From the Head of Senior School

Last week we gathered in the Dennett Centre for our Ash Wednesday Mass. This special day in the Christian calendar marks the beginning of Lent and the launch of Project Compassion. In the chapel services this week, the Caritas Australia Project Compassion theme For All Future Generations was presented to students who heard about the work for over 60 years that Caritas Australia has done to confront the challenges of poverty. Information about Caritas Australia Project Compassion can be found on their website here.

As we approach the halfway point of the term, students will have assessment tasks in their subjects. The College encourages students to use SEQTA Learn to track when homework is due and tests are scheduled, and the due dates for assignments. They can also engage in our continuous reporting feedback throughout the year. Being organised is a key to success. The SEQTA Engage module is available for parents. Our Leaders of Learning are supporting teachers in their faculties to ensure that up-to-date course work, assignments, and resources are available online.

We truly thank parents for the feedback regarding the operations of the new tuckshop. We have been working daily with the team from Rory’s and are thrilled with the way in which they have responded immediately to seek ways to improve. They have installed extra bain-maries to keep food warm as well as providing extra staff on Thursdays and Fridays to help with counter sales. Last Friday we closely observed the lunchtime service and were very pleased to see that it took 11 minutes for 150 students to pick up their lunches and another 140 students to be served hot and cold options from the counter and bain-maries. The staff from Rory’s, led by Marie, are beautiful with our students and are very keen to ensure that students’ needs are looked after.

We do note that the new Flexischools order cut-off time is 8 am for orders on that day and apologise if this was not communicated clearly. A selection of Rory’s menu options are prepared daily in their catering kitchen offsite, so the delivery trucks for their 75+ schools are stocked up and on the road by 8.45 am. If parents have any enquiries or have forgotten to order lunches, Rory’s have a Parent Support Line you can call on (08) 7084 1801.

Phil Donato
Head of Senior School

It has been a busy few weeks in our Senior School science labs for our middle years students.

Year 7s have been learning about the Laboratory safety and equipment and they have spent time practicing using the Bunsen Burner. Students conducted a practical to measure the time taken to heat water to boiling temperature and then use this data to plot a line graph.

Year 8s have been learning about Cells, this began with familiarisation of the microscopes and then extended to students making their own plant cell specimen from onion to observe the structure under the microscope, in order to make the specimen more visible we used Methylene Blue as stain to be able to observe the cell wall and cell membrane.

Year 9s have been undertaking the topic of Heat, Light and Sound, some of the experiments we have conducted have been experimenting with heat radiation. In the photos students were using the springs to create the different sound waves in which energy can travel. The two waves were longitudinal and transverse.

Lisa Cibich
Middle and Senior Years Teacher

Please take note of some special events at the Senior School during weeks 5 and 6:

Monday 26 February to Wednesday 28 February
Year 7 Igxperience, Woodhouse

Tuesday 27 February
SSSA Swimming Championships, Adelaide Aquatic Centre

Tuesday 5 March
Cambodia & Vietnam Journey Parent Evening, Bellarmine Room – 6:00pm

Thursday 7 March
International Women's Day event, Flynn Theatre – 4:00pm to 6:00pm
French Language & Cultural Exchange Information Night, Bellarmine Room – 7:00pm

Friday 8 March
Athletics Carnival, Senior School

Saturday 9 March
Senior Formal, Adelaide Convention Centre – 6:00pm