 celebrated its 25th anniversary. The first AMC in 1978 attracted 60,000 participants. In 2003, 3300 schools in 37 countries, including 366,000 students from 2380 schools in Australia registered to compete. The AMC consists of three separate multiple choice question papers, each of 30 questions in the Junior (7/8) Intermediate (9/10) and Senior (11/12) levels.
Sydney High performed particularly well in the 2003 competition with 95.5% of the 886 entrants
receiving a Credit or better.
Some of the outstanding performances including- Ivan Guo not only topped the senior division he also gained his third Medal. Remarkably he has obtained perfect scores in the last two years and been awarded the prestigious Bernhard Neumann Award on both occasions.
2003 was in fact a remarkable year for Ivan. He won the Senior Division of the UNSW Mathematics
Competition, was placed 2nd in the Australian Mathematics Olympiad, and won a Gold Certificate in
the Asian Pacific Olympiad and a Bronze Medal in the International Olympiad. From ScienceResults of Science Quiz no. 1 for 2004 Questions about "Fur, Feathers and Fins" were asked in this fortnight's quiz. Peter Luu (8S), Andrew Tang (8T), and Jacob Cao (7T) submitted the first entries. Well done!
Answers Year 11 and 12 ParentsOn Wednesday Year 11 students were treated to a two hour presentation by Peter Sheahan, a motivational speaker with fresh ways of looking at study skills. Year 12 students will also receive the same presentation on March 16. Please ask your sons what advice was given and what strategies will be useful for them. Ask how neuron paths in the brain are formed and what triggers are. Ask why revision is good and what revision should entail. Ask to see the information provided. Any Year 11 student who missed the talk can attend the Year 12 talk on March 16. This is the first time Peter has come here. We are always wary of the quality of motivational speakers with advice on study skills and how students may relate to them. Peter is young, eloquent, animated and very, very funny. On top of that, he related study skills to syllabus and was very practical in his advice. The casual feedback from students was that the presentation was awesome and that there were learning/revision styles that suited them that they planned to try. I know when someone comes along and inspires us we think 'I will definitely try that- it all made sense' and then we slip back into our current routine forgetting all the great advice and simple strategies until it's too late. Students should be developing even better study and revision methods early in Year 11 to avoid last minute swatting that may allow regurgitation of facts but not the greater level of comprehension and understanding required for Band 6 responses.
Students experiencing any difficulty developing study patterns that work for them should see any
of the following people for advice: Their Year Adviser, Head Teacher Welfare, the Librarian, The
School Counsellors will all have different strategies students could try and the Career Adviser
gives goals and practical directions to head. ALL students should ensure they have kept their
appointments with the Careers Adviser. RowingThe Shore Regatta held last Saturday was a memorable one for High. All senior crews qualified for finals. Our 1st and 4th Fours won their heats. The 1st VIII placed 3rd in their heat in a time that was only 10 seconds off the fastest of the day - set by Shore in the other heat. The Year 10 1st VIII put in another very gutsy performance in extremely rough conditions to finish second to Newington in their heat. Nearly all the Year 8 and Year 9 Quads won GPS points in their races. All the hard work of the boys and their coaches over the summer began to pay dividends on an unusual day on Hen and Chicken Bay. It was hot and relatively calm early, while the Year 8s and senior crews competed, but as the last of the Year 9 Quad races were in progress the wind whipped up white-capped waves. The bay was transformed in minutes from a benign pond into a wet and wild experience. By the time the Year 10 VIIIs lined up, officials had shortened the course to the jetty. No-one had told the Year 10 3rds as they rowed it out over the longer course for 3rd place from 6. A mighty effort. The Year 10 2nd VIII also placed 3rd in their heat. The Year 10 1st VIII faced such rough conditions that at times they seemed to be rowing a surf boat. They battled on for a brave second to Newington while other boats were swamped. The regatta was abandoned at this point. Senior finals were not held but places and points were decided on times. Back at the boatshed there were plenty of smiles as the last boats came in half full of water. Senior coaches, Mark Prater and Dave Luscombe looked happy and relieved. They had taken a bit of a gamble making some mid season changes. But it seemed to pay off. The 1st VIII that came 6th from 8 at the Shore regatta includes Bow - Bryan Wrench, 2 - Alex Tiedgen, 3 - Ben Mitchell, 4 - Dominic Grimm, 5 - Troy Polis, 6 - Josh Scharfegger, 7 - Mischa Steen, Stroke - Liam Bennett, Cox - Jason Tan. High's winning crews on the day were sensational. Our 4th Four led past the jetty and never looked like losing. Coached by Peter Wilson they are Bow - Savva Dobrinsky, 2 - Jeremy Yuen, 3 - Edward Ovadia, Stroke - Tom Kaldor, Cox - Ilya Zak. The 1st Four won a close fought race, holding off Scots and Grammar. This crew contains some fine athletes - some of who did a spot of altitude training in the Himalayas over January. Coached by Oliver Wilson they are Bow - Jeremy James, 2 - Yaegan Doran, 3 - Karl Kruszelnicki, Stroke - Sen Mitsuji, Cox - Tom Mittleheuser. On the social side of things a very successful Boatshed Dinner was held for Year 10 rowers last Friday evening. By tradition the Strokes introduce their crews and speak of their past achievements and hopes for the races ahead. Paul Tran, Sandy Cunningham and Attila Szabo introduced the 3rd 2nd and 1st VIIIs in turn with the usual friendly jibes. It was hard not to be impressed with the warmth and conviction with which all boys spoke about their rowing season. One of the speakers noted that 'rowing isn't a burden, it's spending time with your mates and at the time you wouldn't want to be anywhere else'. And in the same speech 'if anyone tries to get in our way we'll crush them'. The evening was a lot of fun for all concerned - except perhaps for the two fathers who volunteered at short notice to look after the boys overnight.
This week the same group of Year 10 rowers will fly to Melbourne as guests of the Melbourne High
rowing club. They will train on the Yarra and contest a regatta at Carrum. David Daish and Tim
Wilson have very generously offered to transport the boats. We wish them an enjoyable and
successful trip. This Saturday the Kings regatta will be held on Hen and Chicken bay. Come along
and cheer our rowers as they attempt to follow up on last week's successes. Tennis1st Grade Tennis Match Report February 21 2004 Vs Riverview We came, we saw, we conquered. It was billed as a premiership-deciding clash, as it always is, and it was High who stepped up to the plate. A ruthless display of aggression, determination, courage and a fair amount of skill, decimated Riverview to just two points, compared with our ten. We inflicted Riverview's greatest loss in GPS history, as well as winning our first tie at Lane Cove. The day started with Riverview declaring their best player would not play, and then the exchange of team sheets revealed that Riverview had 'stacked' their playing list right into our hands. Michael Hayes and Brian Ly made light work of the number one pair, while Peter Pereira and Ivan Cerecina were gallant in losing to the opposition numbers two and three. Dejan Bodrozic and Tim Neville followed a different script to the one we wrote, dropping the fist set before taking control and coming through in three sets. At the start of the singles we needed three wins out of six to confirm the win. Michael Hayes won't remember his three-set win for its quality but he still oozed with class, testament to his championship abilities. Dejan 'D-Money' Bodrozic spent more time on the change of ends than actual game time, while Brian Ly played a gem of an innings in his rout of an esteemed opponent. Ivan Cerecina came up against an able Riverview number four but never gave up throughout. Tim Neville and Peter Pereira played well enough to earn straight-set wins, to add the icing to the cake. We had won five of six singles and two of three doubles, a fair effort against the team which has won eight of the last nine premierships.
There still are four weeks of competition to go but if we play at the level we did on Saturday,
there appears little that can come between us and back-to-back GPS titles. However it is too
early to' shut the gate', as we come up against a decent Newington line-up on Saturday, who will
want to knock us from our perch. I can tell any Newington supporter unequivocally however, that
we are not ready to give anything away, and if anything, we will be out to improve our play and
see what other benchmarks we can set. And for this team, the sky is the limit. Sydney Boys High CricketAround the Grounds Saturday 14th February First XI - Congratulations on a hard earned win in a match of mixed fortunes as the scores indicate. The sense has been that the Firsts were on the verge of a win after their sound performance against Shore, where for the sake of 3 remaining wickets that stood in Shore's 2nd innings, we nearly turned a first innings loss into an outright win. Scots were not as fortunate as the form emerging spread onto the field. High batted first on Day 1 and were all out for 170 with the visitors sitting with 50 for the loss of 3 wickets at the end of play. Day 2 saw great bowling from the High attack and Scots were dismissed 18 runs short of our total. High then inexplicably lost 4 wickets before we had 25 runs on the board and the hard work looked to be wasted as we struggled to 108 all out, however with limited overs left Scots were in trouble at 4 for 52 at the close of play High 1st.Innings: all out 170 Scots 1st Innings: all out152. [Adrian Jeyendra 4 for 29, Matthew Shiner 4 for 65 and Damitha Fonseka 1 wicket.] High 2nd.Innings: all out 108 [Varun Harish 24 and Ben Friis-O'Toole 20] Scots 4 for 52 [Damitha Fonseka 3 for 18] Second XI - no report received and from the exasperation expressed by the coach in an SMS message during last Saturday it would appear that the time might be upon us to blood some new players who are hungry for selection in our senior GPS teams. We have selected a group of talented Year 9 players to train with the Second XI squad to allow us to assess their ability and desire to play at this level. The "Competitive Gentlemen's Fourth XI" left themselves open to being denied an opportunity to continue their winning ways by not having a team scorer to check the missing runs in their match against Riverview. Consequently the score showed Riverview ahead in runs at the close of play ... so perhaps we will make sure we have some sideline support (or an active 13th Man) with the team each week. It is encouraging however to see a team who know how to win cricket matches on the field due to their determination and having a winning attitude. 16As - Scots won the toss on Day 1 and elected to bat making a solid 255 in their allotted 50 overs. Our most successful bowlers being Arghya Gupta who took 4 wickets and Tanvir Udin who took 2 wickets. High went to the crease and lost 2 wickets before stumps and finished some 225 behind Scots with 8 wickets in hand to face day 2. The innings did not improve on Day 2 and High were all out for 81 trailing Scots by 174 runs on the first innings. Martin Lunney scoring 26 runs, and Long Chen chipping in with 12 were the best of our batsmen. Scots enforced the follow-on and High were all out for 56 runs in their 2ndinnings being beaten by an innings and 118 runs. Once again the top scorers were Martin Lunney 29 and Long Chen 16 with the remaining 8 wickets contributing 8 runs in total. This was a disappointing finish from a team capable of a better results and reflects a need for some team soul searching and application by several players.
15As played some great cricket and yet succumbed to Scots in a high-scoring match. In speaking
with the Scots 15s coach he said High were the better side, enthusiastic, bowled well, ground
fielding was solid and knew how to score runs in quick time. He said however that our catching
(or lack of taking the bread and butter catches) and lapses of concentration by our batsmen in
trying to continue playing the "big shot" when it wasn't on, let us down. His comments confirm
what has been said by our coaches to the players in our coaching program and the drills that are
presently occurring each week during our sports afternoons. Unfortunately Captains from the remaining teams failed to lodge their reports in time for this edition and we look forward to receiving all teams' results by no later than Monday following their matches. Captains please note.
We need parents to help out with scoring and team manager duties for our Under 16, under 15A and
B teams and very much so with the under 13A, B and C teams. The coaches cannot do it all
particularly when they have to umpire at their matches. It doesn't matter if you can't score; by
sitting with the opposition scorers it is simple enough to follow their lead and copy the
results. I will be visiting these teams this Saturday and look forward to volunteers approaching
me to assist these teams. Best of luck against Newington College this weekend
Laurie Heil MIC State of the ArtsThank-you The music staff would like to thank the members of the Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber String Ensemble for their outstanding performance at Speech Night on Tuesday. Parking Oops: A special thank-you for the Vertoudakis family- Melanie, Adrian, Julian, Tim and Alex who came out to help us on the recent parking day. What a wonderful family way to spend Valentines Day!
Port Macquarie Music Tour Members of the Symphony Orchestra and Guitar Ensemble- stay tuned for your excursion!
Commitment.
Soccer 2004Season 2004 Welcome to another Soccer season and one which promises to bigger and busier than all the others that have preceded it. We are just five weeks away from the first game of the new season, against Trinity on April 3rd. Much has been happening in the off season and many of the preparations are underway with some teams already in pre-season training. This season sees a new format with trial games in Term 2 being immediately followed by three rounds of the GPS competition before the July Holidays with the final four rounds being played in Term 3. The shift in the season means there is very little time for the coaches to get their teams prepared before we are into the season proper. In order to get teams sorted out before the game at Trinity it is important that players register with their details so that we can track them and organise coaches. Please fill in the form below and place in the envelope outside the Visual Arts Staffroom as soon as possible.
Soccer Committee
HIGH Coaching Programme
Up and Coming Events
Fixtures 2004
June 5th - Kings Home GPS
July 24th - Riverview Away GPS Please complete this application and place it in the appropriate envelope outside the Visual Arts Staffroom Name ____________________________________________________________Age_____________________ School Team played for___________________ Other teams played for_________________________________ Please circle Position: Keeper Defence Midfield Striker Preferred foot: Right Left Allergies:__________________________________________________________________________________ We would really like Parents to be involved in the management of teams as well as assisting in other areas please circle roles you would be willing to help with: Coaching Parking Committee Saturday organisation ie:Nets, Team management transport. Email contacts - Parents _______________________ Player ______________________ Player signature______________________________________________________________________________ Parent / Guardian signature____________________________________________________Date______/______/______ |
Sydney Boys High School
