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High Notes, Vol 27 No 3, February 20 2026

From the Principal

High Talent

Anosh Sivashanmukurajah (SHS-2008) was awarded the Royal College of Physicians Trainee of the Year Award, for an extraordinary contribution to the RACP. Only one trainee is picked from Australia and NZ annually for this award. Congratulations, Anosh. Jameson Vu (9T) is competing at the CHSSA tennis championships next week. Good luck Jameson! Well done to Leon Park (8T) who won a silver medal at the Judo Canberra International U15 U73kg class.

Staff changes

Regrettably, Mr Kay is unwell and will require treatment for leukemia for several months. He is looking forward to his return when he recovers. I will be on leave from March 3 until May 8. Mr Barris will be relieving Principal. Ms Luu will be relieving Deputy Principal for Years 8,10 and 12. Mr Ohlback will be relieving as Head Teacher, Teaching and Learning.

Presentation Night 2026

Guest speaker, Professor Ron Trent, spoke about changes in academic directions and in working life and how these applied to his own history as well as to his son Tim – an Old Boy. He outlined how resilience can be developed and applied throughout a career and how sometimes the long and more difficult path may lead to greater personal and professional satisfaction along the way. He stressed that above all, a happy family life is anyone’s crowning achievement. My speech is reprinted below:

"Special guest, Professor Ron Trent and Dr Pit Trent, Ms Angela Lyris OAM, Director of Educational Leadership, Department of Education, Ms Rachel Powell, Principal SGHS, Mr Richard Luxford, General Manager of ̽»¨ÊÓƵ Foundation Ltd, Ms Jocelyn Yem (President SBHS P & C), Mr Jacob Ezrakhovich (President of SHSOBU), Life Governors - Mr Geoff Andrews, Mr Dennis and Mrs Linda Briggs, Lieutenant Sunny Liu, OC Sydney High Cadet Unit, Ms Virginia Flint and Ms Lisa Deroux, representing Sir Roden and Lady Cutler Foundation, guest presenters  Mr Peter Kampfner, Ms Megan Morgan and Richard Halliday, Old Boys, staff, parents and prize winners – thank you all for joining us for this evening of celebration of student achievement at High.

"DP Jamie Kay’s two-week timetable was well received in 2025 and contributed to teachers being able to finish teaching their HSC courses comfortably. I think this extra time flowed into improved English and mathematics results at the HSC. The afternoon assembly roster worked well on Tuesdays. The built-in free period for lectures or meetings via a booking system, proved useful also. We are now in our final year of the teacher laptop renewal program, funded by the P & C, to whom we extend our heartfelt thanks.

"My thanks go to John Prorellis, Jim Crampton and Daniel Xu for the great planning and execution of our major works around the school in 2025. Finally, The Cooler Classrooms project has been completed and signed off. The re-roofing and internal and external painting of B-block (The Killip Wing) was a major investment by DOE, for which we are grateful. New furniture, wired up for desktop use, was installed in the Junior Library. We have a design for the new Table Tennis Centre next to the COLA. Shortly we will have a QS report and a price estimate for two options.

"In our last year of focusing on sentence conscious pedagogy, ‘closer reading, clearer writing,’ we made another big investment in literacy workshops, pull-out programs and remedial software. The language of our pedagogy is more consistent across faculties. We have developed materials and have strategies in place, reflected in our program modifications for all Years 7-10. Wellio software was deployed to Values Education classes, with some positive engagement by students. We are pivoting towards reading with more explicit teaching of super six reading strategies to be written into our programs for students 7-10. This year we have an external validation process.

"Our overall HSC results for 2025 were impressive. High was ranked 6th in the League Tables. High boys earned 649 band 6/E4s which was our highest number since 2017. The ATAR average for 2025 was 93.64 (SD 7.88) calculated for 208. The students who enrolled in 2020 earned a mean ATAR of 94.04. The later-enrolling students earned 91.89. 47 students scored 99 or higher - our best result since 2015; 80 earned ATARs between 95 and 98.95 – our equal highest number since 2015; 82.13% scored 90 or above – our best result since 2015. In terms of Band 5 and 6 percentages per course, 5 courses were at 100%, 8 at 95 to 99%, 5 at 90 to 94% and 12 below 90%. Our 2025 course means compared to 2024 – 15 increased and 8 decreased, and one was the same. When comparing High with a Statistically Similar School Group of selective schools, 18 courses were above the SSSG mean and 8 below. Our average school course mean was 89.16 (2024-88.49), compared to the SSSG of 87.60 (2024-87.09).

"Individual HSC results - top 10 in a course – Brendan Woo (Classical Greek 2nd, English Advanced 15th); Andrew Pye (Software Engineering -2nd); Xavier Perry (Mathematics Extension 2 – 4th); Arnav Agrawal (Mathematics Advanced-6th); Arin Bhargava (Business Studies 9th) and Liwen Deng (Geography – 9th). Musical performances nominated for possible selection in ENCORE: Jerry Chen, Liam Grreacen, Jacob Jim, Ryan Kirkland, Oscar Kuo, Kevin Liu, Andrew Yao and Jason Yu. For composition: Marley Masya and Vincent Wang. James McLoughlin had his major work in English Extension 2 nominated for inclusion in HSC Young Writer’s Showcase – a first at High in my time! Boris Zhang had his work nominated and selected for exhibition in ARTEXPRESS. Jerry Du had his flute and piano Sonatina nominated and selected for performance at ENCORE. Congratulations to all these highly talented students!

"Our boys won a GPS Premiership in Second Grade Volleyball. Axel Lam (C), Branson Chan, Kevin Bui, Ethan Yu, Isaiah Goh, Ethan Huynh, Anthony Ly, Eugene Cho, Ariz Mahmud, Kevin Lin, Kirby Li and coach Edward Ly, brought home The Trinh Loi Shield. Since 2006, High has missed out only twice on securing the GPS second grade premiership – an impressive demonstration of depth in the sport managed by Michael Kay. One student represented at international level. Three individuals and three teams competed at state level. A selection of significant individual and team achievements for 2025 is presented for you to peruse at the end of your program.

"In conclusion, I want to make you aware of the re-making of the geopolitical structure that you will work in. The era of Pax America, dominated by internationalism, free trade, a liberal world order and US nuclear supremacy, was forged between 1945 and 1990, flourished between 1991 and 2010 after the US victory in the Cold War, and has eroded since then, due to the rapid rise of China, the complacency of Europe, asleep under the USA’s nuclear umbrella, and the gradual dominance of nationalism over internationalism. Revivalist strongmen rule USA, Russia, China, Turkey and India – emphasising uniqueness, cultural exceptionalism and the once and future greatness of their nations. Instead of liberal internationalism and free trade, we see nationalism and weaponised trade, using the supply of oil, rare earth magnets, even lobster, red wine or barley, to coerce trading partners. We need to manufacture more at home, reshore critical industries, build our renewable energy capacity and pursue middle power trading alliances. There will be much for your generation to do to lift our productivity as a nation.

"Good luck to you all and stay connected. It has been my great honour and privilege to serve you as your principal."
Dr K A Jaggar
Principal