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High Notes, Vol 26 No 19, June 27 2025

From the Principal

High Talent

Congratulations to our fencers who have brought home both the Roberta Nutt Shield (individual events) and the AJ Rae Shield (team events) in the NSWFA Intermediate and Senior Fencing Competitions.

Interpreting Year 11 Reports - Semester One

All Year 11 students should have seen me to get their reports by Friday, June 27. Parents should be aware that the information upon which the first semester report marks are based, might be a measure of just one or two skill sets or a limited number of completed topics, or just one task, and thus a proportionately fewer number of marks. Since the number of assessment tasks allowable was reduced, some courses have had no formal assessment tasks. These marks are extrapolated to produce a mark out of 100 or 50 per unit. In some cases, where students have missed the only task set, a blank or N/A might appear against the student’s name for a course on the report. Individual marks for courses supplied by teachers are recorded and run against an ATAR predictor program. All the raw marks are converted into scaled marks per unit. Students missing a mark for a course will be given the score of the average of their other course scores for ATAR calculation purposes. In the iterative scaling process, students’ marks in one course are compared against all the other students who completed the same course and against their performances in their other courses. The data we use are last year’s HSC results for High. We shape current data, in terms of means and standard deviations, against the previous year’s actual HSC data. The essential comparative assumption is that students, as a cohort, will perform at or around the same standard this year, as they did last year. As a rule of thumb, our internal academic ranking spread will be very close to the previous year’s ranks in the HSC. This process can skew results (positively or negatively) if students miss tasks in several courses. Of course, individual courses have better or worse results on any given year, but overall, the predictor yields ATAR ‘guesses’ that are usually reliable to the +/- 1 level. A scaled score out of 50 is calculated for each course on a one-unit basis. English and Mathematics Extension courses are given a scaled mark out of 150. In English, the relative contributions of Advanced and Extension can be distorted if a wide discrepancy exists in performance in each course. Accuracy improves in Year 12 when only 10 units are considered for the ATAR calculation. Any student studying a course outside the school is given the average per unit of their other courses, instead of missing the values altogether. Students good at PE may be negatively affected with PE removed from the overall calculation of performance, unless studied as PDHPE in Year 11.

We use all 12 Preliminary Units to calculate our ATAR estimate (rather than 10 as in the HSC calculations), for two reasons. First, we would like students to receive a realistic appraisal of their progress in state terms as well as relative to their peers at High. Second, we want them to know their relative performance in each of their courses, in terms of scaled marks contributing to their TES score for ATAR calculation. Students can use this data later in the year to make decisions about which courses to add, continue or terminate for their HSC year. Their choices are restricted, given that 12 Preliminary units can only be reduced to ten for the HSC, nine if an extension course is added (as in music extension) after successful acceleration, or eight if an accelerant performed well in two HSC units in a course in Year 11. Big fluctuations in rank order can occur in the transition from stage 5 to stage 6 work. High scoring stage 5 electives might be replaced by more difficult stage 6 courses. Students good at mathematics and science have one extra mathematics unit and up to four extra science units added into their calculated ATAR as compared to their Year 10 report calculation.

Students may find the intellectual challenge and workload of stage 6 a bit of a shock in their first semester of learning. Extension courses are harder to perform well in than 2-unit courses are. In short, the reasons for big fluctuations in rank order are many and varied. The point of the exercise is to determine strengths and weaknesses in various courses and to gauge how strong student interest in them is, as evidenced by their commitment to trying to master them. We want parents to discuss with their sons both the learning behaviours profile and the recommended next steps in order for us to work together to maximise individual and collective stage 6 outcomes.

Student Leadership Assembly 2025

My speech to the assembly held last Thursday is reprinted below:

"Staff, students, parents and Prefects of Sydney Boys High welcome to our official recognition of student leadership efforts in our school and to our investiture assembly for our 2025 School Prefects. I acknowledge this morning the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians of the land and waterways on which we meet and pay my respects to elders past and present, the keepers of culture and law, and extend that respect to any Aboriginal people here today. Thank you to all the students who have served our school in various teams this year as leaders. SRC, Community Service, Peer Support, Equality, PAWS, Environment, Wellbeing Ambassadors and Media Team – you demonstrated influence and leadership in your service. We all should understand that it takes strength of character and dedication of time for students to put their names forward for roles. They need drive and resilience to perform them well. Congratulations to you all.

"What do school leaders look for when selecting student leaders? The answer, according to Kimi ai, is a basket of twenty attributes, grouped under six dimensions – personal qualities, academic and behavioural performance, community and school involvement, emotional intelligence (self-awareness and self-regulation) and role specific organisational and public speaking skills. Desired personal qualities include integrity, honesty, respect, compassion, responsibility and positivity. The preferred leadership skills are in communication, decision-making, problem-solving, teamwork and initiative taking. Academic and behavioural requirements involve good academic standing, model behaviour, regular attendance and punctuality. For school and community involvement, a track record in participation in school activities and student body representation duties are emphasised. Our selection policy seems to satisfy all these criteria.

"The quality of our Prefect body is determined of the commitment of our school’s leadership towards service. We want our most engaged and able students to be nominated as candidates for the important school role of Prefect Intern. If every eligible voter exercises their franchise responsibly, we will get the best and most diverse team of Prefects possible. Our Prefect traditions are ingrained in our history, but leadership can also inspire this cohort to contribute to activities that will become a new legacy. There have been so many great Prefects at this school that the current group may try to follow in some aspects of their role. The honour of such a long-established and prestigious office invites our new group of leaders to emulate their predecessors’ deeds.

"The Senior Prefect leadership team for 2025 – School Captain, Jin Shim, Vice-Captain, Liam Nottage and Senior Prefect, John Fang, have been active and innovative. Structural ties with SGHSPrefects have been formed. More careers pathways seminars have been organised with the OBU. A Year 11 new students’ program has commenced with one ‘prefect buddy’ for each new student. They established Clean Up High Day and promoted a new Business Society. They negotiated the public transport good behaviour initiative. They inaugurated the High-Stakes SBHS-SGHS Competition in handball (T1) and spelling (T2).

"Our long-serving Prefect MIC, Ms Rigby, has continued as mentor and confidant to cohorts of boys in Prefect positions over many years. She has set high standards and has always held our boys to account. At the same time, she is compassionate, supportive and protective of the students she guides in their important tasks. I want to thank her for her dedication, effectiveness and efficiency.

"To graduate from Internee to School Prefect, qualifying them to receive their perpetual School Prefect badges today, Prefect Interns had to prove that they could meet the requirements for the role. These requirements were demanding. Prefect Interns had to continue to meet a predetermined academic standard.  They had to maintain their participation in school life, play two GPS sports and earn a Student Awards Scheme Award in their final year. They had to have exemplary standards in behaviour, school dress and punctuality from the beginning of their Year 10 year. No disciplinary issue requiring a formal caution (intention to suspend) will be tolerated for potential Prefect Interns. They will be disqualified from the ballot.

"The Internship of our Prefects lasts for a full year. From this annual investiture assembly onwards, a new cohort of candidates will have to meet the requirements to be placed on the ballot. They will have to pass the test of democratic election by a constituency of students in Years 10 and 11, teachers and outgoing Prefects. Once elected they will have to perform well until their induction assembly as Prefect Interns and then for the next three school terms until they reach this recognition ceremony.

Sydney Boys High Prefects are popular and positive people – they have proven themselves worthy of the honour shown to them. They have earned their place in High’s history. Well done to all the students who are to receive their badges today. They will then sign in the Prefects Register, a rite of passage at High since 1955. We thank them for their service to the school and their schoolmates."
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal