Learning in the Senior School
Year 8 and 10 Immunisation Program
The SA School Immunisation Program will be offered at Loreto by Eastern Health Authority on Tuesday 8 March (Year 8), Friday 29 July (Year 10 only) and Wednesday 26 October (Year 8 only).
All Year 8 students will be offered:
2 doses of the human papillomavirus vaccine, Gardasil®9 at 2 separate visits.
1 dose of the diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough vaccine, Boostrix®
All Year 10 students will be offered:
2 doses of the meningococcal B vaccine, Bexsero® at 2 separate visits.
1 dose of the meningococcal ACWY vaccine, Nimenrix®
Year 8 Immunisation Consent Packs were sent home in Week 1 to all Year 8 and are now overdue.
Year 10 Immunisation Consent Packs will be distributed to students upon their return to school on Monday 14 February. Students must return the forms to their Mentor teacher by Monday 21 February.
If you have any questions about this program, please contact Eastern Health Authority directly on 8132 3600 or www.eha.sa.gov.au.
UCAT Masterclass for Medicine and Dentistry
Each year UCAT Masterclass hosts the largest free online mock exam on UCAT Mock Exam Day (MED) which is coming up on Sunday, 27 February 2022. In 2021, over 2000 students participated in the computer-based exam. I thought some of your students may also be interested to:
- experience the unique exam on our replica UCAT exam simulator,
- receive their mock UCAT score,
- learn their percentile rank against other candidates, and
- view a detailed breakdown of how they performed in each section.
Students can access the exam by creating a free account here. All they need is an email to register.
Tertiary Studies & Careers Expo
The 13th annual Tertiary Studies & Careers Expo:
Adelaide Convention Centre
Sunday 10 April 2022
10am - 4pm
Monday 11 April
9.30am - 2.30pm
FREE ENTRY
For more information, click the following link: Adelaide Event - Careers Event
National Youth Science Forum
Every year students from all around Australia are selected to participate in the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF) Program. This program was originally established in 1983 as the National Science Summer School (NSSS). Since then, it has become a non-profit organisation that encourages students across the nation to take part in a career in the field of STEM. Before Covid-19, students would have the opportunity to travel to Canberra and participate in a variety of in-person events, such as visits to universities and institutions trying out a wide variety of different activities.
Two students from our college, Arabella M and Natalie T participated in this once in a lifetime experience. The program ran for 12 days (Monday to Friday), from the 10th to the 25th of January 2022, offering an exciting range of sessions in more than just science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for participants around Australia. A diverse range of speakers spoke including two Australian Nobel prize winner laurates (Professor Peter Doherty & Professor Brian P. Schmidt), the Chief Scientist of Australia (Dr Cath Foley), State Chief Scientist from QLD, VIC, SA, and WA, Women in STEM representative Lisa Harvey-Smith, Dr Karl (science communicator), and many more.
Since Covid-19 has started in each capital city, a full week of in-person events was organised in each capital city (plus Newcastle), and for the full 12 days, there were a variety of digital/online sessions. This year a record number of students were accepted into the program of approximately 620+ students from across the nation with 65% being young women.
Unfortunately, due to the current circumstances, we were unable to participate in the in-person hubs in January but hope to take part at a later date. These events would include visiting the University of Adelaide on a range of their campuses/facilities, Flinders University, Australian Space Agency, RAAF base Edinburgh, OzGrav, CERN, Naval Ship Building College and many more.
Before starting NYSF each student was assigned a ‘buddy’ and a social group. A ‘buddy’ is someone from the same state who is just as ambitious about STEM and has similar interests and career options. A social group is a group of students from around Australia, who get to talk about our experiences during the program, work together on challenges and form our STEM family with like-minded enthusiasts. Each social group is named after a constellation; a mixture of both Greek/Roman designed constellations but also those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lore. In addition to this, there were many staffie and student led activities, including, movie and gaming nights, concerts and disco nights (disco nights strictly only allowed the song ‘Shut up and Dance’ to be played).
Arabella M (Personal Experience):
The 2022 NYSF Forum Program was truly an unforgettable and eye-opening experience that I will never forget. For me, this was a journey of self-discovery. It opened many doors for me in the future as well as creating pathways that I didn’t know existed. I was able to create lifelong friendships with like-minded students from all over Australia as well as build my network with institutes and universities around the nation. I was fortunate enough to hear from a diverse group of people from all over the world and from Australia. Some of my favourite speakers include Dr Karl, Professor Peter Doherty, Professor Brian P. Schmidt, and Lisa Harvey-Smith.
Besides listening to renowned people in the fields of STEM, participants were offered the opportunity to take part in an at-home interactive experiment. I chose to extract DNA from a strawberry with the help of South Australian scientist Dr Bianca Warnock. I was even fortunate enough to get in contact with her after the session to discuss future opportunities, pathways into STEM fields, and some valuable advice that I can carry with me for the rest of my life. I was also fortunate enough to hear from the RAAF and ADF in a defence force recruiting session. Not only was it interesting, but it showed pathways into completing university degrees that I had no idea about. Overall, this experience was invaluable. It exposed me to fields and careers I had never heard of before, helped refine my way of thinking and gave me an insight into what the future could hold.
Natalie T (Personal Experience):
NYSF was an unforgettable experience that won’t be easy to forget. I was able to re-connect with old friends from all around Australia and make many more new ones. Throughout the online programme we were able to attend sessions such as career sessions, working in screen culture: where art meets STEM, making an impact with engineering, robotics with the University of Canberra, and space exploration.
As part of the program, three career sessions ran including a total of 18 different NYSF partners, presenting their organisations and answering questions. The session on screen culture allowed me to gain an understanding of the science and tech roles (game development, XR and participatory art design, visual effects and animation) behind the lesser-known screen roles (producing, directing, acting etc.). The making an impact presentation focused on the diversity of engineering which can be provided at universities such as UQ, and their real-world examples of how engineering can impact the world around us. Through the robotics session, I was able to explore more creative and unorthodox aspects of robotics and experience what a journey to a robotics PhD is. Finally, the space sessions allowed a greater understanding of what is outside of Earth, from exploring the evolution of the Solar System to understanding gravitational waves and dark matter. Though despite these amazing experiences, there is still hope for the in-person events to come.
National Youth Science Forum - LIVE EVENT
The NYSF is very excited to announce an online LIVE event for International Day of Women and Girls in STEM this Friday 11 February!
Simply head to the NYSF Facebook page* at 6 pm AEDT on Friday to watch the stream live!
*you don't need a Facebook account to watch
Our very own NYSF alumna and NYSF Staffie, Vaishnavi Muddam, will join NYSF CEO, Dr Melanie Bagg; science communicator and freelance TV presenter, Lee Constable; and the Australian Government's Women in STEM Ambassador and astrophysicist, Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith.
The panel will be discussing their work to make STEM inclusive for women and girls, the importance of diversity, and the steps that are being taken to make it a reality.
Professor Harvey-Smith has also set the 2021 and 2022 NYSF alumni an interesting challenge: Pitch a project idea to inspire 8-12 year olds for a chance to win $3000 in project development money!
AMEB Awards Ceremony
Congratulations to Natalie T, Arabella M, Alix L, and Sage C for their successful completion of the Certificate in Voice & Communication (CVCA). In recognition of the commitment required to reach this standard, the AMEB wishes to publicly acknowledge our student at an awards ceremony on 5 March.
Congratulations girls on this fantastic achievement on becoming apart of this elite AMEB group!