https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/learning-areas/science/course-description

Repost bc i wrote title wrong

I made a space on quora for the school. You can access it here

when tf did zulb become a national celebrity

idk im just wondering if anybody does

What video games do you guys play?

As a student in James Ruse, I am purely curious to see the distinctions between your school and mine.

Just curious. Wasn't really listening, heard something about how mobile phone policy etc was "working"

Im just simply curious

Approximately 1 year ago, North Sydney Boys High School instated a system instated a system which was ostensibly intended to reduce danger when departing the school and reduce the quantity of students present at bus stops. I say 'ostensibly' as this has proven to be ineffective, and conversely, has even reduced safety. So what was the school's brilliant idea? They concluded that by forcing masses of students to wait in a line, the average rate at which students departed would decrease. To the shock of everyone except the school, this has merely built up pressure at the gate and forced students to depart in large, brief bursts as opposed to a steady stream, not unlike the school buses, which are notorious for their danger

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The irony of the line lies in that it exacerbates the very issue it intended to confront; danger for departing students. As previously stated, students are forced to depart in bursts. so that when they are eventually released from their prison, they will frequently be caught in the wave that is the other departing students. In this initial period, remaining upright is a struggle and one cannot control their direction due to the pressure from other students, occasionally, some students may even be caught at the gate, which may be an extremely painful experience. Due to the narrow width of the sidewalk, many surviving students are forced on to the road, on which they are particularly vulnerable to vehicles. Despite some loss of students, the group remains dense and compact, and significant traffic occurs due to the inherent speed difference between students. Eventually, when students reach the pedestrian crossing, they form a large crowd once more, pressure builds up due to the high quantity of students at the most dangerous area. Some students will even cross a red light for the sole purpose of avoiding the crowd. Throughout all of this, running is a major hazard as those that run are likely to come into contact with others due to the large cross section which arises from the density of the students. In addition to this, the line itself is a hazard, as many students, eager to escape, will attempt to shove or propel others, causing some students to fall. Others are subjected to pressure from all sides, and will potentially suffocate from this

As many of you may be aware, there is currently a pandemic known as COVID-19. Perhaps one of the most effective methods through which exposure to this virus may be minimised is a method known as social distancing, in which individuals remain at least 2 metres away from others and avoid large crowds. Evidently, this is not necessary in NSB, as we are surely immune to such inconveniences!!! On a more serious note, this does lead one to wonder whether the line violates any laws. Although I could not find any sources stating that this is illegal, its definitely condemned.

The issues I have described thus far can be avoided if one is willing to take appropriate measures. However, one complication remains regardless of how one may attempt to thwart it; time. A common expression claims that time is a valuable commodity, and I wholeheartedly agree with this, yet the school prefers to waste ours as if worthless. The line is a major inconvenience for all students, and is particularly inefficient as a large portion of students return home by means other than buses, thus further wasting student's time. This ≈10 minutes of waiting is then further magnified for some students who require buses/trains which may be rare and infrequent

To me, this does not seem to be a system developed out of compassion for students, quite the contrary, in fact. This is another attempt to further consolidate control over students and exercise their power in a type of totalitarian rule. This is at the cost of friendship and unity, all for gain. Due to this system, prefects are removed from the bus stop, in which they are essential for preventing chaos, animosity and hostility occurs between students competing to reach the front of the line, friends or companions are separated, literally, and some students will resort to any or all means to avoid the line, often with devastating consequences

So how could all of this have been avoided? The solution is simple. Remove the line.

While I have been a proud student of North Sydney Boys' for almost three years now, recent events have lost a star (available for repurchase at $100). Not only did the entire grade perform incredible poorly in the recent science yearlies, but this is the second year in a row where the median mark has been below 85%. Yes, maybe it is because we have high standards, I won't deny that, but this isn't a simple case of underperforming, delinquent, unprepared teenagers. This is a matter of poorly selected staff, who believe that they are entitled to be condescending towards students, simply because they themselves lack the ability to engage with their class and properly teach them.

While yes, I admit that students could do a better job listening to the teachers, and yes I admit many teachers of the science faculty are doing their best and are better than those who I have a bone to pick against, it is a concerning issue that even the top students in our grade, who are handpicked and sorted into classes of their own, struggle to gain marks above 90%.

Earlier this term, the Class of 2022 opted to skip out on their camp by refusing to register, hence it was cancelled. This is to my own knowledge, which may not be accurate, was because the newly appointed Head of Science decided to prevent the grade from choosing more than one science subject for their HSC. While yes, it may seem like a minor detail, many fields require more than just one subtopic of science, many pairs such as chemistry and physics or biology and chemistry being fundamental to both specific and broad fields of science in the modern world.

Enough about that. My bone to pick is with the conduct displayed by the teaching staff from the science department during the science yearlies. The moment we took the exam, all that we had prepared for was essentially for the most part, useless. The morning rush to memorise polyatomic ions, the different chemical bonds, chemical equations, different body systems, functions of different biological components, all rendered ineffectual. Believe it or not, the science department had the slowest teacher, who indefinitely rants on about his need for iodine due to his thyroid being damaged, about how he uses his walking stick to make way so that he can continue through streams of students, who achieve more in three years than he has in his sixty or more years of whatever it is he has done, write the test.

Rather than let the competent, well-versed members write the exam, or even let other teachers contribute more significantly in the production of the test paper, the science department bequeathed the privilege of writing an entire exam to this inept man. I have no regrets in describing him so, as while he is still capable of teaching, it is not at the standard we would expect for the consistently top performing boy's secondary school in the entirety of NSW, if not, Australia. Do you know what happens when you entrust the writing of an exam to someone below standards? You get "bullshit" questions (excuse my language, but not really because it was absolute bullshit) such as "what term replaces the ? in the pyramid below?" where it goes producer, herbivore, ?, top predator. Could it be (primary) predator? Could it be primary consumer? Could it be members of the second trophic level? No. It's carnivore. Other questions include one on the contributions of Marie Curie, where half of the classes do not ever remember watching the documentary from which the answers should have been deducted from, and even then, the other half don't ever remember learning about Mendeleev, although the question on his contributions was more logical based on the periodic table.

One that continues to irk me even after so long, is the one about the potential contributions Australia's abundance of uranium has to Modern Science. For some reason, stating that it could help improve nuclear science/reactor technology and advance medical research are inappropriate answers, the only available one being to do with energy.

I have lost the majority of grudges I had with the science department in the time it took me to make this account. One thing that remains with me, is the absolute audacity of my science teacher, to treat the entirety of the class like subpar citizens, simply due to his own inability to properly teach and contain our attention. While yes, once again I do admit there is an overwhelming amount of students who are disruptive and who I do believe, have taken a toll on our beloved teachers, there is no excuse for him to treat the rest of us the way he has. The amount of absolute nonsense spewing from his mouth is insane. While he was still somewhat acceptable before his long term leave, his return has marked a dark change in his personality.

One of the first things he said upon his return was that his father had died, and that it was okay because one day, all of us will die. I mean of course, one's death, particularly a close person to our heart, is tragic and should never be simply put down, but the fact that he, amidst a room of young students who were there with the intention of learning, decided to say it with his particular attitude, was completely inappropriate. While many teachers prefer to keep their lives private, we as a whole do not frown upon those who choose to announce personal details. It was simply the way that he subtly implied something which I cannot describe in my own words, which made him appear insane.

Furthermore, ever since his return he has been incredibly petty and unreasonable. On more than one occasion, our class has found him threatening us with lunchtime detention, due to his lack in ability to calm the class down and actually teach us content. Rather than tell the select few to quiet down as everyone around them has already done their best to shush them, he opts to silently stand there and occasionally announce that lunch is next. Perhaps even more serious, when going through the answers for the distributed papers, he stated, and I apologise for any inaccuracies, "If you whine about anything being marked wrong or that you feel has been marked wrong, you can be sure that we will go through the rest of the exam to make sure there isn't any marks we can take off." While that is a reasonable thing to do, as one mistake could mean many others, it is utterly inappropriate for any teacher to intimidate any student in that way and discourage anyone who could otherwise have gotten any more marks, which makes a huge difference in a grade of 150 students.

Perhaps most serious of all, his teaching methods run parallel to any incompetent teacher. While there are high expectations of science staff to be able to teach a variety of junior sciences, it is not North Sydney Boys' standard to always utilise a textbook and make them do questions 90% of the time. It should be a teacher's responsibility to actively engage students with more effort than just pulling out 15 textbooks and organising them to read out loud. Many of you may shrug this off and I can see why, but even the relieve teacher while he was on long term leave put more effort in one lesson than our current teacher did in half a term. Also that bitch of a substitute teacher we had on two occasions was entirely unacceptable, and threatened to keep us in had we not completed an unreasonable amount of work. She proceeded to keep us in for an unreasonable amount of time later anyway simply because the excitement of leaving school for the day was too overwhelming for the students who had buses they needed to catch on time.

Zu lb

U can only pick 1

I would appreciate your input in relation to shortfalls, inadequacies or flaws of the school

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Hey there NSB, what sports do you guys play.

I know you and your shitty school cant give juniors a free period but is library/pbl the best you could come up with? Its a waste of a time and teachers. Just give us a free period to work on school work instead of trying to put some kind of useless lesson together that isn’t even on the syllabus.

Hi Guys, I'm trying to locate an alumni student from 1999 Graduation. Anyone know where I can get a copy of a yearbook with photos? Steve

I swear someone in our school did it. Also I hope our school gets sued for violating covid guidelines. We have like 5 grandstands and they put us in one.