From the Principal

High Talent
Basketball is celebrating its historic season this week at its end of season dinner. On top of its back-to-back National Schools Competition victories and three-in-a-row Raschke Cup wins, the team secured successive GPS co-premierships. The team is the best in High’s history, losing only to Scots in double overtime in a controversial game. The team was so successful because of its great defence (led by Jasper Garay and Dan Jones), its relentless offense (organised by Christian Jurlina and Craig Moller) and its composure under pressure. Thanks go to Eamon Kelly, Blake McGlenchy, Scott Renzenbrink, Mitchell Flynn, Matthew McDonald and Geoffrey Gerlach for their contributions to the strength and success of the team. Some of the boys battled significant injury problems throughout the season – a tribute to their loyalty to their team mates and commitment to the game. Well done to the coaching / management staff: Ben and Alex Hayman and Bruce Gordon.

Congratulations to the teams who competed in the UNSW debating tournament involving 34 teams. The Year 12 boys won and Year 10 were 3rd. Christopher Chiam won the best speaker award with Julian Edgtton and Robert Sternhell joint 3rd. Well done to Lokesh Sharma (Year 10) who won his local round of the Rostrum Voice of Youth competition. Congratulations to our CIS swimmers who were selected after the round of GPS carnivals. Kevin Guo (13 years) Kazuo Nakamura and Kim Kyne (14 years) Leonard Mah and Michael Sawang (15 years) Darren Chien (16 years) are our representatives.

Living Skills and Values Education
Brainstorm Productions delivered two values-based performances designed to meet the needs of our boys at various stages of development. For Year 7 it was The Hurting Game and for Year 11 Wired. Also, Motivational Media put on their latest production iRISK for the whole school. The production deals with risk identification, assessment and management. “Living life to the full requires an understanding of what risk is, how we calculate the level of its impact and whether we decide to act despite the risks involved.” The school recognises the importance of providing character development stimuli for our boys. Being exposed to or challenged by vicarious experiences builds personal capacity to deal with real personal issues as they arise. Well-adjusted and resilient boys are able to cope better with the stresses of schoolwork and examinations.

The Record All summer sports reports are now due to be submitted to Ms May. The quality of our publication relies on the full participation by captains of teams in writing a summary of their season. Old Boys visiting the school frequently reminisce about their experiences in sport, brought back to them by the team photo and season report available in The Record. Co-curricular Supporters Groups are also asked to send to us any good action shots or team photographs that promote their sport or activity to enhance school publications. Some warm up or training shots from close range would add colour to the text about our activities. Email jpeg files and Word season summaries to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

The Annual School Report
The Annual School Report has been sent to the printers. Thank you to all the staff and students who made a contribution to the composition of this important record of school life focussed on achievements and learning outcomes. A PDF version of the report can be viewed or downloaded at www.sydneyboyshigh.com/publications/annual-report and click on the front page to open or save.
Dr K A Jaggar

On The Shelf - Junior Library

Highlights from one shelf a week will be displayed on the newspaper table in the Junior Library

The purpose of this is to allow boys to think about the variety of resources they can find in their library from magazines to DVDs to Reference Books to the latest popular Fiction.

Michael Alexandratos in Year 10 has very kindly agreed to give his opinion on the worth of the Collection and this is his first article.

If you do not agree with Michael’s observations I would love to publish your counter arguments here. Feel free to comment on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

I was recently given the task by Mrs Crothers of detailing the non-fiction section in the junior library. I was told that this "piece" had to be as vivacious and humorous as possible. I was unsure though, how one could be entertaining whilst describing dry tomes on computer software and the countless, inane editions of "Guinness Book of Records". Nevertheless, I managed to find something worth noting in the rather prolific junior library.

As soon as I glanced at the selected shelf I immediately grasped two books that could be of interest. One of them was named "Great Mysteries: The Stories and Myths of the Unexplained" and the other "UFO: Evaluating the Evidence". I had mixed feelings about these two books, as most UFO and conspiracy theory texts were usually worthless pieces of tripe. The UFO book had the usual fare of phony eye witness accounts, blatantly staged photographs and questionable scientific reports. It also included the illusive Roswell incident and other obscure UFO sightings.

I then proceeded onto the "Mysteries" book. The text did not focus on specific events but instead detailed particular themes, such as: clairvoyance, vampires, lake monsters, the "abominable snowman" and of course the infamous UFO. The two books that I skimmed over seemed to be presented from an objective standpoint. This was not so. One cannot expect these texts to have been taken seriously, except by raving lunatics and fantasy infused school children. The non-fiction books, however, did have a curiosity value. If one is interested in the paranormal and extra-terrestrial, by all means borrow them. As for myself, I gave these fallible texts a well-earned pass.
Michael Alexandratos

Interestingly The Guiness Book of Records remains one of the Library’s most scanned items as it illustrates the bizarre as well as the extraordinary. I am a little surprised that Michael’s sense of humour did not acknowledge this. The dry computer tomes reveal some secrets regarding software to the computer uninitiated/frustrated or we hope they will do that. In fact when I looked over the contents of shelf 001-004, .some quite juicy tomes emerged and they are illustrated at the top of this article. Silicon Snake Oil could be worth a read and The story of the Internet (not illustrated) also looks interesting. The How to books like The Complete Idiot’s Guide to FrontPage and World Wide Web Searching For Dummies could teach me a thing or two.
Mrs Crothers

Careers News

All Year 12 students are expected to have a ‘Beyond High School’ interview with the Careers Adviser during Term 2 or Term 3.

Students can make their booking through the ‘Careers Interviews’ section of the Student Portal. Bookings can be made now – don’t delay or you may miss your preferred time!
Mr Cipolla

Die Deutsche Frage - Die Antwort

Am Freitag, den 23. März um 13. 31 Uhr bekam ich eine Email von Herrn R. Boros mit der richtigen Antwort!!! Gestern (Dienstag, den 27.3.) standen James GOH, Liam Jepson und Stratton Vakirtzis (alle Yr 8) vor der Tür – and their co-operative effort had finally produced the correct answer. Knut - of course, was the abandoned Polar Bear baby raised by the Berlin Zoo (he fell into a moat and drowned), Paul – was the octopus (squid? whatever) who picked the soccer winners with great dexterity (he died of old age) and the missing third was Til – the rabbit born without ears, whose fame was very short lived as he met with an untimely end which sent the sales of tissues in Germany to unprecedented heights.

Die neue Frage: Was fehlt auf dem Juli Bild?
Frau St Leon

SBHS Debating

MIC’s Report

Not much space for me this week because in addition to Christopher’s usual report Lokesh offered to write something about the UNSW tournament which was an outstanding success for SBHS. I would like to share a comment from the Convenor of the competition who said about Christopher, our debating prefect “Chris is an amazing speaker. Completely dominated the speaker tab and the grand final.” Very well done to all the boys who went and a big thank you to Ms Munro who accompanied them.
Rachel Powell

Debating Prefect’s Report

Last week's results against FED were disappointing, with only wins to the Year 11 team. However don't be disheartened - Newington is not in the ISDA (the big private school preseason comp that runs concurrent to Eastside/FED) and hence send their A sides to these debates, where as we rotate our teams to give everyone a fair go. In the long run this pays off, with more depth in our Years which leads to better results. We performed much better in Eastside however, with wins to our Year 9, 10, 11 and 12 teams against our arch rivals Sydney Girls. The rivalry always brings something extra to these debates, and it was great to see us come out with 4 wins to 2 against them. FED is now finished for this term, however Eastside still has one more debate today at SCEGGS. Good luck to all teams as we aim to qualify as many teams as possible for the semis and finals!
Christopher Chiam

Report on UNSW

The UNSW Network Schools Debating Day was a very challenging, intellectual, creative and thought-provoking day. The purpose of the day was mainly to increase our exposure to university style debating and allow us to practise mentally challenging topics. There were 34 teams from a variety of schools, with Sydney Boys High School sporting the highest number of teams. The competition was fierce with some of the teams previously having won the Premiers’ Debating and it proved a day of hard opposition. The topics were based on controversial issues in the fields of Medicine, Social Policy and Politics. The first round topic was “That doctors should be forced to report suspected cases of domestic violence, with or without the patients’ consent”. All teams were given 30 minutes to prepare 5-7 minute speeches. At the end of each debate, all speakers were provided with expert feedback and ‘tricks of the trade’ by very experienced debaters. This process continued for another two gruelling, engaging yet fun rounds of complex, elaborate and at times contentious topics. After the end of the three rounds, High finished with 3 teams that were undefeated and in the top 5. Our Year 11 team finished fifth, while one of our Year 10 teams finished third. The best performance on the day was given by our Year 12 team consisting of Robert, Julian and Christopher. They finished first after the Round Robin stage and went into the final to debate the topic “World leaders who commit atrocities should be given immunity, in return for stepping down.” We were arguing the affirmative side and came up with an intricate and successful model. The team debated with vigour and skill to win a deserving battle against Abbottsleigh Girls. Deservingly Christopher Chiam (Year 12) won the Best Speaker of the Day after stellar performances throughout the day. Congratulations to Christopher and all the teams that took part in a very well planned and stimulating day. I am sure everyone found it to be a very enlightening experience.
Lokesh Sharma
Year 10 Team Member

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

Kuringai Philharmonic Orchestra Concerto Competition

Congratulations to Ennes Mehmedbasic who auditioned last Saturday for the KPO Concerto Competition and has made it into the next round to be held on Saturday 28th April 2012 at Abbotsleigh School. We would like to invite you to come along and hear him perform at the next round and we wish him all the best in the competition.

Music Performance Program

Students in the Music Performance Program, ALL Music Ensembles are now up and running, please ensure that you are attending the appropriate Ensembles as 80% attendance to rehearsals is required for award scheme points.

The 2012 ensemble rehearsal timetable is provided below:

The Marching Band will be playing in the Sydney City March on ANZAC Day in 2012.

Anzac Day Marching Band Holiday Rehearsals

Marching Band holiday rehearsals will held in the 2nd week of the holidays on Thursday 19th April from 10am-1pm with a break in between and Monday 23rd April from 2-3:30pm. ALL students in the Intermediate and Senior Concert Band are required to attend, please let the Music Staff know if there are any concerns.

Annual Music Camp

The Annual Music Camp will be held at The Tops Conference Centre, Stanwell Tops this year from Monday-Wednesday (28th - 30th May 2012). We invite ALL students in the Music Performance Program to attend the 3-day camp. Music Staff and instrumental tutors will rehearse new repertoire that will be performed at the Camp Concert upon return to school Wednesday afternoon. Please collect a note from the Music Staff if you have not yet received one and make payments to the Main Office.

SBH Zone Cross Country Carnival

Congratulations to the top 10 runners in each age group, at this year’s school Cross Country carnival. These finalists are now representing the school at the coming Zone Carnival on the 24th of May, 2012.

2012 SBHS Athletics Carnival

Over two great days late last term the School Athletics Carnival was held at nearby ES Marks field. The Carnival is designed to cater for all standards and boys are encouraged to participate in at least three events on the day.

The Carnival went very smoothly thanks to the efforts of staff, student volunteers and willing competitors. Particular thanks once again to our Data Team who donated their skill and computer expertise over two days.

Also I would like to thank Wayne Baldock, Steve Codey, Mick Aldous, Mina Genias, Rachel Powell, Con and George Barris who came to ES Marks to get the carnival started at 8.15am. Thanks also to Paul Scrivener for transporting the tent and the high jump bags. Our Carnival is now one of only a few large school Carnivals held at the track and it continues to be a great spectacle when it is in full swing. Senior boys in particular seem to appreciate what, for most of them, will be the last such event they participate in.

Congratulations to the Age Champions –
Lucas Wong (13 Years), Nafis Rahman (13 Years), William Chang (14 Years), Joshua Leo (15 Years) and Eugene Lee (16 Years)

Special Awards from the Carnival include
The AM Eedy Cup for 100m Champion: Scott Renzenbrink
The McArthur Memorial Cup for 1500m: Adam Booth
The Frank Albert Cup for Senior Athletics Champion: Scott Renzenbrink

Full results of the School Carnival will be published next week. Rubie was the winning House this year.

Moodle and Athletics
Over the summer break I created a Moodle page with all the information that athletes need to stay informed about the CHS and GPS seasons. This will be the main way that I will communicate with the Athletics community in future. Athletes will need to inform themselves about Zone, Area, and the CHS Carnivals, the training program for the GPS Season which starts during the next holidays at ES Marks and all the GPS Carnivals. I also have put great stories about fantastic athletes and some videos from last year’s GPS Finals. Remember if you placed 1st, 2nd or 3rd at the SBHS Carnival you will be going to Zone. So look on Moodle, print your permission note; get the note signed by your parents and get them back to me as soon as possible.

THE JAGGAR GIFT: The Race of Champions
Sydney High Athletics, Cross Country and the PD/Health/PE Department are holding “The Jaggar Gift” on Moore Park West. This is a handicapped race. The top athletes from each Year will be given the opportunity to participate in this race. How does it work? We will compute your handicap according to the 1.6km runs you have completed over the last year to determine your starting time. The runner with the largest predicted handicap starts first. For the start, the clock is set at this number of seconds and begins counting down. Other runners start when their handicap time (written on their hand at registration) comes up on the clock. When the clock reaches zero, all runners have started. Check out Moodle to see if you are entered into the Race.

When: Lunch Time Thursday, 5th April, 2012
Where: Moore Park West
The Races: Junior (Years 7, 8 & 9) starts 1.05pm and Senior (10, 11 & 12) starts 1.20pm
1st Prize: $40
2nd Prize: $20
3rd Prize: $15

Make sure you see Mr Devlin to get your handicap on the day

Athletics Invitational Carnivals

Report on Athletics Invitation (SJC) 25/3/12 and Information about Athletics Invitational (SBHS) 2 31/3/12

Last Saturday marked the first representative athletics fixture of the season and there were some promising results at the SJC invitational carnival held at Blacktown International Athletics Centre. The following is a list of some notable performances by High Athletes:

• Beginning with the Opens 3000m, Wilber Koslowski (Yr 11) clocked 10:15; a solid performance for someone completing their first ever race over that distance on the track.
• In the 400m:
  • 17yrs: Daniel Keogh (Yr 11) – 53.09
  • 16yrs: Eugene Lee (Yr 10) – 55.33
  • 15yrs: Joshua Leo (Yr 10) – 54.98
• In the 100m:
  • Opens: Scott Renzenbrink (Yr 12) – 11.1
  • 16yrs: Dominic Mah (Yr 11) – 11.39
• In the 200m o Opens: Scott Renzenbrink (Yr 12) – 22.15
  • 16yrs: Eugene Lee (Yr10) – 24.53
  • 15yrs: Leonard Mah (Yr 9) – 24.69
• In the 1500m:
  • 16yrs: Ned Anson (Yr 10) – 4:34.8

This weekend (31 March 2012) we are hosting an Invitational at ES Marks Field starting from 8:30am. It is essential that GPS Athletics athletes attend this meet. There are only 3 more invitational carnivals left before the “big one”, the GPS Championships on 5 May at SOPAC, so now is the time to be experimenting with different events when you have the flexibility to do it before the ‘taper’ period begins. With exams starting next term, it would be wise to attend this carnival in order to meet the required number to make you eligible for Award Scheme points and for those athletes in Year 12, this will be your last ever High Carnival, so it would be fitting to attend it and show your service to the School. Best of luck to all competing athletes this weekend! Regards,
Adam Booth
SBHS Athletics Vice-Captain 2012

SBHS Football Annual General Meeting

The Sydney Boys High School Football AGM will be held on Monday 2nd of April at 5:30 in the Staff Common Room. It is a fantastic opportunity for parents and supporters of High Football to play an active role in the most popular sport in the school. All are welcome to attend and encouraged to help shape the program going forward. No football experience is necessary, just a desire to see your son participate in a strong and growing school sport.

Where: School Common Room (near main office)
When: 5:30pm, 2nd April 2012

SBHS Athletics AAGPS Invitational Meet

ES Mark Athletics Fields, Kensington
Saturday March 31 2012
Shore, Grammar and High

Please note: Timings are only a guide and numbers of competitors and events will determine the exact timings for the Carnival.

4 jumps/throws for every athlete. Maximum of 5 athletes from each school for field events

Mr Robert Devlin
MIC Athletics
0403829344

SBHS Rugby

High Rugby = High Spirit

Year 8/9 Oz Tag competition Congratulations to the team of Bosco Tran, Brian Chan, Julian Vo, Ben Dang, Anthony Huynh, Garry Chen, Daniel Haslam, Stanley Si who won the Year 8/9 Oz Tag competition.

Training has started
Rugby training started on Monday 26th of March after school at Moore Park West. The rugby training schedule for the athletics season is as follows:

Training will continue like this until the full rugby program commences the 7th of May.

I look forward to seeing everyone at training
Mr Barris

Sports Donations

GPS sports competition is very demanding on people and resources. At High we have ongoing needs for facilities development, equipment and development through expert coaching. If you would like to help through a tax deductible donation for a particular sport, the appropriate form can be posted to you by calling 9361 6910. Alternatively, you can go to our website www.sydneyboyshigh.com click on Sport /Sports Donations to download either Development Donation Form or Equipment and Facility Donation Form.

In the Swim

LATEST NEWS – 6 HIGH SWIMMERS REPRESENT GPS SCHOOLS AT CIS (Combined Independent Schools)
These boys are swimming in 12 events and they are to be congratulated on their solid performances at 5 GPS Carnivals which have led to this commendable result. They are , Kevin Guo 13 Years (200, 100, 50 Breast) , Kyne Kim 14 Years (50 Breast), Kazuo Nakamura 14 Years (50,100 Fly and 100 Free), Michael Sawang 15 Years (50 Back), Leonard Mah 15 Years (50- Free, 50 Breast) and Darren Chien 16 Years (100 Breast). CIS is on the evening of the 31st March and the whole day of the 1st May. Our swimmers are swimming on the second day.

MIC’s COMMENT ON GPS 5 CARNIVAL
Last Friday’s GPS carnival was noteworthy for the fabulous cheer squads from 4 other schools and some solid swims from our Championship Level Swimmers. Most noteworthy and hero of the Carnival was Leonard Mah with 3 outstanding relay legs. In the 15 Years 50 Medley Leonard swam his team into first place from 15 feet outside this and fourth place when he entered the water but the team was unable to capitalise on his catch up swim.

Our best swimmers, Leonard Mah 15s (2nd in the 15 Free) (2nd to Matthew Clifford’s Record 15 Breaststroke) and Kazuo Nakamura 14s (2nd - 100 Free) (2nd- 50 Fly) and Kevin Guo 13s(2nd - 50 Breast) all swam into second place unfortunately in the Championship Swims. Eugene Lee swam a respectable 3rd (50 Free)in the 16s. However on a brighter note there were some unexpectedly good 3rd places in Championship Races from James Chee 15s - (3rd 15s Backstroke Championship) and Kyne Kim, (3rd 14s Breaststroke Championship)

Overall the lessons we take home are that the Opposition (especially Newington) are developing hard and large training Squads. Our team is well aware that our swimmers who are competing well at Championship Level are the boys who train and the Division Swimmers generally with some exceptions are the boys who used to train. Congratulations to Harvey Luo – 12 Years (who uncomplainingly entered every swim), Jason Guo and Kevin Luo - 13 Years , Kazuo Nakamura - 14 Years, Leonard Mah and Michael Sawang – 15 Years and Eugene Lee 16 Years for their strong swims and good results all GPS season. These swimmers all put in 2-4 hours a day training. This is a meritorious effort compared to all other GPS Sports and does not finish with this short 5 Meet GPS season. They could not represent their school so successfully without their parent’s continuous support. Thanks to all concerned – sterling efforts!

REPORT ON GPS SWIMMING, CARNIVAL 5, SOPAC, FRIDAY 23/3/2012
The fifth, and final GPS swim met at SOPAC, on Friday the 23rd of March, produced a heroic effort by an under-represented High team. To all the non-GPS swimmers who gave up their Friday night, to fill in for absent swimmers, we could not have made it without you. These were also the final swims for our departing Year 12 swimmers –we wish you well in the HSC and the future.

Overall, we achieved some amazing results in four of the Championship events:

• Kevin Guo (13) 2nd place – 50m Breastroke Championship: 37.17
• Kazuo Nakamura (14) 2nd in both – 100m Freestyle Championship: 1.01.80 and 50m Butterfly Championship: 29.94
• Leonard Mah (15) 2nd place in both 50m Breastroke Championship: 35.35 and 50m Freestyle Championship: 26.21

Congratulations to all our other place getters Championship and Divisional races.
James Chee
Year 9

High Family

The Bulletin Board for Sydney Boys High P & C

If you would like to have any parent community news or upcoming events included in High Society, please contact Ian Sweeting P&C President This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

SBHS BIG NIGHT OUT

Sunday 1st April 5:15pm

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting- SUNNY, 27 Degrees, Light Winds s

Perfect for listening to music in the Courtyard, watching the entertainment, all while enjoying the marvellous food prepared by our parent volunteers.

TICKETS WILL BE ON SALE AT THE DOOR.

NOTE the change in time from 5:00pm to 5:15pm due to an overlap with event parking.
Please enter via Gate 2 (next to the Tennis Courts) to help traffic flows.

Upcoming Parking Events

Please find listed below the upcoming parking events.

Saturday 31 March 7:30pm – Sydney Roosters v NZ Warriors (School)
Sunday 1 April 3:00pm – Tigers v Rabbitohs (Rowing)
Friday 6 April 7:30pm – Tigers v Broncos (Cricket)

Upcoming Meetings & Events

Basketball Dinner: Great Hall – 6:30pm, Friday 30 March.
SBHS Big Night Out: Great Hall and Courtyard – 5:15pm, Sunday 1 April.
Year 7, 8 and 9 Dance: SGHS Multi Purpose Hall – 7:00pm, Monday 2 April.

Ian Sweeting

SBHS and SGHS Junior Dance

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The annual Junior Dance, for currently enrolled students in Years 7, 8 and 9 at Sydney Girls High School and Sydney Boys High School will be held here in the Multi Purpose Hall on Monday April 2nd, commencing at 6pm and finishing promptly at 9pm.

The dance is fully supervised by staff of both schools. Music will be supplied by Mobydisc.

The theme of the evening has been selected by the SRC at Sydney Girls: “High school stereotypes”.

The SGHS Prefects will award prizes for Best Dressed and will also judge a Dance-off, awarding prizes for best performances.

The SRC are responsible for selling tickets – they will announce via email when tickets will be available.

Soft drinks and bottled water are available for sale on the night. Proceeds from the dance, after costs have been taken out, will go to the Stewart House charity.

Parents are asked to collect their daughters/sons promptly at 9pm. It is not anticipated that staff would be required to wait beyond 9pm for any student to be collected.

Any students who expect they will be driven home by a friend’s parent MUST have the relevant section on this Permission Note properly filled in. Otherwise, the student will be released into the care only of her/his OWN parent/s.

Best regards

Ms Andrea Connell
Principal

Dr Kim Jaggar
Principal

The SBHS/SGHS Junior Dance 2012 permission note is available
in the PDF version of this edition of High Notes

Big Night Out 2012

Sydney Boys High School P&C presents

Big Night Out
Sunday 1 April 2012
5:00pm Start

Com join in this annual school family event. Stalls will be serving a variety of multicultural food while you enjoy entertainment in and around the Great Hall and Courtyard... bring your whole family for a relaxed night of food and fun.

Tickets: presale at General Office $20 or $25 on the night
Includes: 3 courses and entertainment
BYO, or purchase at the soft drink stall or Bar