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Home
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High Notes, Vol 8 No 18, June 22 2007
From the Principal
High Talent
Library Fundraising
Talent Development Groups at High – High Societies
Where Does the Money Go?
Boggabilla Central School – Our Year 9 Inter School Visit and Community Service
Project Da Vinci Decathlon 2007The Da Vinci Decathlon is an academic interschool gala day run in the spirit of an Olympic decathlon, organised by the Knox Grammar School, Wahroonga. Each year forty schools are invited to participate and whilst the majority of schools are from the private system both Sydney Boys High and Sydney Girls High have represented the public system with great distinction over recent years. The Decathlon, now in its fifth year, has become a prestigious event on the school calendar and is eagerly anticipated by competing students. Students are faced with a range of tasks with an emphasis placed on higher order thinking skills. Amongst the most keenly contested and challenging tasks are, Code Breaking, Engineering Challenge, Forensic Sleuths, Art and Poetry and Creative Producers. High was represented by four teams of eight students each. Years 9 and 10 competed on Tuesday 5 June and Years 7 and 8 on Thursday 7 June. The location for the competition was the impressive Lawson Centre at the Knox Grammar School. Year 7
The Year 7 team making their first appearance at the Decathlon achieved a creditable 14th placing. They were able to register a top ten finish in three of the ten tasks. The boys displayed remarkable teamwork and a high level of enthusiasm throughout the competition and this experience will be of great benefit in the future. Year 8
The Year 8 team achieved an outstanding result placing second overall and registering a top ten finish in six of the ten tasks. Each student received a silver medallion to recognise their achievement and these were presented to them by Dr Jaggar at the Junior School Assembly. The boys were very proud of their efforts and proved to be great ambassadors for their school. Year 9
The Year 9 team achieved a creditable 15th placing. Though clearly disappointed with their result the boys were able to register a top ten finish in four of the ten tasks. This was a highly motivated team which displayed good teamwork and high levels of enthusiasm throughout the competition. Year 10
The Year 10 team delivered an outstanding performance to finish third overall and placed in the top ten in five of the ten tasks. The boys were highly motivated to do well, several having participated in previous decathlons. Teamwork came to the fore as the right students were allocated to particular tasks with highly successful outcomes. The boys were awarded a bronze medallion to recognise their achievement and these were presented to them by Dr Jaggar at the Senior School Assembly. All students received certificates to mark their participation in the 2007 Da Vinci Decathlon which were presented to them by Dr Jaggar at the Assemblies. A full breakdown of all the results can be accessed via the Knox Grammar School Website.
2008 Da Vinci Decathlon?
On behalf of the participating students and the School I would like to thank the Knox Grammar
School for their hospitality and generosity in staging the event and special praise must go to
the Tournament Organiser Ms Lynette Schultz for her tireless efforts in this regard. Year 7 Da Vinci Decathlon ReportOn Thursday, 7 June, 8 boys from Year 7, Christopher Chiam, Christopher Oei, Conor Stack, Rodrigo Manahan, Hung-Ting Lin, Jacky Yang, Sam Marques and I (Jamian Vuong), represented our school in the Da Vinci Decathlon. We had many days of practice so we were ready to compete. Our first session consisted of the Engineering Challenge, Art and Poetry, Science and the Games of Strategy. Sam and I went off to compete in the Games of Strategy whilst the others were working on the other subjects. After the session, we had been told some of the results for session one. To our surprise, we came second in the Engineering Challenge. Our second session started shortly after the first. This session contained the subjects Creative Producers, Mathematics, Forensic Sleuths and English. For Creative Producers, we had to advertise the Caveman Olympics. Yet again, we came sixth in Forensic Sleuths. Then, it was lunch. It was extraordinary. There were 4 pizzas to a group, which meant we all got half a pizza! Then came the extra boxes. At the end, we were all so full, we were about to burst. Finally, we had our third and last session. This consisted of General Knowledge and Code Breaking. We saw that most of these questions were easy. We were confident of the answers we were jotting down. We came fourth in Code Breaking which made us very happy. Overall, we came 14th in the whole competition.
We all had fun and had a great time. We did the best we could and got so far. Congratulations to
the team! Thanks to Mr. Dolan and Ms Eggleton for all their help. Year 8 Da Vinci Decathlon ReportHigh sent 8 Year 8 students to the academic gala day. The highly successful team consisting of: Samir Kinger, Dominic Nguyen, Ashwin Rudder, Samuel Beston, Max Wei, Nikhil Autar, Vivian Le and Darwin Shi was able to manage a highly creditable 2nd placing on overall point aggregate being edged out by hosts Knox who were captained by the winner of Australia’s Brainiest Kid in 2005. The boys represented Sydney Boys very well and combined well as a unit. The Da Vinci Decathlon comprises of ten subjects: Engineering Challenge, Art and Poetry, Science, Mathematics, English, Creative Producers, Forensics, Code Breaking, Games of Strategy and General Knowledge. There were around 40 schools represented in the Year 8 division. Some schools had travelled many kilometres as there were schools from Bathurst, Central Coast and the Blue Mountains. Other schools included: The Kings School, Sydney Girls and Scots College. The day started behind schedule because of the terrible weather and flooding in North Sydney as many schools arrived to the venue soaked and late. The competition had finally started after a 20 minute delay with Engineering, Science, Art and Poetry, Games of Strategy being the subjects in the first period. We had around 85 minutes to break into sub-groups and work on the problems. In Engineering we had to build the tallest possible structure using only 2 sheets of paper, 6 straws and 50mm of masking tape, that could support a weight, sadly we did not attack this problem with great intensity and failed to achieve a placing in the top 20 for engineering. In Art and Poetry we had to write a poem to do with “war” and the poem had to be integrated into an original artwork. We did a very respectable job with Art and Poetry and finished 7th in that subject. After the disappointment in Engineering, our team attacked the remaining subjects of the day with great intensity, commitment and teamwork. The disappointment in Engineering was a learning curve for the inexperienced team and we did exceptionally well in the remaining subjects. Also in the first session there were Games of Strategy and Science. We did exceptionally well in both placing first in Science. The Science sub-group had to devise 5 questions to ask Energy Australia about Earth Hour and they also had to design an experiment on how they were to collect reliable data if an event similar to Earth Hour was to be held again. The sub-group was the most composed and planned their time well which was a major factor in the outcome. While all this was happening, Dominic and Dawen were sweating it out in the Games of Strategy section. Thankfully, Dominic worked out the chess puzzles and Dawen only dropped one game of mastermind. We finished 6th place in Games of Strategy and we were well placed after the first session. In the second session, the subjects were: Maths, English, Creative Producers and Forensic Sleuths. We came 2nd overall in Maths and English, 13th in Forensics and 21st-50th in Creative Producers. In Creative Producers, teams would nominate 2-3 people to devise a commercial in ten minutes on a designated topic. The topic for Year 8 was “eels for profit and fun”. In Maths, there were 13 problem solving questions that had our top mathematicians anxious as the questions were very hard and some required up to 3 pages of working out! English was about word origins, word structure, grammar, analogies, acronyms, spelling, unscrambling and messages in illustrations. We were destined for a top 3 finish, all we had to maintain was a placing in the top 20 for the two remaining subjects.
In the third session, the two subjects were General Knowledge and Code Breaking. We finished off
well by placing 12th in General Knowledge and 8th in Code Breaking. It was now time for the
results. We waited in anticipation, knowing that we would come in the top 5. Much to our
surprise, we were awarded second place and we received silver medals. We fell short by just 130
points to Knox but we were still proud of our accomplishment. Thanks to Mr Dolan and Ms Eggleton
for their efforts in enabling us to participate in this excellent competition. We look forward to
going one place better next year.
In next week’s edition of High Notes we will feature the Year 9 and Year 10 Da Vinci
Reports Fencing - AJ Rae ShieldOn Saturday 2 June 2007 two teams from our school competed in the AJ Rae. Shield. Our first team was seeded 5th and we fenced Hills Grammar ‘B’ for the first match. The match started slowly. We led 5:3 after the first three minutes. Our second bout was a cause for concern, as our best fencer Amadeus Klocker lost our lead and finished with a significant margin for us to catch up. Patrick Duffy solved our problems in the third bout and we led the match from thereon to win 45:26. The firsts lost their second match and ranked 5th once again. Our fencers definitely have potential, but we need to step up our training if we hope to knock over any of the top 4 teams. After successfully attaining a place in the final rounds of the Schools State Senior Teams Championships our seconds (Julian Byrnes, Mitchell Hammer, Boris Zolotarev) were up against a highly ranked St. Aloysius. Our match started excellently with a 5:0 lead after the first bout. We kept a steady lead over the second bout which ended at 10:6 our way. Throughout the rest of the match, we were able to maintain a slight lead. However, our last bout proved to be a rough test. Despite our best efforts, the match resulted in a 41:43 loss. The second match for the seconds was against another highly ranked team: Newington. Once again we maintained a good lead for the duration of the match. At the beginning of last bout of the match the score was levelled at 35-35. With only three minutes left to fence, the team fought courageously and gained three hits, unfortunately the opponents gained five hits; the score was now at 38:40 with only seconds on the clock. Sadly, time got the better of us.
Well done to Julian for fencing in the Under 17s Foil State Championships on Sunday, immediately
after the AJ Rae. Thank you from the CanteenGrateful Thanks from the Canteen Staff and Committee -
And lastly, a word about Foccacias…we know you love them, so please, please order in
advance to avoid disappointment!!! Did You Know?Did you know that since the Order of Australia was established in 1975, over 181 old boys of Sydney High have received awards recognising achievement or meritorious service? In the most recent Queen’s Birthday honours list six old boys were honoured: John Blackburn (1968) AO (Military Division) for distinguished service to the Royal Australian Air Force as Commander of the Integrated Area Defence System and Deputy Chief of Air Force; Hugh Ralston (1951) AM for service to engineering, particularly as a contributor to the advancement of innovative technology, to the Warren Centre for Advanced Engineering, and to the community; John Denning (1939) OAM for service to the welfare of veterans and their families through a range of roles with ex-service organisations; John Hynes (enrolled 1933) OAM for service to veterans through the 2/1 Field Regiment Association; Albert Selig (1936) OAM for service to the Jewish community in Sydney; and Alan Still (1945) OAM for service to the community through Rotary International as a provider of sponsorship for the education of children in Indonesia.
SHS Old Boys Union From the Office
Letters Re Absence/Lateness/ Early Leave If your son has an early leave note he is required to have his note signed by either Mr Beringer, Mr Dowdell or Mr Prorellis before 8:55 am and handed in to the Main Office immediately after. Each letter should be signed by a parent or guardian with the name, date and roll class of your son printed clearly. Your son needs to pick up a leave pass from the Main Office before he leaves the school.
Leave The Principal must approve all leave applications.
Another email service for parents If you would like to have your son’s attendance record sent to you send your email address to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Please include your son’s name and date of birth in the email.
Sydney Boys High School Building Fund Appeal 125th Anniversary Library Project Parent-Teacher Interviewsfor Years 7, 8 and 9
will take place on Please note the following arrangements –
SBHS Debating
1.CHECK YOUR EMAIL- GET IN THE LOOP!
2. GPS SELECTIONS/TRIALS
3. THIS WEEK IS LAST COACHING SESSION FOR THE TERM
4. DEBATING CO-PAYMENT
5. DEBATING SUPPORTERS GROUP 6. GPS DEBATING DATES- please put in your diary Round 1- July 20 - VS St Joseph’s College - Away Round 2- July 27 - VS The Scots College - Away Round 3- August 3 - VS The Kings School - Home Round 4- August 10 - VS Sydney Grammar School - Home Round 5- August 17 - VS Newington College - Away Round 6- August 25 - VS Shore - Home Round 7- August 31 - VS St Ignatius College - Away
Weights Room Holiday TrainingWith the school holidays fast approaching it is very important that all boys playing sport plan ahead and take this opportunity to improve their overall physical fitness. Take a moment to analyse your strength, flexibility, fitness, and sport skill. Any deficiencies should be made a priority over this period so that you make it easier for your coaches when training resumes in term 3. At the very least you need to maintain your current skill & fitness level. If you are unsure what you need to work on then ask your coaches for drills etc or drop in to the gym. I’m happy to give advice to all those who want it.
Holiday Timetable Week 1
Week 2 (Times below may vary and will ultimately be determined by week 1 attendance figures)
Spring Training Music Notes
Sydney Boys High Cabaret Night
Tutor of the Week – Ben Gurton (Trombone)
Student of the Week – George Zu (Student of Ben Gurton)
Piano Competition
Music Tuition Scholarships Rugby Supporters Dinner
High Rugby Friends Inc. invites you to attend the inaugural Special guest for the evening is the coach of the NSW Waratahs Ewen McKenzie Tickets are $40, which includes a two-course sit down dinner. Wine, beer and soft drink will be available for purchase. This night is an important fundraising event for Sydney High Rugby, and the aim is to raise enough money to purchase a new scrum machine. If you are unable to make it, a donation would be much appreciated. Tables are for 8-10 people, however individual tickets are available.
If you have any queries, please contact: To reserve your place:
High Rugby Friends – Rugby Supporters Dinner RSVP: July 15 2007 Name: __________________________________________ Ph: __________________ Email: __________________________________________ I am able to attend and require _________ tickets at $40 each totalling $___________. I am unable to attend but would like to donate $___________. (Cheques should be made payable to High Rugby Friends) Return to Index |
Sydney Boys High School
