The Dragon | Edition Seventeen | 9 December 2022

THE DRAGON

FORTNIGHTLY NEWS AND EVENTS FOR ST GEORGE’S PARENTS

Presentation Night was such a wonderful evening with lots of smiling faces, beautiful music by the Swing Band, proud parents seeing their children be acknowledged for their hard work over the course of the 2022 school year, and even Christmas Shortbread and Gingerbread biscuits. There was most definitely the joy of Christmas in the air!

I was both thrilled and excited to be able to celebrate the many fine achievements and accomplishments of so many of our St George’s students across Years 7 – 11. To be awarding our first Full Colour Awards made the night a significant one for me. Congratulations to all of the many St George’s students who were recognised both at the Academic Awards Assembly on Monday and at Presentation Night – what a splendid celebration of hard work, determination, effort, achievement and accomplishment these two special school occasions were.

St George’s Cathedral provided an incredible backdrop for both events. I am so very grateful to the Cathedral staff who warmly welcome our St George’s Community to host so many of our

special events in such a sensational setting. To the Very Reverend Chris Chataway, Dean of the Cathedral, to Bernadette Liew the Cathedral Administrator and to the ever helpful and accommodating team of Cathedral Vergers, a heartfelt thank you from us all. Mrs Susan Lazenby was officially farewelled at Presentation Night after over 21 years within the ASC network of schools where she has touched the lives of so many students, parents, and staff. Her contribution to the School has been immense – as a classroom teacher, as the leader of the English Department and ultimately as a member of the Senior Executive Team as Head of School Operations. She has consistently championed the pursuit of academic excellence and the importance of reading within our lives. Her passion, enthusiasm,

St. George's Anglican Grammar School – THE DRAGON

From the Principal Tina Campbell

care, compassion, and academic knowledge will be greatly missed. We wish her all the very best for her well-deserved retirement.

It is hard to believe that the end of the school year is already upon us! Despite the many challenges and restrictions of the COVID -19 pandemic there has been a tremendous sense of accomplishment throughout the School this year. I would like to thank you, our St George’s families, for your flexibility and support throughout the year in what have sometimes been challenging times. Our students have been involved in an extraordinary array of activities and events throughout the year and they have equally been stretched academically within their classes. The Ascalon 2022 is bursting with

pride and awe of all that has been achieved – I recommend it to you as a great holiday read! It has been a wonderfully successful and inspiring year within the School.

As the 2022 school year closes, we look forward to seeing you and your children for the start of Term One, 2023 on Tuesday 31 January where we will be a School Community of 500 students.

On behalf of all the staff, both teachers and support staff, I wish you and your families a happy, holy, and joyous Christmas.

Tina Campbell Principal

School Operations

Shannon Allen

What a fantastic Presentation Evening we all shared on Wednesday night! And what a festive way to end the year with today’s Sportzfest and FreedomFest frivolities!! With our final formal events for 2022 now concluded, our thoughts can turn to the upcoming summer break and Christmas.

I would like to remind all students of the following important information before they relax into holiday mode

• Put the lock for your locker somewhere safe as you will require it again next year. If you lose it, you will be required to purchase a new one

• Check your uniform before you put it away for the holidays. Do you need anything replaced?

• Consider selling your outgrown uniforms and textbooks through Sustainable School Shop

• Remember to have a slow read through your copy of The Ascalon, reflecting on the amazing 2022 that you experienced at St George’s Anglican Grammar School this year

It is also not too late to still complete the following:

• 3P Photographers are still taking orders of School Photographs. These can be ordered through their website https://www.3p.net. au/ using the Shoot Key FN3T95K

• Uniforms for 2023 can be ordered online or in person from Tara Uniforms

Second-hand uniforms and textbooks can be sold through the Sustainable Schools Shop, an excellent resource to connect with other members of the St George’s community who are seeking uniforms and resources

Details regarding the start of the 2023 school year will be sent to families in late January. For forward planning, please be aware of the significant dates on the right.

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It is amazing how time has flown by! I cannot believe I have been here nearly a year!

It has been a great and wonderful year with a lot of incredible events to look back on and smile about, reinforcing my decision on seeking to become School Chaplain of this wonderful School.

Among the things that made my first year memorable of course, are the students. There is a belief that young people are not interested in things religion. This has not been my experience at all. Our Chapel services have been fun, and students have expressed their joy and appreciation for them. Many have told me about how they look forward to Chapel every Monday afternoon.

I have also been touched by the love of our teachers, their commitment to see every one of our students succeed. They have throughout the year been ‘giving of themselves’ in doing anything they can to help make a student’s life easier, be it in academics or in supporting a student struggling with a personal matter. For me, that is what a Christian school should be about—the spirit of loving one another and giving of oneself for the sake of others.

The Christmas Season which is now upon us precisely reminds us

that “God so loved the world that he gave his Son” to the world, for the sake of the world! Students understand this very well.

Mr McBride has been busy receiving Christmas gifts from our students, which will be distributed to the poor and less privileged, on our behalf, by Anglicare WA.

Our values as a school, “Wisdom, Grace and Service”, means we are not just here to impart wisdom to students, but to also instil in them virtues of grace and service.

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry Christmas!

St. George's Anglican Grammar School – THE DRAGON

Father Gift

Curriculum Update

Anthony Bochrinis

2023 Year 7-12 Booklist

We are pleased to announce our engagement with Campion Education for the provision of digital and physical education resources for the 2023 academic school year.

All Year 7-12 Booklists and important information is now available via our school website: 2023 Student Booklists

Book purchases can be made online or in store.

Year 7-11 Presentation Night 2022 Award Winners

On Wednesday 7 December, we hosted our annual Presentation Night that saw the culmination of the incredible achievement of our students across the areas of Academic, the Arts, Service and Sport. The night also saw the inaugural awarding of St George’s Anglican Grammar School Full Colours, which awards students with a badge to adorn their School Blazer. I am excited to see those students awarded Full Colours in 2022 wearing these badges with pride; they are signs of significant achievement in these areas.

We also introduced the Proxime Accessit and Dux awards to recognise the highest two academic achieving students in Years 7-10 and the highest two academic achieving students in our APEx and ATAR pathways in Year 11.

It was a wonderful night, and I would like to add my congratulations to all prize winners!

Click here to view all prize winners.

New Compulsory Courses in 2023

With our preparation for 2023 well underway, we have a number of new and exciting courses that will be introduced to our students next year:

Inspired Minds

• Taught to all students in Years 7 - 9

• Offers diverse micro-credential courses to equip students with lifelong skills and inspire curiosity, interest and passion

• Students have 1 lesson per week

• Students study 1 micro-credential course per term, with 4 courses being studied throughout the year

• Taught in small classes

Active for Wellbeing

• Taught to all students in Years 9-12

• Replacing ‘Fitness Classes’ so as to broaden the activities that will be undertaken

• Offers opportunity for students to engage with physical activity that incorporates overall wellbeing

• Students have 1 lesson per week

Pathways

• Taught to all students in Years 9-10

• Replacing “Careers” in Year 10 to broaden the topics taught within these classes

• Students explore evolving senior secondary pathways and the changing landscape of work and the term “career”

• Research shows that students who investigate pathways at an early age sets them up for future success

• Students have 1 lesson per week

Timetable Course Changes in 2023

In addition to these new courses for 2023, we have made some further exciting changes to our timetable structures to clarify course progression throughout the years and further diversify our students’ exposure to different learning areas.

You can access the timetable structures for each year group here that show how our 54 academic lessons per fortnight are broken down. All diagrams are to scale.

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Pastoral Focus

Hilton Hardman

Transition into Year 12 Week 2022

With this letter comes the end of another school Year. One that required some adjustments at the start of the year but also saw us complete the year with students enjoying all that is offered in our Pastoral Program.

During the Transition into Year 12 Week, one of the activities was the Great Walk. This 12km walk around the swan river required students to reflect on their school journey. One of the reflective activities had them ask, “If I could go back and give the Year 7 me advice, what would it be?”. The students answers included:

• Believe in yourself

• Put yourself out there

• Give it a go

• Don’t focus only on the grades

• Take full advantage of everything offered because it’s over before you know it

The follow-up question was, “What do you fear going into Year 12” and the student’s majority responded with:

• Not getting the results needed for University

• Disappointing my parents

Regular reflective practice helps increase awareness of how you approach various situations. There is a range of benefits in making the practice part of your routine, including:

• Supporting a greater level of self-awareness about the nature and impact of your work performance

• An opportunity for professional growth and development

• Helping learn and strengthening your capacity in a team

• Bringing rigour to critical thinking

I encourage parents to ask their children those two questions and allow the responses to be talking points. This will allow your child to reflect on the start of their school journey and their concerns moving forward into 2023. The hope would be that the first question will allow students to offer themselves advice that will support personal growth in the coming years, and the follow-up question can address concerns and worries moving into next year.

Open conversations on these allow students to have a deeper understanding and have someone support the critical thinking aspect.

Other parts of the Transition into Year 12 Week included a day camp, University visits, four guest speakers and activities to allow students to have shared experiences and grow closer as a cohort.

The Pastoral team is excited about 2023 and the new initiatives being introduced to the Pastoral Program. We look forward to working with the new student leaders and seeing how they choose to leave their mark on the School in their final year.

Finally, congratulations to Gandhi house on being the winners of the inaugural House Cup, no small task, and we look forward to the continued growth of house spirit in the school.

Preparing for the year ahead

Rest, relaxation and time with family and friends is the main goal for students over the end of year holidays. However, there are some things that students might like to consider doing, perhaps towards the end of the holidays, that will make their school year ahead much easier, particularly for the senior students.

• Organise and rearrange your room and study space to make it a more effective learning area.

• Sort out all of your materials for school, decide what to keep and how to organise your work and if you can improve your filing systems.

• Set up term planners for the year so you can map put your due dates when the year starts.

• Set up a study timetable for the year, so you have clear times allocated to complete your schoolwork during the week.

• Think about building your skills in any areas of weakness or any areas you would like to develop new skills in, like touch typing.

• If you can find out any of the novels you will be studying in the coming year, read them over the holidays.

• For senior students, consider downloading the syllabus documents for the subjects you will be studying.

Of course, we also want students to refresh their minds and body, catch up on their sleep and take the time to focus on enjoying a healthy lifestyle.

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2022 has been a year of challenges and changes at St George’s Anglican Grammar School and in my opinion, these are to be embraced. The landscape of education is changing, and tertiary institutions are not only recognising this, but they are embracing it. Excitingly, the University of Western Australia have confirmed that students who study FlexiTrack High in Year 12 and get a distinction, will gain entry to a selection of undergraduate courses. Furthermore, UWA have introduced an experience-based entry system whereby students on an APEx pathway can accrue points from the subjects they study to gain entry to UWA.

For more information about the experience based entry system, click here.

Not only does this recognise the qualities and talents of our students in and out of the classroom, but it gives every student the chance to realise their aspirations. This program was only announced on Wednesday 7 December, so I hope to have more information to share with you in the new year.

Finally, UWA have launched a series of micro-credential courses that our senior students can study in addition to their ATAR or APEx courses. Three credentials that are in a similar field can be ‘stacked’ and used as credit towards Year 1 of an undergraduate course, which could potentially mean less student debt! A Christmas miracle indeed!

As we receive more information about the offerings from UWA and other institutions, we will share it with you but for now, I wish you and your families a healthy and happy Christmas break and a happy new year.

Mrs Sharan Tagore APEx and Careers Coordinator

As the year draws to a close it is interesting to reflect on how much has been achieved. In January we had an empty space and a lot of ideas for our library. Now we have a space filled with books and students engaged in a variety of activities. Lego Club has been popular. Many students are asking about 2023. We will run Lego Club again, with a new challenge. I am hoping our current students will want to be leaders next year and mentor Year 7 students in the Club. The fruit of all their hard work will be on display in the library. However, we have other exciting activities to initiate in 2023, so watch this space.

Also proving to be popular this year were the e-boards we posted in the library and on screens in classrooms. These provide information from careers to new books and timely grammar information. We have enjoyed thinking of arresting themes for our Bookflix as we focus students’ attention on our exciting collection. Many students come to borrow books they have seen previewed on Bookflix.

We have had a flurry of book returns, but many are still lurking in lockers or nestled on bedside tables at home. Could everyone please check for stray library books as we do need them all back for our stocktake.

My own reading has taken on a wild edge this week as I read two of our new novels, Waer by local author Meg Caddy and Once There Were Wolves, by Charlotte McConaghy. Waer is an unusual young adult fantasy novel with a theme of shapeshifters, wolves and xenophobia. Once There were Wolves is clearly also themed around wolves, but rather than fantasy this is a novel set in the context of rewilding animals, with the bonus of a grisly murder. This novel is in our senior fiction collection.

At home I am reading the latest publication from William Boyd, The Romantic. Set in the nineteenth century it follows the adventures of a young Irishman as he negotiates finding his own way through the world. I am still working my way through this novel, but it strongly reminds me of one of my grandfather’s novels, Anthony Adverse, by Hervey Allen. This too is a rambling, romantic narrative about a coming of age and discovering oneself through emigration to the new world and heartbreak. The Boyd novel will make its way to our library shelves next week.

I wish you all a peaceful and happy Christmas and I hope Santa brings you many wonderful books to enjoy into 2023. Together, let us read.

Dr Annette Pedersen Library Services Coordinator

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Around the School Meeting the Artist

Year 7 Visual Art Exhibition

A mini exhibition was on display this week in the Café on Level 4 for the final rotation group of Year 7 Visual Art students.

The work is a culmination of nine weeks of studious Arts Learning incorporating ideas, knowledge of the elements and principles, and development of their skills and processes in a painting project: ‘Let them Paint Cake’.

In their final lesson students learnt about curating an exhibition, with the installation of their work into the space on Level 4.

Ms Carol Wohlnick Head of Creative Arts

Painting Masterclass

On Wednesday and Thursday of Week 8, the Year 9 and 10 Visual Art students were invited to attend a Painting Masterclass to work in a traditional imprimatura oil painting technique.

Working with self-portraiture and still life as subject matter, students learnt some of the painting methods that were pioneered by Titian during the High Renaissance.

Students carefully created an underpainting in umber earth tones concentrating on establishing accurate tonal values, they then added matched tonal colour into their final paint layer.

The result creates a luminous and realistic effect which can be applied to any subject matter. A valuable technique to master as students hone their skills in preparation for upper-school Visual Art and beyond.

Ms Carol Wohlnick Head of Creative Arts

Year 11 ATAR and APEx Visual Art students were out and about in the final weeks of this term in a ‘Meet the Artist’ activity.

The students were privileged to speak with Fremantle artist

Jennifer Rossen, the world renown Sand Sculpture artist.

Ms Rossen was invited by the City of Perth and the WA Government to create a sand sculpture of a nativity scene at Elizabeth Quay, as part of the 2022 City of Perth Christmas celebrations.

Ms Rossen shared her experience and words of wisdom with our budding young artists discussing design, development, project management, and the details of running large commissions. Students gleaned insights into the career of an artist and knowledge Jenni generously shared to assist our students as they transition to Year 12 for 2023.

The Christmas Sand Sculpture Village at Elizabeth Quay, with lights inside and on the sculpture, is part of the Rio Tinto Christmas Light Trail, and a must see this festive season.

Ms Carol Wohlnick Head of Creative Arts

The GIANTS of Mandurah

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On Tuesday 6 December, as part of their final week of Arts Learning for their term long sculpture project, the Year 8 Visual Art students embarked on a magical mystery bus tour with a mission to find the lost Giant of Mandurah.

Ms Brown and Ms Wohlnick escorted the group to the Subiaco Theatre Gardens to hunt for one of the missing Giants of Mandurah that were created by Thomas Gambo, the world’s leading recycle artist who is based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Gambo’s sculptures focus on the appreciation of the natural world through a reference to indigenous culture.

Thomas Gambo’s vision is to create artworks that inspire us to explore the natural world and realise that trash can indeed become treasure. Students had a wonderful time of playful learning in their final lesson for the term.

Ms Carol Wohlnick Head of Creative Arts

St. George's Anglican Grammar School – THE DRAGON

PARTY Program

On Wednesday 30 November I took 25 Year 11 students to Royal Perth Hospital for the day. The PARTY Program stands for Preventing Alcohol and Risk related Trauma in Youth with the aim to educate our young people on the dangers of risk-taking behaviour, alcohol, and other drugs.

The day was well received by the students and the staff at Royal Perth were incredible. We toured through the brand-new intensive care unit and learned how a person is supported if they end up in ICU. We visited the emergency department and learned the process of how the emergency doctors stabilise a critically injured patient.

We had several guest speakers who had acquired brain injuries through their own risk-taking behaviours and had the opportunity to ask some great questions. Finally, we were given the opportunity to learn how to use mobility devices and speak about the challenges people go through should they be compromised with a spinal cord injury.

Hopefully through the information and presentations the Year 11 students received on this day, they have the ability to foresee risks and chose to take positive risks in the future.

Miss Jamie Pedler Head of Mandela House

Year 11s Day of Adventure

The rafting was great fun down by the water and everyone enjoying the chance to cool off. Orienteering had the students racing against each other for the highest score possible and beginner’s mountain biking wasn’t so much for beginners with Mr Hardman struggling to get up the hills.

We were spoilt with the weather on Tuesday at Bickley Recreation Camp, sunscreen was doing the rounds and by 11am we were truly grateful for the refrigerated bubbler to top up our water bottles.

The day commenced at 8am in the fitness centre before we departed on the buses to Bickley. We were greeted by wonderful camp staff at the gates and the fun began.

Three groups lead by Mr Lim, Mr Hardman and Mr Quan/Ms Hewitt

The students who were present on the day were absolutely wonderful and enjoyed all aspects of the experience.

Miss Jamie Pedler Head of Mandela House

FreedomFest

The 2022 FreedomFest was an awesome way to end the school year featuring four stages at Old Perth Girls School (and former Police Headquarters) in East Perth; the Main Hall, the former police Briefing Room, the Basement, and the old school Library. We were treated to outstanding performances from the School rock bands, brass ensemble, soloists, and DJs.

St. George's Anglican Grammar School – THE DRAGON

rotated through four wonderful activities including raft building, vertical challenge, mountain biking and orienteering.

Mr Michael Newton Head of

Term One 2023... Get ready for Swimming

Successful swimmers will be selected to represent the School at the ACC E-Division Carnival, where we will compete for the first time in the indoor pool at HBF Stadium on Monday the 20 March 2023.

Lock in the dates for early morning swim training at Trinity Swimming Pool, under the expert guidance from Western Sprint Coaches. Training will take place every Monday and Wednesday mornings at 6.30am.

The PE Department would like to congratulate all students on a most successful PE year! We wish you all an active, safe, and enjoyable holiday and we look forward to the 2023 sporting year. Have a happy and blessed Christmas.

Ms Jodie Scheele Head of HPE

Sailing

To start the 2023 Physical Education year, we will be diving into the swimming pool with our aquatics program. All Years 7-10 students will be starting their 2023 PE Program with swimming at UWA. Please ensure students have appropriate bathers and googles for PE lessons.

The Inter-House Swimming Carnival will be hosted at a new swimming pool to enable students to dive off a block and swim a full 50m without having to tumble turn. The pool also caters for our unique “Sync Swim” competition which was not able to take place this year. The Carnival will take place in Week Three, at Claremont Aquatic Centre, on Thursday 16 February.

The Start Sailing Course 1 and 2, spanning over two terms, saw students learning the basics of sailing a small yacht. This included how to recover a capsized vessel, reading weather and wind patterns, jibbing, rigging, and derigging a sailing vessel and operating a sailing boat.

Sailing by Star Sherlock and Annabelle Hutton (Year 7s):

This year 20 St George’s students took part in the “Learn to Sail” course at Mount Bay Sailing Club. We learnt how to sail small sail boats (boom boats) and many new skills. As you can tell by the name “boom boat” (what the sail is connected too), when it hits you on the head it goes BOOM, as Ava and many others learnt the hard way! One of our favourite memories was when we sailed to a sand bank along the Swan River and splashed around in the water.

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St. George's Anglican Grammar School – THE DRAGON

The festival was brought to a close with sets by guest artists Kurt Carrera, featuring St George’s musicians as his support band ‘The Compressors’, and local Perth DJ legend, DJ BenMac.

Performing Arts

The last day of sailing was a day we will never forget. We had a race to Matilda Bay. When we got there, we had much fun swimming and jumping off the jetty, but unfortunately when we all ran back to the boats Annabelle stepped on a cobbler! Our favourite memory of the last day was Mr Dempers saving a turtle from crossing the road. Sailing is one of the best things we have done this year, we all enjoyed it very much and recommend other students to give it a go.

Mr Thomas Dempers Science Teacher

SportzFest

On St George’s final day of school, students rode the Transperth buses to Wellington Square to attend SportsFest. Students participated in dodgeball, pirate treasure, softcross, basketball and bubble soccer for a morning filled with laughter, joy and some healthy competition!

St. George's Anglican Grammar School – THE DRAGON

Ms Jodie Scheele Head of HPE

Harrison Flower

Year 11

Harrison Flower flew off to the UK in the last few weeks of term as he has been offered the opportunity to train with two professional rugby clubs in the UK throughout December and January - Wigan and Sale. We wish Harrison all the best as he takes this next step in developing as an elite rugby player.

Lorelei Barnes-Smith

Year 7

Lorelei Barnes-Smith and her family visited Parliament House recently to talk with Cassie Rowe MLA and Minister for Environment Hon Reece Whitby MLA about the need to better protect owls and other animals who are being poisoned by second-generation rodenticide.

Lorelei and her sister, Phryne, explained how certain rodent poison can inadvertently kill animals as they eat the rat or mice which has consumed the poison. These two young activists have also written a very eloquent and informative letter asking Bunnings to reconsider selling such poisons.

Keep up the amazing work Lorelei and Phryne in protecting our wildlife.

Austin Aggiss Year 11

Congratulations to Austin who was selected by Scarborough Surf Lifesaving Club (SSLSC) as one of the Youth representatives featured in the promotion of the upcoming Australian Surf Life Saving Championships (the Aussies) to be held at Scarborough and Trigg from 25 March – 2 April 2023. Find out more here.

Austin started at SSLSC as a seven year old Nipper. He now has a weekly summer training schedule that includes two pool swim sessions, two soft sand running sessions, three board sessions and one ironman session, as well as racing on Sundays in the club weekly racing events.

Since the age of 10, Austin has represented the Club at numerous carnivals in all the water events including swim, board and ironman races against other West Australian surf clubs in both city and country locations.

Austin has completed his Bronze Medallion and has been a volunteer surf lifesaver for the past four years. He is currently completing his Drone Operators course so he can use the drones at the beach to assist with patrol.

Austin loves all the water events, with the board race and team board relay events among his favourites. This year he will represent SSLSC at the Aussies in the U17 age category.