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High Notes, Vol 26 No 16, June 06 2025

From the Principal

High Talent

High football history was made when Liam Nottage was named captain of the combined GPS team which had a clean sweep in five games to capture the CIS title. Aiden McManus and Dylan Dutt also played in the team, with Dylan making the CIS squad. Kudos go to Alexi Barnstone as combined GPS coach and Sam Higgins as Assistant Coach. Well done to the 46 students and their accompanying teachers (Mick Ormsby, Lucas Matto and Jess Christodoulou) for braving the 0630 start in pouring rain to collect $1678.72 on behalf of the Salvation Army Winter Appeal. Community spirit is alive and well at High! Congratulations to Aryan Ghosh (10S) who was adjudged best delegate from over 250 competitors at the Harvard Model United Nations competition. Well done to our team - Year 9 and Year 10 boys who competed over three days last week.

Our boys are showing great support for the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme – an internationally recognised quality credential in community service and self-reliance building. The latest group to receive awards are: Year 11 – Oliver Boije (silver); Year 10 bronze awards – Milan Babin, Lucas Chen, Sameer Gupta, Anderson Lee, Tuyvan Mai, Rohan Narushima, Jett Soo-Leui’I, Yassh Vora and Daniel Yi. Congratulations, boys! Well done indeed to Daniel Zmak (10T) who was placed first in NSW in the ASX Game 1.

Collection of Semester 1 Reports

All boys in Years 12 have their reports. Year 8 should have collected their reports by Friday, June 6. Regrettably, there are still some students, Year 8 who have not fulfilled their commitments and completed their online Clearance Forms (if one appears on their student portal) and booked an appointment time to see me to discuss their progress at school. This is an important step in our feedback loop, and I insist on speaking to boys personally. After making timeslots available for a couple of weeks on sheets provided at the Waterhouse Desk, I then call students out of class to talk to me about their progress and receive their reports. Once students have spoken to me, their reports are uploaded onto P drive and available in the Portal. If there are any issues around Clearance Forms, they need to be communicated to me directly at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Funds Held for the Benefit of High Boys

The ̽»¨ÊÓƵ Foundation Ltd holds funds for the benefit of the school. The SHS Advancement Fund enables tax-deductible donations to be made for the purposes of school buildings [acquisition, management and maintenance] and student support by way of bursaries. Current funds exceed $400k. The Endowment Fund is designed to hold monies from non-tax-deductible sources – bequests, trusts, gifts and the like.

Accounts for the Foundation show that as of December 31, 2024, there were the following balances within the Endowment Fund: $128,398 for the Ethel Killip Memorial Sub-Fund; $222,784 for Prizes; $147,522 for the Phil Day Memorial Scholarship Fund; $121,886 for the Student Participation Account, $30,819 in the Student Activities Account and $9,241 for the Mitchell Seow Memorial Prize.

In total, SHSF Ltd. manages $661,093 in funds for the school within the Endowment Fund. Artworks owned by or on loan to the school from the Ethel Killip Memorial Art Collection held in trust by SHSF are valued at c. $400,000. The Mitchell Seow Memorial Prize Fund is a specific prize commemorating the sudden death from unknown causes of a much-loved student who had just completed his HSC in 2005. The Student Participation Account supplements the DoE Student Equity Funds with direct financial help to students in necessitous circumstances. The Phil Day Memorial Fund finances an annual scholarship, worth $1,750, in memory of an Old Boy and long serving teacher, Head Teacher and Swimming MIC. The Prizes Fund helps to pay for some of $25,000 worth of prizes awarded each year to students. The Ethel Killip Memorial Fund pays for the replacement, addition and upkeep of honour boards, memorabilia of Old Boys, photographs on walls and the Foundation artworks collection, including Na Ngara. The Student Activities Fund is a fund to help teams with pre-season tours or fixtures and to subsidise commitments for interstate or international travel.

Historically, after a FUM charge, half of the interest earned on these managed funds is donated to the school for uses as determined by the principal, in accordance with the original Fund Deeds. However, due to a sustained period of very low interest rates, interest was retained in the foundation accounts 2014-23, in order to maintain the real capital value of the funds. Given that interest rates have normalised, the payments from the Endowment Fund were reinstated in 2024. A secondary objective is to make these funds self-funding so that the school can rely on a predictable annual contribution to its worthy causes going forward. We are always seeking donations for any of these fund purposes. If you would like to help, contact 9662 9300 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Interpreting Year 8 Reports Semester 1

All boys should now have seen me to get their reports. Parents need to know that a few marks up or down near cut-off scores for Distinctions or High Distinctions can make a big difference in their son’s points’ totals. Also, these grades are sometimes calculated from only one or two snapshot assessment tasks, thus providing a narrow view of achievement. When moving from Year 7 into Year 8 students get to make a decision – one language or two? As a consequence, some boys do ten subjects as in Year 7 and others, nine. To calculate the boys’ scores, their best 9 subject outcomes are counted (27 points at credit level). So, boys doing more subjects may have an advantage. Conversely, they may be disadvantaged by having more subjects to master. Language choice can affect ranking outcomes. For example, some boys chose Chinese Advanced. Some chose Latin, other chose Latin and Classical Greek. These are demanding subjects. Getting Distinctions in these subjects is harder – fewer students do them, too. Boys not doing two languages have to have their PE results counted.

Sometimes boys in Year 8 start to think about what electives they might do in Year 9 and what the compulsory subjects there are. These projected future choices might affect their motivation to succeed in some of the compulsory subjects that they are doing currently. Because of the semesterisation of history and geography, students who perform much better in one of these disciplines more than the other can produce big swings in points earned at the half yearly or yearly report. Quite a few boys who have done well in their Yearly Report take their foot off the accelerator and coast through semester one, with effects on their ranking. Often, they get back on track by the time of the Yearly Report again.

In short, there are many reasons for big swings in rank. I think that +/- 20% of the cohort (36+) positions of swing means that something has altered. Their biggest issue usually is distraction, due to gaming, unrestricted device use, social media immersion or other myriad teenage activities. Often, big positive or negative fluctuations are due to changes in learning behaviours: boys listening in class, acting on teacher feedback, being organised and managing their commitments, taking notes, doing homework, accessing past papers and revising before assessment periods. Alternatively, if they stop doing these things, their results may decline. Circumstances in their domestic life may affect their learning concentration or motivation and result in big swings in the rank order also. Despite the shortcomings identified, our stable statistical expectations over more than two decades provide a fairly reliable overall academic profile for students and parents to consider. Also included in the reports are teacher statements about recommended next step/s for students to improve their learning. We hope parents will discuss these suggestions with their sons and encourage them to implement them.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal