P&C Association OGM Oct Meeting Minutes

Date: 19 Oct 2021

Time: 7pm – 9pm
Venue: Virtual by Zoom
Introduction: P&C President Weidong Tian

Registrants: MI YOUN KIM, martin kelly, Daniel Leung, Stanley Banh, Nicole Zhang, Steve Zhang, Sal Bhuiyan, Sunny Gu,
Jesvinder Kaur, Amy Mak, Matt Dopierala, Hiranthi De Saram, Susie Charlton, Renee Chan, Heidi pham, Irene Paulino, Sivaram
Hariharan, Namita Biswal, Yuvaraj KJ, Ben Tan, Cathy Qiao, Coral Gu, Lillian Koh, Joanna Nie, Shabnam Moghaddam, Steven
Zhong, Julie Shin, Vesna Ristic, Helen Huang, Cynthia Cinc, Fern Ong, Cyrus B, Hongxia Deng, jun wang, Ivy George, Carmen
Foong, tianwd2012@gmail.com, Hanny Widjaja, Cecilia Leung, Raymond Li, Angel Lam, Vivian Wang, Bonnie Shek, Lee Wong,
Catherine Lin, Sophie Lu, Michael Lin, Meng Chan, Md Mesbahul Islam, Lan Mei, Yan Han, Wenyun Ji, Nick Zhou, Anson Mak,
Kylie Ma, Elizabeth Seeley, Mamta Nair, Nirmala Weerasekara, Shreyas Malavia, Sudip Kundu, Mami T, P Lau, Helen Whua,
Saravanan Radhakrishnan, Yan Wen, Jade Wang, Kelly Wang, Wendy He, Dr Merridee Wouters

Attendees: 70 registrants.

Welcome: The President opened the P&C meeting by welcoming all new parents
Principal’s report: Deputy Principal Matt Dopierala
Boys will be returning to the school soon. Ventilation reports on the school from the Department of Education are due soon.

Guest Speaker: – Matt Dopierala on ATARs

From assignments to ATAR
Determining the HSC results. NESA Education Standards Authority.
 School Assessment Marks
 HSC examination marks
 Moderation and the HSC Mark
 The Atar
School Assessment marks
Higher school certificate
50% School assessment -> assessed by school then moderated
 Raw assessment marks are obtained in different ways in each school
 Assessment tasks vary in style and level of difficulty
 Different marking scales are used in different schools
50% HSC Examinations -> NESA
 Marking
 Judging/alignment (normalization)
Moderation of the School Assessment with the HSC mark
 School assessment are moderated against their HSC mark
 The assessment rank order stays the same
 The top exam mark sets the limit for the top assessment mark
 The total marks scored in the exam (by all students) is distributed across all students.
 The mean of the school group’s assessments is adjusted to equal the mean of the examination marks
 The ‘gaps’ or relative differences between students are maintained.
The range of reported HSC marks for the bands is as follows:

Band 1 Band 2 Band 3 Band 4 Band 5 Band 6

Mark range 0-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-100
Extension Table

Band E1 E2 E3
Mark range 0-24 25-34 45-50

HSC Vs ATAR
Performance Vs Position
HSC marks are about a student’s performance against the standards
ATAR is about a student’s position against all other students in NSW

ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank)

A mark between 0.00 and 99.95 in increments of 0.05
For use by universities to rank sand select school leavers.
Scaling calculates what your position would be if all courses were studied by all students
Scaling controls for the strength of competition.
ATAR calculation is based on an aggregate of scale marks in 10 units of ATAR courses comprising:
 The best two units of English
 The best eight of the remaining units

Check with Mr Miller for subjects that will be needed for specific University courses. Bridging courses are possible if students
have a late change of heart on career.

Adoption of Minutes
The circulated minutes were unanimously adopted without alteration 17/17.

President’s Report
Air purifiers: The P & C offered to buy air purifiers for all class and staff rooms to mitigate the spread of COVID and to
supplement the 10000 being provided by the Department of the Education for NSW schools. The P&C is willing
to purchase air purifiers to the departments specifications and is also willing to pay for electricity, electrical
testing on acquisition etc. The Department of Education opposes the donation of air purifiers. The P&C
contacted Sarah Mitchell, the Minister for Education several times, including writing a letter. A newspaper
article criticising the school did not arise from the P&C, despite implying that. Individuals can write to the
school to develop individual plans for boys who are at higher risk. All the teachers have to be vaccinated. But
students do not need to be.
Vaccination: Ask school to survey parents if students are vaccinated. Other vaccination information is required for enrolment.
Namita suggested running a vaccination promotion campaign through the P&C.
Well-being seminars. Two well-being webinars will be held in Nov. One is free (two sessions, one in Mandarin and one in
English). Another session, costing AUD2000, is for parents and students, on depression and suicide prevention.
P&C website: The school has no objection for the P&C to have its own web site. They only asked that content not be duplicated
from the school’s own website so that it does not get out of sync and create confusion with parents. Links could be used instead,
pointing to the original material on the school’s website.
AGM election Next month’s meeting will be the AGM, when the new P&C executive committee will be elected. Please nominate
office-bearers and the exec. Nominees must accept in writing or in person at the P&C meeting. They cannot be voted in without
their permission in absentia.

Treasurer’s update Care pack. Sponsors $2000

Secretary’s update
P&C members were reminded to subscribe to the comms distribution list if they want to receive P&C communications between
meetings. Recordings of meetings are unfortunately not available for privacy reasons. Specifically, we need the
written permission of all attendees. The recordings are made so that the Executive can check them in the event
of a dispute.
Falcon Sports Yan Sommer
Falcon Sport will continue to run in 2022, with the new committee to be voted in at their next AGM. The new committee will be
endorsed at the P&C’s AGM. A big thank you to all the parents who have offered to help on the 2022 committee. It is really great
to see the school community responding so positively to the call-to-action message.

The focus for the committee next month is setting up and confirming enrolments for new 2022 Year 7 cohort and re-enrolment
activities.

Falcon Sport is to resume in 2022, starting in T4. It was not practical to continue in 2021, with no access to school training
grounds (with level 3 COVID restrictions in place), as well as changing rules and starting dates for face-to-face learning.

The Falcon Sport end of year BBQ will be cancelled due to level 3 COVID restrictions.

Falcon Sport 2-year and 5-year badges will be available for collection at student services in December. Names will be listed in the
Falcon bulletin later in November.

Duke of Ed Alex Koh

No report, due to COVID restrictions

Report Year 12 Care Package

 Packages were couriered during the first week of school term 4.
 Messages of support from the P&C and teachers were included with the packages.
 The total cost of the packages came to $3,176, not including the couriering
 P&C will cover the couriering and is awaiting the invoice.
 Expectation is that total expenditure will be within the approved budget of $5,600.

Report Staff Hamper

For 86 Staff
Thanks were passed on from the school team

Presentation Day
Book labels – created and provided to the school by Yan.

Grievance Policy
Updated the grievance policy has been updated in conjunction with the P &C Federation and agreed upon the school.
Slight amendment by school to include Principal or their delegate

Ballot Clinical Psychologist talks

Elizabeth Seeley-Waite explained Kirstin Barchia sessions which will cost the P&C $2000
Ballot 17/18 in favour.

NSBHS website
Ballot to purchase the Wix website
16 in favour, 2 against

Discussion of Projects the P &C wishes to pursue in 2021 beyond

Set up Teams for possible projects
Canteen – online booking, reducing queues. Flexischool was suggested for online booking system. Anson suggested that the
auxiliary was looking at a booking system for the uniform shop. Amy spoke on behalf of auxiliary regarding co-
operation. Zehua said NSGHS has a better quality of food and more choice. Suggested we focus on that.
Air conditioning
Raymond Li setting up parent portal
Senior Toilets- currently waiting on Project Manager*
*Projects above $30K must be assigned a Project Manager by the Education Department. There is a waiting list for Project
Managers.

The meeting closed at 9pm

Prepared by Dr Merridee Wouters, Secretary, NSBHS P&C Association V1.1
Amendments to: northsydneyboyshighschool@pandcaffiliate.org.au
Minutes of the Special Meeting convened on 11th Oct 2021 to discuss the issue of air purifiers
64 Registrants – Lee Wong, Anson Mak, Seema Ahuja, Leena Malhotra, Weidong Tian, Dantesh Somanchi, Amy Mak, Steve
Zhang, Beatrice Lui, Sylvia Ajmera, Sunny Gu, Phyllis Ho, Shirley Xuan, Purdy Lau, Kim Nguyen, Harry Yang,
Susie Charlton, Renee Chan, Angela Wang, Susan Qiaofu Huang, Coral Gu, Xiaojing Cao, Sandra Zhang, Hermili
Cohen, Malathi Krishnan, Jesvinder Kaur, Md Mesbahul Islam, Xiaojuan Dong, alex chan, Joan Zhang, Nicole
Zhang, Wenyun Ji, Nick Zhou, Bonnie Shek, Cynthia Cinc, Connie Hansen, Lisa Lee, Mui Hiew, Hanny Widjaja,
Susanna Chiem, Tippy Kavalee, Nirmala Weerasekara, Donna Pan, Anshu Sinha, Juliana Wong, James Fung, Ben
Tan, Lillian Koh, Meng Chan, Verina Young, Michaela Paje, Pressy, Kevin Braganza, Thien Nguyen, Cyrus B,
Elizabeth Seeley, Mandy Wong, Angel Lam, Lin Chen, yan han, Priya Karyekar, spinder samra, Merridee
Wouters, Winnie AU

This special meeting was convened at the behest of parents concerned about the imminent return of students after lockdown.

President Weidong Tan explained the background. There were some concerns that the return to school was being rushed by the
government and that the education department was not wholly prepared. Boys and teachers had one week less to get
vaccinated and develop immunity. The Department of Education had also recently only put out a tender for 10,000 air purifiers,
a much smaller requisition that the being pursued by the Victorian government. This amounts to an average of only 4 air
purifiers per school. The Department had also commissioned a company to take measurements of air flow in schools. The
Department’s position seems to be that opening windows and doors will be sufficient to keep viral load down in 90% of
classrooms and that air purifiers will only be needed in the worst 10% of classrooms. However, some experts, notably OzSage,
believe air purifiers should be used more extensively to combat spread of COVID in our schools.

There is currently no information on whether NSBHS will be receiving any air purifiers. At the behest of parents, several
members of the exec had pursued quotes on air purifiers in the hope of the P&C gifting additional air purifiers to the school.
There was discussion at the exec level as to whether high-spec air purifiers, similar to those requisitioned by government should
be purchased or cheaper domestic models. The question of electrical testing was also raised and the cost of running the air
purifiers. This was estimated to about 1/40 th of the electricity required by an air conditioner or about $4 per day. The P&C
agreed they were also willing to cover these costs and to work co-operatively with the school to purchase air purifiers they
would be satisfied with.

After Weidong explained the P&C’s offer, the principal replied she would be following the department’s advice and was thus
unable to accept any additional air purifiers from the P&C.

The situation is still evolving, The Department has offered to provide webinars for parents to explain their position.

In the meantime, concerned parents were advised to INDIVIDUALLY lobby their local member. The P&C is unable to lobby on
their behalf because of its status as a charity, but remains committed to helping if the Principal or Department should have a
change of heart. If parents have a son with special health considerations, they are entitled to work out an individual plan for
their son with the principal. Finally, individuals can sign the petitions, such as the one started on the parliamentary website by
OzSage.

Parents voted 16 to 0 in favour of continuing to pursue providing air purifiers to the school.

The meeting closed at 9pm

Prepared by Dr Merridee Wouters, Secretary, NSBHS P&C Association V1.0
Amendments to: northsydneyboyshighschool@pandcaffiliate.org.au