From the Deputy Headmaster

Churchie’s GPS excellent performances in chess, basketball and rugby from the first round of Term 3 certainly helped to galvanise our enthusiasm for the challenges and opportunities of the new semester.

I would like to share a few key messages as we get our bearings for the second half of 2024.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms

In the initial flush of excitement around the arrival of ChatGPT last year, I likened the platform to something equivalent to a magician taking a rabbit out of a hat. You had no idea where the content came from, and yet it appeared, as if out of thin air.

As a school, we have responded in various ways to the challenges and opportunities of AI, particularly regarding the merits and ethical aspects of using AI for academic purposes. In year level meetings last week for students in Years 7 to 12, boys were reminded of their responsibilities with regard to some key areas.

Churchie of course recognises some general benefits of AI:

• as a learning tool that develops and provokes student knowledge and understanding
• to collect ideas efficiently to help in their early planning and research.
• to help with effective revision and extend students beyond the retrieval of surface knowledge (i.e. facts, formulas, definitions, terms).
• as a complement to other forms of more traditional research (but certainly not a replacement).

However, it is important that students use AI ethically and with a commitment to appropriate referencing systems. It is certainly incumbent on students to understand the significant risks involved. In particular:

• Students should always use their own knowledge and expertise to critically evaluate the relevance, accuracy and credibility of anything created by AI (just as with any other source).
• Students should prioritise using AI platforms that provide original sources. Some useful examples include Perplexity AI, Semantic Scholar, Copilot and Consensus AI. Students should quote from original sources as a preference over any AI platform itself.
• If students do want to quote from or paraphrase an AI platform, they must do so with proper citation. There are clear conventions to follow in this respect.
• Students should avoid overusing AI proofreading software. AI can be used to highlight basic issues around punctuation and grammar for students to fix. However, students should never accept AI suggestions that rephrase or replace their own work without appropriate attribution.

Further information will be provided for students as a refresher in all these areas over the coming weeks, adding some nuance and detail to some of these significant areas. Relevant aspects will be shared with parents to enrich discussions at home as well.

In our recent year level meetings, it was especially emphasised that students should save their work in OneDrive to benefit from version history features. This can be helpful to establish a submission’s authenticity.

Concert series

As the cocurricular programme gets underway this term, I draw particular attention to the Music Concert Series:

• Churchie’s Best Solos, 18 July at 6 pm, Morris Hall (open to all)
• Jazz Under the Stars, 2 August at 6:30 pm, Main Oval (limited tickets available via Trybooking)
• Gala TV Themes, 15 August at 5:30 pm, Morris Hall (available via Trybooking)

These events promise to showcase some of the incredible musical talent of our students, supported, of course, by some extraordinary staff.

Study Hub

For students in the Senior School, Study Hub had over 1,000 student visits in Semester 1. Whether it be for help to complete class work or receiving guidance for homework or assessments, this complimentary service has already commenced for Semester 2. Taking place before and after school according to our Years 7 to 9 and Years 10 to 12 schedules published on myChurchie, we continue to be indebted to our peer leaders, specialist staff and Old Boys for supporting, cajoling and inspiring our young men in all sorts of wonderful ways.

Year 12 final semester

I wish all students the very best for the term ahead, particularly our Year 12s as they build confidence over this final stretch of their secondary school journey. For our class of 2024, there are some significant rite of passage experiences over the coming months, culminating in their Valedictory service on 14 November. May their final memories as young men of Churchie be rich and fulfilling.

Richard Wheeldon
Deputy Headmaster