Events & around ASC
On Friday, 7th March, we celebrated International Women’s Day at ASC with an amazing group of public school visitors!
We were honoured to have special guest Mary Kaspar, who shared an inspiring message about the importance of women supporting one another.
We also welcomed Deb Summerhayes, Deputy Secretary of Public Schools, who spoke about women in leadership and her incredible journey to where she is today.
The day was filled with fun activities, including trivia, icebreaker games, and ended with making friendship bracelets
A big thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate this special day and to honour the power of women everywhere!
Year 11 Ancient History Visit to UNE’s Museum of Antiquities
On Wednesday, March 5th, Year 11 Ancient History students had an incredible opportunity to visit the UNE Museum of Antiquities. The students were guided through a fascinating workshop by Bronwyn Hopwood, where they learned about ancient artefacts—how they were made, and how they were used in the past.
A highlight of the visit was the privilege of handling some of the museum's ancient artefacts, including rare papyrus scrolls that have not yet been unwrapped!
It was an experience that brought the class material to life in a way that textbooks simply can't match.
A huge thank you to Bronwyn Hopwood and the team at UNEMA for such an engaging and educational experience.
Exciting News!
Some of our talented ASC students made the trip to Inverell for the Opens Touch Trials!
A huge congratulations to Alfie Smith, Alexis Lockwood, and Nahri Slater-Saunders who were selected!
We’re so proud of you all and can’t wait to see what’s next!
Quail Production Update!
We’re excited to share that Year 8 has had a successful hatch this season!
We welcomed 24 baby quails into the world, and 22 are thriving! Now almost 2 weeks old, these little guys are growing fast, with many already trying to take flight.
In addition to hatching and caring for our babies, Year 8 has been busy collecting eggs from our adult quails. We’ve been enjoying sharing them with friends and family, and some students have even had success incubating their own eggs at home!
But most importantly, we've been savouring the wonderfully patterned, flavour-packed eggs.
Year 8 is also gaining valuable experience in quail care and marketing as they prepare to sell these little beauties next term. Check out the photos of Tom Kitchener, Zoey Walker, and Ayalla Kanety with our baby quails at just 1 day old, and Liam Noone and Tristan Gursanscky with the quails today at nearly 2 weeks old – look how much they've grown!
Agriculture
ASC Agriculture Term 1 News
This term has been busy on our school farm with lots of keen students getting involved in our farm enterprises. Our new quail enterprise established by Miss White is booming, the ram is out with our Suffolk ewes to produce spring lambs and our new boar ‘Caesar’ is with the sows for winter piglets.
Our fruit orchard is currently being renovated and we just harvested our corn and pumpkin crop. Our best pumpkins are off to the Sydney Royal Show to be judged and to be put into the amazing district exhibit down there. A big thankyou to Jessica Kernahan (UNE Ag student) and her family for coordinating this. A big thank you also to Mr Matt Pilkington and his team of students for all their hard work in our horticultural enterprises and also more recently working with our cattle and pigs.
We’ve had a number of excursions this term with the year 11 Agriculture class visiting Chris and Jenny Laurie’s farm to complete their Farm Case Study. It was a great day out with our students taking a lot from the trip. Now back at school they’re putting a report together describing all aspects of the farm and then explaining why management decisions are made. Thank you Chris for hosting us at your farm and for taking the time to talk to our students. Very much appreciated.
One of the highlights of our school is the success that our Livestock Team continues to have. This term we competed at both the Armidale and Walcha Agricultural Shows and achieved some outstanding results.
Highlights of the Armidale Show included:
- Jack Clayton 1st intermediate beef cattle judging
- Anja McIlwain 1st intermediate fruit and vegetable judging
- Jasmin Brennan 2nd intermediate beef cattle judging
- Sharni Barwick-Stackman 4th junior merino judging and 5th junior fruit and vegetable Judging
- Kya Doyle 4th intermediate beef cattle judging and 4th intermediate fruit and vegetable judging
- Sophie O’Connell 5th intermediate Merino Judging
All of our wonderful students did so well against a large number of other competing students from a range of high schools.
Highlights of the Walcha Show included:
- 1st place purebred steer and overall Grand Champion Steer of the show. Our Limousin steer (Alpha) was very well presented by Britney Tarrant who also won 1st place in the beef cattle judging competition out of 75 students.
- Aliyah Snape 1st place 16 yrs paraders out of 65 students, 2nd Merino judging and 2nd meat sheep judging
- Kai Baldwin 4th Merino judging
- Georgia Froome-Young 2nd place 12 years paraders
- Anja McIlwain 3rd place 14 years paraders
It’s been a real team effort with both staff and students working together to gain the success we have. Well done everyone!
Next term will be filled with more fun and interesting farm activities. In addition, we will be competing at the Wingham Beef Week with our Limousin cattle and the Dubbo Show with our Suffolk sheep and stud Berkshire pigs.
These Agricultural competitions provide our students with lifelong skills and knowledge and of course memories! On these show excursions, students network with industry people and other like minded young Agriculturalists, attend a whole range of educational seminars and learn employment skills such as good communication, working as a team to meet deadlines and schedule requirements, presentation and public speaking with a microphone in front of large crowds.
Have a great Easter break everyone!
Mark Fisher
On Tuesday 1st April, the Year 9 & 10 Outdoor Education classes had an amazing day out at Dumaresq Dam!
The students spent the day canoeing, fishing, building shelters, and bushwalking – all while soaking up the beautiful outdoors. It was a day full of fun, learning, and adventure for everyone involved!
A huge thank you to the dedicated staff who made this outdoor learning experience possible.
On Wednesday 2nd April, our Year 7 & 8 students travelled to The Armidale School to compete in the Northern NSW Da Vinci Decathlon! The teams of eight took on 10 challenging disciplines, including engineering, mathematics, chess, code breaking, art & poetry, science, English, ideation, creative producers, cartography, and legacy.
And the results speak for themselves!
ASC secured:
1st place for Year 7 1st place for Year 8 Team 2 2nd place for Year 8 Team 1
A huge congratulations to all the students for their hard work and dedication!
On Saturday 5th April, staff and students from ASC came together to compete in the Armidale Campus to City Canter – a 5km fun run/walk!
It was a fantastic way to kick off the weekend, with an enjoyable course starting at Sport UNE and winding its way along the creek to Curtis Park.
A big shoutout to everyone who participated and made it such a fun and active event!
Maths
We’ve had a busy end to the term with many students submitting assessments and receiving feedback on their learning.
Year 12 Mathematics Standard 2 engaged in a week of feedback lessons, including analysing the task and working in groups to break down the more difficult questions from the paper.
Later in the week they spent time looking at various student samples to consider how they set out their working, ensuring it is clear and coherent for markers. To finalise their week of feedback, students spent time withing with their own papers to break down areas of success and areas which they need to improve before upcoming tasks.
A huge congratulations to all our students who competed in the KSF maths challenge. Kangourou sans Frontières (KSF) is now the largest maths competitions in the world, with more than 6 million participants each year. This year we had 67 participants and will be acknowledging their efforts in coming assemblies.
We also have a number of students who are currently competing in the Australian Mathematics Challenge. Maths Challenge aims to foster students’ understanding of the power of mathematics and the joy of mathematical problem solving.
A general reminder that all students 7-12 are required to bring a scientific calculator to each maths lesson (a lot of other subjects use these too). Calculators are now available from the front office for $40.
Year 8 UNE Museum visit
Open Boys Softball – Tamworth Knockout
On Tuesday, our Open Boys Softball team travelled to Tamworth to compete in the school knockout. They played a great game with a close loss to Narrabri, but spirits stayed high and the team had plenty of fun along the way!
It was a fantastic day out filled with great sportsmanship and team spirit. Well done, boys!
