As the term comes to an end, I have had time to reflect on the amazing achievements of our Middle School students in Term 3.

Our girls have had so many opportunities for adventurous learning, including our third group heading off on their Year 9 REALISE Camp, Year 8 Camp on the Fleurieu Peninsula, and a wide variety of excursions across a range of subjects.

The last two weeks have been no different, filled with fabulous learning experiences and accomplishments.

I wish all Middle School girls and their families a safe and restful holiday break and look forward to welcoming you all back for further exciting endeavours in Term 4.

Life as a Junior Boarder

Being a Year 7 boarder can be very overwhelming sometimes. It is a big change moving away from home and taking on a lot of responsibility from such a young age. However, we have made it successfully through three terms with the support of fellow boarders and staff, who have made our experience better and helped us adjust to life with these responsibilities.

The Boarding House is a fun environment, which allows students to engage with one another. One of the many activities we have enjoyed is the Birthday Dinners every term, which involves a delicious slice of cake and a great chat.

The most recent Birthday Dinner included a beautiful pink set up by Annabelle Dolling and Isobel Drew. The new leadership positions within the Boarding House were also awarded. We were delighted to be joined by Ms Jane Danvers, Mrs Belinda Arnfield, the Heads of Houses, and other members of the Wildy staff, who all added to the fun atmosphere of the night.

Willa Maclachlan and Briege Williams

Australian of the Year Breakfast

The newly elected 2022 Senior School SRC Executive and current Middle School SRC Executive were recently privileged to attend an Australian of the Year breakfast at the National Wine Centre of Australia.

The event was held in honour of 2021 Australian of the Year, Grace Tame, the South Australian Australian of the Year, Tanya Hosch, the South Australian Senior Australian of the Year, Professor Richard Bruggemann and the South Australian Young Australian of the Year, Isobel Marshall.

Tanya Hosch, the first Indigenous person and only the second woman to be appointed to the AFL executive, spoke passionately about systemic racism and prejudice against Indigenous players. This connected the Middle School SRC Executive directly to the Year 9s learning in Artemis just last term. She has successfully implemented an extraordinary number of influential measures to transform the AFL, advancing women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, gender-diverse Australians and the entire community.

Professor Bruggemann, a 76-year-old disability advocate, has been instrumental in creating a community service system to see persons with intellectual disabilities and their families experience improved quality of life. An extremely humble man, it surprised us to learn how powerful he has been in his work advising governments on disability services, legislation, inclusion and rights. He inspired us with his deep passion for making a meaningful difference in the lives of those with an intellectual disability, a path he discovered much later in life.

Isobel Marshall, the 18-year-old co-founder of TABOO, created the social enterprise to help women around the world by breaking down the stigma of menstruation. TABOO’s mission is for menstruation to be respected and understood as a human experience that does not suppress anyone’s access to equal opportunity and rights. In fact, period poverty is a major reason for inequality around the world and can be a large barrier to education. Around the globe, almost 30 percent of girls drop out of school by the time they hit puberty.

TABOO sells accessible, affordable, ethical and sustainable pads and tampons. All net profits and advocacy efforts are dedicated to eradicating period poverty through systematic and social change, including support of the charity, One Girl, which provides education programs to girls and women in Sierra Leone and Uganda. Isobel’s impressive resourcefulness and desire to be of service on a large scale for someone so young was inspiring.

Australian of the Year, Grace Tame, is an outspoken advocate for survivors of sexual assault, particularly in institutional settings. Grace was the victim of sexual assault by her high school teacher and she was prevented from speaking out about her experience due to legislation. She struck us as extremely courageous and effective in bringing about legal reform and public awareness by sharing her own story.

The speakers seemed to share a vital common characteristic; they were all personally motivated to challenge social norms to bring about positive change to benefit others. Indeed, Australian of the Year, Grace Tame, implored us to do as she had, to never doubt your worth amongst the crowd. For change to occur, she urged us that it is necessary to push your fear to one side and voice your opinions strongly. Further, that it is important to never forget that it is the littlest of things, sometimes seemingly insignificant in the grand scheme, that can help bring about change – one step at a time.

Elena Tsamaidis, Livia Podreka and Sophie Grice

Middle School Debating Reflection

Middle School Debating provides girls with various transferrable skills that they can use in school, extracurricular activities and in their future lives beyond school. 

We learn about time management, thinking quickly and responsively, and working in a team while having fun and celebrating achievements with friends. Prepared topics are generally more complex and encourage highly analytical thinking, whereas secret topics require the preparation of a debate within an hour and the ability to trust and rely on your teammates. Debating is enjoyable and extremely rewarding, strengthening public speaking skills and critical thinking as well as relationships with our peers. 

As was famously quoted, “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself”. Coaching a team of Year 7 debaters this year was also a great experience where we learnt just as much as they did about debating. We had to get back to basics and communicate with students who had no previous experience of interschool debating and were much younger. While the season came with its challenges, we have learnt so much about how to teach with clarity so the Year 7s could understand us, to give feedback and edit drafts with them. Much credit should go to the girls who persisted, were extremely brave and took all advice on board, continually seeking feedback. They made it to the quarter finals, which was an amazing achievement for all of them. 

We would like to thank Ms Cathy Juniper, Malena Mavrakis and Devika Mukherjee (Year 10) for  their help. We would not have gotten this far without their support. 

Jeevan Gilhotra and Sonakshi Cooray

Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award

In Year 9, all girls are encouraged to complete their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award. To do so, we needed to acquire enough hours of physical recreation, service, our chosen skill and to take part in an Adventurous Journey.

Physical recreation was not a problem as many girls used their winter or summer sports. For the service component of the award, some of us have been running down to the Mamie House during lunch to read to the ELC girls. Others have been using their Form time to create stuffed bears or even terracotta pots for Anglicare.

There is a wide scope of skills, ranging from cooking to piano or even reading. Duke of Edinburgh has provided a great incentive to pursue hobbies, for example, girls have started Instagram accounts blogging their delicious cooking creations.

The Adventurous Journey component was entirely covered by REALISE, where we had an overnight practice journey to Onkaparinga and finally the three-day kayaking expedition on the beautiful Coorong. Many girls are close to finishing and some girls have completed the Bronze Award. Congratulations to all girls for their efforts and good luck to those who choose to continue with Silver Award.

Fengfan Zhang

The Kids Cancer Project

I would like to thank all staff and girls who contributed to The Kids Cancer Project Fundraiser by wearing crazy accessories to school on Friday 20 August and donating money.

I am very glad to announce that we have raised $1145, which exceeded the set goal. All this money will go towards buying bears for children who are in hospital receiving cancer treatment.

Earlier this year, my cousin was diagnosed with cancer. It was difficult for our family, but through the fundraiser, I hope to let people in a similar situation know that they are not alone. Once again, a big thank you to all the people that participated in this very worthy cause.  

If you would like to learn more about this fundraiser, you can find out more information here.  

Mia Pyman

Defence, Space and Cyber Expo

In Week 9, a group of Year 9 and 10 students studying Robotics and Space or Cyber and Artificial Intelligence had the opportunity to explore careers at Lot Fourteen.

We began the morning by listening to an insightful presentation explaining the layout and functions of Lot Fourteen. It was amazing to see how much technology research and development is operated in South Australia. We were excited to see that Lot Fourteen works with many South Australian companies such as Myroita and Fleet Space and international companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.

The amazing facilities helped us visualise the extensive possibilities of a future in this industry. We learnt about new technology with interactive games in the Space Discovery Centre.

To finish our afternoon, we attended an Expo. We were exposed to real jobs and work experience opportunities from all over South Australia. From Engineering for the Navy to White-Hat Hacking, there were so many options for us to explore. It was a very exciting and eye-opening afternoon, and some of the girls were lucky enough to meet and chat with Premier Steven Marshall.

Anna McAuliffe

Van de Graaff Generator 

During our Physics unit in Science, the Year 7.4 core group had the opportunity for Mr David Pyman, the Senior Physics Teacher, to explain how the Van de Graaff generator works.

Mr Pyman taught us that the Van de Graaff generator creates static electricity and in turn produces mini lightning bolts. This generator consists of a rubber belt in the middle and two metal domes of different sizes; a large one attached to the rubber belt and a smaller one that is movable.

The rubber belt carries electrons up to the large dome and they spread out across the surface like charges repel. Eventually, so much charge builds up that there is enough force for the charge to jump from the larger to the smaller dome, resulting in a mini lightning bolt.

Seeing the bolt in real time was fascinating and we even got the chance to become conductors! By touching the larger dome and the others physically in contact with the small dome, we could pass electricity from one to another. 

Kaylie Yen