Talk:Fort Street High School

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I don't want to sound peeved off, but I had already warned you guys not to put personal information onto Wikipedia. Enochlau 06:13, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

It is most disappointing that there are such immature people out there (especially from Fort Street!) that have vandalised the article to the extent that it warrants a protection.,. Enochlau 16:42, 22 May 2005 (UTC)

Content removed from main page as inappropriate (a report of a reunion is not encyclopedic, and it's written in the first person and signed). AdamW 09:53, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Fort Street Boys High School: Class of 1964 - 1969

We gathered together 52 guys from the Class of 1964-1997 on 19-mar-2005 for a Reunion at UTS Haberfield Rowing Club. There was a lot of emotion and comradeship generated during the evening, starting right from 6 PM when people started to arrive, for what was to be a long night.

Rod Horan was "volunteered" to act as Master of Ceremonies for the Evening. After an inspired performance to set the scene for the evening, which was also a great tribute to his late father, known to us as "Reg", Rod inspired a bunch of the guys to take over the microphone and remind us of long forgtten historical events during our time together at Taverners Hill. Nik Bogduk set a high standard, with a great presentation, supported by a Powerpoint slide pack. This opened the flood gates and some superb contributions were made by Graham Holley, Ian Cohen, Gary Gibbs, Tony Gee (can anyone spell his surname?), Victor Maktevich, Barry Peak, Peter Dunn

Special guest for the evening was Mr Music, Denis Condon a.k.a. DFC005.

The thing that amazed me is that by 8 PM the esprit de corps that had been put into cold storage for most of us in early November 1969, when we finished our last HSC papers, was in full flow. It was hard to remember that 36 years had passed since the whole group had been together previously.

Much of the evening was taken up postulating on the dysfunctional behaviour of past teachers - Mr Steinmetz probably got the award for most frequent mentions. But it was also noteable what deep personality scars were left on so manner of our alma mater by the PE Department in particular!

We certainly let a lot of genies out of many bottles during the evening. In the days following the Reunion email was running fast and hot between those who had made it to Haberfield, and those who regretted they hadn't talked their way out of other commitments. There was a strong consensus to keep the good karma of the Reunion going with the formation of range of communication tools based on the Internet, which I have branded as the Fortians Network. It is intened that this wiki site will become a major element in the realization of the Fortian Network.

As an exercise in Wiki creation, the Fortians of 1964-1969 are planning an in-depth portait of as many of the school personalities from our era as possible, students and teachers alike. The temporary location for the Biographies Project is to be found at the end of this hot link. We invite anyone who played a role in the community that was Fort Steet Boys High School between 1964 and 1969 to make a contribution to recording the hisytory of those 6 years we spent together.


John Young +61-407-940943 john.young@yindi.net


Contents

[edit] Stop the vandalism

Will the idiots who keep putting up vile comments about teachers past and present stop it now? Enochlau 04:03, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

moxham is a cow ahahahaa--Sumple 00:15, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Deleted vandalism --DandanxD 10:31, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removed text

The following text was removed: In 2005, year 11 has created a new lunch-time competition called the FORT STREET IDOL. This competition is similar to the Australian Idol or the American Idol when people sing in front of an audience as singers get evided slowy. The prize is a mini iPod.

-- Enochlau 12:09, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

Any particular reason for removing the Barton clarifications as well? JPD 13:27, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, I should've explained that as well. Personally, I'd call that piece of information unverifiable trivia. If you look at the history log, it originally said that he went to Fort Street for a year, then it got changed to a week. A week?? I have serious doubts about the validity of such a statement. Google was of no help, so it's probably best if we leave it off until we get a reference? Enochlau 13:48, 16 August 2005 (UTC)
Thought it might be something like that. I had no idea what the correct time was, but it's fairly well documented that he complete his schooling at SGS. I found [1], which actually backs my memory of thinking Barton would be better claimed by FSPS. JPD 14:23, 16 August 2005 (UTC)
That timeline is very interesting indeed. A pity it doesn't make clear the timeframe. Enochlau 11:57, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Unprotected

Yikes! Two weeks is enough! Unprotected as requested on WP:RFPP. --Tony SidawayTalk 10:08, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Count of High Court Justices

Hey enoch, if you have time, can you verify the number of JJ from Fort St and Sydney Grammar respectively? I'm pretty sure its not 11/12. I've found 5 from Fort St and 7 from Grammar, counting Barton J in both cases.

There are several whose high schools I haven't been able to find, being Taylor J (1952-69) McHugh J (1989-2005) Gaudron J (1987-2002), and Crennan J (2005-). So I would say it's max 6-7 or 7-8.--Sumple 00:18, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

I will look into it. The Butterworths dictionary has biographies - but I'm not sure if they list high schools. enochlau (talk) 00:13, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
There are some for which I can't find any info on. However, I can confirm 7 went to Sydney Grammar and 4 went to Fort Street. Who's the fifth? See my list of high court judges and their high schools at User:Enochlau/High Court Judges. enochlau (talk) 13:57, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
Note: Cross posted at Talk:Sydney_Grammar_School#High_Court_Judges. enochlau (talk) 14:01, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] lets talk about Fort Street

Am I the only one who detected a sense of complacency in this school? Since they are assured that the students possess at least above average intelligence, the teachers have a much easier job than they would have at a non selective school. At my time there I got lots of 20/20s, and (excessively) praiseful comments, but basically zero encouragement to expand upon and stretch my abilities. Despite being a selective school the school has no gifted and talented programme to speak of, conceding only on its website that " A small number of students negotiate acceleration in one or more subjects.".

(Admitedly there are some good teachers there, plus they have had to deal with Moxham's master plan and a dodgy HSC syllabus.)

What do you think? Am I just bitter? Is this characteristic of NSW selective schools in general? Is it a symptom of the Moxham regime? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 211.31.21.159 (talk • contribs) 00:35, 3 January 2006.

Who is this btw? sign your post. Anyway, I agree that Fort St's efforts in the way of promoting talented students is woeful. If you look at the school website, you get a sense of what the current regime's focus is on - look at the achievements page, and you see they devote tonnes of space to some dodgy band tour of tasmania, and there is next to nothing on proper academic achievement. If the school authority doesn't value academic achievement, is it not to be expected that in recent years we never get into the olympiade teams, never get 100 UAIs, and sink lower in the rankings every year? --Sumple 22:39, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
The emphasis on the performing arts might be a function of the principal, who is a music teacher I believe. Of course, such activities are valuable in broadening one's horizons, but the relative lack of academically challenging activities, I would agree, does not fit in well with it being a selective school. enochlau (talk) 00:15, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
There's nothing wrong with music and drama but Fort Street is an *academically* selective school- its not Newtown Performing Arts.I thinks its not on that a smart kid (or his/her parents) finishing Year 6 is going to choose Fort Street on the basis of its status as a 'good' selective school, under the impression that the school specifically addresses the needs of academically talented kids. (which we seem to agree it definitely does not)
With the current state of affairs, its basically a lottery as to whether a student will happen upon an individual teacher who has themselves developed some strategy regarding the teaching of talented kids. One thing I can think of is stretching and extending the kids who perform well, as opposed to just giving a good mark, a 'well done/great work' and leaving it at that. There should be some formally implemented system, like maybe a group of teachers, one from each subject area who specialise in gifted and talented education.(thats an ideal case, though) And new staff could be given a brief talk on the 'point' of the school. Anyway what I'm saying is there should be a concerted, organised effort.
The school as a whole needs to face up to its responsibility to live up to the promise of its reputation.
btw I'm Akaash Yao, class of 2004, I also made the original post.
Oh hi akaash. this is tommy chen. class of 2002. remember me?--Sumple 23:19, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
Everyone knows the famous Tommy Chen :P enochlau (talk) 23:31, 11 January 2006 (UTC)
How could I forget?? :D
in response to akaash's original post::

I am a current student at fort st and agree completely with what you are saying. Ms moxham especially. She has gone completely overboard (especially with this recent uniform push) and is turning our school into a dictatorship! I recently went to state music camp and several of the students going asked for extentions on their assignments, which according to ms moxham was unacceptable, that she was unaware so many fortians were going on the camp and said that so many of us should have the oppertunity was unfair to other schools! Shouldn't she have been proud that we all got in (30 of us)?! Then she started going on about how she only knew about the camp one day before we went on it, even though she PERSONALLY signed every single one of the forms!! Students and parents are having a very hard time changing any kind of decision made my ms moxham - like this year when she threatened to cancel all or overnight school camps, me and a friend went to her and tried to complain directly but she spoke at us for about 2 minutes and then told us to write out what we would do if we were the principal! We weren't given any chance to voice our concerns even though we had made several appointments which she had continuously reshedualed!

Thanks for the reply, and the interesting stories. I liked the bit where she said that it was unfair to other schools for lots of fort street kids to go to the camp! haha. I always got the impression that she didnt really care sincerely about the school at all. I think her getting principal must have been political. On numerous occasions in class teachers expressed overtly or implicitly their dissatisfaction with her principalship. My advice to kids there now is not to get too frustrated and if your teachers and school aren't providing much support, to look for other ways of getting/doing what you want.

I remember when she first arrived and heaps of teachers jumped ship in the first year or two. --Sumple (Talk) 06:46, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Attack of the weird politicos!

Omg what was with those lib/greenie weirdos? anyway sir john kerr was an ALP member, not a lib! --Sumple 10:46, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Misplaced comment

I removed the bit about Fort St having a State-of-the-art Recording Studio - We don't have one! Draction 22:39 22 April 2006

[edit] Vandalism

I don't understand why this vandalism is so funny. The page will be semi-protected. enochlau (talk) 11:09, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

liberal stooges suck. --Sumple (Talk) 11:12, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wilkins?

i was under the impression the old building has changed to the wilkins building, not the wilkinson. maybe i'm wrong, but you never know. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Sambob joe (talk • contribs) .

I thought it was Wilkinson, but I may have got it mixed up with the building at Sydney Uni. Are you a current student at fort st? --Sumple (Talk) 09:40, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
We might be able to check up Maroon and Silver - I have a suspicion that Wilkins(on) was a past principle/headmaster/headmistress. enochlau (talk) 09:43, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
Good idea Enoch. Indeed it is: WILKINS William 1851-1851. Now why would you name a whole building after some guy who served less than a year? --Sumple (Talk) 09:58, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
From [2]: "The person most instrumental in the formation of the NSW education system in the latter half of the nineteenth century was William Wilkins. He was sent from England in 1848 as 'a suitable person trained in the Irish National System' to take up the position of headmaster for a Sydney model school. His past experience included several years at Parkhurst Reformatory for juvenile criminals." That would suggest that he was the first headmaster in 1849, but thought Maroon and Silver suggests otherwise, he was definitely a significant figure in NSW education. I think many other things in the NSW education system are named after him as well. JPD (talk) 10:20, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
Cool, that's quite interesting. Thanks for that =) enochlau (talk) 11:52, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

yes, im currently a student in yr 10 at Fort Street comment was added by Sambob joe (talk

Hint: you can sign your comments with ~~~~. enochlau (talk) 04:04, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Alumni

Has someone actually checked sources for all the alumni listed? Most of the articles linked to do not mention where they went to school, but Harry Hopman actually says that he went to Parramatta High School! JPD (talk) 15:12, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

All the ones I added are listed in Maroon and Silver. --Sumple (Talk) 00:17, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
I wonder how much we can trust that book. Does it appear to be well-researched? enochlau (talk) 00:30, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
I'd say Ron Horan is better qualified as a historian than any of us. --Sumple (Talk) 00:46, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
I'd trust the book as much as most other books. At any rate, I'd say it's good enough for WP verifiability standards - my question is more along the lines of whether all the people in the list were added because of sources such as that. JPD (talk) 09:45, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How to we retry for selective?

How do we retry for selective. Can someone explain this to me, Jackie Tang

[edit] Separate "people" page?

I know Fort St's biggest asset by far is its alumni, but the alumni list is getting a tad long compared to the article. Perhaps a separate people page like they have at Sydney Grammar or was it Sydney High? --Sumple (Talk) 23:21, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

I would say the trigger for moving the alumni list out is if the entire article is too long, not that the list is long compared to the rest of the article. But if you want to move it out, I wouldn't object. enochlau (talk) 01:41, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
There really are FAR too many redlinked people on this page. I hope some enthusiast of this school and page will work on cleaning this up or making pages for all these "notable" folk. Kukini 17:26, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
It doesn't really matter that there are too many red linked people on this page, and it's not up to editors of this page to create articles for them. All we have to be certain of is that the people who are linked from this page could have Wikipedia articles under notability guidelines. enochlau (talk) 01:29, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
This is true as long as the editors of this page cull off any non-notable people on the list as they are added by current students trying to put their name online or those of others around them. Large numbers of redlinks also make it easier to hide fake "famous" people in the list. Kukini 04:55, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Well if they don't have their own Wikipedia page then wouldn't that mean they don't classify as "notable"? as sad as that may be, it seems these days having a Wikipedia page is the true sign of being well known.Sambob joe 05:44, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

It could just mean that no one has gotten around to writing it. Wikipedia isn't complete. enochlau (talk) 08:33, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

be that as it may, i have not heard of a single of the "notable alumni" who do not have a Wikipedia page, apart from Deborah Hutton. and she was a Fort Street dropout who went on to host some completely pointless shows. on channel 9! Sambob joe 10:43, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Oldest School

Please stop making claims about being the oldest school of any sort unless you can verify it. I am conducting research on this topic and have found something like 10 articles on Wikipedia and heaps of websites and histories that get this wrong.

Its a laugh that you can't see The King's School written anywhere without the attached description "the oldest school in Australia" when there are four schools still operating which started before it.

By the way I think Newcastle East was no less established by the Government than Fort street. It was started by the Government but control was handed to the church in 1926. National schools (of which about 13 currently operating schools were started between 1848 and 1850 after the establishment of the National School Board) were established by local patrons and then sanctioned by the Board.

--Cmurphy au 08:50, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

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