Mrs Lawson-Lee's Year 7 Science class have had a fun filled term with lots of new experience gained in class. They all passed their first Bunsen Burner licence and were able to do their first practicals in a high school lab. They also really enjoyed demonstrations with dry ice, and worked together as a team to decide which ones they wanted us to do as a class.

They really are a very engaged group and love Science as you can see!

"The experiments we have done over the weeks have been really fun and exciting! I hope everyone has felt the same and we are really grateful to the people that help make it possible for us like our teacher Mrs Lawson-Lee and the lab people that bring things down. We are just really thankful and I hope that all Year 7’s have a good year in Science!” Christian O'Niell

Well done to Matthew and Jordan Trueman who competed in the 2022 Swimming WA Junior Long Course Championships over the weekend! Jordan received a Bronze for the 9 Year Old 200m Freestyle while Matthew received Gold in the 10 Year Old 50m Backstroke, 100m Backstroke and 200m Backstroke, Silver in the 10 Year Old 200m Individual Medley, 50m Freestyle, 100m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle and 100m Butterfly, and Bronze for the 10 Year Old 50m Butterfly! Another huge congratulations to Year 7 Eli Hickman who came home with 6 Gold and 4 Silver medals and was named a 'performer of the meet'. Way to go, boys! 🥇🥈🥉

On Friday the 18^th of March, 90+ students from both Middle School and Senior School donned hats, gloves and masks to help clean-up Australia.

After a delicious cinnamon scroll and a fruit drink, the students were keen to make a difference in their own back yard. They set off in small groups, led by either a staff member or a senior student group. Fourteen different groups cleaned up the river foreshore, basketball courts, the College entrance, the ovals and around school buildings.

The great news is that not a lot of rubbish was collected as the College was already quite clean! We usually fill a school ute at least twice and this time we only filled barely half a ute.

The sustainability group did an amazing job collecting the 10c containers that had been thrown away in a variety of bins. They managed to collect far for recyclable material than everyone else did actual rubbish. This is a great sign that the sustainability group is really getting their message across and students are using the bins provided for recycling.

A big thank you must go to Mrs Monks, Mr Speechley and the entire Design and Technology Department for volunteering to help out on the day. Mr Speechley was especially welcomed, as his presence meant the senior students could utilise the school dinghy’s to get access to the area under the Mt Henry Bridge. This area is notorious for collecting rubbish both from the river and the freeway.

The Senior School Service committee also did a great job organising and assisting on the day.

We hope everyone is enjoying the cleaner College grounds!

The Year 7 cohort recently enjoyed their Transition into Aquinas Camp at Woodman Point. It was slightly different this year due to Covid restrictions and students were bused to and from camp each day - and what action-packed days they were! Bike riding, water sports, beach activities, high ropes and navigation challenges kept the Year 7's extremely busy. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet new friends, enjoy some down time from a busy start to the academic year and refresh their minds before tackling the second part of Term 1. For our Year 10 mentors, they were able to experience what it was like on the other side of the fence in the role of a responsible adult supporting our new students. They did an incredible job too! Read below some comments from both students in Year 7 and Year 10.

Reflections from the Year 7 Students

My favourite part of the Year 7 camp was vertical climbing because I made it to the top. I also liked team building and getting to know my new friends. It was funny when my Year 10 mentor was trying to go to sleep on our raft while we were in the water.
Jonty Peterson Year 7 Glowrey

Year 7 camp was great because I got to meet many new people who I hadn’t met before who I am now friends with. You also got so many opportunities to face fears like going on the zip line if you were afraid of heights or doing surf lifesaving if you’re not confident in the water.
Eli Hickman Year 7 Glowrey

My favourite activities on camp were, rock climbing, beach activities and last but not least, ZIP LINING! I like zip lining the most because it was really fun and fast but also produced a lot of adrenaline which was challenging at first but once I jumped it was great.
Tyson Monie Year 7 Edmund

My favourite part about camp getting to know all my friends better and the zip lining upside down.
Finn Gunton Year 7 Treacy

Reflections from the Year 10 Mentors

Year 7 camp was a great leadership opportunity and hopefully the Year 7’s learned lots from me because I certainly learnt a lot about them. I was given independence and treated like an adult by the staff and instructors which was an effective way for me to stand up and set a good example for the Year 7’s. The team building exercises on the beach also helped me understand the skills of communication and collaboration, but also taught me to be enthusiastic and competitive to make sure everyone is having an amazing time. I enjoyed the zip-line, watching the Year 7’s get out of their comfort zone and facing their fears by showing determination and resilience. Overall, I enjoyed being a mentor on this camp because it gave me an important leadership experience and help younger kids get out of their comfort zone whilst learning life-long skills with their friends.
Cooper Allen Year 10 Cullity

I really enjoyed the opportunity to take on some responsibility and supervise the Year 7’s on camp. One of the highlights for me was being able to give a Year 7 a chance to learn how to ride a bike. It was an awesome feeling once he got it! I really enjoyed the water activities such as kayaking. The boys and I had a lot of fun, and it was great to see boys support a student who struggles with his vision, bonding with each other and creating strong friendships.
Ben Flesher Year 10 Cullity

One of the realities of our modern, technologically driven society, is that young people can find themselves, through no fault of their own, alienated from the natural world and deprived of particular physical and sensory experiences that previous generations took for granted. One of the purposes of the Odyssey adventure journeys, therefore, is to offer boys a physically challenging experience which promotes personal responsibility in ways which bring about a genuine sense of achievement alongside personal growth and development.

One of the highlights of the Margaret River camp is the natural environment in which the boys spend their time. Situated just outside of Karridale, between Margaret River and Augusta, the Explorus campsite and surrounding areas contain some of the most beautiful natural wonders of our state. During our three-night stay from Monday to Thursday, we stayed at the Karridale campsite and in a paddock at Boathaugh, a privately owned farm on the banks of the Blackwood River.

The camp was run on the principle of ‘Challenge by Choice’, and I was so proud of the ways the boys rose to each challenge. This principle was seen by some boys overcoming a fear of heights to abseil down a sheer cliff or by beginning and in some cases, completing the High Ropes Course. Others found working their way through the steep ladders and tight spaces in Giant’s Cave confronting. For others, finding the mental strength to push on with a heavy backpack when the physical demands of our bushwalk were really starting to hit home, was a test of character. In the end, it wasn’t about who was the strongest or the fittest, but about how each individual reacted when their character was tested. This is where some of the most important examples of personal growth could be found.

Since returning to the world of flushing toilets, hot showers and home-cooked meals, we might well ask about the long-term effect of the Odyssey. Hopefully, each boy now has a greater appreciation for the fact that every journey, the actual and the metaphorical, begins with a single step, whether that be a long walk, studying for exams or preparing for a sporting season. Every journey has its share of difficulties, but there are also moments of beauty, fun and accomplishments, big and small. I hope that our boys now appreciate that they have reserves of courage and determination that they never knew they had. If this is true for most of them, then we can deem the camp to have been a great success.