Academic Highlights

● TECH AWARDS

TECH GIRLS

Zero hunger

AWARD APP DESIGN

Our Year 4 Techgirls Team – Verona Di Santo, Charlotte Don, Aria Guild, Juliette Martin and Tatijana Sesar – received a UN Sustainable Development Goal Award in the 2021 Techgirls competition for their app design.

The girls showed empathy, commitment and maturity beyond their years to develop their app: 'Zero Hunger.' They explained their app, ‘Zero Hunger is for people who are elderly, homeless, low-income families, don’t have a kitchen or can’t cook. Zero Hunger helps them find food either using a charity that can provide food or a food service with cheaper options. Volunteers can use Zero Hunger to donate time, food and/or money.’

Scan the QR code to watch the Zero Hunger video.

Animal Awareness

FINALIST APP DESIGN

Sienna Di Santo, Harper Klein, Xinyi Li and Jazelle Poon of Year 6 developed an Animal Alert Awareness App which was selected as a finalist in the NSW Primary School division of the Tech Girl Superhero competition of 2021. The girls worked collaboratively applying problemsolving and critical thinking skills while focusing on two areas of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals of Life Below Water and Climate Action.

In the Tech Girl Superhero competition students are mentoredby an industry professional to help solve problems, and develop leadership skills. Teams use the design thinking process to identify a problem in their local community to solve, research and document a solution in a business plan, build a working app prototype and pitch it in a public video.

Our tech girls report that research shows that over one million marine organisms die from fishing nets every year.

‘Many species are becoming endangered. Animal Alert Awareness (AAA) 2.0, is a platform that aims to keep marine animals away from fishermen’s nets by sending a targeted sonar to that specific animal. The sonar mimics the predator of that marine life so that it swims in the opposite direction to stay safe. The app includes a blog and location function so the fisherman can advise other fishermen on sightings of marine life so they can turn their sonar on in that fishing spot.’

Scan the QR code to watch the AAA video.

GOLD JUNIOR ETHICS

● GOLD MEDALS AT BOTH ETHICS OLYMPIADS

Ethics winners

Santa Sabina won both the Middle School Ethics Olympiad in November and the First Junior School Ethics Olympiad in October.

The Junior team of Violet Addabbo, Metaxia Dionatos, Angelina Filipovski, Alannah Quinn and Mia Sorial, competed against teams from across Australia and New Zealand. They engaged in clear, succinct discourse and were polished in the way they presented their arguments and responded to the judges’ questions.

GOLD MIDDLE SCHOOL ETHICS

In the Middle School Ethics Olympiad, the students explored the ethics of charitable donations, gender roles and bullying and the ‘right to be forgotten’ on the internet.

Our first place Gold medal recipients – Edith Barrett, Kate Fernandez, Isabel Marturia, Charlotte So and Matilda Stephens – have been invited to the International Olympiad in February 2022.

Medals are awarded to teams that draw clear considered conclusions, address issues with a good understanding of multiple perspectives and where they respond well to critiques of their argument. Matilda Stephens summed it up, ‘It has truly been phenomenal to gather all of this new insight and become more aware of the many philosophical issues present in our society today. I have seen the world through a new and incredibly interesting perspective’.

Santa Sabina encourages collaboration across different year cohorts and it’s no different in competitions such as the Ethics Olympiad. The teams were mentored by a group of experienced Ethics Olympiads winners from Year 10. Mentor Rosanna Cartwright was proud of the younger students’ success and also explained the mentoring process.

‘In our weekly training sessions, we discussed the ethics cases, explored alternative points of view and provided detailed feedback’, she said.

‘Santa Sabina achieved amazing results this year and our two Middle School teams were awarded first and fifth place respectively. Both teams discussed the cases thoroughly and insightfully, in a respectful manner, which led to their success.’

WINNER ART

● 2021 SANTA SABINA COLLEGE

CO-CURRICULAR ART COMPETITION

Lockdown breakaway art

Remote Learning in 2021 provided new challenges for Santa Sabina students including a new approach to co-curricular art. Annual external co-curricular art competitions give students the chance to unleash their imagination and create artworks unrelated to the requirements of the NSW Visual Arts subjects set down by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA). This year our own internal competition, Lockdown Breakaway, gave students the opportunity to find the silver lining in the COVID-19 pandemic. We congratulate the winner of the Santa Sabina College Co-curricular Art Competition, Eva Kalotheos in Year 8, for her outstanding drawing collage depicting the thoughts, emotions and dreaming that occurred in lockdown.

● AUSTRALIAN POETRY SLAM COMPETITION

Silver Screen Slam

Aditi Kamath of Year 9 won the Burwood-Strathfield Heat of the Australian Poetry Slam competition with a mesmerising performance of her poem ‘Silver Screen’. The poem is a powerful commentary on the role and experiences of social media influencers. Aditi then represented Burwood and Strathfield at the Sydney competition placing an impressive sixth against tough competition.

Aditi is a veteran slam poet and is usually inspired by nature, school and role models including her mother and father.

‘A lot of my poems reflect the world that we live in and the youth’ she says.

‘ “Silver Screen” was influenced by the harsh truth surrounding social media and the “predominant influencers” we all know and love. Another particular topic I’ve explored in one of my poems (“I’m just a Kid”) is how youth perceive world issues. In this poem, I talk about WINNER SLAM POETRY

a variety of issues ranging from global warming to homelessness to the ongoing pandemic.”

Aditi is passionate about writing and hopes to use her creativity to entertain and influence positive change.

‘Slam poetry is something that has no limits and so I hope with the help of others, I can continue to create and foster my passion’.

RUNNER–UP DRAWING

● INNER WEST YOUNG CREATIVE AWARDS

Decommissioned past

An evocative charcoal and white pencil drawing, by Valentina Guarna of Year 12, was awarded runner-up in the Inner West Young Creative Awards (16-18 division). Decommissioned Past looks at the way dementia ‘decommissions’ parts of the brain, leaving fragmented memories and mental anguish.

Valentina explained that her grandmother was the subject, and her artwork sought to reveal a rich life filled with relationships, experiences and memories.

But Valentina also said, ‘I have witnessed her rapidly age and battle against her constant physical and mental anguish, represented through the rigidly shaped memory with fragments indicating missing pieces from her mind. Our elderly, particularly with dementia, are frightened by the uncertainty of time and the unknowing future, and through my charcoal piece, I would like to express their struggle in order for the audience to understand and connect.

● NATIONAL MATHEMATICS TALENT QUEST

● YEAR 11 DRAMA MAJOR PRODUCTION

Shakespeare Bachelor

Year 11 Drama's major production, a comedy, Shakespeare Bachelor by Kristen Doherty, was to be performed live in Term 3. But…that pandemic got in the way. So, while in our Remote Learning program, the students adapted the play into a video titled Solo Scenes. Each scene gives us some insight into the ‘ups and downs’ of being a contestant on Shakespeare Bachelor. The students’ inventive interpretations of Shakespeare’s heroines were a highlight of a strange year.

Scan the QR code to watch highlights. Scan this QR code to watch the whole show.

● PLAIN ENGLISH SPEAKING AWARD

Top public speaker

Preethika Mathan of Year 10 won the South West Sydney regional division of the Plain English Speaking Award. The Award is the most prestigious of public speaking competitions that is open to all NSW schools – both government and independent. Preethika’s prepared speech focused on racism and was based on her personal experience and analysis. She also wowed the audience with her three-minute impromptu speech on prioritising the needs of elderly people (drawing on her research for a recent school project).

WINNER PUBLIC SPEAKING

● MANSW 2021 INVESTIGATING WITH MATHEMATICS COMPETITION!

Primary Maths winners!

Congratulations to our state winners in the MANSW 2021 Investigating with Mathematics Competition! Two teams from Year 3 and one from Year 1 won their sections. The students investigated meaningful maths in a real-life setting. Our winners were: ● Year 3 Class for Air Bee & Bees ● Year 3 small group for World's Greatest Shave ● Year 1 Class for Math-ATHLETICS. The MANSW 2021 Investigating with Mathematics Competition is run by the Mathematical Association of NSW Inc.

2021 SCIENCE RESEARCH JOURNAL

Volume 1

Science Research Journal 2021

Scan below to read our inaugural compilation of outstanding papers from Secondary Years students FINALIST SCIENCE

● ROYAL AUSTRALIAN CHEMICAL INSTITUTE’S CRYSTAL GROWING COMPETITION

Crystal chemists

Co-curricular chemistry has a strong following at Santa Sabina and in Term 2 the chemistry club members created a variety of different crystals using alum and copper sulfate as well as common household items such as sugar. Two students from Year 9, Aditi Kamath and Tanisha Chari, entered their crystals into the Royal Australian Chemical Institute’s Crystal Growing competition.

Aditi and Tanisha made it to the finals of the NSW competition with their impressive crystals.

‘Crystal growing is something that we enjoyed and thoroughly recommend.’

● THE LITTLE BIG IDEA COMPETITION

Little Big Idea

During 2021, Emilia Sarayar in Year 3 invented the ‘Awe-sun Home’, a solar powered mobile home cart for homeless people. Her project was selected as one of four national finalists in the Little Big Idea competition – Year 3 and 4 category.

As a finalist, Emilia received a mentoring session with Joanna Nelson, Origin’s General Manager of Future Energy & Technology, where she refined her idea and developed a video to repitch her idea for a chance to become the national winner and win the major prize. FINALIST YEAR 3 & 4

The Little Big Idea Competition promotes Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths learning, and champions creative thinking. It encourages students to create innovative ideas to help solve realworld problems that will shape the future, that they themselves will live through. One little idea is all it takes!

Students had to generate ideas, possibilities and actions, reflect on their thinking by transferring knowledge to new contexts and analyse, synthesise and evaluate by explaining and justifying their ideas.