With engineering well underway this term, the focus for the second half of the program shifted to investigating what we could do to improve our designs, how we could change things, exploring why other students had chosen to build things a certain way and generally taking a moment to appreciate each other’s creations and talk together about them. This has generated chatter between students and at times has seen new partnerships develop, with exchanges of design tips and loads of positive comments between students.

Pre-Primary have drawn self-portraits and framed them using materials found in the STEM collaboratory. Then we decided to take it a step further and figure out how we could 3D print the drawings into name tags for their school bags. It’s a work in progress but so far things are looking good. Year 1s investigated repelling and why water paints didn’t ruin their crayon colouring whilst creating beautiful rainbow birds and Year 2 students researched flight mechanisms to create gorgeous paper plate birds they could fly, similar to paper aeroplanes. The flight continued into Year 4 with Rosie Revere inspiring many and varied winged fliers which will be tested this week to see whether bigger wings really do in fact make something fly further and longer.

With only a few weeks left to finish these projects, the students are truly improving and refining their engineering techniques. The exploration will continue into Term 4, with new and exciting STEM projects ranging from sports science to monster madness and of course, Christmas craziness!

The JPSSA Athletics Carnival was held on Thursday 9th September at the W.A Athletics Stadium. The day was filled with excitement, great sportsmanship and the Aquinas students showed great character in all events. Unfortunately, poor weather led to High Jump and Hurdles for all years being cancelled – replaced by a 60m dash.

A few special mentions must be given:

Division 1

• Discus - 1^st Place James Panton
• Long Jump – 2^nd Place Troy Warner

Division 2

• 400m – 1^st Place Ceejay Feast
• Discus – 1^st Place Thomas Van Dyk
• Long Jump – 1st Place Nicholas Masiello

Division 3

• 100m & 200m – 1^st Place Lincoln Mathanda

Honourable mentions to our other top competitors on the day must go to Troy Warner and Luca Zoiti who displayed their athletic ability competing in multiple events at a high level across the day.

Congratulations and well done to all boys who represented the College and gave it their all on the day. Thank you to all the staff members and parents for your help and support. Lastly, a big thank you must go to James McPherson, the Senior School staff members and the rest of the athletics coaches at the College for giving up their time to coach the boys on Monday afternoons in preparation for the carnival.

Over the weekend Year 5 student, Matthew Trueman, competed in the Swimming WA Junior Short Course Championship.

Matthew competed in multiple events and walked away with:

• Gold 50m Backstroke
• Gold 100m Backstroke
• Gold 200m Backstroke
• Gold 4 x 50m Boys Freestyle Relay
• Gold 4 x 50m Boys Medley Relay
• Silver 4 x 50m Mixed Relay
• Bronze 200m Freestyle
• Bronze 50m Butterfly
  

Aquinas College would like to congratulate Matthew on his outstanding achievements.

Year 4 students entered an artwork titled ‘1 Million Little Pieces’ into the Angelico Awards for 2021.

These students won 1^st prize for the group submission section.

This was a drawing and sculptural project. Consisting of 5 drawings of the earth from above, (to tie in with the year 4 theme of land formations). Then producing 9 small re-cycled sculptures inspired by their drawings, and the artist Vik Muniz. This ties in our 9x5 overarching theme for our JS Exhibition. Roman Mondello collected the Award on behalf of the Aquinas Junior School.

9 students were part of this entry.

• Hugh Franklin 4W
• Luca Zoiti 4W
• Arman Malyniak 4B
• Cruz Cooke 4B
• Joseph O’Neil 4B
• Thomas Van Dyk 4R
• Cruz Monzu 4R
• Taj Humble 4R
• Roman Mondello 4R

While young men and boys can and do excel in many types of educational institutions, schools for boys focus with intention on learning that addresses not only how to excel in academics but also how to grow into a young man of integrity and empathy.

In engaging and supportive single-sex environments, students explore their values and establish a foundation for making responsible decisions; they explore their own definitions of self, who they are and who they want to become; they learn to forge healthy relationships; they step out of their comfort zone to explore their full potential.

They are preparing for their roles in a globally connected world.

Here’s how that happens.

Humpty Dumpty went on a stroll
When he found an extremely tall wall
He noticed that he had some spare time
So he started to climb and climb

He sat down and noticed how high
He was very worried and started to cry
He wailed and wailed and started to tip
And suddenly… trip!

He fell and fell at a dangerous speed
He started to pray and plead
Then he went splat on the ground
And waited ‘til he could be found

All these weird businessmen
Couldn’t make him better again
They grabbed some clay and flex tape
And they started to reshape

He didn’t look like an egg anymore
He looked like a drawer plus a door
He got a wrecking ball
To get revenge on that very tall wall

His enemy came down to the floor
It doesn’t stand anymore
He grabbed all the bricks to make a house
Which he sold to a person named Jouse