Peter Corkill

 

Principal

Dear fellow members of the JMSS Community,

The pace of this term continues to amaze, as weeks slip by and the end of term three looms. This is especially true for senior students as their courses are move well into and through their latter-half. Daily lessons and SACs have been punctuated by significant events and opportunities for our students, many led by our always-active Student Parliament.

Annual Sir John Monash Commemoration Ceremony

JMSS was represented by three staff members and 18 students at the annual Sir John Monash Commemorative Service at Parliament House in Melbourne, on Thursday 10th August.

The Service was held in the Legislative Assembly Chamber of the Victorian Parliament, followed by refreshments held in Queen’s Hall. JMSS is only one of two schools regularly invited to participate in this event. The other is Scotch College, which is the school Sir John Monash attended as a young man. There were many dignitaries at the event, former Governor General Peter Hollingworth among them. There were also members of the Board of the Spirit of Australia Foundation which takes a lead role in the running of this important event across the nation. Thanks to the strong relationship between the school and the board, I have had the privilege of serving as a board member on behalf of the school for the past six years.

Second Regional Exchange for 2023

Our second rendition of the Regional Exchange finished last week, with another eleven Year 10 students from regional Victoria at JMSS concluding their three weeks with us. We had the privilege of a visit from the Secretary of Education Ms. Jenny Atta, and Deputy Secretary Mr. David Howes, during their stay, and their discussion with these students left a very strong impression on them. All adapted to their new school home readily and enthusiastically and embraced the many opportunities we made available to them. I would again sincerely like to thank the JMSS student chaperones and their families for their generosity in hosting our regional visitors and thereby allowing them to see all JMSS and Monash has to offer over a three-week period. I can’t thank you all enough for what you have made possible for these students. 

Visit of Professor Imre Leader

My thanks to the many students and staff who attended Professor Imre Leader’s Maths workshop on Wednesday August 2nd. Professor Leader is a master at engaging people in fascinating mathematical problems, and many students and staff at JMSS have had the privilege of watching him in action at the Singapore International Mathematics Challenge which used to run at NUS High School in Singapore in the years prior to the Covid pandemic. I did make him promise to visit JMSS when he was next in Australia, and true to his word, he did so a couple of weeks ago. The photos below show the focus and engagement of our students in his presentation.

BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the second feature of the involvement of one of our students in a unique activity out of school. The last edition featured Year 12 student Jake Sharrock and his jewelry making. This edition features Year 11 student Braeden Van de Beek and his burgeoning career in Brain Bee challenges which has taken him outside Australia. I am sure you will enjoy reading his story:

Over the past year or so I’ve been involved in a Neuroscience Competition for teenagers, called the ‘Brain Bee’. In year 10, without too much thought, I signed-up for this competition thinking it would be a cool thing to learn about (and for those tempting diploma points). Before this, I didn’t know much about, and had no particular interest in neuroscience. However, throughout my preparation for the first (regional) rounds, and second (state) round of the competition, I realised that neuroscience is quite an interesting and continuously expanding field of science. To my surprise (and excitement), I won the state round, which usually is held at a Uni Campus in person, but was held virtually in 2022 (guess why *cough cough*) After this, I was invited to represent Victoria at the annual Australian Brain Bee Competition, which was held in Melbourne (each year the host city is changed) at the Pullman Hotel in conjunction with the Australian Neuroscience Conference.

The National competition involved a preparation program with lectures from a neuroscience professor, and a week-long program in which I had the opportunity to attend neuroscience presentations and learn about new research breakthroughs.

I thoroughly enjoyed learning the content for the competition, as I was deeply fascinated in how an action that we can do without consciously thinking about how to do it, like a reflexive eye movement, formulating words, or even walking, requires such an intricate and complex system in the brain to control, adjust and coordinate it. I also loved learning about how each sensory system– from the vestibular system to the gustatory system– decodes sensory stimuli to allow the brain to perceive that specific sense. Some of my favourite topics included neurohistology, drugs/addiction, cerebral neuroanatomy, neurological disorders, motor control, and vasculature of the brain (as you can see, the topics were widespread and involved all kinds of anatomy and biology). I also enjoyed learning the process of diagnosing and treating neurological diseases (some of which are only recently understood), through recent and innovative imaging/treatments.

I ended up winning the Australian competition–I really didn’t expect this, but was over the moon to be invited to the 2023 International Brain Bee (IBB) competition hosted by the American Psychological Association (APA) in Washington, USA, (unfortunately, it was held virtually this year, but in the past, and hopefully in the future, students got/will get to visit the host city on a full-paid trip.) This is the part of the Brain Bee that I recently competed in this July/August, in which I met over 30 students from every continent (except Antarctica of course) and participated in interactive neuroscience presentations (eg. the history of neuroscience, and neuroethics) as well as a cultural exchange presentation. I also got to meet a career panel (in which we could ask psychology and neuroscience professors questions about career pathways) and do the patient diagnosis part of the competition using information from real patients. One small downside of this experience was that Australia is like 10 time zones ahead of Washington, so I had to stay up between like 11pm-8am each day to attend the IBB. But, in my opinion, becoming nocturnal for a week was totally worth it.

In the end, I did not place as a finalist in the International Competition, however, it was an eye-opening and, put simply, incredible opportunity, that has enabled me to meet new people, refine my learning habits, and find a passion, that, if I did not sign up for some random competition in year 10, I would have never obtained/experienced.

So, the moral of the story, I reckon, is to put yourself out there and sign up for something new (whether it be a sport, competition or a hobby). And, however tempting it is to grind 5 hours of Edrolo videos or maths SUP daily to get that raw 50 study score, take some time to step back from VCE (or Y10) study and do something that you genuinely enjoy learning about, or participating in!

Thanks for reading and have a great day!!

~ Braeden Van Der Beek

Congratulations Braeden, what a great story! I am sure you will inspire other students to set time aside for those things in their lives which mean a lot to them. Keep up the great work!

Best regards

Peter Corkill

Principal