Out and About

Debating Wrap Up

On Thursday, September 7 Debating teams

9 Blue and 9 Orange eagerly presented their arguments for the topic

“That New Zealand should become the 7th state of the Commonwealth of Australia”

in both the affirmative and negative for the 2023 Debating SA Semi-Final. Both teams only had a week to prepare but worked unbelievably hard to have most of their speeches and rebuttals planned and ready to go within a few days of winning the quarter-final. Sickness struck

9 Blue and two team members from other teams had to fill in at short notice, with Asher Harten and Monique Beattie taking on speaking roles only a day before the debate! Despite the chaos of preparing a debate with only a third of the time teams would usually have, Blue and Orange attended the Semi-Final at Nazareth Catholic College in Flinders Park determined to take home the victory and make it to the Grand Final.

With Orange versing Westminster and Blue versing Aberfoyle Park High School in two incredibly intense debates, unfortunately both teams narrowly lost to their opposition, with Blue heartbreakingly losing by 1 point! Samantha Perryman spoke especially well and luckily scored herself a Best Speaker Award, but across both teams, all debaters presented some of their strongest speeches of the past two years and they should be so proud of how far they have come in that time. While neither team made it to the Grand Final, their improvements will serve them well moving into the 2024 season and I hope to report even more success next year.

The following teams deserve recognition for their efforts in the 2023 Debating SA finals:

9 Blue - Dr Pollett

Charlotte Dahlenburg (Monique Beattie replacing in Semi-Final)

Flynn Hutchinson

Samantha Perryman

Fran Whittle (Asher Harten replacing in Semi-Final)

9 Orange - Ms McIlvena

Monique Beattie

Alex Fechner

Rachel Ratsch

Olivia Vasilev

Running four teams in 2023, especially of this calibre, wouldn't be possible without amazing coaches. Thank you to Dr. Pollett, Ms. McIlvena and Ms. Rigby for coaching teams throughout the 2023 season. The four teams have learnt so much from you and the time and energy you have invested in your teams is appreciated by students and their families.

Teacher support on debating night has been huge this year. Thank you to Mr. Baird,

Ms. Mulligan, Mrs. Piro, Ms. Adolphi and

Mr. Hewson who all joined last week or at some point throughout the year.

A final thanks to parents of the debaters - your commitment to coming each round and supporting your children with speeches and rebuttals means so much for team morale!

While there will be more opportunities to debate in Term 4, with a staff vs student debate and an intercol being considered, all teams (and coaches) deserve a solid rest. Planning for the 2024 teams will begin in Term 4.

Anthony Bonini

Debating Coordinator

Pedal Prix Wrap Up

The 2023 pedal prix season recently came to an end on the 17th of September after the competition of the 24-hour Murray Bridge event. The two bikes, Lil Ripper (Senior Bike) and Clipper (Junior Bike) did an amazing job with the talented riders who came! 152 bikes entered the 24 hour endurance race this year. The final results were Lil Ripper coming 60th overall with 462 laps and 19th in the senior category and Clipper coming 122nd overall with 370 laps and 29th in the junior category. Both teams put in a phenomenal effort and ended up with extraordinary results.

Without the unbelievable hard work of the parents who came to support our two teams, these events would not have been possible at all. Special thanks to the Malaxos family who did the bike maintenance and family liaising, Kellie Hitchenor who coordinated the marshalling and thanks to the marshals Mark and Jo Preiss, Chris Bodel, Ash Greenham, and Ed Deane. Thanks too all of the parents who drove trailers - Ash Greenham, Brenton Keast, Ed Deane, Kevin Malaxos and Jason Jenkin. Another special thanks to Mr. Jack Hewson for training us every week and improving our fitness and a special thanks to all the people who helped cook.

Going into next year we are saying goodbye to five Year 12 families - the Malaxos, Hitchenor, Jenkin, Dang, and Preiss families. We send our deepest thankyous to all five families for their hard work and participation in Pedal Prix. These families have left a few important roles that are being fulfilled by other families. These families are the Keast family for taking up the mechanic role, the Greenham family for family liaising, and Chris Bodel for marshal organisation. Again, we would like to thank both the families and the riders for an amazing season and we are hoping that next year's season will be equally or even better than this year.

George Dang

Lacey Hitchenor

Jordan Jenkin

Blake Malaxos

Year 12 Pedal Prix Students

Year 9 Connected Schools Band Tour

On Friday 22 and Wednesday 27 September, the Year 9 Music class went on tour to two of our Connected Schools, Good Shepherd and Golden Grove Lutheran.

These students spent the term planning and rehearsing a 30 minute concert geared towards primary school students, which they scripted and ran with direction from their teacher Mr Wooldridge. The students showcased their playing with pieces such as ‘Highlights from Aladdin’, some ABBA tunes from Mamma Mia the Musical, the Harry Potter theme and a Queen rock medley. They made their concert both educational and entertaining, providing demos of individual instruments, moving around the crowd to interact with the students and even having one volunteer come up and try out their conducting skills. The audience were bopping along to the music and seemed to really enjoy the performance. It was also great to see how well students worked together to pack all the music gear into the bus and reassemble it in record time, and as the Music Learning Leader, I was very proud to watch them in action!

Catherine Stanley

Music Learning Leader

Brushing Across Generations

Nine senior Visual Art students volunteered to take part in Brushing Across Generations, a community arts project that promotes intergenerational friendships and celebrates life. Students were paired with a resident from Helping Hand, a local residential care facility, and discovered who they are, the road they have traveled thus far, their interests, and hobbies.

Recently, we held an exhibition to reveal the final portraits and present the artwork as a gift to each resident as a keepsake and memento of the special bond shared.

Congratulations to the students and staff involved in this project. The final artwork is spectacular!

And a big, special thanks to Helping Hand staff and residents for your willingness and enthusiasm to be involved in this unique project.