This term in Creative Arts, we had to create an advert for the cereal boxes we created earlier in the year. We used a range of equipment such as cameras, microphones and green screens. The goal of the advert was to appeal to a target audience and follow the shot type list we made using a range of different techniques. Making the ads was a lot of fun and very interesting as we had to use lots of different editing techniques such as green screens, while also having fun filming cool little movies. I learnt that it takes a lot of work to get to a final product in any type of filming, even an advert that’s only 30 seconds long, as it isn’t just coming up with an effective story and filming, but editing, reshoots and all the post-filming things you need to do. Overall it was an awesome project as it incorporated both art and media/filming.

At Aquinas College, boys are told that anyone is capable of leadership - that is, only when you put in the hard work. The Middle School Leadership Program was introduced to the whole Year 8 cohort on Thursday (24th June) to give every student an explanation on what it takes to become a Middle School Student Leader. Boys were handed a powerful message related to leadership upon their arrival at the workshop and were asked to sit down at a table with the same message attached to it. Almost all these messages linked to the idea that all boys are capable of being a leader, but much emphasis was put on the fact that we must put in the hard work to reach this goal.

Boys were to analyse the messages and speak in front of the group about what the message really meant. Leadership was already displayed in the workshop, as students braved the challenge to stand up in front of over 170 boys and speak to them, showing confidence and courage. Multiple other activities were included in the workshop, which required boys to fill out a booklet. All students were then sent an application form to become a Middle School leader but were to complete this in their own time. The workshop was a great way for the Year 8 students to be introduced to the Middle School Leadership Program of Aquinas College, and hopefully served as a great way for young boys to grow into good men.

Many thanks to Mr Weston for running the workshop.

This term, Mrs Brennan’s Year 9 English class studied the theme of survival by reading Gary Paulsen’s famous novel, Hatchet. This popular story features Brian Robeson, a twelve-year-old boy, who finds himself stranded in the Canadian wilderness with only one tool - you guessed it - a hatchet. With the help of his trusty hatchet, Brian must build a shelter, start a fire, hunt fish and birds, and protect himself from wild animals including moose, black bears and wolves.

Making fire from scratch proved to be a very difficult job for Brian. His hatchet created lots of sparks when hit against a rock, but converting these into fire took days of trial and error until finally, Brian sourced the perfect tinder and applied just the right amount of oxygen to turn the sparks into flames. The fire not only allowed Brian to cook the fish he caught, but it also kept the mosquitoes at bay, deterred animals like porcupine and skunks, kept him warm and gave him hope that should a rescue plane fly over, it would notice the smoke.

Building our own fires without any artificial assistance was the object of Friday’s lesson. Armed with a brilliant tool loaned to us by Mr Paul West of the Science Department, we first sourced our fuel, including tinder, kindling and larger pieces of wood and left them to dry out for a few days. The boys then got to work creating shavings from Mr West’s block of solid magnesium and lighting these with sparks generated from a pocket knife and a flint. In the photos, you can see the boys creating the sparks and blowing gently to turn the tiny flames into fire. (We did cheat just a tiny bit by using a paper towel to collect the magnesium shavings.)

For the remainder of the lesson, the boys enjoyed feeding the fires and toasting marshmallows. Most importantly, we made sure the fires were completely out before we left. I think this is a lesson the boys won’t soon forget.

I joined ACTV at the beginning of the year, and since then I have put out two ACTV stories. We are challenged with finding entertaining b-roll footage and then putting it all together. This is my personal favourite part, as you finally get to see the story really come to life. So far, I have edited the stories on a simple editing software, but soon plan to move onto a more advanced editing software. Mr Bowyer has been helping me edit these stories, as I am relatively new to the style of a news report. For the story to look good, and not bore the audience, the most challenging bit is filming the right clips. Mr Bowyer has really helped me with this part, as he has taught me about the rule of thirds and what is an interesting shot and what isn’t. The great thing about ACTV though, is seeing the final news report. This can easily be accessed via the Aquinas College YouTube channel.

Year 9s had the special opportunity of having a second session with Dr Genovese to discuss techniques for tackling exams and how we can study most efficiently. Dr Genovese talked about her different techniques for studying such as dual coding and taught us different ways to help boost our recall.

Before Dr Genovese’s sessions, the Veritas Program had been teaching us about study skills and the difference it can make and how they can turn ordinary notes, which are often ineffective, into short, sharp, and precise pieces of work which allow us to remember twice as much in less time.

As a Year 9 student, I have gone through my first ever set of exams this term and I have exhausted myself in studying. My notes were often colourless, long and ordinary, which, I thought, with constant reading and re-writing would help set the information into my brain but I would often find myself struggling to recall so much information. However, the study skills tactics shown to us by Mr Dempsey and Dr Genovese have allowed me to be able to retain more information and recall it faster and easier.

From Dr Genovese’s session, I have learnt how much these essential skills can help me succeed in all my exams and pieces of work and just being able to retain information and recall it, no matter how long after I’ve studied it.

After exams, it’s a relief for most of us to forget about everything and relax. However, we learnt just how important it is to revise your past exams and how much this can help you with your future tests. This also included looking at how we prepared for the exams and what we could do to improve our preparation. Overall the experience shared by all Year 9s with Dr Genovese has been absolutely brilliant and has taught us the importance of study techniques and reflection.

The Advanced Science and Biotech excursion involved 25 Aquinas students from Years 9 and 10 who took part in the Rotary Science and Engineering challenge. This competition aimed to expose the students to hands-on work that is present in many fields of engineering and to inspire them to pursue a career and future in a particular field that interests them.

This day was no ordinary competition, in that it didn’t involve the usual paper and pen, but incorporated creative ways to explore and deal with topics and issues that are present in our modern-day world. The competition consisted of a variety of different challenges, from making our own hovercrafts to finely crafting a bionic hand. This challenge allowed me to find a passion for the field of engineering and opened my eyes to the vast array of programs our school has provided us. and gave me an insight on how I should not take these opportunities for granted but to get involved with them as a doorway of opportunities will arise.

The teams that we placed forward into this competition would all agree that the day was a major success and the experience and amount of knowledge we learned, with the help of Mr Hitie, was insurmountable. Jonathan Vinci, Nishok Nimalan, and I were tasked with building a hovercraft out of limited resources and had to complete seemingly impossible challenges with it. Not only did our hovercraft fail multiple times, but it persisted to deflate and malfunction every time we attempted the challenges. When finishing the challenge seemed impossible, we managed to put our creative minds together and construct a new hovercraft from our scavenged materials. Only through our teamwork, resilience and determination were we able to push through and complete this challenge with a respectable result.

I believe this reflects perfectly on the values we learn at the college and what we need in our daily lives in order to strive for excellence. With the help of staff such as Cyril Hitie and Megan Monks who made this whole day possible, we were able to be exposed to real-life scenarios and problems that would help us prepare for our future careers.

The Year 8s at Aquinas College are Minecraft mad at the moment. Perhaps they’ve been Minecraft mad for years, but there was no doubt that the prospect of using Minecraft as a learning tool in Religious Education during Term 2 this year tantalised the minds of our Year 8 students.

There’s no question of Minecraft’s appeal, especially to Middle School aged boys. Whatever you make is only really bound by your imagination. It’s those endless possibilities that make Minecraft Education Edition an ideal tool for learning in Religious Education this term, as we look at the themes of Creation and Stewardship.

The engagement by our Year 8 students has exceeded expectations. Students were informed that they would be placed in groups at random in their respective Religious Education classes, as a means to help develop their Collaboration and Communication skills, two of the five twenty-first century learning skills that teaching staff across all learning areas will continue to develop in Middle School through Project-Based Learning. Being placed in groups of three or four at random did present an initial challenge to students as it meant being placed outside of comfort zones. This was done primarily to dissuade students from a “play” mentality. Minecraft, at its core, is a game. In order to move from a “play” mindset to a “project” mindset, placing students in groups at random was a necessary step. This is not to say, however, that our Year 8s will not be having fun. Fortunately, this has borne much fruit. It has been very pleasing to see our Year 8 students working collaboratively and using their maturing communication skills to achieve a common goal and see the bigger picture.

Students were given the freedom to choose between a number of Creation stories: The Fall, The Tower of Babel, Cain and Abel, and Noah’s Ark. In each of these stories are valuable lessons about the responsibilities mankind has towards creation, namely as regards our relationship with God, each other, ourselves, and the rest of creation. The students’ objective will be to - through their builds and subsequent presentation using iMovie - convey these learnings.

So why Minecraft? The creative aspect of Minecraft will encourage students to care for what they have had a hand in making, and there will be a sense of satisfaction that stems from tracking the progress of their work and subsequently completing it. Creativity and Accomplishment are core elements of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, i.e. Self-Actualisation and Esteem. Students become more efficient learners when given opportunities to be creative and when progress is tangible. When the bigger picture becomes more apparent, students will be able to clearly associate their creative and collaborative experiences with syllabus content.

Our Year 8 students will produce something of substance and spectacle. It is hoped that a number of student projects will go on display for the entire College community to see.