Out and About
NYSF (National Youth Science Forum) 2022
In the School holidays of 2021-2022, five Year 11 Science students attended the online version of the National Youth Science Forum. The experience draws science students from all around Australia, and delivers immersive and transformative youth-led experiences to young Australians to encourage life-long STEM literacy. Two of the students that attended this year have shared their experiences.
“I didn’t quite know what to expect from NYSF, but it ended up being an experience that I was glad I took part in. With such a wide array of workshops with such a variety of focuses its difficult to pick a specific one as my favourite. But with that in mind, I found the critical thinking workshop to be what I took on board most from the NYSF, giving us steppingstones to pursue and question things in all areas of science. Another great experience I had during NYSF is the large amount of careers sessions that were run by members of the field, discussing the experiences they had in their jobs helped me realize what I want to do after I finish year 12. “ Harriet Muhlnickel (Year 12)– NYSF 2022
“I thoroughly enjoyed the NYSF, although it was online and I wasn’t able go the physical workshops and tours, the CEO, Dr Melanie Bagg and the staff made sure that everyone was involved. There were three separate talks just on careers, and it in total there was around 80 talks, ranging from topics such as, hydrogen energy fuel, applied mathematics, mathematics of nature conservation, space exploration, Great Barrier Reef to name a few. There was topics for everyone to enjoy and my favourite part was the career talks as it helped me understand that there are many different career paths and alternative ways to get where you want to go. All of the different areas of STEM that were spoken about were all interesting but the one that stood out the most was Niamh Troy research on preventing asthma as it affects members of my family and affects many people’s lives across the world. All the talks and the speakers sharing their experience of the careers and the university they went to helped me take in a lot of different options for university. The NYSF program was very good and I had a great time and would recommend to anyone who is interested in a career in STEM.” Brianne Oates (Year 12) – NYSF 2022
Ms Kate Adriaans, Director of Science, will be looking for students who are keen to attend the NYSF camps in 2023. She will also help organise rotary sponsorship for the event. If you are a student studying Science and interested, please speak with her.
SLC and LEAD House Swimming BBQ
On Thursday 17 February, the Frankston High School House Swimming Sports was held. The SLC and LEAD students ran a sausage sizzle to raise money for the Term 1 Casual Dress Day. In total, we raised a huge $250! A special thank you to Mrs Rebecca Ginsberg, Mrs Sarah Bahramis and Mr Chris Sutcliffe, for making this possible, and thank you to all helpers as well as everyone who bought a sausage!
Samara Miller (Year 8H) and Neko McTaggart (Year 8F)
Go Girls!
On Saturday 12 February, a ceremony was held to inaugurate the “Women’s Wall” at Delacombe Park Cricket Club. Frankston High School parent Bill Mallinson (Maggie and Seth’s Dad) was instrumental in setting up their first Girls’ team, and he is the driving force behind this outstanding recognition of girls in sport, as valued members of the club, and as equals.
The dedicated wall recognises the women’s team and their achievements, first semi-final coming up next week, in a clubroom where previously all the pictures were of male players and administrators.
Frankston High School students Delylah Nagey (Year 10), Audrey Bechaz (Year 10), Allira Reid (Year 11), Indigo Noble (Year 8G), Sienna Robson (Year 10) and their teammates were joined by our local Federal MP, Peta Murphy and outstanding athlete, former Australian Diamonds Netball Captain and current Collingwood WAFL player Sharni Norder, in a very moving celebration. Both spoke passionately about the empowerment of girls and the progress that has been made in gender equality, and both were inspired and inspired by, the club and the players. A photo display of the players and teams was unveiled, surrounding a plaque quoting Michelle Obama, “There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish”.
The central photo features our own coordinator extraordinaire, Miss Libby Toovey, who on top of everything she does here at Frankston High School, also trains and coaches the Delacombe Park Girls. How fortunate is the club, and our school, in having such an excellent and inspiring role-model in our midst!
International Students Voice Forum
On 24 February Frankston High School was given the opportunity to attend an International Students Voice Forum along with other schools in Melbourne. We were given the task of suggesting ways to implement and strategies to better incorporate international students and their culture. We, as four Senior Students including two international students, travelled to the State Library where we were introduced to other groups of students from various schools who were also interested in supporting the integration of international students into our school community.
The day consisted of a number of interactive activities that enabled us to introduce ourselves and work harmoniously together as a team. One of the major focuses during the event was the notion of teamwork and working together despite various backgrounds, ethnicities and language barriers. This allowed us both collectively as a school and also as a group of schools to establish new innovative ways that will support our international community.
Each school was given time to brainstorm new suggestions that focused on: how we can increase awareness within our schools of the diverse group of international students & their cultures; collaboration (involving local and international students enjoying their time at school); giving students both local and international a voice in their school and activities within their school; and how we can present these ideas to our school community.
All schools were given time to present and share their brainstorming ideas and methods of implementation (this allowed schools to share their ideas which was great). We also had an opportunity to meet other students both international and local and it was great to see the passion that everyone had for school and supporting our international students.
Overall this experience gave us an amazing opportunity to introduce and create better integration between international students and local students. We hope this year we will be able to implement our ideas with new strategies through SLC and the wider school community.
Eden Mestdagh (Year 12), Adam Chapman (Year 11),
Peihan (Diana) Li (Year 11) and Ruoyi (Miranda) Yang (Year 12)