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High Notes, Vol 26 No 13, May 16 2025

From the Principal

High Talent

Well done to some more Year 10 students who earned Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Awards – Otis Candy, Sebastian Finn and Theodore Hui. In the NSWFA AJ Rae Intermediate Team championships last Saturday, our teams won five medals, one of which was gold – Intermediate Epee. Congratulations to all SBHS teams.

Caught Doing the Right Thing

Congratulations to Aaron Hassan (8R) who exhibited the school value of integrity by handing in the $300 he found in the playground last Friday. The money was reunited with a grateful Year 9 boy on Monday. Aaron models how ethical behaviour can enrich a community.

Recurrent Software Licence Costs

Modern schools are embedded with computer hardware, and they require software to maintain and operate them. In order to run a school like ours with complex technology needs, we require annual software licences that are not paid for by DoE. The following (incomplete) list illustrates their ubiquity, complexity and annual subscription cost - Clipboard $22,000,  Sentral $20,000, Vivi $14,000, Edval $14,000, Electronic form processing $13,200, Virtual desktop $12,000, Clickview $11,000, Canvas $8,000, School Bytes $7,000, Atomi $6,000, Desktop/mobile device management $5,000, Turnitin $5,000, Student ID- $4,500, Security scanner $3,700, Papercut $3,200, Foldr storage access $3,000, Internet presence $3,000, Veeam Backup $3,000. Hence, we require around $165k on a yearly basis, just to keep our software services to students and staff at the current level. These funds come from our community, mostly from our Technology Support Contribution. We need you all to support our technology support contribution to keep up this very high standard of delivery.

SBHS Parent Operated Canteen

Our school is one of a declining number of schools with a parent-operated canteen. With the help of parent volunteers, our managers Karen and Eirini, deliver high quality, low-cost food options for our boys. They offer seasonal variety and nutritious foods in a certified operating environment. Each year we need parents to give some of their time, once a month for a few hours, to help keep prices low and quality high. Last year some of our Committee members retired once their sons left the school. We are relying on new and existing parents to fill the gaps under the leadership of our Canteen Committee President, Alison Dao. Our High community has always relied on self-help in our canteen, helping to make possible a donation of c $65k annually to school funds from Canteen profits. If you can help out on our Committee, please contact Tania Kirkland, P & C President or Alison for more details and a role briefing. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Interpreting Semester 1 Year 12 Reports

All Year 12 students should have their reports. For the first time during their high school life, the students have an ATAR calculation based on their best ten units. However, not all parts of their courses have been examined at this time. The full examination does not happen until the Trial HSC in August. A limited number of topics have been completed in the HSC courses so far this year. Usually, only one or two tasks have been completed. Any predictions about overall success in a course must be cautious. Despite these limitations, the May report is extremely important as a yard stick for possible HSC performance. Every year, I would love to be proved wrong. Every year, I would be glad to applaud students who do much better in the HSC than their ATAR prediction, derived from their April performances. Inevitably, if nothing changes in the student’s approach to study and revision, the predictions will be more or less accurate, assuming our quantum and spread of marks earned this year are similar to those earned in last year’s HSC.

The first report in Year 12 is often a wakeup call for boys who have been coasting. Students ought to take advantage of practice tasks which are opportunities for re-writes or early submission of drafts of essays to receive very useful feedback, prior to submission of their work. Students should be re-visiting their personal growth goals to see whether they are on track or have fallen behind their own expectations in each course. Lunchtime workshops are also offered for some courses. Individual Faculties also provide targeted coaching for students with weaknesses in the period up until the HSC Trial examination. Students with their backs to the wall start to listen when we talk to them about study routines, life balance and focus. I hope parents will support us once again this year by impressing upon their sons how important it is from now on to get themselves organised, stick to a study routine, and find the time each week (15 hours) to work hard. It is equally important to maintain co-curricular activities and to sleep well to allow the brain some downtime to process information.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal