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High Notes, Vol 15 No 30, September 19 2014From the Principal
Last day of Term 3
New Deputy Principal Appointed
Joint Project Update
Year 12 Farewell Assembly "Good afternoon Year 12, parents and staff. Welcome to our Farewell Assembly. It is with great pleasure that the staff and I can host your visit to the school today to bear witness to your sons’ graduation from high school. The Class of 2014 has been one that should be proud of its undoubted achievements in a range of co-curricular activities. I have outlined the most significant of these in my ‘Principal’s Message’ in your programs. Recently, our open basketball team also won the NSW Schools Championship and High took out the Kippax Cup for best boys school in athletics. Our boys compete really well in team events because they support and care for each other. I want to thank the leadership team of Shawn Noronha, Ned Anson and Howard Gu for their efforts in generating a heightened ‘esprit de corps’ at the major GPS events this year. It was really noticeable at the athletics carnival that High was a school to be reckoned with. The character of a school is to be found in the depth of its student engagement with school activities. To perform well in GPS sports we need a larger proportion of our Year 12 boys engaged in first or second grade. We were sharply below our benchmark of 30 boys, with only nineteen Year 12 boys in first or second grade in two seasons of sport this year. Congratulations to those dedicated boys who represented the school at high levels in 2014. ‘Triple Firsts’ were: Eugene Lee, Steve Comninos and Ned Anson. Eugene actually represented in four sports for six years – a remarkable effort. Our ‘Double Firsts’ representatives were: Mitchell Flynn, Ray Fang, Shawn Noronha, Yu Peng Man, Jesse Cooper, Steven Chung, Yiu Tao Wong, Nathan Sutton, Andrew Dao, Ray Fang, Tushaar Garg and Kenneth Liu. In the ‘One-Two Club’ were: Joshua Leo, Michael Hamilton, Alan Qi and Terry Fong. I want to thank the 73 boys who showed pride in their school and represented High in two GPS sports in their final year at school. "I allude in my Message to Thich Nhat Hanh and his teachings about seeking inner harmony. We all need to make the attempt to understand and come to terms with our individual strengths and weaknesses. As you say goodbye to each other as a cohort of young men about to venture out into the world I want you to pause and reflect upon the paradox of schooling at High where we have strong traditions expressed in changing contexts. Some of our traditions, such as strong participation in sports, are celebrated on our walls. However, our learning is moving away from tangibles such as books and is now defined by electronic sites, emails and social media. Other traditions, such as inclusiveness and tolerance and bonding together to take up the challenges before us, are expressed in our ceremonies and rituals. These too have changed, as have society’s expectations and standards of discourse and behaviour. "Nevertheless, our motto expresses two values for which we stand: truth and virtue, or manly duty. If we are guided by these principles we should seek truth in all that we do; honour truth everywhere we find it; and above all, speak truth to ourselves and others. To be a man you need to behave ethically, to act decently towards others, to pursue honourable goals, to act with self-discipline, but most importantly, to have the courage to take responsibility for your own actions. It takes time and experience to develop into manhood. "There are rites of passage, including leaving school. At school you get opportunities to practise becoming men. Gradually, and with greater experience, you make better choices and act more responsibly more often. “He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery”. You have had to learn about yourself from the mistakes that you have made. Peer acceptance and compliance with reasonable rules do not always have to be viewed as mutually exclusive. Try to do what’s right, not what is merely popular. Truth and courage are universally applicable.
"Robert Louis Stevenson asks us not to “judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the
seeds that you plant”. We need to be mindful of the future and not all consumed by the
moment at hand. I wish you all the best in your HSC preparations and in the examinations that
follow and hope you gain access to your chosen courses." Wanted: Rowing Catering CoordinatorJob Opportunity
SYDNEY BOYS HIGH SCHOOL
Start: Immediate, or as soon as possible Fantastic opportunity for an organised and enthusiastic person to take on the responsibility of making sure our elite rowing athletes are well fed. Of course there will be standard menus and volunteer parents helping out with the cooking. Approximate hours: 4 hrs/evening (4pm - 8pm) for 2-3 evenings/week during the rowing season (see detail below) -- September school holiday camps –
Term 4 2014 –
January school holiday camps –
Term 1 2015 –
Responsibilities of the role include:
Applications and enquiries can be directed to Julie Blomberg, MIC Rowing, at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .'; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text84529 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Chess NewsThe Annual GPS chess competition was held last Saturday in the Great Hall. The competing teams were Sydney Boys High School, Sydney Grammar School, Newington, St. Ignatius, The King’s School and Scots College. Our team (Michael Cui, Ray Cheng, Leonard Mah, Manil Abeysekera, Johnson Lin, Andrew Wu, James Snow, Raymond Li and Peter Boylan) played exceptionally well, hoping to win back the cup after Grammar’s win in 2013. Our team came runner up, 0.5 of a point behind Grammar so victory is in our sights for the games next year. On Sunday 14th. September some of our players competed in the NSWJCL Secondary Schools one day tournament. Our open team (Raymond Li, Johnson Lin, Manil Abeysekera ) came 6th. Out of 19 teams. Our Junior A team (Peter Boylan, Sean Zhang, Wesley Yu) came 3rd out of 25 teams. Congratulations also to or Junior B team (Louis Shapiro, Lenard Jia and Gorden Zhuang) who came 11th. From the CanteenDid you know that all canteen profits are returned to the school P&C to be spent on important projects that benefit all of our sons. This month we have been able to forward to the P&C our second donation for the year in the sum of $45,000.00, making a total of $80,000.00 for 2014. We could not achieve this wonderful result without the capable running of the canteen by our Managers Karen and Tracey and most importantly our parent volunteers. Thanks to the volunteers last week:
MON: Tina Chang, Madura Perera,
We very much appreciate all our canteen volunteers giving their time to help out at High.
Hope you all have a safe and enjoyable break. Debating Report
We were very lucky this year to have the Debating Dinner sponsored by a number of local business
and this week I would like to acknowledge my thanks to them. Gold ($300) –
Bronze ($100) –
Vouchers/Prizes:
From LanguagesGoethe and the Bavarian Bier CaféThe above is a rather unlikely combination as the famous German Renaissance Man was more inclined to fermented grape juice than a pale ale – but it was the destination of the excursion of Year 9 and 10 German students on Tuesday, September 9. We started at the Goethe Institut in Woollahra which had a poster exhibition for the “Schülertage 2014”. “Deutsche Landschaften und Städte” (landscapes and cities) was the title and the students had to have an app on their various electronic devices which would let them scan the “bar code “on each poster. This opened a whole lot of information about cities like München, Dresden, Hamburg and landscapes like die Alpen und die Nordsee as well as quizzes and word and picture puzzles based on the topic. In groups of three the boys moved around the rooms and tested their - and my - knowledge of various parts of Germany. Gummibärchen and biscuits were some sustenance on their “journey”. A big “Dankeschön” to the staff of the Goethe Institut for their efforts!
The travel continued – on foot – to the entertainment Quarter and the Bavarian Bier
Café. Here we had several tables on the verandah and the boys ordered their German meals
– only the waitresses did not speak German! The food was excellent and Wim even got his
apple juice in a Stein! A short walk back to school ended an enjoyable day of German
experiences! SHS Rowing CommitteeINFORMATION MORNING for PARENTS
Saturday 11 October 2014
Parents … this is a very important meeting to attend so you are informed on what is happening during the rowing season. MORNING TEA AND COFFEE PROVIDED HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE
SBHS CricketCricket – 2014 Term 3 Week 9
MIC of Cricket Report I would like to formally welcome everyone to the season and I hope we all have a fun, enjoyable and successful time playing the true gentleman’s game. To all parents and players, don’t forget to go through the points below:
Geoff Tesoriero SBHS Football
MIC of Football Report
A final thank you to everyone involved in the Football season. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope
to see you all back next season for what I am sure will be even more successful. Table TennisNSW Secondary Schoolboys Shield Winners 2014
On Friday the 5th of September 2014, ten students participated in the Secondary Schoolboys
Shield. Two players per team played four singles and one doubles match against teams from across
the state. By the end of the day Vincent Bui Year 10 and Lingyu Wong Year 8 had won the repechage
final and Edward Belokopytov and Lenny Han had won the final against East Hills High. Well done
to all the boys who participated in the event. From the Junior Library
HAVE A GREAT READ OVER THE HOLIDAYS If you do not get time to look in our library use this list as a recommendation for reading from your local library
THANKS LIBRARY MONITORS
THANKS MY STAFF Year 8 Camp
Year 8 Camp was an exhilarating trip to Active Education’s Mangrove Mountain venue, held
just two weeks before the end of Term 3. As this was one of the only excursions we had had
this year, everyone was quite excited. There were many activities offered by Active
Education. There were two main parts of this year’s camp. For the outdoor
experience we hiked, abseiled, set up tents, cooked our meals and slept in tents – many of
which we had not done before. Our second night we slept in cabins and during the day had
fun doing the flying fox, challenge ropes and canoeing. All these activities were
fascinating, especially those involving heights. In between all of the activities, we
had lots of opportunity to socialise with others, whether in the hot heat of the hike or in a
freezing tent. Year 8 students definitely became closer with each other – and had
loads of fun in the process. Everyone was surprised how fun this camp was and how quickly
the time passed. I am sure we would all happily do it again and again. |