The Kindy boys have settled into the Aquinas community and the routines of school very quickly.

This term the boys have been investigating how things grow and change. We have been watching our Monarch butterfly eggs hatch into caterpillars and we were lucky enough to watch a caterpillar making a cocoon. We have planted seeds in our sensory garden and looked at how the leaves change in Autumn.

Nurse Jo from the Hospital WA program came to visit us in Week 6. The Incursion Program is designed to prepare young healthy children for possible hospitalisation or visits to the doctor or dentist. The aim is to minimise anxiety, fear and misconceptions children may have about medical intervention. The boys enjoyed playing with the medical equipment and watching Jo demonstrating and role-playing what might happen if the boys should need to go to the hospital. We have enjoyed playing in the hospital in our dramatic play area.

Our Talk 4 Writing book is ‘The Gingerbread Man’. The Kindy boys baked some delicious gingerbread but were amazed to find the gingerbread had disappeared while they were cooling on the kitchen bench. We made ‘Lost’ posters and placed them around the Junior School. Luckily, we had some CCTV of the gingerbread running out of the Kindy classroom and the boys were able to track the Gingerbread Men down in Year Two. We spent the afternoon decorating our Gingerbread and they were delicious.

In Year 4, the focus has been on ‘Setting’ and describing the setting through the five senses. Below are some examples of work produced by boys in 4W.

Inside a dangerous dark haunted room with no lights on there was a pile of snakes hissing. The old spooky man crept down wet gluey stairs. He could hear water dripping as he crept side to side along the walls. He was terrified as he heard the creepy dripping sound drip, drip, drip. Then he heard a huge loud bang! As a spooky red clown broke the windows he was scared as a mouse…

• Zayd

The pitch-black creepy room had nothing in it. The depressed man creeps slowly down the hard stairs. All he could hear was water drip, drip. The water was silent as a mouse. The depressed man gleamed and saw nothing.

• Duy

In a creepy, dark, empty room with no lights on. The ancient man stared down the creepy and crooked stairs. The man heard water splashing on the cold metal stairs. Suddenly the ancient man heard a bloodcurdling scream “AHHHH”!

• Digby

Anxiously a mysterious figure lurks into the room its dark and miserable discarded pipes hang from the ceiling. Drip drop drip drop water leaks from the rusty pipes falling to the floor. He walks down the narrow stairwell with rust infecting it and spreading like a virus. A smaller room is below. More pipes and water oil gurgles out of some pipes and smoke oozing out of the vents like a factory. The Walls are smothered in all sorts of graffiti and blood curdling screams come from below.

• Hugh

Silently, there sat a spooky room as dark as midnight! The wrinkly man walks down the steep cracked stairs. He can hear the ice-cold water dripping and hitting the pavement, that was as hard as Diamond.

• Declan

As of 2021, Junior School students are able to be dropped at school from 7:30 am for sport, music, dance and library time. At 8:10 am, the playground opens. In the afternoon, students are able to choose from a number of exciting and educational clubs, activities and classes until 4:30 pm. They are then welcomed to remain in the Junior School library completing homework, reading or engaging with other students until 6 pm.

Some of the exciting new activities on offer include clubs and classes for Art, Learning Enrichment, Language (Chinese and Latin), Cooking, Dance, Gardening, Lego, Robotics, Math, Literature, Music, Podcasting and STEM.

Every year Aquinas College invites the graduates from 60 years prior back to the College with their partners.

They are invited to attend an assembly, visit the Junior School and then have lunch together in the Waterford Room. Thanks to COVID-19, the Class of 1960 reunion was cancelled. The College wanted to connect with the Old Boys in some way, so we decided to ask our Year 6 students to write a letter to any one of the graduates from the Class of 1960 in the hope they would receive a reply. The boys wrote to an Old Boy each and some were lucky enough to get a return letter. Our young Year 6 students told the Old Boys about life at Aquinas College in the year 2020. It was wonderful for the boys to receive a reply and the stories helped the boys realise how different their time at Aquinas College is.

An excerpt from Bob Kestel’s response to Aaron.

“First of all, it was different today than when I started in 1943, at the age of 7. We were in the middle of the World War, large numbers of fathers and families were soldiering on at war overseas and Australia, including my father and mother doing their share. We also had Cadets and we were issued with a uniform and wore them on Cadets Day, which we all enjoyed. Also, a 3030 rifle. We used to carry them on the bus when I was a day student. No one seemed to worry. I was also in the Cadet Band and played the Kettle Drum. I just want to let you know how much I enjoyed my time at Aquinas. The Brothers were wonderful and taught us how to behave and look after other people. I think God for the time I had.”

An excerpt from Brian Baxter’s response to Jonathon:

“I am grateful for the experience of going to Aquinas as it made me persevere and taught me a lot about life.”

An excerpt from John Kelly’s response to Louie:

“During my three years at Aquinas, I enjoyed tennis, football and athletics and made the most of every opportunity to learn the art and contest to the very best of my ability. My time at Aquinas exposed me to city life and the many opportunities the College offered to express one’s personal expertise and gifts to society. On leaving College the call of the country life was all-consuming for me, and at the age of 15 years, I commenced my 50 year journey in farming. Louie, I’m so impressed with your passionate attitude towards the latest experiences that have been offered to you through the College programs. Please continue to involve yourself wholeheartedly in every expression of your chosen pathway, believe in yourself and enjoy every present moment.”

An excerpt from John Tracey’s response to Tait:

“Aquinas was much smaller in my day. There was the front of the school, which I think was smaller then and the main school block to the east. All of my classes were in the main block with the science labs on the top floor. There was a nice new library on the southern side of the classrooms. The Chapel was a large room in front of the school. In Year 12 I studied Religious Education, English, Geography, Physics, Chemistry and two lots of Mathematics. I had very good teachers for Mathematics and Science and they turned me around from disliking these subjects to really loving them. I went on to University for a Science degree and a career in teaching Science.”

An excerpt from Neil Leach’s response to Archie:

“I was a student at Aquinas for 7 years as a boarder. I started in 1954 at the age of 10 and I was in Year 5. As a border we had weekends out, where we could go home, if close enough, or to relatives, if home was not possible. I could go home and, as I had not been away from home before, I was very much looking forward to my first “weekend out”. However, at this time we were experiencing another medical pandemic, this time it was the Polio epidemic. It was a terrible disease which, if contracted, left the patient permanently deformed or paralysed, often no longer able to walk without crutches or callipers. Fortunately, this disease has all but been eradicated throughout most of the world. Due to this epidemic, the College at the last moment decided that the boarders could not go out on the planned “weekend out”. This might seem like a small problem now, but at the time it was very upsetting to me.”

The success and enjoyment of both the students and Old Boys have led to the decision to continue this project in the future.

On Monday 22nd of February, 150 Year 7 students gathered in the quadrangle with their teachers and year 10 mentors. Bags packed we were ready for a 3 day, 2-night stay at Woodman Point Recreation Camp.

After a short bus ride, we arrived at the campsite. It was located right on the beach and the views were spectacular.

We quickly set up our dorms and then separated into our tutor groups eager to start on the many activities planned. The roping activities included a 120m flying fox that was 9m in the air, rock climbing and vertical challenges in an area known as the Cube. For the land activities, we took a coastal bike ride passing the Omeo wreck and learnt about the history of the area. My favourite activity was also a land activity, Search and Rescue. We worked in teams to locate items hidden over the campsite. Water activities offered a welcome relief from the heat and included surf ski paddling, raft building, beach team building and surf life-saving.

Over the 3 days, the activities gave us the opportunity to learn new things, push ourselves and most importantly build new friendships through working as a team. On a more serious note we had group discussions about the 4 stages of bullying and the best way to deal with the situation should we find ourselves being a victim of or witnessing bullying.

Our free time gave us the opportunity to spend time with boys from other houses and was often was spent playing sport. There were games of basketball, cricket, football and even an early morning game of Gaelic football that saw the year 7’s take on the year 10 mentors. They did not take it easy on us!

We arrived back at Aquinas on Wednesday afternoon, we were all exhausted and looking forward to a home-cooked meal. Some of us actually had more stuff in the lost property box than in our own bags.

Camp would not have been possible without the teachers who gave up their time to supervise us. Not to mention the year 10 mentors who now have 3 days of school work and study to catch up on. Thank you it was much appreciated.

Year 7 camp has taught me that we will not all be friends but if we show each other respect and work together we will achieve great things. Like Mr Dempsey says, ‘work hard, be kind!’

Hi, my name is Owen and I am in class 5R. You might have seen me selling toffees last week to raise money for the bushfire appeal. I decided to fundraise after seeing what happened to the families whose houses burnt down to the ground in the Wooroloo and Hills bushfires and I felt so devasted for them. I originally thought of the idea to wash cars, but Mum suggested I sell toffees because of how easy it is to make them. The toffees were made out of sugar, water and cream of tartar. We boiled it to the right thickness and poured it into patty pans and put them in the fridge overnight. The next day, I sold them at the bus stop and my little brother Lewis helped me. We put 8-10 toffees on the portable table we brought and put the rest in an esky. We sold the toffees at the bus stop on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon and sold the rest of them at the tunnel on Friday afternoon. I sold them for 50c each or people could make whatever donation they liked. I was hoping to raise $60, but we almost tripled that amount with a grand total of $172.70. The $172.70 has been donated to the Lord Mayors Distress Relief Fund for the Wooroloo and Hills bushfires. I feel so happy to have raised so much for these communities that have lost an incredible amount. I would like to thank everyone that bought a toffee and a huge thumbs up to the people that gave a $5, $10 and even $20 note for one toffee. I wouldn't have been able to do this without their support. It has been great fun selling the toffee but probably less fun for the parents dealing with the sugar rush in the car! Thanks again to everybody that donated and made my toffee stall successful.

On the 20th of February, I was given the chance to sing a solo in the Perth Concert Hall for the Requiem Love and Loss performance with the West Coast Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.

These music ensembles were founded by conductor Samuel Parry and are both extremely talented and made up of volunteers. Samuel Parry talked about loss and grief and how music can help us heal and love again.

When we arrived at the Concert Hall, we had our own reserved parking and backstage I had my own dressing room with my own bathroom and a mirror with lights around it. My family and I relaxed and ate dinner there before the show. It was really cool.

During the concert, I sang in one of the 4 pieces that were performed. The piece I sang in is called the Materna Requiem. It was written for an orchestra, a choir and four soloists. I sang the solo part for a treble (a young boy soprano). There were 3 other soloists in the Materna Requiem: the tenor Perry Joyce, the soprano Katja Webb and the young soprano Phoebe Tait.

I walked on stage first out of all the soloists and I was super nervous. The soloists stood at the front of the stage next to the conductor. I sang in movements 1, 5 and 8. In movement 1, I was so nervous and when I had to stand up I was doubting myself, but when my part arrived I suddenly calmed down and I was really happy with how I sang. I was so relieved when I finished my part in movement 1, especially because I had to sing some of it completely by myself without any orchestra or choir accompaniment. I had about 15 minutes until the next time I had to sing so I calmed down and listened to the beautiful music that was coming from behind me. Then it was time for movement 5. I was a lot less nervous but I was still a little anxious. I sang a lot during this movement and it was by far the hardest part that night for me. The reason this movement was so hard was because I had to sing very low at the start and also extremely high (high C). As the movement moved along I sang better and better. Soon it was time for the choir’s, orchestra’s and my favourite movement, movement 8. This movement is a combination of every movement and it is super fast and exciting. I sang the best I had sung all night and I was very satisfied when I sat down and was finished.

Overall, the experience I had during the rehearsals and the performance was fantastic and if I could do this again I definitely would. I met lots of really nice people that were so kind and happy and I can’t even describe the feeling I felt when I walked back on stage for the final applause. This was definitely one of the best things I have ever done and I am happy I said yes.

The Junior School House Swimming Carnival was held on Friday 19^th February at the Aquinas College Pool.

All boys from Year 3 - 6 students participated in individual events, team games and relays. The boys competed with great enthusiasm and sportsmanship. Redmond House won the day and claimed the Prendiville Trophy for the second year in a row by two points ahead of Quinlan House.

Final Points

• REDMOND – 574
• QUINLAN – 572
• CLUNE – 505
• EGAN – 433

Congratulations to the following boys who were named Champion and Runner-up for their year level.

Year 3 


• Champion: Jordan Trueman (Redmond)
• Runner-up: Hunter Neesham (Egan)

Year 4 


• Champion: Alexander Chan (Redmond)
• Runner-up: Kirby Mincham (Egan)

Year 5


• Champion: Matthew Trueman (Redmond)
• Runner-up: Finlay Bower (Clune)

Year 6


• Champion: Eli Hickman (Egan)
• Runner-up: Troy Warner (Quinlan)

Special mention to the following boys for their record-breaking performances on the day. Jordan Trueman broke the Year 3 - 25m Freestyle, Backstroke and Butterfly records by significant margins. Additionally, Matthew Trueman broke the Year 5 – 50m Freestyle and Butterfly records. Congratulations, to you both on your outstanding achievements.

Congratulations and well done to all boys who represented their House and gave it their all on the day. The boys selected in the JPSSA Interschool Swimming team will be competing at HBF Stadium on Thursday, 11^th March and we wish those boys the best of luck.

Lastly, thank you to all staff members, ground staff, ICT staff, parent volunteers, Sam Coffey and the Catering team for all your help and support on the day.

It is so wonderful to see everyone back at school ready for a new school year.

We are excited to welcome 28 new students to the Early Years classrooms and are looking forward to a year of growth and learning.

The boys have settled in beautifully and shared the highlights of their first two weeks at Aquinas.

"It is exciting to play the instruments, I’m playing the Cello and it is a string instrument."

Lukas, Year 2

"I’ve made new friends and have been playing cricket."

Hudson, Year 2

"I’m excited to play a new instrument, I’m playing the viola."

Jeremy, Year 2

"So, I like that I can have clubs after school and have club teachers."

Torsten, Year 1

"I have liked playing cricket and making new friends."

Louis, Year 3

"I had a great day at Aquinas. Why can’t I go 10 days instead of 3?"

Wesley, Kindy

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