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High Notes, Vol 26 No 32, October 24 2025

From the Principal

High Talent

The Australian Intermediate Mathematics Olympiad is a highly challenging mathematics competition, designed to identify and stretch talented students in Years 9 and 10. This year our selected candidates performed very well. From Year 9 – High Distinction (Vladimir Loukine) and Distinctions (Ayush Sarathy and William Tran). From Year 10 – High Distinctions (Jiekai Miao, Lin Le, Geoffrey Li and Tom Ye) and Distinctions (Munjin Chowdhury and Ricky Luo). Very impressive results – congratulations, boys!

Summer Sport Co-payments: Term 4

The rolls for summer sports and activities have now been finalised and co-payments invoices raised. In many activities co-payments are levied for the season – in this case for Term 4 2025 and Term 1, 2026. Other sports have a policy of fixing co-payments on a term-by-term basis. In either case, invoices have been posted. For Years 7-11 this means that the summer invoice will be included on individual Clearance Forms. These forms will need to be cleared prior to boys receiving their reports. The base co-payment for sport for this summer season is $190 for 2025-2026. Higher charges are levied by individual sports, as a result of resolutions passed by the Incorporated Associations or P&C Support Groups / Parent Committees responsible for supporting particular sports These co-payments have been ratified by both the SBHS School Council and the P&C Association. Year 11 boys have been invoiced for Term 4 or their full summer sport, too. It would help the MICs for these sports greatly if families could pay for their sports promptly.

Interpreting Year 11 Reports - Semester 2

Year 11 reports will be handed out and discussed with students from Monday, October 27. Teachers record individual marks for courses, and these are run against an ATAR predictor program. This program has been developed over the last year or so by old boy Saxon Dean as a project under the guidance of our ICT staff. It replaces Mr Dowdell’s predictor program. The only significant change is that the ATAR is calculated against a three-year average (where one is available), as opposed to just the previous year’s results, as was the case for the previous program. All the raw marks are converted into scaled marks per unit. 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 three years HSC results for High. The essential comparative assumption is that boys will perform at around the same standard this year as they did on average in the last three years. Means and standard deviations are derived from our HSC results from the previous years and applied to our results in the current year. A scaled score out of 50 is calculated for each course on a one-unit basis. Where candidatures are very small – e g visual arts and LOTE- we use historical results in that course in our school to calculate the mean and standard deviation to be applied to this year’s results. We use all 12 Preliminary Units to calculate our ATAR estimate for several 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, to inform their subsequent choices. Third, it assists them to drop their weakest two units on the basis of scaled marks rather than raw marks. Next April, the estimate process will be moderated against the 2023-25 HSC results and calculated for the best ten units for each student, including the mandatory two units of English.

At this stage of the year, every Year 11 student faces a choice, some have more choices to make than others. Will I do 12 units, 11, ten or less? For those students who have a guaranteed entrance into Extension 2 mathematics, they can drop courses immediately and still have ten units to present at the HSC. Students who really want to exit a course and have made the rank cut–off for extension 1 mathematics, can keep their Extension English and drop a course. Most accelerants remain doing ten units until their HSC results in the acceleration course are published. Acceleration students have a choice to reduce their load to 8 units if they believe their HSC marks for their completed acceleration course are high enough, but we urge them not to do so until the April Assessment period in Year 12, in order to make certain that they are doing the best thing to maximise their ATAR. Students qualifying and choosing to do four units of English can drop one course. High performing students tend to use acceleration results as insurance and do ten units for the HSC anyway. Others want to be rid of a weak course and explore choosing others – eg picking up one or two-unit studies of religion, or taking an extension unit in history, music or LOTE.

 Some love all their courses and want to carry 12 units to the HSC. I have no problem with that choice provided that their tertiary course has a lower entrance requirement than their current ATAR prediction and that they are well organised enough to do well in twelve units. Students I speak to when discussing their reports are thoughtful about their strengths and weaknesses and mindful of their preferred tertiary options. Pragmatism often informs their decisions. At this important time, future tertiary intentions are important considerations. Choices are made to maximise enjoyment; ATAR ranks or both. I hope all Year 11 students choose sagely.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal