Year 11

SACE Stage 1: Nutrition and Food & Hospitality

In Food & Hospitality, the girls have been studying sugar and the role it plays in the Australian Obesity Epidemic. This is currently a 'Hot Topic' with quiet a lot of media attention at present.

Mr Sanjeev Khurana, Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide & Consultant Paediatric Surgeon in the Department of Paediatric Surgery & Urology at the Women's and Children's Hospital, gave us an overview on the services The Women's & Children's Obesity Unit provides.

Students learned about statistics on childhood obesity in South Australia, including a 14-year-old child weighing 170kg and having lap band surgery as a last resort to extend their life expectancy. He encouraged the girls to analyse and to question the immense and varied information available to us on healthy eating and what we should and should not eat, including so called 'Good and Bad' foods.

He suggested a good way to form an educated decision on Nutrition is for the girls to gather information and then have some healthy debates in class on the topic of Nutrition. He encouraged critical thinking and the importance of reliable sourcing of information.

Sanjeev gave the girls some excellent, simple, easy to implement take-home messages. Sanjeev came straight from performing surgery to speak to our students. He took the time out of his busy schedule to talk to our girls for he is passionate about Nutrition, wants to encourage Nutritional Education in schools and he directly experiences the impact of poor nutrition.

We were extremely lucky to have such an educated and experienced professional visit us.

Tour of the South Australian Parliament House

On Tuesday 15 March, the Year 11 Legal Studies class were lucky enough to have a tour of Parliament House and learn about its heritage.

Firstly, we went to the old chambers, which was the only house Parliament had to pass bills in within South Australia. The rest of Parliament House was still under construction. We learnt that this room was used as a base during World War II, and how the chandeliers were stolen.

We then went to the House of Assembly where we met Vikki Chapman MP, our local member. While there, we learnt about the architecture of the house and the historic paintings.

We also learnt about the red line known as a ‘blood line’ found on the outskirts of the carpet. This signifies the length of two swords used in the olden days. In the Legislative Council, we were told about the long hours members stay to debate a bill.

Overall, our class thoroughly enjoyed attending Parliament House as we had first-hand experience of how bills get passed and the history of Parliament House.

Natalie El-Awar and Luci Sodomka

Year 11 students