Academic Life and Learning
Lest We Forget
This year for Remembrance Day Year 7 students continued a tradition that was started in 2020. A collection of hundreds of poppies were made by Year 7, 8, and 9 students last year, and we added to it this year, with the 2021 Year 7’s creating their own. The library looked beautiful, awash in a sea of red poppies, to symbolise the following:
- The red represents the blood of all those who gave their lives;
- The black represents the mourning of those who didn't have their loved ones return home;
- The green leaf represents the grass and crops growing and future prosperity after the war destroyed so much; and
- The leaf should be positioned at 11 o'clock to represent the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the time that World War I formally ended.
We also continued our tradition of displaying photos of those in the Belridge Family, who have served or are serving in the Australian Defence Forces and across the world. The photos were lovingly displayed in the library alongside the poppies. We have incredible photos from Defence Force Personnel, dating as far back to World War I.
James Lun, Gemma Speirs and Kate Tobin very gracefully read the ceremony over the PA to the entire school. Students remained respectful and silent during the playing of the Last Post, as well as for the minute silence and the Rouse.
It was pleasing to hear that some classes stood at the desks, with eyes down cast, out of solemn respect for our fallen soldiers and Defence Forces.
Ms Linto
Head of Humanities and Social Sciences
Class of 2021 Graduation
The Belridge community came together to celebrate the achievements of the Graduating Class of 2021 on Thursday the 28th of October at the Kingsway Christian College Auditorium.
The final school event representing the last 13 years of students’ education was a night to remember, and as always, students represented themselves impeccably. The Class of 2021 have been outstanding representatives of Belridge throughout their secondary education and they have left an indelible mark on our school community.
I would like to thank the families and the staff who have worked tirelessly in support of the students over the years. And particularly, I would like to thank the students of the graduating class themselves, for allowing me to share in your journey as your Year Coordinator. You have developed into exceptional human beings.
I wish you well in all your future endeavours.
Alicia Holliday
Year 12 Coordinator
2021 Infinite Energy Solar Car Challenge
On Thursday the 29th and Friday the 30th of October, two students, Oscar Longworth-Baker and Cameron Spence, represented Belridge Secondary College in Western Australia chapter of the Australian 2021 Infinite Energy Solar Car Challenge at Riley Oval, UWA. The boys have spent recess and lunch times on a Monday in the Design and Technology Learning Area for the past ten weeks, and then a few full days in the workshops after their peers had left school to prepare their cars for the big event.
On the Thursday, accompanied by Mr. Cox, the boys presented for scrutineering, which they passed with flying colours and then raced their cars in a knockout tournament where they adjusted and honed their cars into finely tuned racing cars ready for Friday’s big event.
On Friday, the boys, escorted by Mr. Kovacs, represented the school in the finals, where one of the cars finished 5th overall and the other represented the school well, but did not make it into the final 16 cars. One of the Belridge cars won the tournament award for “Most Eco-Friendly Car” as it contained renewable resources such as balsa wood and newspaper.
Whilst both Oscar and Cameron represented the school well on track, it was noted by several staff from other schools at the event, that their attitude towards helping younger students from other schools to improve on and repair their cars was quite exceptional. On all accounts, we should be immensely proud of how Oscar and Cameron represented Belridge SC at this event, especially given how close the event was to their ATAR exams and graduation ceremony and the noticeably short lead up they had to the event.
Matt Kovacs and Dean Cox
Design & Technology Teachers
Adobe Trials
Students from Belridge SC have recently been working with Adobe to provide feedback on Adobe products. The Year 10 Interactive Multimedia class have been making extensive use of Adobe applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, InDesign and others as they unleash their creative abilities through assessments in the course.
Adobe was kind enough to provide the students with some Adobe merchandise as a show of appreciation for the students’ participation in the feedback program.
Stephen O'Neil
Digital Technologies Teacher
Humanties & Social Sciences
HASS Teacher
Did you know that agriculture accounts for around 70% of global freshwater withdrawals and that 500 sheets of paper require 6000 litres of water to produce?
On Friday 29 October, the Water Corporation came to present an interactive Waterwise incursion to the Year 7s and 8s during their HASS classes. Set up on the oval in tents, the students were asked to work in small groups, put on headphones and follow the instructions given. This saw them move between the tents and complete an assortment of activities, along with learning about the importance of water. The students were all engaged and enjoyed the experience.
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“During the incursion we learnt about how important water is to our everyday life. We learnt how much we overuse it in Australia. We learnt this by doing a variety of hand on activities whilst listening to a headset guiding us through it. All in all, the incursion we had about water usage was an enjoyable experience.” - Matthew, Year 7 |
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“I really enjoyed the Water Corporation incursion and I learned that you cannot destroy water and that there is a fixed amount of water on earth. I learned that the Gnangara groundwater source is the largest in WA." – Dexter, Year 7 |
Rebecca Edmonds
HASS Teacher
Home Economics
CUPCAKES FOR CHARITY
In Week 4 this term, the Year 11 Food Science and Technology class completed their last assessment for the year. They were given creative freedom to produce not only delicious cupcakes but cupcakes that would look amazing on a digital advert. The students were required to make six cupcakes, and present their best one for assessment. As a class collective, the students decided they would like to sell the rest, (rather than eat them themselves) and donate the proceeds to charity. I asked my students to each write down a charity that they would like the proceeds donated to and then we would have a class vote. As a group, the charity they decided on was Huntingtons WA. The cupcakes were sold to teachers on the day and $163.00 raised for the charity.
LIFE'S LITTLE TREASURES
Our Year 10 Family, Children, and You students have been working hard on making Developmental Hearts for care packages to send to the Life's Little Treasures Foundation. This Foundation put out a call for people to make Developmental Hearts, these hearts are made from flannel or fleece and are given to parents whose newborn infants have been admitted to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit. The fabric heart is worn against the parent’s skin so that the fabric might absorb the scent of the parent. The heart is placed with the baby in the isolette or crib so the mother is always with her child.
If you would like to learn more about the Foundation or contribute by donating through knitting, sewing or crafting products please take a look at lifeslittletreasures.org.au
YEAR 11 HOSPITALITY
Our Year 11 Hospitality successfully catered at their first function this week. They provided an array of food for the College’s Open Board meeting and received rave reviews. The students have also started barista training and are making coffees for our pre-school Perks Program.
City of Joondalup Youth Forum
Earlier this term, three Year 10 student councillors were invited to the City of Joondalup Youth Forum and Open Council Meeting. Along with other local high schools, they participated in a workshop led by Sain Dzemail from Insain. This session was focused on positive and proactive youth-led change, helping young people to deliver actions to improve an area or issue. Students also learnt the importance of sharing their ideas to help make a difference in the City of Joondalup.
The students then sat in the public gallery for the council meeting. Joondalup Mayor Albert Jacob addressed them and answered a range of questions from students. They were able to see how a council meeting runs, the questions and concerns raised by members of the public and how the councillors work together to get the best outcomes for the City.
Rebecca Edmonds
Student Councillor Coodinator
ATHIM - USA Consulate Guest Speaker
The Year 12 ATAR Modern History class recently went to Warwick Senior High School to hear from a guest presenter from the U.S. Consulate. Matt, a diplomatic officer, spoke to the students about the different aspects of his job, sharing stories of his time abroad. He also spoke about the close ties the U.S.A has with Australia, which linked in with the current unit of study.
Rebecca Edmonds
HASS Teacher
Footy Colours Day
On Friday 17 September, many staff and students donned their favourite sporting team colours for Footy Colours Day. This was paired with Jeans for Genes day, as a fundraiser for the Fight Cancer Foundation and Children’s Medical Research Institute.
Students had their hair sprayed in bright colours and completed a sporting quiz during the day. Evie, one of the Year 12 students bravely had her long hair chopped off as the main event at lunch for Hair for Heart. This donation will help to make wigs for people with cancer.
Our two schools raised over $300 which has been donated to these charities.
Rebecca Edmonds
HASS Teacher
Ensuring Safe & Healthy Lifestyles
Community Health Nurses
Learning Made Just For You: Girls in Stem 2021 – North Metro TAFE
"... there are barriers for our girls in STEM - there are but there shouldn't be!"
This was the message more than 200 girls heard on Friday 29 October, at North Metro TAFE Girls in STEM Day! They were encouraged to jump at opportunities, seek knowledge and ask questions.
The day started early celebrating the intrinsic thirst for knowledge as our girls read STEM magazines as we waited for the bus at 7am. The girls explored spectrophotometer as they determined unknown elements by analysing samples and comparing flame colours within the chemistry labs. They spend an hour exploring virtual reality, augmented reality, gaming and physics followed by a lesson in cyber security. Recently at the 2021 Skills West Expo and National WorldSkills Competition, North Metro TAFE cyber security students won gold silver and bronze! Our girls were learning from the best in the world. They also experienced a taste of dentistry as they recreated teeth before using their creative skills in engineering to construct suspended load bearing structures with limited resources and limited time. The day in STEM ended on the rooftop garden where our girls learned about horticulture and the benefits of rosemary (rosmarinus officinalis) – helps with memory and clarity, (Moss, 2013).
Providing opportunities like this to: engage with like-minded peers from across the state; learn new skills, insights and information; engage with complex and abstract ideas; and ignite their passion is essential for our bright young minds to flourish.
Ms Bartle
AE Coordinator
Belridge Students Engaging with Leading Research Project
Last term some of our Academic Enrichment students worked with Edith Cowan University researchers to learn first-hand how an idea can spark a research project which may change the delivery of education for future generations. Our students partnered with the School of Medical and Health Sciences, School of Education, School of Science and the Amanda Young Foundation to investigate learning through game based apps. Students discussed the hypothesis, “Does learning through participation in game based applications support learning?” They experienced random selection as they were separated into two groups: half participating in face to face delivery of information and half participating in app engagement. Students also discussed sample sizes and bias with reference to research projects, data confidentiality, big data and follow up data. Making learning for our students real and allowing students to support other organisations is greatly beneficial for our young people; our students were able to give back to our educational community. Through participating in this research, our students not only appreciated the complexity of research, the necessity to continue to improve and change methods but they also learned about Meningococcal infection, prevention and protection.
Ms Bartle
AE Coordinator
LabRats at ECU Joondalup
Year 9 STEM students experienced a taste of what tertiary education at ECU is like as they were immersed in activities across the Joondalup campus. Led by Student Engagement Coordinator, Michelle Austin, and current Marine Science student volunteers, our students navigated their way to complete a race around the campus before participating in Biology and Chemistry workshops in the SUPERLAB.
Students analysed the health of the campus lake ecosystem by utilising a dichotomous key to identify live species within their sample taken from the lake earlier that morning in the Biology laboratory.
Within Chemistry, students completed two activities. The first involved conducting a series of reactions that eventually produced a sudden colour change in what is known as The Iodine Clock: where triiodide reacted with thiosulphate ions to form tetrathionate and more iodide ions. Triiodide combined with starch results in a colour change to blue/black which our students were able to reproduce and alter the time in which the reaction took place. The second experiment saw students coat the inside of a test tube with real silver to create their very own silver mirror test tube! A copy of exactly what took place in both reactions is included in attachments for your interest.
Cyber Science saw our students memorise, analyse and synthesize information to decode a situation presented to them by a cyber-security expert.
Listening to current students share their learning experiences and journeys through a series of vignettes, opened students’ eyes to the world of opportunities currently on offer to our bright young STEM enthusiasts. Belridge SC students are now more aware of what is available for them and how to pursue potential pathways; continuing on their learning experiences at Belridge SC.
Thank you ECU Joondalup for this amazing opportunity to engage with science at the tertiary level.
Ms Bartle
AE Coordinator
Olympiad 2021
On Tuesday 19th October and Saturday 23rd October, myself and a small group of keen math Olympians took part in the West Australian Junior Mathematics Olympiad 2021. The WA Junior Mathematics Olympiad is a mathematics contest comprising an in-school solo math competition and a 4-person team competition held at the University of Western Australia. The Olympiad is held for all bright Year 7, 8 and 9 students from many schools across Western Australia.
The first part of the competition was an in-school solo contest, which took place online over 100 minutes. Using our knowledge of different math topics, we answered the many questions using different equations and working hard. We also used creative thinking to work out which formulas to use and different ways to work out our answers.
The second part of the competition was different from the first, as we were working in teams at UWA instead of the school. I thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with my peers in the group competition as it was very enjoyable working together to answer the team questions. Overall, I had a lot of fun participating in my first West Australian Junior Mathematics Olympiad. It was a great experience to work together with my peers and on my own. I loved the opportunity and I'm looking forward to next year.
Charlotte Vinson
Year 9
On Tuesday the 21st of September, the Year 9 AE class embarked on an excursion to Optus Stadium. We were set with the task of producing an infographics chart about the stadium as part of our Mathematics curriculum and to collect useful information to use in our charts while we were there. Our class had the wonderful opportunity to tour the stadium itself and visited many of the rooms most people don’t see, including the Media Box, training room, ice baths, locker room and the dug out. It was an exciting experience to go backstage at Optus Stadium to visit areas journalists and sporting coaches use during events. Our tour guide, Ron was very engaging and shared with us many interesting facts about the stadium and its four year history. As well as touring the stadium, we also experienced an Aboriginal cultural tour, relating to the Year 9 HASS curriculum. This walking tour gave us an insight into the Noongar cultural influence in the development of the Optus Stadium and its surroundings. Nick Abraham, our tour guide, shared with us the importance of culture and we learned about how the Noongar people used the land and Swan River in the past. These tours were a fantastic and interesting experience and students enjoyed learning about both the stadium itself and Noongar culture.
Charlotte Vinson
Year 9
Elite Music Program
Is your child commencing at Belridge in 2022 and has a love of music? Places are still available in our Elite Music Program - enquire now.
https://belridgecollege.wa.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Elite-Music-Application.pdf
Student Music
Bricktober
Education Assistant
