Thursday, 4 August, I was so lucky to be able to go to Corpus Christi College to watch five of our school bands rock the stage at the Catholic Performing Arts Festival – Contemporary Band Concert. Lime ‘n’ Soda, Funky Bunch, ABCD, The Soundsmiths and Slamm, all played incredible sets and really got the audience grooving. A massive thank you to Mr Kitt Byfield for his extraordinary talent and vision for our talented students.
I would also like to thank Mr Gerhard Vogel for all his hard work getting our Year 12 FlexiTrack students to where they are now with this year’s inaugural Murdoch program. The coordinators of this program at Murdoch University told me that our students were well ahead of most of the other schools when we attended the FlexiTrack High Taster Day Tuesday, 2 August.
In between these two fabulous days we were a sea of blue to celebrate Marcellin House Day. Thank you to Mr Ryan Sinclair and the Student Leadership Team for a well-run and coordinated day.
Unfortunately, the Year 9 Camino Cabagniol had to be cancelled due to the heavy rainfall last Tuesday. Though there were a number of students who told me that the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition would have still walked in the rain and hail. I’m not quite sure their mothers and fathers would have appreciated that.
The Year 11 and 12 ATAR Mathematics students had Mr Chris Simpson deliver some valuable Cassio Classpad Training throughout the day on Tuesday 9 August. Hopefully they were all able to get some extra information that they can use in future examinations and assessments.
A reminder that there is no school for our students on Monday – Tuesday (15 – 16 August) due to Staff Professional Development and Staff Service Day.
Warm regards
Sharon Cusack
Head of Secondary
Learning Areas in Focus:
Secondary da Vinci Club
On August 4 and 5, the secondary teams competed in the annual da Vinci Decathlon held at the University of Western Australia. This event tests a team of students in a range of academic disciplines, with tasks that go above and beyond the standard curriculum content. Thank you to our staff supervisors; Mr Hillyer, Mr Matthys and Mr Vernede, who helped prepare our teams and spent the day assisting with marking. At this stage no final results, but a few words from the students involved.
The Year 10 Decathlon had ups and downs. Some tasks were extremely challenging, such as the mathematics task, which involved applying year 12 content and the thematic approach in art and poetry. Other tasks felt more reasonable, such as code breaking, ideation, and legacy. The entire team thought the Decathlon was extremely enjoyable, a great experience, and recommends da Vinci Club and the Decathlon for those that are offered the opportunity.
The Year 9 Decathlon team this year participated in many tasks and activities throughout the day such as science, cartography, creative producers, mathematics, art and poetry, legacy, code breaking, English, ideation and engineering. These tasks were constructed around a general theme of patterns, such as the science mentioning natural patterns and the cartography task involving patterns of maps. These challenged us immensely, however we tried our hardest and hope to have positive results of this high-pressure completion. We enjoyed this event and look forward to it once again for next year.
The year 8 group enjoyed the da Vinci Decathlon and found the tasks challenging but from the experience, have improved our time management to make sure the tasks were completed. The experience from previous Decathlons helped us understand how the day was laid out and helped us to plan how to answer the questions in the different tasks. We enjoyed socialising with other schools at the break times and talking to a few different students throughout the day. The whole day improved our overall work ethic and developed several different team skills.
The Year 7 da Vinci Decathlon was fun and we all worked as a team throughout the day. Session One was probably our highest performing, as the tasks did not get any easier as we went throughout the day. Session Two mathematics was very hard but with teamwork, we got through it in the end. Session Three was the most difficult of all the sessions as even we only had six people in total to do legacy and code breaking. It was a great experience and hopefully we will all attend next year and develop further from this opportunity.
The students in our da Vinci Club are now involved in some academic extension rotations, where they will be able to research and develop skills in areas such as DNA and Biobarcoding, Debating, Advanced coding and Robotics and Astronomy and Astrophotography.
Mark Gargano
Teaching & Learning Coordinator
Years 7-12
Humanities and Social Sciences
This term students have been learning about the past, how historians learn about the past and what artefacts can tell us about how people lived. The 7s enjoyed learning about a Neolithic man Ortiz who was discovered in the European Alps and dated at 5000 years old.
Students engaged in their own mini archaeological dig and discussed what the artefacts revealed about early settlers on farms in the Avon valley (see photo). Students concluded that they had some luxury items and were dependent on sheep for food!
Students are now researching the Ancient world, learning note taking, time-line and source analysis skills as they investigate Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome.
Nicki Parker and Renee Marasco
Year 8 HASS
This term, Year 8 students have been learning about the fascinating history of Medieval Europe. They have explored topics such as the feudal system, crime and punishment, castles, churches, Charlemagne, the Battle of Hastings, and the worst jobs in the medieval period. Students did a fantastic job of creating a 3D display on one of the topics studied and presenting their displays to the class.
Next week, we will move on to investigate the causes, effects and spread of the deadly plague known as the Black Death which spread across Asia, Europe, and Africa during medieval times.
Year 9 and 1O HASS
Both year 9 and 10 have started looking at the world of Geography and will start to explore more physical geography to start and then will move on to looking at Human Geography and the impacts that are taking place at a local and global scale.
Mr Gerard Vogel & HASS Team
Secondary Sporting News
Week 3 & 4’s Sports Achievement Winner Tayah Joy
Tayah competed in the U25’s Pony Club Eventing competition in the 65 cm class. Tayah placed 2nd out of 40 competitors. Congratulations Tayah for your outstanding achievement in your eventing competition.
2022 Year 4 – 12 Interhouse Athletics Carnival
The annual Year 4 - 12 Interhouse Athletics Carnival was held at Bert Hawke Oval on Friday August 12. Although the last few weeks have been dark, wet and gloomy we were blessed with gorgeous, warm and sunny weather for our carnival. The day started cold and foggy as the teachers and helpers got soggy socks setting up the carnival. As the students and the house spirit arrived the fog lifted and the sun shone bright on the oval. The day started with 100m and 200m sprints while the Year 11 and 12 students jumped to new heights on the High Jump site. The students then split into their year groups and participated in the field events, all trying the throw or jump a 'Personal Best' and win points for their house. We finished the day cheering on the 400 m sprints and 4x 100 m relay teams. Congratulations to all the students who participated and put in their best effort at the carnival, there were records broken, lots of personal bests and lots of smile and laughter to be seen.
We would like to give a massive thank you to the staff and parent/family helpers who jumped in on the day to help the event run smoothly, without the help of everyone carnival days cannot run. We are truly grateful for your contribution to our school community.
As we had such amazing participation this year and our school numbers have grown presentations were not able to be done on the day, we have set up a whole school assembly for this Wednesday August 17 at 2.30pm at the Primary campus.
Adrienne Suckling
Secondary Sports Coordinator