Senior School News
Year 10 Community Service
Each year, Year 10 students participate in Community Service as part of the holistic education of a St Gregory’s student.
Completing this during a pandemic provides its challenges and our Year 10 students have been enjoying participating in their home environments.
At the beginning of our second lockdown, I published Miss Kent’s COVID-19 Community Service Guide to help inspire our young men during this period of uncertainty. Additionally, I created Challenge Thursdays, where I have set Year 10 a challenge each week whilst online learning.
In Week 1, we shared our baking talents where students produced banana bread and cookies. In Week 2, students shared their culinary abilities in preparing a meal for their families. These included Ramen, schnitzel and burgers. Week 3, I challenged them to clean an area up at home, and although this one wasn’t as enjoyable, it is definitely needed as we are home 24/7. Week 4 saw the pet edition of Challenge Thursdays and the many fun and wonderful ways our young men are keeping themselves and their pets entertained was really good to see.
This week I have asked Year 10 to be reflective. Marist Youth Ministry shared an article with us on hearing of these challenges, and I have encouraged students to take 10 minutes to read the reflection “God in Hiding”, participate in the Examen (a prayer from St Ignatius) and find God in their everyday experience.
If your Son is still yet to participate, please encourage them to do so. Now more than ever we need to be present, active and faith-filled within our homes and with our extended family and friends (virtually).
Miss Emma Kent
Book Week 2021
In quite the same way as last year, albeit in very different circumstances, Book Week 2021 in the Senior School has been launched with excitement and energy.
We are so lucky to have a dedicated team and great K-12 vision for the celebrations. The boys in the Senior school began the celebrations with access to numerous competitions and it was thrilling to see that by the end of the first day, we had over 250 students enter the preliminary rounds of the Spelling Bee!
Many of the competitions correlate with those in the Junior School, however, there are standalones for the Senior boys to consider:
The “Flash Fiction” competition is especially engaging and accessible to all boys with its 100-word limit. The Spelling Bee is also available to Senior boys only with the Grand Final being hosted on August 25th.
We said in our launch to the students, this is one of those opportunities where we can aptly fall back on our steadfast College motto: Quae Seminaveres Metes! Get out there young men, and have a go, for what you sow, so shall you reap.
Mrs Lee Ursino
Academic Care Leader, Stage 4
Science Week
Theme- Food: Different by Design
Science week 2021 took a different direction this year, with the COVID lockdown causing a significant change in the activities originally planned.
This year’s theme Food: Different by Design allowed the students to explore technologies used to produce our food and investigate Genetically Modified Foods. During online learning students in Years 7-10 Science classes had to solve a series of food challenges in their role as a scientist at a rice biotechnology centre.
Students spent another lesson assisting research scientists on the Great Barrier Reef to collect data on the reef by classifying images of the reef https://www.virtualreef.org.au/classify/
A series of online seminars were available each day during science week, providing the students with an opportunity to hear Professors and research scientists present their knowledge from a variety of fields in science.
Seminars included:
- Dr Karl discuss Great Moments in Science
- UTS scientists present their research using 3D bioprinting to make human tissue and organs for transplantation and drug testing
- Professor David Alais present the topic ‘Faces in clouds: why our brains see human faces in everyday places’ known as ‘face pareidolia’
- A career in Maths and Statistics
- Birds and Language conference- how birds communicate with sounds
- Studying Forensic Science
- Future plants for food security- investigating the critical role of food in our future
- Studying Medical Biotechnology
- Pandemics-Past Present and future- how we can prevent future pandemics and put an end to COVID-19
- Beating COVID-19- better tests and slicker labs
- Studying Medical Science
Thank you to the Science faculty and the Marian centre staff for their work in promoting Science amongst the students throughout the week.
Mr John Dinnen
Leader of Learning Science
Junior School Cookbook
Orders are now open through this link on Trybooking. There is no limit on the number of books ordered.
I would like to confirm that every recipe submitted by a family is included. If you submitted two, or three, two have been included.
Every child who entered a photo in the competition has had at least one of their photos included in the book. These were all amazing. Thank you for your great ideas and creativity!
Please don’t wait to order your books.
The number of books ordered will determine how many are printed. Order these for Christmas or gifts for family members. Don’t miss out!
Thank you for making it a treasure!
Mrs Diana Ivancic
Assistant Head of Junior School