High Potential Learners

Janelle Santolin

Leader of Pedagogy

ST MARY’S HIGH POTENTIAL LEARNERS PROGRAM

ENGLISH

Our English HPL students in both Year 7 and Year 8 are stepping up to the soap box to have their voices heard.

In Year 7, students examined a range of fervent TED Talks, including Greta Thunberg’s impassioned plea for action on climate change. With a kit full of purpose, personal opinions and persuasive devices, our students appeal to a global audience to participate in a new activity to make a difference in the world.

Some inspiring talks included, 7 Steps to a Restful Recharge; Healthy Mindset, Healthy Life; Ride for Purpose; The Power of Reading and Small Things Make Big Differences.

Students will soon be working on their post production element of the speech and by the end of this term should have their own St Mary’s Talks for family viewing.

In Year 8, students have been investigating whether video games are effective educational tools. They have been engaging with a range of video games, including virtual reality, to determine if they do build 21st century skills. SMCC’s Leader of Tech Learning & Innovation, Ms Jessica Hallal, helped to facilitate many learning experiences that gave students a taste of gaming technology.

SCIENCE

Our Year 7 HPL science students are learning about solutions, colloids and suspensions. They had the opportunity to ‘get their hands dirty’ and create a variety of emulsions in the laboratory to conclude which ingredients in food act as emulsifiers, and which are poor emulsifiers. Looking ahead, the Year 7 HPL class will be extending their knowledge of mixtures even further by investigating the question ‘Are Red Smarties Really Red?’ and using chromatography techniques to test their hypotheses.

THE COLLEGE POST

Congratulations to Kelley Stewart’s father for his winning entry in our Writing Place Competition. Thank you all for the many entries we received. We now have The College Post added to our website where we can celebrate and share our students’ writing with our St Mary’s community. Please enjoy some samples from our 7 HPL English class who were tasked with writing about their identity and how it fits with St Mary’s. Students had the choice of writing a letter, poem, narrative or information text.

TESTING FOR HPL 2022

Applications for our HPL program, 2022, are now open. Online forms can be accessed via our website and can be emailed on completion. Hard copies are also available from our college admissions office and can be returned there when completed. The closing date for these applications is March 31st, 2021. Please note, the testing date for the program will occur onsite at St Mary’s, on Thursday 29th April starting at 2:15pm. More information will be sent to applicants closer to the time.