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High Notes, Vol 26 No 37, November 28 2025

From the Principal

High Talent

Congratulations to Jerry Du (SHS-2025) whose performance Sonatina for flute and piano was selected for the HSC showcase ENCORE. This is a rare and prestigious achievement for one of our musicians. Maxi Ibrahim’s Sydney East Water Polo team earned a bronze medal in the CHSSA Championships. Well done, Maxi! At the FIRST Tech Challenge Sydney North Qualifier, our robotics team, comprising Milan Babin (10M), Leon Lu (10F) and Hayden Nguyen (10S) received the first place Inspire Award recognising its outstanding engineering practice, innovation, teamwork and community impact. Congratulations, boys! Boris Zhang (SHS-2025) has had his body of work selected for exhibition at ARTEXPRESS. This is a rare honour for our students. Congratulations, Boris!

Interpreting Year 7 Reports - Semester 2

All boys in Year 7 should now have their reports. In Year 7, we do not provide ranks to students. We have an Academic Achievement List for high-performing students and a Student Monitoring Register for students performing below expected standards. We try to let students settle in and find their feet before making too many outcomes’ comparisons. Our benchmark is 10 credits or thirty points. A student’s profile of learning behaviours is important to us.  We collate teachers’ ratings. A high proportion of ‘consistently’ (c) ‘or ‘usually’ (u) ratings, indicates a student is adjusting well to the demands of multiple subjects (10 in Year 7).

We ask also, that you check your son’s progress in future-oriented earning skills – problem solving, evaluating, working with others, communicating ideas, creating and innovating (PEWCC). Some of these are reported each year in their own text box on the school reports. Faculties have an opportunity to report at least twice on one or more of the five ‘earning skills’ during the six reporting periods during Years 7-9. These skills will be needed in jobs of the future.

You can understand more deeply about how your son is building his capacity in the discrete dispositions that we have targeted for development as a school. The idea is that you can track your son’s growth over his three years in the Junior School. These PEWCC skills are very contextual. Hypothetically, your son might be really good at ‘working with others in English’ where he is confident and comfortable, but not so effective in mathematics where he is weaker, is reticent, or defers to the strongest mathematician in the work group. Consequently, skill growth might not be a simple progression from 1 in Year 7 to 3, 4 or 5 in Year 10 (depending on the scale in the rubric for each subject). Your son’s progress might be uniform, neither across the subjects, nor across the dispositions.

We are reporting on growth in individual dispositions by comparing where a student was on the scale in Year 7 and then again in Year 9 in the same subject context. A similar comparison may be made between measures reported in Year 8 and then again in Year 10. I look forward to an informed dialogue between parents and teachers on the individual student’s development of these important life skills. Go to our website and then to ‘Sydney High Community’ then to ‘Curriculum/PEWCC Reporting’ for a full list of skill descriptors. Our challenge is to develop effective assessment tasks at all levels, in order to describe more accurately where your son stands in his development of these important life skills.

In semester 2, some students choose not to put much effort into one of the languages which they do not intend to pursue in Year 8. While this is regrettable, it is also understandable. As history and geography are delivered in semesters, a student might be stronger or weaker in either of these subjects in second semester. The consequence can be that overall achievement level, as measured by our points system, might decline or improve sharply. Students have their second opportunity to choose a subject when they decide on their language/s for next year. Will they do one language or two? What are the commitments if they take offline classes? Will their other activities be affected? Please discuss language choices for Year 8 with your sons. They are perfectly free to choose just one language in Year 8 if they wish.

Statement from the Premier

‘I am deeply concerned by reports of an assault on an Indian-Australian man at Westfield Parramatta, including allegations the attack was racially motivated. No one in our state should ever be targeted or intimidated because of their background or identity. Racism has no place in our State, and we will always call it out when we see it. We will continue working with community leaders, local organisations and police to ensure people of all backgrounds feel safe, respected and supported in every part of New South Wales’. Wednesday, 19 November 2025, let us ensure we are inclusive in our school and that each one of us is an upstander when it comes to witnessing racially motivated words or deeds at school, in the playground or on the playing fields, Care enough to confront racism!

International Day of People with Disability

Held on 3 December 2025,  aims to promote awareness, understanding and acceptance of people with disability. The day promotes the achievements, rights and diversity of people with disability. This year’s theme, ‘Fostering disability-inclusive societies for advancing social progress’, recognises the important role people with disability play in creating a more inclusive and sustainable world for all.
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal