During the school holidays five of our girls from years 10 and 11 had the exciting opportunity to travel to Sydney, Townsville and Cairns as part of the senior Ocean School experience. During this trip, our girls had the chance to explore the beautiful underwater world, learn about ocean ecosystems and the conservation issues facing our reefs.

Throughout the duration of this trip, our girls would be inspired by guest speakers at the forefront of their fields in marine science, engineering and medicine; they would step into the role of scientific innovators, designing a solution to tackle one of the many challenges facing our ocean ecosystems in the ChallengeX competition; and they would learn about adopting the seven growth mantras to ensure they have the right mindset to persevere through the difficulty and hardship involved in growing, learning and succeeding.

Sydney

Our girls touched down in Sydney already feeling exhausted after their flight but felt much more refreshed for their second day at the Narrabeen Coastal Environment Centre where they investigated the sea life, environmental conditions and presence of microplastics along the tide pools and beach. On their third day they had their first snorkelling experience for the trip at Fairlight Beach, where our girls saw a Port Jackson shark and learnt about the impacts of overfishing and sea urchin overpopulation, an experience which would inspire their ChallengeX presentation. Whilst in Sydney, we also had the chance to visit the Sydney Opera house, the maritime museum and the University of Sydney.

Townsville

It was a very early start to the day to catch our flight to Townsville via Brisbane and after an eventful lunch we arrived at the hotel to rest and relax for the next day. On our second day in Townsville our girls went snorkelling at Magnetic Island and participated in a reef recovery activity removing macroalgal species that were preventing corals from attaching. For our third day we visited James Cook University and learnt about the growing aquaculture industry that is helping to ease the pressure of overfishing in the wild. On the fourth day our girls visited the Museum of Tropical Queensland and ended the evening with a celebration for Ella’s birthday!

Cairns

The bus ride to Cairns was long but a couple of stops at the Frosty Mango and the Cardwell Jetty helped to break up the journey and once in Cairns our girls had the opportunity to visit the night market. The next two days provided our girls with the best snorkelling opportunities of the trip. After investigating the formation of Green Island’s unique rainforest ecosystem, our girls went snorkelling off the beach and saw some amazing aquatic life, including a turtle! The ferry on the way out to the Moore Reef pontoon tested the strongest of our stomachs but it was worth it to see such colourful fish and coral species. Whilst on the pontoon our girls went on a glass bottom boat and analysed the reef conditions and plankton samples to monitor the health of the reef and detect early signs of the Crown of Thorns starfish which threatens coral ecosystems. On our final day in Cairns our girls presented their ChallengeX and amazed the judges with DrotterX, a drone designed to manage sea urchin populations and allow kelp forests to regenerate. Their presentation was fantastic and they were so close to getting the first place prize.Our girls then visited the Rainforestation Nature Park where they got to pet some kangaroos and witnessed a rare sighting of a cassowary with its chicks in the wild! Some of our girls then took up the invitation to join in a traditional Indigenous dance performance before having a go at throwing some boomerangs. We then took a ride on the skyrail to take in the beautiful view of the rainforest and Cairns from above. Arriving back at the hotel we had a very emotional graduation ceremony where our girls were awarded certificates and badges as the winners of the Team Leadership Challenge for their team spirit, growth mindset, photo competition submissions and ChallengeX presentation. Well done girls!

Mr Jaynen Yong

Science Teacher

The student experience

I had such an incredible time at Ocean School. I was able to gain a plethora of knowledge as well as new friends and amazing once-in-a-lifetime memories. I loved collaborating on the ChallengeX project with my schoolmates and problem solving to make our final product DrotterX was so rewarding.

My favourite memory which will be forever ingrained in my brain is snorkelling at Green Island where I was swimming with a turtle and got to see a Whitetip reef shark swim past, it was very surreal.

On the trip I was exposed to so many different careers and pathways into the world of marine science and the ocean in general which I found so beneficial.

I highly recommend this experience as I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Olivia A (Year 10)

Ocean school was absolutely incredible, a once in a lifetime experience that I was lucky enough to have. We departed on the 20th of September, the first Tuesday of the holidays. We stayed in Sydney, Townsville and Cairns for 4 nights each, and we arrived back home on Sunday the 2nd of October. We went to places like the Maritime Museum, Sydney Uni, Narrabean and snorkelling at Fairlight beach in Manly, in Sydney; Magnetic Island, JCU and the Museum of Tropical Queensland in Townsville, and Green Island, the Great Barrier Reef, the Rainforest Wildlife Park and the Skyrail in Cairns.

I got to see so many different species while snorkelling, a few highlights were seeing a Port Jackson shark, two turtles, lots of clownfish and a stingray!! The snorkelling was definitely my favourite part, I loved learning about everything we were seeing! There were 38 students all together and we all became like a second family by the end of the trip.

Overall, I loved my time at ocean school and I made so many new friends from both Melbourne and Brisbane. All the Actura staff were so nice and it was a very emotional last couple of days, saying goodbye to everyone. I would 100% recommend it to anyone that is thinking about going in the next few years, it’s worth every cent!

Holly S (Year 10)

Student Wellbeing

World Mental Health day is 10 October