Senior School News
FREE K-12 VirtualTrivia Night
COVID-19 has put a spanner in the social event calendar and as a result, we are all missing out on our wonderful, College community events!
To keep the College community vibe alive, we are hosting a FREE K-12 Virtual Trivia Night! Get your whole family together for a night of fun with great prizes to be won.
- 1st place is a $300 voucher of choice!
- 2nd place is a $200 voucher of choice!
- And for the more adventurous, the Best Dressed Team can win a $100 voucher of choice....you choose a theme, we choose the winner!
So gather the clan and enjoy 1.5 hours of trivia fun for all families with students in Kindy through to Year 12. Visit this link to register!
If you have any questions about the evening, please email me at events@stgregs.nsw.edu.au
Ms Melissa Watts
Communications and Community Engagement Coordinator
Science News
Science Extension – Year 12
Recently four boys in Year 12 completed their Scientific Research Report for Science Extension. This course is available to students in Year 12 and focuses on the application of science research skills to produce a Scientific Research Report. Students develop a research question of their choice, formulate a hypothesis, and gather evidence to create a research report. The course is designed as an additional Science subject to Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Investigating Science.
The 2021 Scientific Research Reports included:
- Rohan Chretien – Meat or Mushrooms: Could mushrooms be an affordable and sustainable protein alternative to lamb?
- Tadhg Chretien – Comparing the effectiveness of direct air capture and trees as methods of carbon dioxide capture
- Zyross Navales – Effect of background noise on males’ cognitive function to recall sequences
- William Winsor – How the permanent opening of the Lake Illawarra ICOLL has affected the commercial prawn fishery
The young men worked tirelessly throughout the year on their individual projects, to produce a high standard of work. Their teacher Ms Parsons, mentored the boys through their 7am classes weekly, providing guidance, support and encouragement as their research project evolved. Mr Papadopoulos was also very generous with his time advising the boys on their statistical data tests and critiquing their reports throughout the year. Thank you to both teachers for their dedication and commitment to the class, enabling the boys to produce quality projects.
Well done to the boys, their hard work and application are to be commended and hopefully pleasing results await at the end of the year.
Science- International Literacy Day
Science classes celebrated International Literacy Day by reading articles from scientific journals. The students then wrote a response, addressing key points in the article, scientific ideas presented, and what they learnt from reading the article.
Articles were on current issues from a wide range of scientific fields. The students had a choice from a list of articles to read including:
- Would you wear clothes made of muscle fibres?
- The physics of making a pizza
- COVID-19 severe symptoms, the significance of vaccination rates
- The chemistry of chocolate
- Development of high protein GM crops in Nigeria
- Current explorations on Mars
- Ancient civilisations fossil remains reveal violent conflicts
- Sports and spinal injuries
- International Space station
Another facet of this activity was to expose the students to current scientific research and make them aware of new discoveries happening in science all the time.
Mr John Dinnen
Leader of Learning - Science
Book Week - It’s a wrap!
Book Week, 2021, was an enormous success. Much has been said and written about the wonderful opportunities the students of the College had, but we wanted to share some of the quality entries we received for two of the competitions. We also wanted to celebrate the winners of the Spelling Bee, Ethan Kenney of Year 7 and Jason Lee of Year 8, by producing the words they had to spell in the Grand Final. How do you think you would have gone?!
The Book Week Team
Flash Fiction Winning entry
Title: A World Formerly Unknown
Everyday was a constant battle between my innermost desires and my pragmatic conscience. What was a tree like, an animal, a lake? It was all too fascinating for me. I needed answers. “Tell me about the natural world, Bernadette!”
“Picture this. A luscious green grass carpets a hilly and wondrous landscape. Birds fly through the air squawking with no remorse at the sight of a mob of horses riding off into the tangerine-lit sunset. The sun illuminates the environment with warmth, something that we no longer know and will never experience again. Everything was free. Everything was as it is no longer now.”
“Tell me more!”
By Sam Labbozzetta | Year 9HRB
Poetry Slam Winning entry
Title: Spirit
A spirit came to me… from a different world you see.
We were out for a morning stroll with the air fresh
And bees fluttering along. Gone to get some exercise.
And look who’s standing there; an Aboriginal man without a shirt, without a worry.
He came and shook our hands with eyes glistening in the sun, with rock hard hands.
His slightly croaky voice spoke only words of wisdom.
At first we thought he was just hanging out, but he came and said,
“My name is Ruben”.
Him and dad talked while I attempted the always elusive push-up.
He asked our father, “From the other side of the mountain, huh?”
Dad responded quickly with a “yes”.
He asked of my name and I replied with “Lenny”.
Then he said to us, “Listen to your father and be kind to your mum”.
And I thought, Its like a message sent from another world; God’s world
Because on the day before I was being rude and the opposite of what he had said.
He told us stories about when he was growing up when the footies were made of leather
And in the rain they would soak up water and would be so heavy
They made his fingers bend back almost permanently.
Then his face darkened at a thought he was hesitant to speak,
But said, “You know when I was at school I would have all my schoolwork delivered
Because I was hanging out with the wrong crowd
Thus I went to juvenile detention where my youth was mucked up.
I lived in a different world, a bad world,
But I had the right mindset.
Other worlds,
New worlds,
Old worlds,
He truly was a spiritual figure.
By Lenny Ursino, Year 5M
Spelling Bee Grand Final – Senior School
Mayonnaise, Phlegm, Tambourine, Tourniquet, Cantankerous, Abhorrent, Burgeoning, Gregarious, Cemetery, Chauffeur, Dichotomous, Prosciutto, Ecclesiastical, Paraphernalia, Idiosyncratic, Bourgeoisie.
AFL NSW/ACT Volunteer of the Year recipients announced
Congratulations to our very own, Mr Darryl Howe, in the Junior School, for being nominated and winning in the category, NSW/ACT Primary School Ambassador!! This is an amazing achievement. Stay tuned for a detailed profile on Mr Howe in the coming weeks!
AFL NSW/ACT congratulates the nine hardworking volunteers who have been recognised in the AFL NSW/ACT Volunteer of the Year awards for 2021.
Award winners have come from across NSW. From Leeton in the Riverina to Glen Innes in the state’s north, Bathurst in the Central West to metropolitan Sydney.
Each one has played a role in enhancing our game and encouraging others to get involved.