The JPSSA Athletics Carnival was held on Thursday 8th 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. Aquinas finished in fourth place for the day.

A few special mentions must be given:

• Division 1
• Year Four 100M - 1^st Place Louis Lynch
• Year Six High Jump – 2^nd Place Nicholas Masiello
• Year Five 4 x 100M Relay – 2^nd Place
  
• Division 2
• Year Four 60M Hurdles – 2^nd Place Maxime Blackadder
• Year Four Shot Put – 2^nd Place Grayson Ahrens
• Year Five High Jump – 2^nd Place Austin Sweeny
• Year Five 200M – 2^nd Place Tyson Blakey
• Year Five Triple Jump – 2^nd Place Luca Zoiti
• Year Five 800M – 2^nd Place Kirby Mincham
  
• Division 3
• 100M – 1^st Place Maxime Blackadder

Honourable mentions to our other top competitors on the day must go to Grayson Ahrens, Luca Zoiti and Nicholas Masiello 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 Mrs Madeline Silvester, 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 Wednesday afternoons in preparation for the carnival.

The Year One and Two internal Soccer Carnival was held at Aquinas College on Thursday 15th September on Lynch Oval. The afternoon saw our students combine to play a round robin tournament. The afternoon allowed the boys to display their soccer skills that they had learnt throughout a 10-week program facilitated by junior Goals staff members.

Some students who showed great sportsmanship and great skill were Max Gordon, Lewis Hales, Loke Sandberg and Hayden McGarrigle. These students were highlighted by their coaches as they played fairly, helped others around them and displayed leadership qualities.

A huge thank you must go to the Rob De Azevedo and his Junior Goals staff members who trained the boys in the lead up to the event and assisted by coaching on the day as well as to Mrs McMillan, Miss Masarei, Miss Sweetman and Mr Iasenza for all their work in assisting the boys.

Book Week matters now, more than ever

It’s National Book Week! All over Australia, parents of primary school children have been pulling together costumes for their kids. Some relished the opportunity to be creative; others were a bit dark at teachers for bringing this curse down upon them.

In high schools, English teachers and library staff have been creating displays and activities designed to engage their students with reading. It is a task made difficult these days as our kids are so drawn to YouTube, live streaming, and social media.

So why bother?

We all know reading is the bee's knees when it comes to education. It is great for:

• Increasing vocabulary
• Mastery of language
• Increasing creativity
• Developing imagination
• Providing knowledge
• Teaching grammar and spelling
• Entertainment
• Relaxation
• Communication skills

The commencement of Week Two in Term Three heralded the start of the annual Aquinas NAIDOC celebrations. The week-long celebration is a time within the Aquinas calendar for all Aquinians to celebrate and recognise history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within the Aquinas community and wider Australian community.

Monday always brings excitement and anticipation of the sporting clash that sees Indigenous students from year 10 to 12 take on the much-hyped staff team in a game of basketball. The staff team burst on to the court and began to build a lead based upon a sound game plan, however things unravelled fast when Mr Hamer limped from the court. The students seized on Mr Bell’s inability as Coach to reshuffle his team with a series of three pointers and alley-oop dunks that quickly got the crowd support. In the end the boys ran out easy winners for a third consecutive year.

The Indigenous Middle School students started the sporting dominance at recess on Monday over the staff team easily in the first Didj-ball (dodge ball) game we have enjoyed at the College. The action was ferocious with staff and students exchanging heavy body shots. At the siren to end time the boys had won two games to one to claim the first Didj-ball title. We hope this can be a regular fixture of NAIDOC week each year.

‘What does racism look like for you?’ was the topic for an open microphone panel discussion that all students in the Senior School had the privilege to attend, whilst a group of invited guests shared stories and insight around the central question. All students were affirmed and challenged by the speakers to embrace the National NAIDOC theme to ‘get-up,’ ‘stand-up’ and ‘show-up’ to address racism of all kinds in our community.

In addition to the panel all Senior School students were invited during breaks on Tuesday and Wednesday to try their hand at Indigenous craft activities. An invitation that saw many students create beautiful dot art pieces, as well as elaborate friendship bands and key-chains. Wednesday Break A also saw the Indigenous Team make available 400 servings of ‘roo-stew’ as prepared by the College catering staff, who followed a ‘secret recipe’ sourced and supplied by Mr Bell. The recipe is obviously a winner as the 400 serves were gone in under 10 minutes. Suffice to say we will have to double the recipe for next year!

The annual NAIDOC assembly has become a ‘crowd favourite’ for staff, students, parents and community members alike. This year the audience was treated to outstanding dance performances from an Indigenous girls’ dance group from Penhros, in addition to the Aquinas College Indigenous dancers. Year 12 student Xavier Cox sang two special songs in language, while Year 10 student Tremane Baxter-Edwards shared a truly inspirational speech centred on why Australia should apologise for the ‘Stolen Generation.’ Key-note speaker Mr Andrew Beck once again centred his thoughts and challenges to all in attendance around this year’s National NAIDOC theme. Following the assembly all invited guests, students and staff were invited to enjoy a beautiful morning tea that showcased Indigenous ingredients, flavours and tastes.

The week was a wonderful showcase of Indigenous culture at Aquinas College and we congratulate the Indigenous Team and all the students involved.

Mr Michael Bell

Director of Indigenous Education

On Tuesday 2 August 2022, we welcomed children's book author and illustrator Gabriel Evans to the College to show the Junior School boys how to create a picture book. Gabriel spoke about the process of coming up with characters, a story line and how he turns it all into a book. He even guided the boys to illustrate their own characters, like the paramedic dragon and the messy guinea pig!

This winter, more than ever, the Aquinas College community was asked to respond to the needs of the poor by donating backpacks filled with some of the things they need. Due to the economic and social impact of the current global pandemic, many people will experience extended periods of transition, loneliness, hunger and homelessness. Thank you to all the generous donations from the Junior School Community. We are grateful to be in a position where our actions and generosity can impact the life’s of those less fortunate.

During Term 2, the Early Years boys from Kindergarten to Year Three have been taking part in a creative dance program that culminated in a wonderful performance from each class last week.

Weekly dance workshops were linked to topics and themes from all areas of the curriculum; including Mathematics and the Aboriginal Seasons. Rachael from Creative Moves Dance, gave the boys the opportunity to explore their academic learning in a multi-sensory and creative way. Students were able to contribute their ideas to the choreography and have the opportunity to plan a routine collaboratively, enhancing their creative and critical thinking skills.

The Kindy class opened the show with a dance called ‘Mathomagic’. They created a dance making shapes and demonstrating the concepts of under, over, around and through.

Our Pre-Primary boys dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 and performed a Dr Seuss dance, followed by the Year Ones who created a dance based on the jobs they wanted in the future. The Year 2 class took us to a jungle scene where students on safari got to dance with jungle animals. The Noongar Seasons were represented beautifully by the Year three class who took us through each season using movement and cleverly crafted vignettes.

Congratulations to all of our creative dancers!

In Week 10, a group of Year 5 and 6 students were selected to attend the Perth Science and Engineering Discovery Day, at Claremont Showgrounds. The full day event, presented by the University of Newcastle in cooperation with MACA, Worley, WML Consultants saw the students participate in a series of engineering tasks, from bridge building and Mars rover testing to power grid studies and code breaking. They were required to read an information packet, design using a specific set of constraints, build their own model and then test, all whilst scoring points for their team.

The event allowed for the students to work on some real-world engineering projects under the supervision of actual engineers who had volunteered their time to guide and inspire the next generation of workers. The students had an amazing day and were thrilled with their designs and efforts. They can’t wait to participate in the program next year.

Former Junior School students and current College prefects, Ashton Teixeira and Kurtis Tanna have provided outstanding mentorship and expertise in our recent Public Speaking workshop. Following our annual Junior School Speak Up Challenge, ten boys were selected to participate in the workshop. Held over two sessions, the mentors assisted the boys with their hook, content, gestures and their concluding sentence. It was amazing to see the Junior School boys so enthusiastic about developing their skills and taking on this valuable feedback. It was rewarding for the boys to see the growth and improvement they were able to make in a short period of time.

Once again, we extend our gratitude to Ashton and Kurtis for their mentorship. Congratulations to the following Junior School boys for their commitment and improvement demonstrated towards their public speaking skills;

Oliver Reed (3R)

Grayson Ahrens (4W)

Ollie Baumwol (4W)

Aramis Landrigan (5R)

Taj Humble (5R)

Luca Zoiti (5B)

Max Kucan (5B)

Brendon Karczub (6R)

Lewis Jayatilaka – Smith (6R)

Grayson Marston (6W)