The State School Western Australia Interschool Triathlon was held on Friday 5^th of November at Champion Lakes Regatta Centre. The event included a 200m swim, 6km cycle and 2km run in which we entered two Year Six teams into B Division and two Year Five teams into C Division. This was the first time the Aquinas Junior School has entered the competition which saw great success. Both Year 6 teams finished 1^st and 2^nd respectively in what was a fantastic performance by our boys on the day, with our Year Five teams showing great grit to finish 6^th and 20^th respectively. Some key highlights were an impressive swim leg from Eli Hickman to give his team the lead which was matched by an outstanding bike leg by Christopher Chan to see his team in the clear transitioning into the run leg.

Year 6 (B Division)

• 1^st Place – Finn Marsden, Christopher Chan and William Rusbatch
• 2^nd Place – Eli Hickman, Alexander Peca and Lewis McLernon

Year 5 (C Division)

• 6^th Place – Finlay Bower, Benjamin Hartnett and Will O’Hehir
• 20^th Place – Matthew Trueman, Owen Hales and Jack Delic

Thank you to all parents for the support and efforts on the day in getting your son to and from the venue. Thanks also to Mr Kieran Ducey for his work and assistance in getting the boys ready for their race on the day.

On Thursday the 11^th of November, the Year 3 students competed in their final carnival of the year in conjunction with Christ Church Grammar School and Hale School. The basketball carnival held at Willetton Basketball Stadium was a fantastic event for the boys to showcase their skills that they had been working on throughout Term 4 during Thursday afternoon Sport with Mr Ryan Alciaturi and Mr Mitchell Henderson. Some highlights included a 3-pointer from Louis Lynch, strong efforts from Jamie Lim and a fantastic willingness from Ashton Rae to always make his teammates around him better.

Special thanks to our Middle School helpers for umpiring and assisting boys from all schools throughout the afternoon.

During Term 4 the Year 6’s have been working through various transition activities as we move from Junior School to Middle School. One of these activities was having The Centre for Life, Marriage and Family-Family Life Education team come and speak to parents and to the Year 6 boys about ‘Becoming a Man’.

There are a lot of changes going on in our lives as we come to the end of the Junior School journey. We were able to look into and discuss these changes during our student sessions. During these sessions, we discussed life before birth, physical and emotional change, hormonal change, hygiene practices, forming healthy friendships and girls changing too.

We found that this program linked well with our Religion, Health and Character Education classes. Both our presenters made it really easy to understand and feel comfortable with the changes and with the uniqueness of how God created us. Respecting others and especially ourselves during this time will remain important throughout our time here at Aquinas.

This week the Year 1 class enjoyed a fantastic excursion to the Constable Care Safety School. The safety school is a purpose-built facility that includes a realistic layout of Perth’s streets. The boys had lots of practical opportunities to learn pedestrian, bicycle and public transport safety skills and especially loved stopping their bikes at the ‘real’ train boom gates.

The boys learnt many interesting facts:

• Did you know that you should be 145cm tall before you no longer need to sit in a booster seat?
• Children shouldn’t sit in the front seat because the airbags can break their noses, give them concussions, or even cause suffocation.
• You are only meant to go ONE WAY around a roundabout!

The boys are now busy making posters to share some important safety messages, beginning with bike safety. Keep an eye out for them around the school!

On 28th October, the Junior School hosted their House Triathlon Carnival. We were lucky enough to have outstanding weather on the day, blue skies and sunshine. Competing in ideal conditions, all boys from Year Three to Six were involved in either an individual or team event. The carnival allowed the boys to display resilience, perseverance, determination and teamwork. It’s no easy feat competing in such a challenging event!

The boys competed with great spirit, enthusiasm and sportsmanship. Points wise, the carnival was very close all day. Quinlan House was victorious at the end of the day and claimed the trophy ahead of Redmond House.

Congratulations to the following boys and teams who were named Champions and Runners-up for their year level.

Year 3

• Individual
 Champion: Maxime Blackadder (Egan)
• Runner-up: Jordan Trueman (Redmond)
• Team
 Champion: Kaelan Flodin, Nathaniel Whiting, Aryav Lepcha Harrison D'Souza
• Runner-up: Elijah Fitzgerald, Daniel Mitton, Jamie Lim

Year 4

• Individual 
Champion: Lincoln Mathanda (Quinlan)
• Runner-up: Kirby Mincham (Egan)
• Team 
Champion: Cruz Cooke, Christian Bianchini, Frederic Argall (Egan and Clune)
• Runner-up: Isaac Wake, James Hawke, Zayd Zabaneh (Quinlan)

Year 5

• Individual 
Champion: Matthew Trueman (Redmond)
• Runner-up: Jack Delic (Quinlan)
• Team
 Champion: Tate Capararo, William Zhu, Willoughby Cacho (Egan and Quinlan)
• Runner-up: William Philip, Zane Griffiths, Rafael Ponferrada (Redmond)

Year 6

• Individual
 Champion: Eli Hickman (Egan)
• Runner-up: Christopher Chan (Redmond)
• Team
 Champion: Luke Norman, Andrew Crawford, Kha Pham (Egan)
• Runner-up: Aiden Chan, Daniel Kennett, Zac Keeley (Egan and Clune)

Final Points

• Quinlan - 196
• Redmond - 187
• Egan - 163
• Clune - 143

Thank you to all staff members, ground staff, ICT staff, Kate Spencer and the Middle School volunteers for all of your help and support on the day. Special thanks to Mr James McPherson for his efforts in preparation for the carnival as well as his efforts on the morning of the carnival in crows set up. This event would not have been possible without the support of this amazing team. Thank you to all of the parents of our competitors; the boys were prepared, organised and enthusiastic! This doesn’t happen without the behind-the-scenes work from our Aquinas College families.

St Teresa of Calcutta, Br Olly Pickett and Fred Hollows were some role models we looked at in CHED over the last couple of weeks. They were great leaders of what it means to serve and help others. As part of our service topic in we cleaned up the entire campus, including along the river to stop pollution from entering the water.

An engine, a snake and plenty of sports equipment were a few items of interest found along the way last Friday afternoon. It really was the perfect afternoon for our PP – 6 boys to do their bit to further enhance the privileged environment we come to learn and have fun each day.

Really impressed by the great job our boys did in continuing their little bit to serve our community.

On Tuesday 26th, we went on an excursion to Whiteman Park to explore the Revolutions Transport Museum. We got to look at transport from the past and go on a vintage tram ride around the park.
Here are some of our favourite bits:

• William - playing on the playground
• Marius - when the toy dog was barking
• Max - going on the train
• Strati - the train
• James - the tram because we didn’t have to walk
• Will - the park because I liked to play on the park
• Loke - the playground
• Alfie - the trolley
• Zayn - the train because it was so fun and it was going backwards and going forwards and I thought the kangaroos were going to get inside because there were no doors
• Arlo - When we went on the playground
• Bradley - the museum because we went into the cinema

Last week the Kindy Class went on an excursion to Cicerello’s in Fremantle. The boys went on a sea combing adventure and built sandcastles on the Bather’s beach.

Then we participated in a ‘Hands on’ encounter with Sea Stars, Lobster and Sea Apples. We even had an opportunity to pat a Port Jackson Shark! Finally, we enjoyed fish and chips for lunch.

The Junior School Art Exhibition this term represented a journey of increasing refinement of skill, ideas and complexity starting from Pre-Primary and culminating in Year 6.

From the large coloured shapes inspired by Fi Wilkie in Pre Primary, to the Henri Rousseau inspired Year 1 artworks; continuing with the more complex interpretations and renditions of Hokusai’s Great Wave created in Year 2. With increasing complexity, the Year 4’s incorporated a myriad of recycled objects looking at shape, colour and scale in their award-winning and dazzling 3D sculptures. On to the again more complex painterly quality of the Jasper John inspired paintings by the Year 5’s. The Year 6 project required the students to essentially work as an artist. Each was given a kit of the same objects, they had to manipulate and arrange the objects into unique forms, an open-ended task where there was no wrong solution, just varying degrees of sophistication, looking at the local artist Howard Taylor.

Art is essential but sometimes impossible! It can be simultaneously easy and just so difficult! I sometimes reflect on why art is so beguiling and yet so hard, why for some, the initial impulse is to say ‘I can’t do this’.