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High Notes, Vol 9 No 14, May 16 2008
From the Principal
High Talent In the Senior Division the big effort was from Ronan Casey who ran a 4.06.8 to place second in the Open 1500. Kogulan Sriranjan ran 5th in the 100 and 4th in the 200m. Edwin Montoya Zorrilla showed the benefit of High Harriers training to earn good points coming 5th in the U-17 1500. Harrison Lane ran 5th in the 3000m. Our lack of depth restricted our point score and the senior team beat only TAS.
Leadership Programs at High
Student Mentors Online Survey
Athletics Assembly Special guest Werner Botha, athletes, coaches, parents, staff and students, welcome to our annual Athletics Assembly. This morning like the late Big Kev ‘I’m excited’. What has made me excited is that High boys may be starting to realise more of their potential in athletics. The positive atmosphere is no accident. I want to acknowledge and recognise the work of Robert Devlin as MIC who has enthusiastically, persistently and methodically developed the athletics program over the last few years. His work was boosted by the passion and energy of Richard Ayre as HT Sport. Jason Tassell has brought a strong structure to our quest for speed and endurance. Thank you to staff members Steve Codey, Mark Gainford and Wayne Baldock for their efforts. Our coaches Davina Strauss, Rebecca Elliott and Edward Ovadia have helped deepen our fitness and lift our skills bases. Thank you to David and Katrina Morrow for their expertise and dedication to High Jump. Thank you to the carnival volunteers, Sean Creer and the parents, who helped out at our invitational carnival and who are assisting us on Saturday. Improving sports performance is a complex and variable process. When we stop looking and learning and asking questions about performance, we start to become victims of our own conditioning. Paul Smith, an Old Boy sports psychologist, tells the story of world record holder Ian Thorpe’s defeat by Pieter van den Hoogenband at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the 200m freestyle. The Dutch swimming team arrived in Australia and instead of going to the athletes’ village, trained at Newcastle and one of their coaches studied videos of all of Thorpe’s great swims. The coaches devised a plan for each stage of the race for van den Hoogenband to counter Thorpe’s strengths. When Australian coaches some years later were asked by Smith what they did to prepare Thorpe for a challenge from the Dutchman, the answer was – nothing! Thorpe was known to be the fastest swimmer in the world and considered unbeatable – he just had to dive in and swim to win. He may well have been defeated by a failure to learn because he had been conditioned to expect to win. Conditioning affects us all. Smith talks about the Baby Elephant Syndrome. Elephants in circuses were trained by attaching one end of a long chain to one of their ankles and the other to a spike driven into the ground. The elephant could not escape and tended to walk in circles defined by the radius of the chain. The trainer taught the elephant within the boundaries of the circle. By the time the elephant was fully grown, the trainer The circus elephant would parade around the ring without attempting to escape or vary his routine. Like fully grown circus elephants, we are all potential prisoners of what poet William Blake famously described as ‘mind forged manacles’, constrained in our performance by the effects of imagination, fear or conditioning. Sports performance at High has traditionally suffered from negative conditioning and lowered expectation, thinking not about winning but concentrating on parading around the circus ring.
Paul Smith recommends a method to break the baby Elephant Syndrome. His simple formula for
success is to focus on passion plus vision plus action. Our team members need to ask themselves:
“What do I love about athletics?” You have to have fun, get excited and build
enthusiasm about your training and competing. I have seen more evidence of passion in our program
this year. We have more people involved in the program, trying to inspire you and give you the
skills for success. I see more enjoyment around. Our team needs to know where it is going –
what its vision is. Collective and individual goal setting builds vision. Mr Devlin has set goals
for performance in terms of more places closer to first in more events at the GPS carnival. I am
confident that our vision is defined. Positive action is the third ingredient. Challenging
yourself with the parachute or sled or step ladders or hurdles or hills and making each element
of the training a challenge, increases personal productivity at training. Such focus brings
strength and speed results. I have seen more boys training more often – taking positive
action. To raise our team performance we have questions to ask each other about our passion,
vision and actions. Congratulations to all those boys who have done the training and have been
selected to represent us in championship or division. Focus on each place and each point –
it takes the full team to earn the points we need. At the GPS Athletics carnival this Saturday,
let’s believe in each other, support one another and build success. SBHS: Foundation Years
Sports
Rugby The early successes were attributed, by one old boy, to the team’s “dodging abilities” said to have been fostered by the limited playground space at Castlereagh Street: in this space there were two Moreton Bay fig trees, so that the only game we could play, and that at the peril of our lives, was ‘double cross laggings,’ in which we used to dodge around the fig trees, over the stone steps which divided the playground in halves, and round along a narrow passage surrounding the School out-buildings. A second XV was formed in 1888. However, this clearly failed to provide depth. The report on the 1889 season was far from flattering: The first fifteen has had a bad time of it this season, and have only themselves to thank for it; for if more interest was taken in it by the school in general, especially the “bigger boys” (but football is such a brutal game) as is the custom in other schools, we could get a fast, if not a heavy team. In many cases the boys when in the field, as soon as they see a man coming towards them with the ball, they immediately commence to “funk.”... When I have stood and surveyed the school and seen so many boys (and some big boys too amongst them) I have thought, well The High could get a team together if the idea was only kindled in their manly bosoms, and that they ought to consider the school first and themselves last. I might remind them, especially those that go in for “fagging,” that our past teams contained the best scholars of the school, and I might state that up to the season before last, the teams contained at least three out of every five scholarship holders. Some of you are bound to laugh at this, but nevertheless it is true. The school’s ability in Rugby had not improved by the early 1890s as one old boy recalled: Our football was even more ragged and even less organised, lacking the master mind. I can recall only that, after beating Scot's our best fighter, D G Stewart [1889-1892], later a University Maths medallist, and even then a good man of his hands, knocked out theirs in a friendly attempt to prove the victory correct.
Athletics As the Headmaster did not know the performances of the runners he divided them into three groups, tall, medium and midgets. With these divisions he then had three scratch races, and S Thompson won the tall boys’ race, A M Eedy the mediums’ race and T Wicks the midgets’ race. The School’s annual athletics carnival was established in 1886. When the boys called a meeting to discuss the possibility of holding an athletics meeting, the Headmaster made it clear the “that the responsibility would be entirely on the shoulders of the boys, although he and the staff would assist if they could”. The boys went ahead and, after a successful canvass of Sydney’s jewellers for prizes, the Headmaster decided that he and the masters would undertake the management of the event in conjunction with the boys. The meeting, held on 25 August 1886 at the Sydney Cricket Ground, was an enormous success, with some 7,000 spectators present. The program included a 220 yards All-School’s Championship that included 63 entrants from various schools. The carnival became an annual event attended by very large numbers of spectators. In 1888, for example, some 12,000 people attended for a day’s entertainment that included not only the competitions between the boys, but also inter-school events and performances by the NSW Volunteer Artillery Band.
The tradition of an annual athletics carnival has continued to this day. EnglishIt’s been an astonishingly busy week with the National Assessment Exams, so there’s not too much to report. Reading Torque will return next week…
It’s been a gruelling first round for the Theatresports teams. The intermediate team
were narrowly defeated at their heat at Aloysius last Friday. Congratulations to Bao Khuu, Chris
Morrow, James Whiting, Michael Zhang and Rikky Cohn who very capably subbed in for John Aclis.
The senior team played round one at Tara on Tuesday night, where they played St Ursula’s
College, Parramatta High, Strathfield Girls High, Sylvania High and the formidable MLC School
Burwood. After a special tutoring session with ex-student and Theatresports guru Tim Judge, they
made it through to the next round. Congratulations to Alvin Leung, Johnny Lieu, Beau Greenslade
and Nathan McDonnell. We’ll keep you informed about the when and where of the next round.
Perhaps you’ll be able to come along to support them and witness their hilarious theatrical
wizardry. Special thanks once again to their magnificently generous coach Yvette McDonnell who
prepared both teams so well for this epic competition. Public SpeakingA successful week in public speaking saw Anosh Sivashanmugarajah and Zid Mancenido progress to the Regional Final of the Sydney Morning Herald Plain English Speaking Award. This is a highly competitive competition which requires students to deliver an impromptu and prepared speech. Both students delivered engaging speeches which demonstrated their unique perspectives on a variety of relevant issues. We wish Zid and Anosh the best of luck when they compete in the Regional Final at The Arts Unit later this month. Zid will also be representing High at the Lawrence Campbell Oratory Competition at Trinity Grammar School on Friday 16th May. This is a prestigious event on the GPS calendar and all students are encouraged to attend and support their school. Return to IndexLetters Re Absence/Lateness/ Early LeaveWhen your son returns to school from being absent he is required to provide a letter of explanation signed by a parent or guardian. If your son is going to be late for school a note is also required. 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 Music Notices
Baroque Music Consort Outstanding costumes of the evening were worn by Lachlan Brown and Christian Katsikaros of Year 11. Not to be outdone by Mr Brian McDermott dressed as the town crier (with bell) who performed excellently as caller and compere of the night. The decorative banners were produced by the Art department and parents helped set up the hall and courtyard in the afternoon. Thank you to all who contributed to making the evening a wonderful success. Some people were disappointed with the service and quantity of food at the feast. We have discussed the situation and addressed these issues and in future we will have tickets for food and separate service lines for adults and ensure that everyone receives the correct amount of food within a reasonable time frame.
Annual Music Camp
Combined Selective School Music Festival Music Calender for Term 2, 2008
AthleticsOn Saturday 10th May the school athletics team competed at the 113th Annual Combined Athletics Championships out at Sydney Olympic Park. This event is the culmination of months of hard training and all the boys were determined to do well. Firstly, I must talk about the new heroes of the Sydney High athletics team, Christopher Morrow and Shadman Ali. Chris took out the U15s high jump with an outstanding jump of 1.76m while Shad took out the U15s 100m in a sizzling time of 12.00s. I think I heard on the day that it was the first time in four years that we had won an event at the carnival, so well done boys. Special mention must also go to Samuel Lane for coming 2nd in the U15s 1500m in a personal best time of 4.24, Joshua Tassel coming 2nd in both the 100m and the 200m, missing out on a first in the 100m by a mere 0.01 of a second. Another athlete who impressed was Ronan Casey who, running up an age group, came a close second to the current Australian champion from Kings in a personal best time of 4.06. Mention must also go to Jeremy Ireland who came 3rd in the U16s 1500m in a time of 4.21, Maximillian Kite who came 3rd in the U16s shot put with a throw of 13.77m, Michael Phung coming 4th in the U14s 100, Prashan Prabaharan coming 4th in the U14s 400m, Tian Ling coming 3rd in the U14s long jump with an impressive jump of 5.23m, Harrison Lane who, running up two age groups, came 5th in the Opens 3000m which can only be a sign of good things to come, and finally the fastest man in the school Kogulan Sriranjan who came 5th in the Opens 100m and 4th in the 200m. After a hard day of competing we all gathered in the centre of the field to eagerly await the announcement of the final points tally. Would the juniors once again beat Grammar and could the seniors knock Grammar out of seventh spot and claim it as our own? Sure enough, when the points were announced, the juniors had retained their position above Grammar and not only that but they had also knocked off Scots to claim 6th spot for the first time in 33 years, an amazing effort and a sign of promising things to come. Unfortunately, the seniors did not beat Grammar but did however manage to hold out Armidale and retain 8th place.
All in all, the day was a huge success and many thanks must go to all the supporters who turned
up and tried to make themselves heard over the rabble from the other schools. Thanks must also go
to all the coaches who prepared all the boys for their events on the day, and to Mr Devlin and Mr
Codey for making sure that all the boys knew when their events were on and for keeping things
running as smoothly as possible. Learn to Row Program
Adults Learn to Row Program
Sunday, 18 May – 22 June 2008
6 Sessions of 2 hours Come down to Abbotsford this Sunday and bring your friends with you. Fantastic opportunity to learn Rowing in Sydney in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere. Whether you are a complete novice or have some previous experience, everyone is welcome. Rowing is the ideal aerobic sport for the entire body as it is low impact and low injury. You’ll enjoy the ultimate team activity as well as the magic moments of early mornings on the water. All our coaches are ‘old boys’ who volunteer their time to make a contribution and they even organise a BBQ breakfast afterwards for everyone to enjoy in this stunning location!
Learning Outcomes
Safety Note: Participants must be able to swim 50 metres and tread water as a safety requirement. All participants must sign The Sydney High Foundation’s Indemnity Form, stating swimming ability, before they are allowed on the water. Under 18s must be accompanied by a participating adult. To make a booking or for more information: Please contact Judith Shuttleworth, Foundation Venues Manager, on 0427 070 569 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Return to IndexRugby
Gala High Rugby Kick-off Day
All parents are asked to attend
Trial game times & teams were advised to the boys at training this week Key Rugby Dates
Training for all Junior Rugby teams (13s, 14s & 15s)
All players are expected to attend each training session. Parents are requested to ensure their son attends each session. Attendance will be taken into account in team selections each week. The High Junior Rugby Handbook, “High-Way Rugby”, will be distributed to all players/parents at the Gala High Rugby Kick-off Day. It contains a wonderful guide for young players on how to play rugby together with the season calendar, ground locations, training times, contacts and other useful information for parents. Return to IndexCross Country 2008
CHS Cross Country Zone Team
P&C Meeting
Sydney Boys High School P&C Association
P&C General Meeting Minutes
1. Talk on SBHS 2007 HSC Results by Dr Kim Jaggar Formal meeting then commenced.
2. Present and Apologies
3. Minutes of previous meeting
4. Development Committee Report – Tailoi Chan-Ling
5. Matters arising from previous minutes
6. Treasurer’s Report - Geoff Andrews All proposed motions were passed.
7. Principal’s Report - Dr. Kim Jaggar
8. Foundation Report - Shane Brown
9. Report on Chinese New Year Dinner – Simon Chan
10. Electronic sign at Cleveland Street entrance – Simon Chan
11. 125th Anniversary cabaret – Simon Chan
12. Volunteers for NSW Boys State Volleyball Carnival 25-28 March
13. Other Business Next P&C General Meeting on Wed 21 May, 2008 Return to IndexChess Dinner
Dinner and Social Meeting of SBHS Chess families
WHEN: Friday, May 23, 2008. COST: $25 per person ($5 from each guest’s dinner cost will go towards supporting the Chess program at High) MENU: One entrée (vegetarian or non-vegetarian of your choice) main meal comprising three curries, Indians breads and rice. RSVP to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by COB on Tuesday, May 20. Return to IndexSchool Student Transport Scheme (SSTS)School Student Code of Conduct- Students travelling on buses must:
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