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High Notes, Vol 26 No 35, November 14 2025

From the Principal

High Talent

James McLoughlin (SHS-2025) had his major work in English Extension 2 nominated for inclusion in the HSC Young Writers showcase publication. I cannot remember a High student being honoured in this HSC category before. Well done James and his teacher / mentor! Congratulations to the boys who completed their Duke of Edinburgh Awards. Silver – Jiekai Miao, Lachlan Yeung and Adrian Wang (Year 11), Om Kothari, Francesco Menichetti (Year 10). Bronze – Daniel Kuskoff and Dhurya Sapra (Year 10).

Interpreting Year 9 Reports – Semester 2

Students in Year 9 should have collected their yearly reports. There are often violent fluctuations in rank order as a few marks can determine the difference between a D and an HD. Many boys have really taken to their electives and have achieved well in semester 2. Parents should be aware that boys who, for any reason, have decided to discontinue an elective after Year 9, may have reduced their effort, with a negative impact on their overall result. Also, those who will not continue core subjects (such as history or geography) may lose motivation and not perform to their potential in those two subjects. Such actions can also result in large movements in the rank order. Encourage your son to maintain a high standard in the core subjects, English, mathematics and science, as these are compulsory in Year 10. An honest effort ought to be applied to all subjects while students are enrolled in them. ‘N’ awards may be issued in Year 9 for history and geography students, as these are stage 5 compressed curriculum courses. Failure to resolve stage 5 warning letters may result in denial of entry into stage 6 courses.

Many boys apply for entry into acceleration courses. The procedure for entry is published on our school community website at /curriculum/subject-acceleration. Head Teachers consider applications and make recommendations to the Principal on the Individual Learning Plans signed off by parents and submitted by students. Accelerants need to be in the top 75 students to qualify for acceleration or philosophy, and in the top 100 for the ‘online learning elective’ (OLE). Be aware that students seeking acceleration have two different rank orders. The rank order for the end of Year 9 is one used for dux calculations and is calculated using marks, not points as for the HD-D-credit-PM-P system (6-5-3-2-1) which is used for the reports. It also comprises Semester 1 and 2 results, not just semester 2. We use z scores to track the contribution of the results of each subject to the overall rank. We expect to see the subject that a student wants to accelerate in close to the strongest that a student is undertaking in Year 9. Students who are denied entry to an acceleration course have a right of appeal if they consider they have met the criteria for entry and they have the strong support of the teacher who is currently teaching them in the subject. We accept around 40 boys into acceleration each year. About 35 each year complete their HSC in their accelerated course. The dropout rate is c.16%. There is a safety net for those who, for whatever reason, do not go on to complete the stage 6 course. Students may be removed from the acceleration intervention if they do not meet the required standard by the end of Year 10 or sometimes, Year 11. Applicants and parents need to understand that acceleration is a differentiated intervention, managed by the Principal, to meet the learning needs of able, high achieving, autonomous and passionate students – it is NOT an elective.

Mr Kay is assigning Year 9 students to their Year 10 electives and to their acceleration and online courses, based upon their submitted preferences in rank order. If students fail to qualify in one elective, they will be assigned their next choice where possible. Parents should peruse the learning behaviours profile on their son’s report. We expect at least ‘usually’ if not ‘consistently’ for these behaviours. We aggregate these learning behaviours to produce a list of those judged by teachers as having too frequent ‘sometimes’ or ‘rarely’ ratings. Year Advisers are made aware of these students at our report meetings. There is a high correlation between the names on the monitoring register for Academic Support Group and those on the problematic learning behaviours list. We also have lists for the individual learning behaviours so we can target support more accurately. We have Study Samurai supplied free to targeted students who need and desire individualised support programs.

Student Leave Requests – Reminder  

There is a Department of Education and school policy on Student Leave of Absence – Extended Leave Travel requests. This applies to leave that is five school days or more in duration. Parents are reminded that as a matter of policy, leave may not be processed or approved unless four weeks’ notice has been given. Also, cogent reasons for travelling during school term need to be supplied. The effect of this decision is that all leave requests that involve that last four weeks of term should have been lodged with me for approval by the end of week 6, each term. If you are planning to travel during the school term you need to download, complete and submit the form for my approval by the closing date.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal