From the Principal

High Talent
Congratulations to the Year 12 debating team for their regional semi final win against SGHS at Parliament House opposing the proposition that the salary cap is destroying rugby league. Well done to the Stan Jones Cup tennis team for their effort to reach the Sydney Region final against Endeavour Sports High. After three 6-0 wins on the first day and successes in the quarter final and semi final, Arman, Patrick, George and Lachlan put up a tough fight against a team of tournament players from Endeavour, losing 1-5.

End of Financial Year Giving If you would like to support your son in his particular interests at school, why not donate to the Australian Sports Foundation? If you go to www.sydneyboyshigh.com, you can find ‘donations/ sports donations’ and view various projects. There are two forms, one for equipment and facilities, the other for sports development (primarily coaching and training of coaches). Make your tax deductible donations to the sport and funding option of your choice and send the competed form to the school by June 25th so the deposit can be processed and sent to ASF in time for the end of the financial year.

Reports: Years 7, 9, 10, 12
All boys in these years should have their reports. Please ask to see your son’s report. If he cannot produce it ask him why he has not gone to the Principal to collect it.

Participation in school activities
I was concerned when reading the Year 10 reports to find that thirty-two students or 16% of the cohort had no summer sport listed on their reports. I encourage these boys to make sure that they are involved in a winter sport! By contrast, 95.5% of boys in Year 7 were engaged in a summer sport – well done Year 7!

Michael Carr-Gregg – June 30.
Don’t miss Michael Carr-Gregg’s presentation at the joint SBHS-SGHS P & C meeting on Wednesday, June 30. He is a leading Australian expert on adolescent behaviour and has pertinent advice for parents on managing their children through these turbulent years.

Restricted Access to Cutler Drive
O H & S concerns were raised about the safety of our students accessing Moore Park West across Cutler Drive, given the increasing vehicular traffic along that road in the mornings. The road surface is deteriorating rapidly as the edges crumble away. The road has to be repaired using school funds. The cost will be six figures. There are no funds available to do even part of this work in this year’s budget. I have authorised a trial closure of the roadway from 0800 to1600 to be undertaken as both a safety measure and to protect the road until it can be repaired. Locking the new gate at the corner of the tennis courts will also make parents more aware of the school policy that they should enter via gate 1 or gate 2 and depart via gate 2 or 3 in the mornings. There is absolutely no need for parents to drop their sons off outside the entrance to the main building.

Driving Instruction
A one week online survey was posted on the student drive. To the question: "if driver education with a qualified instructor were offered as part of High’s curriculum, would you be interested"; 108 responses were logged, of which 105 were affirmative. Those who answered ‘yes’ had a follow up question: "would you be prepared to pay for driving lessons when you have a free period" there were eighty responses, forty-six in the affirmative. I have approached our bus driver, Peter Hatch, who is also a qualified driving instructor, to set up a model for possible delivery of driving lessons to eligible students during school hours or after school. Given that aspiring learner drivers have to log a large number of hours to qualify for a driver’s licence, such a service might well be attractive. If your son is interested in logging up driving hours with an expert instructor, please email me an expression of interest. I would like to know how viable it would be for us to set up a program.
Dr K A Jaggar

Parent-Teacher Interviews

Year 7 will take place on
Monday 21 June 2010 3.00pm – 6.30pm

Years 10, 11 and 12 will take place on
Thursday 24 June 2010 3.00pm – 7.30pm

Years 8 and 9 will take place on
Wednesday 30 June 2010 3.00pm – 6.30pm

Booking interviews with your son’s teachers
This year we will again use a web based electronic scheduling system for arranging interviews. This should produce better results for all participants, especially more compact time schedules for both parents and teachers. The system works as follows –

• On Tuesday 8 June all parents of boys in Year 7 will be sent by email details of the scheduling system and a unique code to be entered at www.edval.com.au/book.
• On Tuesday 15 June all parents of boys in Years 10, 11 and 12 will be sent by email details of the scheduling system and a unique code to be entered at www.edval.com.au/book.
• On Tuesday 22 June all parents of boys in Years 8 and 9 will be sent by email details of the scheduling system and a unique code to be entered at www.edval.com.au/book.

• This email will be sent to the address currently held by the school. If you have not received this email by the following Wednesday (9, 16 or 23 June) or, if your email address has changed from what had been previously advised to the school, you should notify the school at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it advising of this. Please indicate your son's name and roll class or date of birth so that the information can be forwarded to you.
• On the Edval website you will see your son’s teachers listed and you will be able to select those with whom you require an interview. At the same time you can indicate your availability between 3:00 pm and 6:30 pm (7:30pm for Years 10-12).
• Once the majority of parents have requested interviews, the overall schedule will be generated by the school and your individual schedule should be available for you to download and print from two days before the interviews.
• Boys from all Years will be dismissed from class at the conclusion of Period 5 (2:15 pm) on each day. School Special buses will run to normal schedules and there will be supervision in the Junior Quad of boys waiting for these buses.
• Interviews should not exceed five minutes’ duration. If there is insufficient time, a further appointment may be made for a later date, or contact by telephone arranged.

From Classics

Greek and Latin Reading Competition at Sydney University

A Year 11 Latin Perspective…
On Wednesday, 9th June, a group of Sydney High students competed in the Greek and Latin Reading Competition at Sydney University. The competition is organised by the Classical Association of New South Wales. This competition is held annually for Latin and Greek students from many schools, including Sydney Grammar and Sydney Girls’ High. It is a competition in which a student performs a piece of poetry individually before a panel of judges. They are judged on pronunciation, metre and expression. This year, we had five students from Year 11: Samuel Beston, Lawrence Cai, Declan Gorey, Dennis Kim and Jeffrey Tang. Each of us memorised a Philosophical piece from Lucretius’ “De Rerum Natura”. A good achievement, as we had only a short time to learn the piece.

We arrived at Sydney University early on the day and, after a visit to the Nicholson Museum and an enlightening talk on Archaeology, we made our way to the performance room for our readings. Overall, the judges seemed impressed with the Sydney High group, even commenting that we were the first to completely memorise the piece. The finals will be held next month.

I would like to thank Ms Werner for her help and organisation of the competition, and Ms Matsos for our preparation, and to congratulate all the boys who participated.
Lawrence Cai
Year 11 Latin

Reading Greek and Latin at Sydney University

Preliminary Round, 9th June
The Greek and Latin Reading Competition this year involved a large group from Sydney Boys’ High. In addition to the Year 11 Latin group, there were a number of boys from Year 10 Latin as well as Year 10 and Year 11 Greek: Participants in the Greek Reading were David Wang, Year 11; Anton Brokman, Christopher Chiam, Matthew Delaney, Jim Koukouras and Toby Funston, all of Year 10. The students of Greek had to read aloud in Classical Greek, a passage from Euripides’ play, “Phaedra”.

The Year 10 Latin students, who had to read aloud a passage from Book XII of “The Aeneid” of Vergil, were: Jonathan Adhika, Timothy Chin, Matthew Delaney, William Ho, Kevin Krahe, Sooraj Prakash and Suman Prusty.

Congratulations to all participants in this challenging competition.
D.Matsos
Latin Teacher

From the two Libraries

Book Fair

Books are still trickling in from Borders Online. Thanks to all our donors. We are thrilled to receive these lovely new books which encourage our boys to read. Special thanks to Sherrin Ayres one of our English staff who dropped in to get help with Borders Online for taking so much trouble to donate to our Book Fair. Thanks especially also to Francis Salmon, mother of Josh Lane - Year 8 for dropping in personally to bring us 7 nearly new books from home as a Book Fair donation. This is most appreciated.

Donations status – arrived/covered and ready to be first-reader, can be viewed on sydneyboyshigh.com via the Library Thing Website/book Fair catalogue – put in the search term “donations”. Boys are now picking up their donations.

STAFF READERS
It was great to see Ms Sharon Kearns turn up before the long weekend to borrow 8 new novels. Our adult collection is very strong. Some of our staff are great readers and this sets a wonderful example to our students. More staff book reviews in High Notes help with this also so if you have just read a good book drop a line to High Notes and publish your recommendation.

NEW RESOURCES THIS WEEK
Andrews library
SENIOR FICTION
Proof, Dick Francis;
Acceptable Risk, Robin Cook;
Poor Boy, R.F. Brissenden;
The Glass Cockpit, Robert P. Davies;
Longshot, Dick Francis ;
Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt;
The Eleventh Commandment, Jeffrey Archer;
The Currency Lads, Peter Yeldham;
Riptide, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child;
Firebird, Janice Graham;
Snare of Serpent, Victoria Holt;
The Himmler Equation, William P. Kennedy;
The Ark’s Anniversary, Gerald Durrell;
10-LB Penalty,Dick Francis;
The Escape Artist, Diane Chamberlain;
Point of Impact, John Nichol;
Homecoming, Belva Plain;
John Steinbeck, Warren French;
The Client, John Grisham;
Home Ground, Hugh Miller;
Elephant Song, Wilbur Smith;
Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief, Dorothy Gilman;
The Cradle Will Fall, Mary Higgins Clark;
Horowitz and Mrs Washington, Henry Denker;
Control Tower, Robert P. Davis;
Baker’s Hawk, Jack Bickham;
The Shiralee, D’arcy Niland;
Lifeboat Number Two, Margaret Culkin Banning;
The Dwelling Place, Catherine Cookson;
The Blind Side, Francis Clifford

SENIOR NON FICTION
Meet the Stars of Dawson’s Creek, Grace Catalano;
The Gracchi Brothers or Does the End Justify the Means, Stanley Livingstone.
Veronica Crothers
Librarian Junior Library

From the Canteen

It was great to have the help of the following people last week. Thank you very much to.......

Sachiyo James, Usha Arvind, Sue Rynsaardt, Paul and Judy Koerber (impressive tag team style - as one arrived, the other left!!), Ming Lee, Elsa Li, Yuko Sakata, Sally Allingham, Jim O'Sullivan, Anne Wall, Su Jen Yap., Helen Chong, June (Wu) Long, Lancy Feng, Soogie Sim, Frances Salmon, Jing Zhang

Plus a big thank you to Ming who came in to help at the last minute - she had been in the previous week also.
Thank you
The Canteen Team

SBHS Debating

Premiers Debating Challenge
The Premiers Debating Challenge is the state wide debating competition organised by the Department of Education and runs throughout the school year. At SBHS each year level is represented by one team who face three local rounds before continuing on to Regional Finals and progressively through to the State Final. Our seniors have been leading the way and should be congratulated for their regional finals success defeating Sydney Girls High on the unexpected topic choice of Salary Caps in NRL – well done boys!

Newington Social
Our largest social round of the year is against Newington College and we have 15 teams competing as a warm up to the GPS season proper. I wish the best of luck to our teams and I look forward to watching some excellent debates.

PLEASE NOTE:
Coaching for Term 2 concludes in Week 10
FRIDAY 25th JUNE is the LAST COACHING FOR TERM 2

Behaviour in Coaching
It has unfortunately come to my attention that many junior boys are unable to adhere to the standard of behaviour expected of them both as debaters and as students of SBHS

We are lucky to have the calibre of coaches on staff and ready to assist the development of students as they mature into articulate and analytical debaters. In turn it is expected that all boys show their coaches and their fellow debaters the respect they deserve.

This means: calling out, yelling in class rooms, not following directions, littering, using mobile phone/laptops are not acceptable behaviours and are detrimental to individual and group learning.

At debates: rooms should be kept neat and tidy – boys should be returning the rooms to their original state, putting any scrap paper into the bin.

Parents of junior boys are recommended to go over the behaviour expected within the Code of Conduct as continued misbehaviour will result in your son being removed from coaching group or excluded from future competition debates

More information can be found at www.sydneyhigh.org.au/debating and will be emailed to you on a weekly basis.
Please CHECK YOUR EMAIL regularly and ensure we have current contact details for both students and parents.
PARENTS: If you are not receiving weekly emails about debating please email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and ask to be added to the parent group for your child’s year.

Music Notes

Music Tour 2010 to France & Flanders
Music Tour Photos and Videos are now accessible to staff and students on the W Drive, Photo Archive, 2010, Music Tour 2010 (France & Flanders). More photos will be added each week and we ask that any student / parent who came on the Tour to please bring in their photos to the Music Staff to upload for everyone to view.

As we entered the small town of Villers-Bretonneux on our coach, the first thing that caught my eye as out of the ordinary was the Australian flags flying all around us, on the town hall, on the theatre where we were going to perform and even hanging off some of the non-official shops. As we entered the hall, all above us were hung green and gold banners and we placed our cases behind great green and gold curtains draping the stage. The flags and banners were for the one week commemoration of the ANZAC troops that fought and died there to initially capture and then defend the village against German counter-attacks. After the rehearsal, the group was treated to biscuits and drinks, all provided by the townspeople and served by some of the village women. Hindered slightly by our lack of French and their lack of English, we figured a system of miming and speaking gibberish sounding similar to French to communicate our thanks.

For dinner, we went to the usual food emporium where we were given snails to taste. The majority of us tried them, though there were a few not willing to go there. Our proper meal did not arrive for ages, causing us to have to eat our food in 5 minutes, dessert and all and run back to the hostel to get changed into our uniforms and onto the coach for our performance that evening. Feeling slightly sick after cramming all that food down our throats and tumbling down the stairs racing to the coach, we were on our way to the concert.

The concert was one of our best, featuring all three of our ensembles. Reporters from channel 9 filmed an arrangement of Waltzing Matilda for use in one of their programs, mixing our schedule up slightly, keeping us on our toes. After the concert, people from the village were practically queuing up for opportunities to grab a photo or word with us, among congratulations of “magnifique” and “professionale.” The bus trip home was one of the most memorable of all our rides, co-ordinating silence and bursts of song according to the clock on the bus. Among these were the School Song, the War Cry, 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall (Ok, so we skipped a few...) and the Pokemon Theme Song. The celebration did not end even when we returned to our hostel, with many of us only collapsing into bed well after midnight.
Marcell Rozsa
Year 11

ENSEMBLE Rehearsal Times for 2010
ALL Music Ensembles have now commenced this term and students are expected to attend 80% of rehearsals to qualify for their award schemes. Please check the timetable below for some time and room changes.

Marching Band
Marching Band rehearsal will commence this Friday at 8:00am on MPW. ALL members of the Senior & Intermediate Concert Bands are expected to attend as we have a marching performance on Tuesday 29 June 2010.

SBHS & SGHS SRC Talent Quest 2010

The combined Talent Quest is an annual charity event that has been run by the SRC for a number of years, bringing the spotlight onto hidden talents within our schools that may have passed un-noticed.

The Talent Quest consistently raises funds and awareness for the Black Dog Institute. The SRC supports this non-profit educational, research and clinical facility that offers specialist expertise in depression and bipolar disorder. You can read more about their work at www.blackdoginstitute.org.au 

The event took place last Monday after a week-long run of unprecedented auditions, a real accolade to the creativity and confidence of our students. I congratulate everyone who gave the auditions a shot, and I'm sure even more talent will surface for next year. The hall was at capacity in minutes, with rumours of the successful SBHS acts to perform and an interest in what Sydney Girls had to offer. The talents of Francis Pham, Miguel Castillo, Michael Zhang, Jim Nguyen and Year 12 band The Icebergs were unearthed in a great contest with Sydney Girls, who also found a great variety of acts to showcase.

The panel of judges represented by Ms Berger deemed The Icebergs this year's winners - congratulations to Andrew Blomberg, Kieran Taylor, Justin Chan and Antony Paul. Everyone's combined efforts raised $1085, an excellent contribution to the designated charity

Thanks to the SRC for all their help in putting the event together, and in particular the subcommittee (made up of students from Yr 7-12 from the SRC) who focused on the event for many weeks leading up to the day.

Samuel demonstrated great leadership skills in heading this Talent Quest subcommittee –on behalf of the SRC thanks and well done!!!
Mrs Collignon

High Society

The Bulletin Board for Sydney Boys High P & C

Julie Connolly
P&C President

If you would like to have any parent community news or upcoming events included in High Society, please contact Julie Connolly, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; M: 0418 470 203.

Joint P&C SBHS and SGHS – 7.00pm Wednesday 30th June, Great Hall

Thank you to the ten families who have generously offered to help set up for our joint P&C meeting with SGHS featuring Dr Michael Carr-Gregg on Wednesday 30th June – we really need your help.

We still need another ten families who can assist in laying out chairs theatre style following the parent-teacher interview session that will run until 6.30pm on that same evening. We have approximately 20 minutes to pack away tables and set out chairs - we need all hands on deck! Could parents indicate their availability to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and meet in the School Foyer at 6.20pm on Wednesday 30th June.

In addition, Barbara Taylor is organising supper for the evening and needs parents to help set up the supper area near the Great Hall kitchen from 5.30pm on Wednesday 30th June. Please email Barbara directly This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you can help. Meet at the Great Hall kitchen.

Upcoming Parent Meetings and Events

Monday 21st June, 3.00pm–6.30pm –
Year 7 Parent / Teacher Night, Great Hall

Thursday 24th June, 3.00pm-7.30pm –
Years 10, 11 and 12 Parent / Teacher Night, Great Hall

Wednesday 30th June, 3.00pm-6.30pm -
Years 8 and 9 Parent / Teacher Night, Great Hall

Wednesday 30th June, 7.00pm –
Address by Dr Michael Carr- Gregg at joint SBHS and SGHS P&C Meeting, Great Hall

Volleyball Report

Year 8 Report
On the 5th June the Year 7 and 8 played against Grammar A and Grammar B. Unfortunately we lost both sets despite our improved level of play in the second set. This prepared us for our next match against Grammar B. We took out the first set but were not able to maintain our momentum into the second set which we lost. However, some good play from Gordon and Shaun resulted in a win in the third set.
Byron Chen

Rifle Shooting

Several weeks after Armidale, the Sydney High Rifle Team set out yet again for another trip to the country, to compete in the Wingham Open Prize Meeting. This meet is usually known as the Wingham Rain Festival, but this year, we were competing under bright blue skies and had a consistently dry shooting mound.

The Sydney High Rifle Team saw great success this year. While this was an individual shoot, we entered a School’s Team that competed against Wingham High School and The Armidale School for the Mo Burdett Trophy. Although Wingham High posted extremely competitive scores, we managed to edge ourselves just in front by a mere 2 points, winning the trophy for the third year in a row. Individually, our results were no less impressive. Brendan Leo (Year 11) had a great weekend of shooting, winning five silver medals and two bronze medals to come 2nd in C Grade, only losing out to the C Grade champion by one point. Ryan Woo (Year 11) also shot well, and despite his lower aggregate score (coming 4th in C Grade) he won three gold medals by coming first at three different ranges. Peter Tran (Year 11) also shot well, winning the Tyro Cup; a cup awarded to those who haven’t yet won a competition.

But aside from those standout achievements the whole team performed admirably, gaining much experience; for Bill Deng (Year 9) and Dominic Tran (Year 9) it was their first shoot at an Opens competition, and for Wilbert Wu (Year 9) and Adam Ceh (Year 10) it was their first trip to Wingham. This year some of us were luckily paired with professional A Grade shooters on the second day, a new system designed to help the younger shooters. And thanks to their mentoring, there were clear improvements in scores. Comparing the Day 1 to the Day 2 aggregates, we saw improvements of approximately 15% in our newer shooters Bill and Dominic, an incredible improvement in such a short amount of time.

Aside from the seriousness of the competition shooting though, it was still a fun camping trip out in the country. At the end of each of the long days, we took the opportunity to finally relax. Whether it was warming up in front of our campfire, content from the hearty meals that the Wingham Rifle Club provided, or roasting marshmallows and making some damper, we enjoyed a brilliant trip augmented by Wingham’s friendly and welcoming atmosphere.

Of course, all the people who made this possible must be thanked: Wingham Rifle Club, for providing us with such fierce yet friendly competition, our MIC Cathy Meaney for putting in all the effort and behind-the-scenes work to make this possible, and to Old Boy coaches Sam Kremer, Kevin Chan and Joe Banh for supporting us throughout the weekend. Also a huge thanks must go to Sam Kremer for driving the bus.

With our highly successful Wingham shoot being the second of our several lead-up shoots to the all important GPS Competition, we look forward to what the next few weeks hold in store for us. The West Wallsend Open Prize Meeting at Cessnock is coming up shortly.
Michael Do Captain of Rifles 2010

SBHS GPS Athletics Training Timetable - 2010

Sydney Boys High School Drama Festival

Watch Out!

Sydney Boys High School Drama Festival
7pm July 26 & 27
The Great Hall

Student Tickets $5

Applications for Years 8 - 12, 2011

Applications for Years 8 - 12, 2011 close on 29 July 2010.

Application forms are are available from the school visit: www.sydneyboyshigh.com and click the link to enrolments.

Phillip Day Memorial Scholarship

For existing or enrolling students in years 7 - 12 who meet the scholarship selection criteria. To apply for a scholarship visit www.sydneyboyshigh.com/scholarship for full details.

Hear Dr Michael Carr-Greg, 30 June 2010

Fantastic Opportunity to Hear One of Australia's Leading Voices on Teenagers

7.00pm, Wednesday 30th June, Great Hall
Dr Michael Carr-Gregg

The Five Greatest Challenges for Parents in 2010

The joint Sydney Boys and Sydney Girls P&C meeting for this year – 7.00pm, Wednesday 30th June, in the Great Hall – will feature Dr Michael Carr-Gregg speaking on The Five Greatest Challenges for Parents in 2010, including aspects of online safety, alcohol, sleep and other key issues. This is a fantastic opportunity to hear one of Australia’s leading voices on adolescents and we urge parents to attend this P&C presentation.

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg is one of Australia's highest profile psychologists and is described by the Sunday Age, as one of the country's leading authorities on teenage behaviour. He specialises in the areas of parenting adolescents and adolescent mental health. Michael is the Consultant Psychologist to the Victorian Secondary Schools Principals’ Association and is a founding member of the National Coalition Against Bullying. He is an official ambassador for beyondblue and Mindmatters - one of 16 youth suicide prevention programs run by the Federal Government - and has served on the advisory committee for the Federal Government's Boys' Education Lighthouse School Programme.

Educated in Kenya, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, Michael is married with two sons. For seven years he worked as an Associate Professor in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne, before going into private practice in the Melbourne suburb of Kew. Michael has worked in private practice as a family therapist, child psychologist and clinical psychologist, as an academic, researcher and spent four years working as a political lobbyist. He wrote his PhD on adolescents with cancer at the University of NSW which resulted in the formation of CanTeen - a support group for teenagers with cancer in 1984. Michael has a high media profile working on national TV on Channel 7's Sunrise and The Morning Show as well as Fairfax Radio 3AW. He is a columnist for Girlfriend and Australian Doctor and has written six books, including the best selling Princess Bitchface Syndrome - how to survive teenage girls for Penguin in 2007 and has just finished another book When to Really Worry which was released in 2010.

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg is an informed, entertaining and inspiring speaker addressing some of the most critical issues for our adolescents today. This is a great opportunity for High parents to hear his insights.

Supper will be served following the presentation.