Learning Across the
Senior School
Enlighten years 7 and 8
Enlighten Education came to our school to present a wonderful talk about fostering self-worth. The programs are designed to empower young people to navigate complex social messages and develop essential life skills. Enlighten Education ensures students are equipped with the confidence and resilience needed for success. Below are some comments from our year 8 students:
I really enjoyed writing all the heartwarming messages to one another. I learnt to love others, to be kind, about girl power, to stand up for myself, and to be confident.
Victoria Saric
Year 8 student
I loved learning about Danni because she was so amazing and funny and kind. She really made me feel loved and welcomed. I learned how to be safe out in public, to be myself, to not listen to other people's opinions, and to stand up for myself. I love you, Danni.
Aspen
Year 8 student
GLF Camp
This term, Jemma Meoli (Year 10), Coco Glastonbury (Year 9) and I had the opportunity to attend the opening camp for the Governor’s Leadership Foundation program. I completed the program last year and was fortunate enough to be selected as a mentor for the 2024 participants. The weekend aimed to teach young leaders about the different aspects of leadership, to challenge them mentally and socially and to empower them to be socially responsible for change.
A big part of the camp was understanding yourself and recognising how you as an individual operate in a social setting as well as how to interact and connect with others. To help with this, all participants took a TICK personality quiz which placed them into different bird types associated with certain behaviours/personalities: Peacock (confident, loves to be praised and popular), Dove (is driven by the security of belonging), Eagle (motivated by power and authority), and Owl (feels secure with facts, numbers and systems). Paul, the camp director then explained each personality and how they work in different situations and how to interact with each profile to make them feel heard. Relating certain personalities with birds really helped understand how different people work and how our personalities influence the way we act/feel towards others. Recognising this skill in leadership is imperative to being a good leader and cooperating with others to make everyone feel valued, heard and foster a sense of belonging to the team. It helped us think about the broader environment maximising outcomes through understanding leadership styles.
Giuliana Blefari
Year 10 student
Student achievements
Congratulations to Hermione Burgoyne, our Year 10 student, for securing a coveted spot in the University of South Australia SA STEM Course in Work Experience Program. It was an intense competition, with only 8 students chosen from a pool of 200 applicants. Well done, Hermione!
Loreto Legal Eagles: Mock Trial Win for Round 3!
A huge congratulations to the Loreto Mock Trial Team who have now won the 3rd Round of the SA Law Society Mock Trial Competition on Tuesday 28th May 2024.
The Loreto Team was the Respondent in a Promissory Estoppel case against Glenunga High School. The team won the legal case on the legal arguments presented and also won the Mock Trial overall. A fantastic effort!
The trial judge commented on the Loreto Team’s professionalism, astute legal reasoning and court room etiquette and the courteous manner of their conduct throughout the Mock Trial.
Thank you to each of the Mock Trial team members who have given their time so generously to prepare for the three trials, over many lunch times and in their own time.
The hard work and determination have paid off! We now eagerly await to see if we have made it through to the Semi-Final!
Round 3 Team:
Barristers: Grace Collins, Karli YipInstructing Solicitors: Sophia Boots, Emma Choi
Witnesses: Aeon Nguyen, Sophia Hussain
Sherriff’s Officer: Elisa Farah
Legal Team assisting: Karen See, Melody Zou, Tigi Gambranis, Ingrid Piro, Lucinda Carney, Lucy Dachs.
Ms Ruggiero-Girgolas and Mr Jones
Year 9 History – A virtual visit to the WWI Trenches!
Technology and History converge to offer cutting-edge learning experiences to our young women at Loreto Marryatville. In Week 6, Ms Ruggiero-Girgolas’ Year 9 History class made good use of our Loreto Lumination Learning Lab, to experience the trenches of World War One via Virtual Reality.
It was an engaging and immersive experience for the students, who saw their learning of WWI come to life, literally before their eyes!
Many thanks to Mr Tim Bond for his invaluable technical expertise in the Lumination Learning Lab, and to Mr Paul Foley who made a guest appearance to share his wonderful insights into WWI trench warfare and conditions.
Ms Ruggiero-Girgolas
Humanities Teacher
Year 8 Camp - student stories
For year 8 camp, we went to the Kuitpo Forest. We stayed there for 4 days and 3 nights. 2 out of those 3 nights were spent in a tent with a partner.
Day 1 My group engaged in mountain biking; we did this for the majority of the day. We rode up high hills and went down steep hills that were a push out of my comfort zone. The biking was exhilarating as we learned new skills to do on mountain bikes. At afternoon tea we would have snacks and fruits. Once we got back from mountain biking, we returned to base camp with the rest of our friends. Base camp provided us with fun activities like a spider web swing and a flying fox. My evening in the dorm was spent chatting and playing card games with four of my other friends. The base camp provided us with delicious yiroses for dinner which I enjoyed sharing with my year 8 cohort.
Day 2 We went on a high ropes course. The course had extremely wobbly boards and a rock-climbing area. The high ropes were a difficult but fun challenge as my peers and I passed each other on the course. The high ropes ended with a flying fox feeling the wind whistle past me. This activity would be my favorite part as I loved gliding through the chilly air. For rock climbing, we entrusted our safety to our friends' hands as they would pull a rope as you would ascend higher up the rock wall. Our lives were in their hands. Everyone was cheering on their friends as they made their way higher and higher up the rock wall and pushed through. The positive atmosphere was amazing, even the staff had a wonderful time along the course. At Midday we started our hike to the campsite. The hike was long but the endless chatter with my friends distracted me from the hard walk. Once we arrived, we started dinner, my partner and I made pasta. Dinner was delicious and it was funny to see multiple pots of spaghetti catch on fire. The night was filled with laughter but also fear as we ran back from the long drop toilet and told funny stories around a warm campfire.
Day 3 When we woke up from our freezing night in our tents, we then started packing away to hike back to our bus stop, to get to base camp. After several tries, my partner and I successfully packed away our tent and packed our rucksacks with our personal items and left the expedition. The walk back was peaceful as the Autumn leaves fell on us. Once we arrived back, we were put into teams to save a person (a dummy pilot) from a tree. With teamwork and persistence, we got them out. The activity taught us how to build shelters, create stretchers and use teamwork. We then finished the night off with sitting around in a circle, all singing together.
I am glad to say this camp strengthened my relationships with the staff and my classmates. It taught me new skills and pushed me out of my comfort zone. But this camp also gave me a better understanding of how other people who are not as fortunate as us live and to appreciate the protected life I have. I was incredibly grateful for this camp with Wilderness Escape and cannot wait for my next one!
Ayla McKenzie
Year Eight camp really pushed me and my classmates out of our comfort zones. I was part of group one, and I had many of my friends with me. On the first day we went on a 12-kilometer hike through Kuitpo Forest, holding a rucksack with all our food, water, toiletries, and clothes. I was lucky to have my friends to cheer me on. During the hike, it was like a race with the other group that was sleeping at the same campsite to get there first. We arrived at the site as the sun was setting, then we first took the exhaustingly heavy rucksacks off our back and gathered around Aaron, the camp instructor. He then proceeded to show us how to put up a tent. Not as easy as you might think. We had to sleep with a nominated friend and try to organise our menu for during the hike. After we finished at the tents we sat in a circle and learnt how to use a Trangia. We set up the Trangia near friends and laughed, my partner Maggie and I accidentally set the ground underneath on fire. We made pasta, like everybody else, and took our friends’ garlic bread. Once we finished our dinner a group of friends and I headed over to the long drop toilet - I thought I would pass out from the putrid smell. Then we gathered around the campfire for toasted marshmallows and an instructor named Ian made us play games and solve riddles. We went to bed and tried to sleep on the thin sleeping mats. It was a freezing 7am wakeup. We made breakfast and then had to go on another six-hour hike, which was not as agonising.
Once we got to base camp it was noon and my partner and I made wraps. We were starving! After that we went on “high ropes” which was like a mini tree climb. As I’m short, some obstacles were difficult, and it didn’t help that my friends were down on the ground laughing at me. Whilst standing on the wooden platforms it was quite horrifying because they wobbled while others were on the course, the least I can say was it was untrustworthy. Next to the high ropes was an activity called the ‘leap of faith’, which was jumping from a platform trying to reach a metal bar in the air. I tried twice but couldn’t reach the bar. This truly was a leap of faith for me as I had to trust the people holding me up in the air via a rope. Luckily, I lived to tell the tale.
Once we finished, we went to our dorms, which we were all ecstatic about, because we had been sleeping in tents the night before and everybody now had a room with their friends. After, I had the best shower of my life, and played games dorm against dorm. Once we finished it was around nine o’clock, and even though I was tired I stayed up with my friends until 10 talking about our amazing experiences.
It was another early rise at 7 am and for a morning on the mountain biking track after breakfast. The track went through Kuitpo Forest riding down steep hills and walking back up even steeper hills. As I was laughing with my friends it was a wonderful experience and riding down the hills was exhilarating. That is apart from the swarms of Bug Attack we had to survive.
Overall, I really enjoyed my camping experience at Kuitpo Forest, as I learnt more about my peers, creating new, unbreakable bonds with people, some that I had never previously spoken to. I also had the chance to connect with my teachers and other members of staff, which I would be unable to do during school hours. I am so grateful for the Wilderness escape staff, and members of the school faculty for making this trip possible.
Grace Gallacher
Veronica D'Angelo
Leader of Student Wellbeing & Academic Care