2026 Transition is now in full swing. Last week we held the Year 7 Parent Information Evening where families were able to meet with Heads of House and the 2025 Year 7 Form Teachers to discuss how best to support girls as they move into the Middle School.
Our 2026 Buddies had a seminar recently to prepare them for New Girls' Day. The House Captains and Buddy Coordinators worked with their Heads of House to discuss with Buddies the responsibilities of their role. They also wrote letters to the new students we will be welcoming next year.
Please enjoy this report from the Sparaxis House Captains Izzy and Lainie about a recent activity completed in all House groups:
"Our recent Cookie Decorating activity in House was a sweet success! The Year 6s joined us for the first time, bringing plenty of enthusiasm and creativity. Students from all year levels mixed together to decorate cookies with icing, sprinkles, and smiles. It was a wonderful chance for the Year 6s to get to know girls from other year groups and form new connections. It was the perfect blend of teamwork, fun, and sugary smiles!"
This week we have welcomed new students to Wilderness with two New Girls' Days, one for the Year 8 to 12 girls and then today the Year 7s for 2026. We hope they enjoyed their time with us and we look forward to seeing them again at Orientation Day next year.
Competition Success
Congratulations to Evangeline Lee for her first prize in the Tax, Super + You Competition. She has won a monetary prize for both herself and the school. The competition was open to students in Years 7 to 12 and looked for creative ways to educate people on the topics of tax and super. You can view her award-winning video here.
Evangeline is also a finalist for the second year running in the National History Challenge in the Year 9 and Australia’s Defining Moment categories. She has also been recognised in the recent Immerse Education essay awards. Congratulations for all your recent success, Evangeline!
State Final VEX Robotics
The state finals for the VEX Robotics competition were recently held at the University of Adelaide. Please enjoy the reflections from Chanulya Senaratne, a member of the Wilderness Brown Team.
"Our team members felt butterflies in their stomachs, since this was the first State Final Robotics Competition the school has entered. Our team captains, Sirui and Nidhi, gave us a pep talk to do our best and savour this experience. They assured us that we would do really well and our optimism worked. With excellent teamwork with other schools, we achieved high scores of 135 and 108, placing us 5th out of 24 teams. We found a few errors in the coding criteria, but that didn’t stop us and we tried other codes. We performed well on the other criteria, including the interview. We enjoyed representing the school, learned more about the DTE career path, and learnt the importance of teamwork, problem-solving and resilience. This is one of the best and most unforgettable events I have ever had."
UN Youth SA Voice Competition - pitching solutions to the world’s big Issues
The Voice Competition transforms traditional public speaking into a problem-solving competition for students in Years 7 to 10. This forum provides students with the platform to discuss issues that affect their community, country, and the world. A number of students have made it to the state finals and we await to hear their results from that competition.
The following five teams attended the competition:
Team 1: Sharanya Reddy, Radhe Ramson, Anahat Tiwari, Kaitlyn Tran
Team 2: Sophia Lehman, Angelina Georgiou
Team 3: Ella Wu, Annelise Chau, Menuki Fernando, Amelia Yip
Team 4: Yazhini Dhachina, Maryam Cedra Sawad, Fatima Muazzam, Saanika Singhal
Team 5: Lucy Davis, Meng-meng Deng, Lucy He, Yazhini Dhachina
Yazhini wrote this reflection upon returning to school:
"The UN Youth Voice competition was such a valuable and memorable experience for me. It gave me the chance to speak about important global issues that I genuinely care about while also learning from the unique perspectives of others. Throughout this event, I developed more confidence in expressing my ideas and improved my public speaking skills. What made it even better was the supportive and encouraging atmosphere. Everyone was so kind, and it really felt like we were all learning and growing together. Overall, it was not only a fun and inspiring day but also a meaningful learning experience that helped me step out of my comfort zone and see the power of youth voices in creating change."
Web.Comp HTML and CSS Competition
Congratulations to Issie Morgan and Charlotte Munro, who were placed first in the Web.Comp Competition in the intermediate section. This is an international competition and the Intermediate section is specifically tailored for students who are new to web development and focuses on teaching the fundamentals of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). This competition attracts participants from around the world, making this achievement particularly significant for our students and the school community.
Artist in Residence
Middle School Art students have enjoyed the opportunity to work with Tess Bartholomew, our 2025 Artist in Residence, over the last couple of weeks. These photos are from a session with Year 7 students.
