Senior School Monday, 20 June 2022

Essential Skills for Visual Arts

Recently we had the pleasure of having local artist Jenny Davies hold several portrait workshops with our Senior School art students. Jenny is a Lester Portrait Prize finalist and passionate about all things art. She worked with the students on creating a portrait from beginning to end, focusing on things like compositional techniques, drawing from life and photographs, recognising tonal value in images and how to translate that into a painting, as well as workshopping colour theory. All these skills are essential for the students to better develop their visual language, and how they progress in the art program. They had a great time and produced the beginnings of some wonderful artworks.

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Senior School Wednesday, 15 June 2022

Year 10 Outdoor Recreation Camp

Over 70 Year 10 Outdoor Recreation students recently had a wonderful experience in the Margaret River & Busselton Region on their camp! The boys completed a hike along the Cape to Cape Track, mountain biked at Pines Trails and did a high ropes course at Forest Adventures over the 3 days.

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Senior School Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Sorry Day Assembly

On Thursday 26 May 2022, Aquinas students Tre Healy and Tremaine Baxter-Edwards attended the Perth College Sorry Day Assembly to give a speech.

"They delivered a powerful, moving and emotional speech and they should be proud of themselves, their school and the Indigenous people."

“Tre and Tremaine were super compelling, and I found the whole Sorry Day Assembly meaningful and moving.“

“What a credit they are to themselves, their families, people and Aquinas.“

"The boys were phenominal yesterday. Thank you for allowing them to come and share the deep meaning of Sorry Day for them. I felt an honour to MC the assembly with such strong role models."

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Senior School Tuesday, 10 May 2022

ATAR Visual Arts Excursion

On Monday 9 May 2022, Year 11 and 12 ATAR Visual Arts students visited the Art Gallery of WA and checked out this year’s amazing PULSE perspectives exhibition, which showcases about 50 select year 12 art students from WA from last year. The students then had an amazing tour through some of the AGWA collection and discussed critical thinking in relation to visual art. After this, they hit the streets and had a tour of Perth’s street art, and discovered all of the public art available in the city. Thank you so much to Jenny and Adie who were their tour guides for the day!

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Senior School Tuesday, 10 May 2022

UWA Young Leaders' Council Event

Over the break, myself and three of the other captains attended the UWA Young Leaders Council Event. This event took place on the second Friday of the holidays and involved various workshops which discussed ideas relating to inclusivity and accessibility, as well as the correct language to use when referring to people of different social groups/backgrounds. Partaking in these workshops were many student leaders from schools across Perth, and the format of the event allowed for insightful discussion to take place amongst these student leaders. Ideas were shared regarding specific student led events which have taken place so far, as well as events which we are planning to hold in the future. Personally, I gained a great deal of knowledge from the event in terms of how other school leadership groups are run in comparison to ours, as well as the best way to run events in an inclusive and accessible manner. The Young Leaders Council will meet again in the term two holidays where workshops will be run regarding mental health. I look forward to the important conversations which will be had at this event.

Ashton Teixeira
College Captain 2022

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Senior School Tuesday, 03 May 2022

Photography Competition Results

Congratulations to all the students who entered this years photography competition. The theme this year was “A moment in time”, and everyone interpreted this in their own way to produce some amazing photographs. Official awards will be handed out at the formal awards ceremony at the end of the year.

The winners are:

First place: David Scott Year 11 for his photograph ‘Stadium at Capacity’

Second Place: Logan Nixon Year 8 for his photograph ‘Sunset 1’

Third Place: Marcus Taylor Year 12 for his photograph ‘Pinkys’

Highly Commended: Noah Myers Year 7 for his photograph ‘Restful Repose’

Peoples Choice Award: Akashan & Anoshan Ganapathipillai for their photograph ‘Untitled 1’

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Senior School Thursday, 07 Apr 2022

Duke of Edinburgh Award

KURTIS TANNA – RECIPIENT OF GOLD DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARD

My Duke of Edinburgh journey was far from predictable with the twists and turns of the Covid-19 pandemic, the added pressure of Year 11, as well as fracturing my femur. I was continually challenged to be resourceful, adaptable and persistent. Quite often we fear things we haven’t tried before and choose not to take the opportunities we are given. The Award challenges you to step outside your comfort zone and encourages you to surpass your limits to find the unknown strengths within. It took a great deal of organisation and forward thinking to be able to complete the various components of the award in these trying times. It has connected me with amazing organisations such as Edmund Rice Camps for Kids WA, and these experiences have inspired me to continue to work with them in the future. For my Adventurous Journey of the Gold Award, I undertook a seven-day voyage on the Leeuwin II with 39 complete strangers. During this, we had the opportunity to climb the 33-metre mast. In the past, I would’ve shied away from this as I am not great with heights. However, I decided I would try to conquer this fear. With my heart racing, I began my ascent. After reaching the half-way point, my shunt failed. I was instructed to carefully climb down because nothing would catch me if I fell. I was quite shaken once I got back to the deck but decided that this wouldn’t stop me. After my shunt was replaced, I began my climb for a second time, making it all the way to the top of the mast. It was a surreal experience reading the secret message at the top and gazing out over the expanse of ocean. Often, we are faced with tough times in our lives, and we look for the perfect time to do things. You shouldn’t wait for this, as it never comes around. Take that step, reach for that goal, strive to achieve the things you were putting off by saying “not yet” or “I’ll do it tomorrow,” because challenge is just an opportunity for change.

RORY WATSON – RECIPIENT OF SILVER DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARD

When I decided to do the Duke of Edinburgh’s Silver Award, I thought the 26 hours in Skills, Physical Recreation and Service, as well as an Adventurous Journey would be challenging. I looked at my existing interests and worked out how to tailor these to suit the Award components. In the end I chose:

SKILL: Orchestral Trumpet playing as part of the Perth College/Aquinas College (PCAC) Combined Orchestra.

PHYSICAL RECREATION: PSA Hockey

SERVICE: Surf Lifesaving Patrols

ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY: Aquinas Rowing Camp.

Despite my comfort with many of these areas, challenges still presented themselves. For my Skill Component, the main challenge that I encountered was learning to work together with new people, in a new environment – one that I had never been in before (A Symphony Orchestra!) – and overcoming how alien the environment and procedures were to me. For my Physical Recreation Component, my team (4ths) consistently lost, and this became demoralising as I enjoyed playing for that team and wanted us to do well. For my Service Component, the main challenge I encountered was that Patrols could be quiet and boring, this is a good thing in terms of public safety, but can result in a lack of attention and motivation, especially on rainy days, as I felt that I was making no real impact or difference. I decided to do extra certifications in First Aid, to counter this. For my Adventurous Journey Component, the main challenge that I faced was the mental exhaustion that came from the camp. Even though, as a coxswain the physical toll was very minimal, the mental toll was great. Towards the end of the camp, I was certainly very temperamental.

If I was asked to give two pieces of advice to teenagers considering the Silver or Gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards, they would be:

  1. When considering what to do for the Duke of Edinburgh Award, you do not need to start a new activity. If you want to use a pre-existing activity/hobby/interest – go for it.
  2. Ensure that you do challenge yourself – especially, if possible, in the service area. I suggest this because even if you have never done a large amount of service (26 hours is a lot) if you find something that speaks to you, and that you enjoy, these hours will fly by.

Why should you do the Duke of Edinburgh Award at all?

  1. Personal Growth. Even though I did not at first believe this when I was told by my teachers, it is correct. I found this out especially on those Surf Patrols when nothing was happening, so I learnt to ask questions and to improve my knowledge, and this was just one example.
  2. It is an asset on your CV. The DoE Awards prove you are dedicated, willing to put in time and effort into your interests and can work in a team.
  3. It is an internationally recognised award, meaning that the above benefits apply to most of the world, if you want to go to university in America, the Duke of Edinburgh will help with that.

I would whole heartily encourage anyone in their teen years to take on the Duke of Edinburgh Award, as it has been one of the highlights of my extracurricular activities.

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Senior School Thursday, 24 Mar 2022

Clean-Up Australia Day 2022

On Friday the 18th 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!

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