Around the College

25 Anniversary Fair

What a fantastic event the 25th Anniversary Fair was, held recently on Sunday 26 March. 

While the weather was a tad gloomy, it didn’t dampen our spirits as we celebrated as a community. It was wonderful to see our students, staff, parents, old scholars, and friends collectively enjoy the energetic atmosphere and have fun on the rides, at the amusements, on pony rides, or in the petting zoo.

The Market Stalls in our Mall rivaled the creativity and quality found at large-scale markets across Adelaide. The variety meant there was something for everyone and it was lovely to see younger children walking around with painted faces, balloon animals, and a big smiles.

We are fortunate to have talented music students who entertained the crowds, joined by old scholars and staff. And with the Music department celebrating their 20th Cabaret production, we know that we are in for more treats in this area.

The Open Day element was a terrific inclusion where we hosted nearly 150 families on school tours. These families met our talented teaching staff and enjoyed subject-based demonstrations and viewed student work to get a feel for what it means to be part of our community.

We are also fortunate to have students and staff willing to volunteer their time in making sure the day ran smoothly. We are certainly blessed in this area. 

We estimate that 4000 people attended the Fair and we thank our community from the bottom of our hearts for helping us make this day such a great experience. 

Go Endeavour!

Tracy Green

Marketing and Communications

Harmony Week

In Week 8 we celebrated Harmony Week with many fun activities including a cultural 

non-uniform day with all donations going to the earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey. 

We also enjoyed a special Taiko Japanese drum performance in the Anzac Pavilion. The following day an Art Club was held in the Year 8 Space with many fun activities such as colouring in, cut outs and origami. And lastly on Thursday and Friday the popular movie Coco was chosen to be shown in the Year 8 Space at lunch time for students to enjoy.

Throughout Harmony Week different music was played at the end of each lesson to represent and showcase different cultures replacing our normal bells. It certainly added to the atmosphere of the week. 

I hope everyone enjoyed the Harmony Week events that were offered this year.

Amber Chau

Cultural Leader

First Nations Voice Bill

Sunday 26 March marked a historic and emotional day for many South Australians. In a special sitting Members of State Parliament passed the First Nations Voice Bill, enshrining a First Nations Voice to Parliament in our state, becoming the first jurisdiction in Australia to do so.

Hundreds gathered along North Terrace to watch proceedings on the big screens and to witness the Governor signing the Bill into law on the steps of Parliament House.

This term, the Year 8 English classes have been researching the larger debate regarding the Voice to Parliament at a Federal level. They have explored a range of texts, including the Uluru Statement from the Heart and interviews with First Nations Australians. This research has culminated in their application of the persuasive techniques they have been learning in class to create a piece arguing either ‘For’ or ‘Against’ a Voice to Parliament.

Layla Clarke

RAP Coordinator and English Teacher

Year 11 Christian Living Incursion

Year 11 students studying the SRM course ‘Community, Diversity, and Discrimination’ took part in an incursion run by the Abraham Institute recently. The aim of this incursion was to support and extend class-based learning on the topic ‘Is Australia Racist?’. Prior to the incursion, students worked in small research teams to prepare questions. They will get the opportunity to reflect more formally on their learning next term in an assessment task.

Rachel Gillespie (Director and Program Facilitator - The Abraham Institute) came in with four members of her team to help students look at this topic from a contemporary perspective. The learning that took place was excellent.

Matthew was our first speaker. He represented the Jewish community. Matthew is a retired lawyer/policy writer. He touched briefly on the laws against religious vilification here in South Australia. He also discussed the implications and limitations of the Racial Discrimination Act, 1975. This was an excellent starting point.

Jonathan Iadorola was our second speaker. Jonathan is an Israeli Jew. You may have read his story last year in the news. Jonathan is a student studying a Bachelor of Law and Arts at UniSA. In September 2022, he stood up to the editor of the Uni newspaper when she published an article which ended with the phrase ‘Death to Israel’. Jonathan spoke about the two main types of anti-Semitism: religious and anti-Israeli.

Our last speakers were Faisal and Munazza from the Muslim community. Munazza spoke about her lived experience of Islamophobia and why it occurs. She also spoke about the media’s unfair portrayal of Muslim characters on TV programs.

One of the most powerful phrases at the end of the morning came from Faisal. He said ‘We as humans try to differentiate and separate ourselves from each other. A wise man looks for similarities. The common human aspect.’

Alison Slater

Christian Living Learning Leader

First Things First Coffee Incursion

On Wednesday 22 March, Year 11 Business Innovation students had the opportunity to meet James and Aaron, the founders of First Things First Coffee, for a Q&A session about the establishment and growth of their drive-through coffee business. The students drew inspiration from their entrepreneurship journey, learning about the challenges that they faced along the way as well as the future plans they have for their business. 

We are always grateful to learn from real-world experience and appreciate local businesses like First Things First Coffee are so willing to visit our College and assist in our students learning.

Leanne Zilm

Business Innovation Teacher

Year 7 Lake Walks at Lunch

On Wednesday Week 9, Year 7 students had the opportunity to attend the first of our weekly lake walks. It was a fantastic way to take some time out from school and enjoy some light exercise with a beautiful view. Students commented on how much they enjoyed this time and we, the teachers, greatly enjoyed the chance to get to know our students better. This is just one of the many events the Year 7 team are running at lunchtimes to give broader opportunities to our students.

Morgan Rigby

Enrichment Learning Leader

Year 7 Integers Number Line

The Year 7s wrapped up their first term in high school by trying new Maths concepts. As a class we made a giant life-like number line spanning from positive numbers into negative numbers in the Mall using masking tape. Mr Hewson asked students to move along the number line depending on the maths problem. 

To get our heads around negative numbers, 

Mr Hewson also used ice cubes to demonstrate how negative numbers fit into these sums. 

It was a great activity to improve our understanding of negative numbers. 

Some would say it was very cool.

Jack Hewson

Year 7 Teacher