Issue no. 35
In this edition
The Science Behind our Building Works
With construction of our new Science Centre and associated upgrades underway, it gives me great satisfaction to share the finer details about this transformational project with you.
The ground floor will house three purpose-built laboratories for each of the key pillars of Science: Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The Biology room will enjoy the most natural light to facilitate experiments; an adjacent grow room will further advance discoveries; and two large island benches will provide vital space for the use of microscopes and other apparatus. The Chemistry lab will also feature expansive island benches to allow for larger experiments, particularly at senior level, supported by a state-of-the-art fume hood. One of the most innovative design aspects will be found in the Physics hub, where a retractable, curved glass wall will support certain Physics experiments such as the use of projectiles. The ground floor will also feature a cutting-edge preparation area with excellent storage and safety features.
The first floor will house four general laboratories which can be adapted for groups of varying sizes, supported by another dedicated prep area. A rooftop terrace with stunning views across the city and Ferguson Park will offer an additional area for Science experiments as well as atmospheric observations. It will also double as an events space for the School community to enjoy.
Clearly, Science is the focus of this endeavour; however, this project is so much more. The existing Visual Arts facility will double in floor space, allowing natural light to flood in as it merges with the new building. A large classroom for Senior School Art will be complemented by a series of smaller studios to enable the creation and exhibition of individual projects.
Upstairs, a dedicated Junior School Art space will come to life, featuring a wet zone, built-in benching for glue guns and other tools, and most strikingly, 3m ceiling-to-floor south-facing windows. Of course, another spin-off of the project is a much-needed revamp of our pool facilities including new change rooms.
Completion of the Science Centre is set to coincide with our 125th anniversary late next year, making this the next chapter in our School’s rich history.
Julia Shea
Principal
From the Head of Junior School
Once again, we find ourselves coming towards the pointy end of the School year. Orientation visits, Reception to Year 3 Sports Morning, the Year 6 Graduation and Exhibition, and some special Christmas events are well underway.
It was an absolute delight this week to welcome our next group of new Reception students and their parents to their orientation morning. The majority of our 2019 Receptions are moving into ‘big school’ from the Early Learners’ Centre. Their transition into school is a combination of formal orientation visits and a multitude of informal outings to the playgrounds, Junior School Library and classrooms. By the time these girls begin school next year, they will recognise familiar faces of students and teachers and feel very comfortable in their new environment.
While our youngest students are preparing for their end of year concert and Nativity, enthusiastically developing their public speaking and singing skills, the Year 6 students are impressing us with their attitude and application towards their Exhibition. As a culmination of their studies through the Primary Years Programme, this self-directed research project is leading to some rich and rigorous investigations into a wide range of topics. We look forward to enjoying the fruits of our students’ labours, in all their forms, in coming weeks.
Suzanne Haddy
Head of Junior School
Girls Shine at R-3 Sports Morning
Today, our Reception to Year 3 students enjoyed a morning of sports activities, demonstrating their skills and determination while gaining points for their House. Running, balancing, jumping and playing team sports all contributed to a wonderful morning of activity, before a tasty barbecue lunch was enjoyed. An enthusiastic and supportive group of Year 6 students assisted the younger students during the event and are to be commended for being such encouraging mentors.
Suzanne Haddy
Head of Junior School
PE Week Flexes its Muscle
To celebrate PE Week, a range of activities were put together by the 2019 Sport Captains.
PE Week basically consists of lunchtime events that get the students moving and grooving, which this year included a health hustle run by the Year 6s and an active skills day for the Junior School. The Year 5s and 6s were also lucky enough to practice their grunts with self-defence lessons throughout the week. Thursday was the highlight, having the largest participation rate for the Ninja Warrior-style course. The staff versus student touch football match on Friday lunchtime also attracted quite a crowd with students from all years cheering on the teams. This was accompanied by the Year 10 Music students performing their debut concert on the oval deck.
Overall, PE week 2018 was a massive hit and enjoyable for all students who took part in events throughout the week.
Rose Pittman
Sport Prefect 2019
Continuous Reporting – Now Live
Continuous reporting is now live on the myLink portal for parents of Middle and Senior School students. As opposed to traditional end-of-semester reports where comments are often general in nature and come too late for any remedial action, continuous reporting gives you access to regular, timely and pertinent assessment feedback.
To learn how to access our continuous reporting, please take the time to watch the brief instructional video below.
Once you are ready to experience the new system, head to the myLink parent portal.
For any IT assistance with myLink including log in issues, email helpdesk@stpetersgirls.sa.edu.au.
Exploring the World from Stonyfell
The Year 8 Geography class has been exploring Sustainable Cities across the globe with the help of Virtual Reality. A Sustainable City is one that provides the highest quality of life together with the lowest environmental footprint. The girls are currently investigating how Adelaide could become a Sustainable City by “travelling” to Seoul, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. Whilst in Virtual Reality, the girls are gathering evidence of green roofs, innovative waste management, bicycle lanes, electric vehicles, renewable energy use, urban green spaces and more. In project teams, they are compiling a report of recommendations to be presented to local council.
“The VR was an exciting experience. It was really cool because it looked like you were actually in that city. I “visited” Amsterdam and it was amazing to see the things I had researched right in front of me! I really enjoyed the VR!” – Amelie Gray-Combe
“I really liked how it felt like we were actually in the city that we were researching. It showed me in more detail the sustainable initiatives throughout the city of Frankfurt.” – Sarah Gulliver
“The VR helped us to see how sustainable Amsterdam really is; it was amazing to see how different Amsterdam was in Virtual Reality compared with the photos.” – Indya Dodd
Siobhan Curran
Humanities/English Teacher
EDGE Day Gives Girls the Edge
On 6 November, 66 girls from across Reception to Year 10 took part in our first EDGE Day. They worked in groups of eight with representatives from each of the Sub-Schools in every team. The day focused on key skills such as collaboration, critical and creative thinking and risk taking, whilst providing academic challenge.
Within each group, students were assigned a buddy, giving girls opportunities to have a mentor or become a mentor. We hope as the term continues that many of these new mentoring relationships will continue and that the girls will benefit from having the support and guidance of an older student.
Students started the day with a team-building activity which allowed them to get to know each other as they battled their way across an imaginary toxic river with only their team and four magic turtles to help them! Next it was off to watch ‘Smallfoot’ which acted as the stimulus for the day’s work as they began to investigate the issues that face societies and their cultures when they first encounter established societies. The film engaged and challenged even our oldest girls as they identified some of the more complex ethical questions that the film posed.
Returning to school, the girls began the process of ideation, considering the importance of both ethics and empathy when designing a solution. After lunch, it was time for the teams to begin formulating a plan that would support, protect and build a positive relationship between the Sasquatch and the humans. Through prior readings at home, the students brought their knowledge of the issues that have been faced by indigenous people in the past and worked hard in the creation of their plan to avoid a similar experience for the Sasquatch. During this time, representatives from each team attended a UNESCO conference to ensure that all ethical and philosophical perspectives had been considered.
The girls created a presentation to explain and illustrate their plan to successfully build a relationship between the Sasquatch and humans. They also had to create a prototype of an invention that would support the plan. The presentations were varied and creative. It was amazing how much the girls achieved in such a short space of time.
Watching the students on their journey through the day, it was wonderful to see how their confidence grew, how relationships between older and younger girls flourished and how collaboration shone through regardless of age. Many of the girls mentioned how much they enjoyed working with students across the age ranges. The younger students took risks, challenging themselves academically, and had had to find the confidence to work with older girls who were at times as much as 11 years their senior. The older students took risks too, as they brought the academic rigour and organisation to their group through effective leadership, ensuring that all members understood, felt valued and were included.
Becca Burton-Howard
Gifted and Talented Teacher
Softball Champions!
Saints Girls put in an outstanding effort in the Grand Final in one of the hardest games we have played this year. We went head-to-head with Scotch College, another amazing team. Saints worked hard and backed each other up in the field, coming home with a win, keeping possession of the Softball shield.
Unfortunately, this was our last game with the 2018 Year 12s, Alice Tyson, Ruby Oliver and Lulu Tierney, who we will dearly miss. A huge shout out to Lulu for being an amazing Captain who inspired us to do many great things for the Softball community here at Saints. Thanks also to the Year 7s who have stuck with Softball and I encourage you to stay involved. It was also our last game with our outstanding Coach Michele Bonnar. Thank you for everything you have done over the many years. Overall, thank you to all the girls for a great season, hopefully we will see many of you again next year!
– Aroha Munroe (Captain)
The Garden of Saintly Delights – SAVE THE DATE
The Parents’ and Friends’ Association encourages you to ‘Save the Date’ Sunday 24 February for next year’s school fair, The Garden of Saintly Delights.
If you are interested in volunteering, please email stpetersgirls.pandf@gmail.com.
Also, if you have a business or know of any businesses that would like to be involved with the fair, we are looking for sponsors. Starting from as little as $250, you can have your company logo on one of the many fair attractions and advertising material.
Please contact us if you would like more details.
ELC Children Deliver Soul Food to Tuck Shop
The way we thank people often has many rituals attached. In the Ferguson Room, we have been concentrating on expressing our gratitude to those special people in our lives who add to our wellbeing with their actions. Children regularly express their gratitude to their families, friends and their teachers. We have gently guided the children to think beyond their immediate circle to the wider community. In particular, we encouraged them to take notice of the people that do an incredibly important thing for us each day: bring us freshly-prepared food. The Tuck Shop staff are Debbie, Tanya, Chris and Amber. With the support of Miss Edwardson, the children collaborated to plan how to show their appreciation for their daily presence, and for bringing us healthy, nourishing snacks.
“I want to make them happy and give them something special for their job.” – Elijah
“I wanted to make something for them that is beautiful.” – Elise
“Thank you to Debbie for coming every day to ELC. It makes me happy.” – Aubrey
“I made a butterfly for them, to make them happy, because they give us food.” – Irene
“I will love to share cake with the Tuck Shop ladies. Because they love us.” – Olivia
Inspired by our focus on rituals this term, they decided on a tea party, with an invitation, hand-drawn pictures, a cake and a gift of an oven glove ‘for their job’. The team was thrilled with their cake, tea and presents, as well as the decorations for the table. The joy that the children experienced was palpable as they ran out of the Tuck Shop afterwards saying things like “I love everyone!” and “I feel so happy!” Recognising that the act of giving can be even more rewarding than that of receiving is an important time in a child’s life as they transition from self-focus to a more empathic person. We hope that Debbie, Chris, Tanya and Amber have been enjoying the excitement and the welcoming nature of the children, and that the ritual of bringing down the trolleys into the ELC is enhanced by the stronger connection with us.
This experience has prepared us for the Christmas season as we turn to the acts of giving and receiving and the values that sit behind this. Our ‘Giving Tree’ is now in the Piazza and creates another opportunity for children to think about the needs and wellbeing of others as well as enjoying the beautiful rituals of Christmas.
Mel Angel
ELC Educator
LEGO League – Building Skills and Teamwork
LEGO League has been a fun and enjoyable lunchtime club to be a part of. We joined because we all love LEGO and coding and were fascinated by the idea of the two combined.
During the weeks leading up to the competition that was run by the ‘First LEGO League’, we were all were wondering what name to have. By the end, we came up with ‘Shooting Stars’ and loved that name. We then expressed our ideas by creating many designs then chose ones that worked best. The problem was that we could only have one robot so we had to come up with an idea that used all parts. We then decided to use removable attachments to make one big functional robot. At the competition, we walked around the tables to see what other ideas teams had and we took in all of the good ideas to use next year. Our competitors were all very friendly and gave us some support gifts, it was lovely. When it came to the competition part, we had a bit of trouble in our coding but the other teams were supportive of us and we all loved the encouragement. Overall we came 18th out of 40 which was amazing for our first time.
We all loved the experience and would definitely do it next year.
Charlotte Farley and Molly Johnson
Year 6 students
Keyrings Key to Cambodia Support
The Year 11 Business and Enterprise class has established a business: Acustom Keyrings.
In partnership with the Cambodia Service Learning trip, you can purchase a custom-made keyring with the first letter of your name. You can choose the colour and additional features such as tassels.
For only $7, you can earn points for your House and support the fundraising efforts for “Coins in Cambodia”.
Anna Pryor
Year 11 Business and Enterprise Student
Strategies to Support Anxious Children
beyondblue has many resources to assist families in various challenging aspects of life.
One such area is helping children to manage anxiety and teaching them how to cope in scary or stressful situations.
Click this link to read more and learn about some useful strategies.
Code Camp at St Peter’s Girls’ School
St Peter’s Girls’ School will be hosting Code Camp Spark (ages 7 – 12), 2D Game Makers (ages 7 – 12) and AR Creators (ages 8 – 13) from 15 – 17 January 2019 from 9am – 3.30pm. The cost is $349 for three days.
EARLYBIRD SPECIAL: Book before midnight this Sunday 18 November 2018 to receive $20 discount for a January camp!
Visit the Code Camp website for more information
Visit the St Peter’s Girls’ School booking page
Sports News
BASKETBALL
Middle C1 – Saints 26 defeated Immanuel C2 14
Middle C2 – Saints 13 defeated by Pembroke 28
This week, a number of girls played across both games. It has been great to see them all getting involved and wanting to be on the court. Everyone’s skills have improved and they are gaining more confidence to dribble and shoot. Thanks for an enjoyable season girls! Hope to hear that you continue with basketball in the future. – Sarah Turnbull (Coach)
ROWING
Saturday 10 November saw the running of Round the Island for our 1st 8 and our Inter Quad crews. This is a 7km race in a time trial format and both crews did extremely well. Our 1st 8 came 2nd to Walford and our Inter Quad 2nd to Scotch. Really pleasing and encouraging signs from both crews in that we had a plan and structure to our training and it played out how we hoped. This result should give all the girls confidence in moving forward through the season as well as that positive energy.
Straight after Round the Island, we had a Junior regatta at West Lakes. For quite a few of the girls, this allowed them to see the West Lakes course for the first time. They have been training well and it was great to see the results coincide with this. The Year 7s are a really strong group, claiming a couple of firsts and seconds, which is absolutely awesome. Our Year 8s have some girls who are new to rowing and we are concentrating as a coaching group on getting everyone up to speed together as a group. This means that crews have been mixed up to give everyone more experience and I am happy to say that they are coming along well. I am expecting them to improve over Term 4 and with the camp under their belts in January to come out in Term 1 really firing. – Ben Flannagan (Director of Rowing)
SOFTBALL
Year 5/6 White – Saints 13 defeated by Pembroke Blue 14
The first innings was the best the girls have played. Every player who went to bat got a great hit and the team scored 7 runs. The fielding was also excellent with Olivia Oakes doing well and Mathilda Thomas had an excellent catch in the last innings, but Saints couldn’t quite hang on. – Taylah Gabrisch (Coach)
Year 5/6 Silver – Saints 12 defeated Seymour 9
The weather was great and the team went out and had an excellent game. Firstly, getting 5 runs in the first inning off the back of some great hits, but then limiting a very strong batting side in Seymour to only 2 runs was no mean feat. The outfield were on their toes but did manage to stop the balls well. In the second innings, both Saints and Seymour got 7 runs, however, because of the efforts before, Saints added another win to their tally! Well done to the team for the collective group effort! – Claire Hale (Coach)
Year 5/6 Gold – Saints 1 defeated by Wilderness Gold 5
The girls played well in a narrow loss. Scarlett Dillon had a great game pitching and Lauren Parton played very well in the field. – Harriett Gilroy
TENNIS
Year 6/7 Knockout
Unfortunately, Saints were defeated in the Semi-Final, going down by just 4 games to Fulham North PS. The team (Maiya Jakupec, Georgia Mallick, Charlotte Staples and Bridgette Leach) performed very well throughout the tournament and, after losing both doubles, fought back winning 3 of the 4 singles. The final score was Saints 3-22 to Fulham North 3-26. – Neil Fuller
Division 1 Blue – Saints 1-22 defeated by Seymour 5-30
Singles: Imogen Nienaber 2-6, Taj Shahin 4-6, Ella Dnistriansky 6-0, Georgia Langley 4-6
Division 1 White – Saints had a bye
Division 2 Blue – Saints 6-36 defeated Seymour 0-9
Singles: Tiffany Zhou 6-1, Adele Eaton 6-1, Ariel Spartalis 6-1, Stella Clark 6-1
Division 2 White – Saints 6-36 defeated Wilderness Green 0-14
Singles: Annabelle Langley 6-4, Amelie Eaton 6-1, Milly Wood 6-4, Orla Clayton 6-2
Division 3 Blue – Saints 1-11 defeated by Seymour 5-34
Singles: Faye Ma 3-6, Anneliese Thomas 0-6, Shunem Josiah 6-4, Ammi Yagnik 0-6
Division 3 White – Saints 6-36 defeated Seymour 0-7
Singles: Eva Young 6-1, Chase Hocking 6-0 (forfeit), Sophie Abbott 6-4, Victoria Thorpe 6-0 (forfeit)
Year 5/6 Division 1 – Saints 5-27 defeated Wilderness Blue 1-11
Singles: Mathilda Thomas 3-4, Alexandra Nguyen 4-2, Chloe Richardson 4-1, Sophie Blight 4-0
Year 5/6 Division 3 – Saints 5-21 defeated Pulteney 1-8
Singles: Gloria Zou 4-0, Jerrie Wu 4-0, Emily Bates 4-0, Charlotte Thorpe 1-4
TOUCH FOOTBALL
Open A1 – Saints 3 defeated Wilderness A2 2
The Open As got the win against Wilderness based on the team’s strong fitness which is used when rucking up the field. Ella Liddy was able to pass through the defence and attempted to score but sadly she got the lines confused. Hannah Freeman dived between two players to score and the team set up a rooster which allowed Ehi Oyugbo to score. Eve Habel and Chelsea Walls set up a quickie before the line which led to our third score. Touch is becoming very exciting for the Open As because everyone is learning to play together and forming a strong, united connection. Looking forward to the next game! – Eve Habel (Captain)
Open A2 – Saints had a bye
Open C1 – Saints 4 drew with St Michael’s 4
In a tightly fought contest, Saints were unlucky to draw. Although we made the most of our limited attacking opportunities, the ball spent too much time in our defensive half, often as a result of basic errors. Turnovers, failing to get back 5 and a lack of ball control plagued our game, and we paid the price. When we managed to maintain possession for any amount of time a score resulted, with Sarah Matheson, Anna Pryor, Ellie Anderson and Amelia Pudney breaking through. With 80% of the game played in our defensive half, we were forced to defend well, which we did, and that was the highlight of our game. – Ben Goldsmith (Coach)
Open C2 – Saints 0 defeated by Mary Mackillop 4
The first half was well played by Saints, defending against a strong attack. Our team is becoming increasingly confident at rucking the ball and this will continue to be an area of development as we go into the next game. The team worked cohesively, listening to the Coach and working hard to get back on side. The final result did not reflect the amount of effort and teamwork demonstrated. – Kendra Ware
Year 7/8 – Saints 1 defeated by Mercedes 5
Saints started off strongly in the first half, scoring a try early in the game. Mercedes matched the score at half-time and came out fighting in the second half to walk away with a convincing win. It is great to see our team developing some confidence and putting skills to the test. There has been excellent improvement with our rucking (less overstepping the mark) and the introduction of wraps and ‘quickies’ into our game play as well. Defensively, the team worked really well together and held off Mercedes in the first half especially on the line. Great effort by everyone. – Tracey Hunt (Coach)
VOLLEYBALL
Open A – Saints 3 defeated Seymour 0 (25-16, 25-16, 25-21)
For our last game of the season, we were matched up against our rival school, Seymour. We managed to secure a comfortable 3-0 win. We got off to a slow start, with point scoring alternating between teams frequently. We pushed ahead with Georgie Keough’s strong serving run, scoring several points giving us the first set 25-16. In the second set, we had a much better start but failed to uphold this lead with Seymour becoming even in points mid-set. Luckily, Anna White was having a good attacking game and managed to secure multiple points with her placement of spikes. Brooke Elliott also contributed by strategically placing the ball for Anna to hit, taking into account the fact that Anna is left-handed. We took out the second set 25-16 yet again. In the final set we had a varied rotation and decided we’d try some new skills due to our lead. This meant we dropped a few more points than usual but managed to close the set 25-21. This was a great way to end the season and I can’t wait for next year. Well done girls.
Open B – Saints 3 defeated Seymour 0 (26-24, 25-17, 25-19)
The 1st set was point-for-point until Seymour had a serving run to be 5 set points clear. Up steps Tilly McCormack to serve us back into contention to 24-24. We went on to win the set 26-24 on the back of some great rallies. Settling into the 2nd set, we were able to build good connections between players with Molly Lucas setting up Chloe Deieso and Sivi Sivasuthan to dominate at the net. Isobel Tan was directing traffic and Ankita was chasing down balls to keep rallies alive. With the Year 12s unavailable, Lucy White stepped up from Middle As for the Open Bs again and served strongly in the 3rd Set. Charlotte Cohen debuted in the Opens and slotted well into the team. It was a great game to finish the year with all players showing the skills and system they have learnt, putting them into practice for a dominating display! Have a great summer and see you all next year! – Alistair Keough (Coach)
Open C – Saints 3 defeated Seymour 0 (28-26, 26-24, 16-14)
The first two sets were incredibly close and Saints fought hard to secure wins in each based on some great serving from Amelie Dunda and Asha Short. It was a terrific team effort and Paris Greene’s encouragement of her teammates helped Saints on numerous occasions. – Emily Gough (Supervisor)
Middle A – Saints 1 defeated by Seymour 2
It was a really close game for the Middle As. Ruby Deakin and Charlie Fishlock worked well next to each other, winning numerous points with well set up spikes in the front court and Sivanthi Sivasuthan covering well in the back court. However, despite a hard fought effort and great enthusiasm throughout the whole game, unfortunately it wasn’t enough for us to come home with the win. – Victoria Neale (Coach)
Middle B – Saints 3 defeated Seymour 0
The Middle Bs clearly proved to be the stronger team in this game with an easy win over Seymour. These girls are always so energetic and use this energy on the court to encourage each other and put in 100% in every point of the game. Joss Forster, Izzy Gilroy and Sarah Gulliver had particularly good games with strong serving as well as great movement on court. – Victoria Neale (Coach)
Middle C – Saints 3 defeated Seymour 0
The team again showed continued improvement with some consistent serving from Gloria Gao and Thuhansa Hattotuwa. Georgina Devine had great energy and Eliza Monaghan demonstrated persistent effort. – Emily Gough (Supervisor)
Year 6 – Saints 0 defeated by Seymour Blue 3
The girls were matched up against Seymour for the second time with hopes to take out another win. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it, but the girls put up a fight with set scores exceeding the required 25 points to win. In the first set, the girls did well to encourage each other even when they were down in points and lost the set. In the second set, the girls had chosen to focus on communication with the intent to pick up more balls and try for 3 touches. This proved to be successful as the girls managed to gain more points, taking the set to 24-26. In the final set, the girls again wanted to get more touches on the ball with Lauren setting her teammates up so they could get another touch. This worked really well with the girls as they were able to get lots of touches and put pressure on Seymour. Towards the end of the set, points were very tight; this showed in the final set score of 27-29 and the girls just missed out on winning the set. – Charlotte White
Year 5 – Saints 4 defeated Seymour Green 0
Due to steady improvement throughout the whole game, the girls won all four of the sets played, which ensured they had a fun and enjoyable time. Everyone played a great game, but a special mention goes to Alannah Godfrey who did an amazing hit. – Isabella Villani
WATER POLO
Open A – Saints 7 defeated Seymour 3
Another great game as we maintained our undefeated position. Nikki Miller and Fiona Lethbridge defended strongly against Seymour’s top players, backed up well by Saskia Jonats in goals. The depth of skill and strength in our team was evident with Matilda Braithwaite, Lucy Young, Olivia Goldsmith and Lara Wakeham all playing strongly in attack and scoring goals. Great teamwork girls! – Nicolette Miller (Captain 2019)
Open B – Saints 3 defeated by Pembroke 5
The B team had another close match. The girls fought well throughout the game, especially in the 3rd quarter when Saints scored two goals and Pembroke did not score at all. The best player this week was Georgie Wakeham who was strong in both defence and attack and scored 2 goals. – Nicolette Miller (Captain 2019)
Open C – Saints 7 defeated Loreto 5
The girls took the lead early and worked really well together throughout the whole game. Well done to Kellie Bested, Keeley Fahey and Ella Waltham for scoring the goals this week. Great work girls! – Nicolette Miller (Captain 2019)
Year 7/8 – Saints had a bye