Learning Across the 

Senior School

Once Upon a Festival Writing Excursion

On Friday 31st October, twenty of our Year 7 and 8 students visited an annual writing festival held for students at Immanuel College. This was the first year that Loreto has sent students to the festival and those who attended came back inspired by the talks and workshops that they participated in. A highlight of the group's visit was celebrating the achievements of writing competition winner, Gabriella C (Year 7) who received her prize and met the competition judge, author Adam Cece.

It is clear from student reflections that they learnt a great deal about the writing process, and they have returned inspired to explore ways to develop their own writing.

The excursion to the Writer's Festival was an amazing experience. For me, the highlight was hearing a panel of authors discuss how they build new worlds in their stories. It was fascinating to learn how they turn a small idea into an entire universe for readers to explore. Seeing the authors in person and hearing their passion for storytelling was incredibly inspiring. It made the idea of being a writer feel much more achievable. The whole day was buzzing with creativity, and it’s motivated me to pick up a pen and start writing my own. 

Pia G

Year 7

I was lucky enough to listen to Allison Tait speak and take part in a workshop with Will Kostakis. Whilst listening to Allison, I learned that all writers have a superpower which helps them write. Whether that is using all senses when writing, shrinking or expanding your work or having endurance when writing many drafts. 

 

One main point that Will emphasised throughout his workshop was that when writing a story, it should only be about 5-15 minutes of the character's life which was amazing to think about. 

 

This festival helped me understand how to plan and write a story properly using interesting and different techniques that I had never learnt before. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the Once Upon A Festival and I cannot wait to create stories even better now that I know all this new information about writing novels.

Milla S

Year 7

The Writer’s Festival was such an inspiring day. We had the chance to listen to several amazing authors who shared their journeys and writing tips. One highlight for me was hearing how they turn small, everyday moments into incredible stories. It made me realise that writing isn’t just about imagination, it’s also about noticing the world around us. The whole experience felt creative, fun, and really motivating. I left feeling excited to write more and to keep exploring my own ideas.

Chelsea G

Year 7

​​​​Fiona Griffiths

Leader of English and Languages

Science 

Phases of the Moon

As part of their Earth, Moon and Space Unit, our Year 7 Science students have been learning about the Moon and had a lot of fun undertaking an interactive activity to represent the eight main phases of the Moon. Oreo biscuits are a great resource to highlight the changing shape of the moon throughout the month. It was great to see the girls happily scraping the cream on the chocolate layers to represent the illuminated portion of the moon.

Chocolate Tectonics

Our Year 8 Science students thoroughly enjoyed working with Mars bars to model the layers of the Earth and to help demonstrate the movement of the plates when they converge, diverge or transform.

Carbon Sinks

The Year 9 Science students headed out into the beautiful College grounds with a tape measure to investigate how much carbon is stored in a selection of the majestic trees of their choice. They were delighted to discover that a simple measurement of the circumference of the tree trunk at chest height could lead to calculating how many kilograms of carbon is stored in the tree, the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the tree through its lifetime and even the possible age of the tree. The girls hugged the trees, having a better appreciation for their major role in reducing greenhouse gases by acting as ‘carbon sinks’.

Staying Healthy

GlitterBug products help to teach good hand hygiene by visually demonstrating to the girls that their current handwashing techniques may not be as effective as they may have hoped for. You could hear screams coming from the Year 10 Health Science class when the UV torch uncovered any glowing GlitterBug 'moisturiser' left mainly on the wrists, in the nail beds, and between the fingers. Agar plates were also used to help determine the effectiveness of certain chemicals in preventing the growth of bacteria. Hopefully, career pathways become clearer when undertaking investigations relating to disease prevention.

Patty Warrender

Biology/Science Teacher

Student achievements

Ethics Olympiad 

Congratulations to the Year 7 & 8 Middle Years Ethics teams, with the Year 7 team coming 2nd on Thursday! It was a great effort form both teams as one member of each team was away ill.

Results 

• Gold Medal: St Peter’s Girls School (Yellow)
• Silver Medal: Loreto College (Lime)

• Bronze Medal: Scotch College (Pink)

   

Close behind:

Emmaus College (White), Tyndale Christian School (Orange), St Michael’s College (Green), Mary MacKillop College (Blue), and St Peter’s College (Blue).

Most Improved Team: Tyndale Christian School (Orange)

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Tennille Cobb

Gifted and Talented Teacher

Congratulations to Olive M (Year 8) who travelled to NSW over the weekend as part of the Australian Youth Theatre. Her group was awarded ‘Outstanding Production’ at the Junior Theatre Festival!

Year 9 Camp - Student Reflections

Fishing at Robe  

Week 3, Monday marked the start of Year 9 camp in Robe. Camp is not only an adventurous break from the classroom setting, but also a learning experience of new skills, friendships, and discoveries. The first activity my class and I participated in was fishing. We learned the basics of fishing: how to attach bait to the hook and throw out our lines. At first this task seemed challenging but after a couple failed attempts and with the encouragement of my peers, I soon started to enjoy the activity.  Fishing was not a new experience for me, but the environment of laughter with my peers, teachers, and instructors is now a memory I think back to fondly. The excitement and anticipation of feeling a bite on our lines, the smell of the bait, and the annoyance of not catching a fish is something the year 9 cohort and teachers now share together. I wouldn’t have done camp differently because of all the lovely memories that have been made.  

Ayla McKenzie 

In week 3 of term 4, the Year 9 cohort went on a week-long camp in Robe. We did many activities, 2 of these activities being surfing and fishing.  

 

Before even starting surfing, everyone was excited and had a heap of energy for it. Surfing was either start of the morning or just after midday. We started by getting into our wet suits and having an introduction. We talked about safety hazards that we were surrounded by and finally got into the water. The water was cold at first but quickly warmed up, the waves were flat, with only a few good sets coming through. But after about 10 minutes the waves started to pick up and more sets came. With the help of Ms Edwards and the surfing instructors, Isaac and Kayne, most of us managed to catch a wave or two. While everyone waited for waves, we made our own fun, throwing seaweed at each other. The best part of surfing was when me and 4 others tried to catch 1 wave together and after a few tries we actually got it.  

 

 I can say that surfing was definitely a highlight for me and that it gave me a great opportunity to bond with my classmates.  

Zahara Lee

On Year 9 camp, we travelled to Naracoorte and visited the Naracoorte Caves. This was both an educational and fun activity for us all to try. We had a guided tour through one of the caves where we learnt about the fossils that were found there and how the caves came to be. As well as this, we also went adventure caving in the Stick-Tomato cave, which had lots of small gaps and tunnels to crawl through. It was a great experience and lots of girls compared it to being cave divers. There were optional holes to climb through like the keyhole, which everyone loved giving a go. It was great to see the natural wonders of South Australia.

Eva Zadow

The hike that we had to do was challenging. Still, it brought us all together. It started on the beach, where we walked along the west beach, and carrying our rucksacks was hard. Still, the view of the water was incredible. It made the walk 10 times better when we got off the beach; we faced the challenge of climbing the vast dunes. After a few food and drink breaks, and a lot of sand, we finally arrived at the campsite and began setting up our tents. Once we put up our tents, we sat in a circle with our food and our Trangia. Once we had learned how to use our Trangia safely, everyone started to cook their delicious food, which was well earned after the long hike. After dinner and washing up, we were fortunate to have group one doing their overnight hike on the same day, so we walked over to their campsite and sat around the fire to toast marshmallows and talk to all the friends we had not seen out of our groups. Just before bed, we looked up and saw a multitude of shooting stars; then we went to sleep. We all woke up to the sun, but luckily, we convinced our teachers to let us sleep in until 7:30. Once we finished breakfast, we packed up our tents, put our rucksacks back on, and walked for 15 minutes until we returned to base camp. 

Erica Blain