Year 11 Awards 2023

I am very proud to accept College Awards in House, Drama, and Music this year. These are areas of passion for me, and I have been very committed in all my years at All Saints’ College.

House

For Cowan House, I have contributed to the best of my ability in a variety of sports, cultural, and leadership activities. I participate to the best of my ability in sports carnivals such as Athletics, Cross-Country, and Swimming, as well as the Inter-House sports competitions. For my efforts, I have been awarded for

  • Most Valuable Player in 7/8 Girls Touch in Semester 2, 2019
  • Year 7/8 Girls Touch Rugby Coach’s Award in Semester 2, 2020
  • House Spirit in 2021 Term 1 Interhouse Sport Competition
  • House Spirit in 2021 Term 1 Interhouse Cultural Competition
  • Year 9/10 Girl’s Netball Coach’s Award in Semester 1, 2021
  • Year 9/10 Girl’s Volleyball Coach’s Award in Semester 2, 2021
  • Most Valuable Player in 9/10 Mixed Capture the Flag in Term 4, 2021

I have also represented Cowan House in cultural events such as Inter-House debating in 2020 and 2021. I was also a debate coach for younger years in 2022, where I shared my skills to make a positive difference. I have participated in the House Choir since 2020 and last year I stepped up to sing the harmony. I also really enjoy Inter-House spelling and quizzes, and have participated every year since 2020. Not only this, I also encourage my peers in Cowan House to get involved and make connections to make the College a better place.

In Cowan House, I have been known to step up and fill in any empty places in Sports Carnivals. I am very passionate about positively contributing to the House, and I’m proud to accept this award.

Music

I have also been very enthusiastic about music at All Saints’ College, even since I started in the Junior School in 2017. I have been involved in a variety of groups such as:

  • Year 7 ‘The Minor Details’ choir, 2019
  • College Choir, 2020 to present
  • Senior Girls Choir, 2022
  • Celtic Band, 2019-2021
  • Concert Band, 2019
  • Senior Wind Ensemble, 2020 to present
  • Flute Ensemble, 2022 to present
  • Solo performances throughout

I have also been awarded the Southwell Music Grant in the years 2022 and 2023, for my dedication to music.

Music has always been enjoyable for me because it allows me to be creative and express my emotions. Whether that is joyous or sadness, I have a great time performing and developing my skills. I have made many friends from music at All Saints’ College and left another positive influence.

Drama

Lastly, I am proud to accept a Drama Award for participating in Drama for many years throughout my time at All Saints’ College. I have been involved in

  • Chaos, 2020
  • Drama Hub, 2020
  • 40 Years Later, 2021
  • 9/10 Drama Specialist, 2022
  • The Addam’s Family Musical Production: ancestor (ensemble) and Venus Flytrap, 2023

Over the years I have been very committed to drama and especially for The Addam’s Family Musical Production, I committed 94 hours. I had to reorganize my schedule to fit in rehearsals, which was a challenge, but rewarding.

Health Driver’s Ed Project

This project was about designing a road safety campaign targeting young drivers. I had to collaborate with a peer and we decided to create a poster informing young drivers about fatigue driving.

The biggest thing that I learned while completing this task was that driver fatigue was an important issue, particularly for young drivers. I used to think that the issue of driving tired and falling asleep or losing concentration behind the wheel wouldn’t be an issue for me because I was young and had more energy and it wouldn’t affect my age group. Instead, I have found through my research that young drivers can be affected by driving tired because I could be driving home from a party, or tired from a long week of late-night studying. In fact, young adults are four times more likely to drive fatigued and overall account for about two-thirds of all fatigue-related crashes. To be safer, I should plan ahead and only drive when I have had an adequate sleep.
 

Here is the poster we designed below:

We also added a second page, that would include more facts and statistics

One piece of advice I would give to young drivers is to ‘just be safe’, don’t try to ‘risk it for the biscuit’. If you don’t think you’d be safe to drive home, don’t push yourself and try a safer alternative. If you’ve been drinking or if you are tired, don’t try to ‘push through it’, instead make a smarter decision to call your parent, or an Uber to get a safer ride home. I think that most young drivers could get caught out and have to make risky decisions when driving because they want to not rely on their parents anymore, but there is no shame in this if it is ensuring your safety.


 A pledge that I will commit to when I start driving is to put my safety first. I pick this to commit to because driving can be dangerous if you don’t follow the rules or don’t make the best decision. I can stick to this by letting my parents know where I am going to drive, so in case I can’t drive, they know roughly where and when I should be picked up. Or I can plan ahead for myself and my friends if we intend on getting into an Uber. When young drivers such as myself learn to drive, it is inevitable that I, along with many others, will make a poor decision, which could lead to an accident. Therefore, it is unreasonable to pledge that I won’t ever make an accident. Instead, I hope to stick to safe, well-thought driving decisions. 

Science Spaghetti Building Project Reflection

This term in Science, I was given the challenge of designing and creating a building out of spaghetti and blue tack that would withstand a simulated earthquake.

The building also had to fit the following criteria:

  • It had to be quick and easy to assemble.
  • Have a minimum height of 60cm.
  • Have a maximum base of 30 x 30cm.
  • Be under the budget of $60. 1 gram of blue tack was $1 and 10cm of spaghetti also cost $1.
  • It must stay standing after the simulated earthquake.

I worked in a group with Olivia, Howard, and Zayn. We started the project by researching and designing different ways we could build our spaghetti building. This process involved defining the problem and brainstorming ways we could design our spaghetti building. We took inspiration from different buildings like roof trusses and other spaghetti buildings. We decided that our spaghetti tower should incorporate triangle shapes because they are strong shapes and would add strength and resistance.

Some of our inspiration pictures

Next, we had to design our first spaghetti building. This would be our prototype for us to test and improve for our final design. This building had a square base of 30 x 30cm and long strands of spaghetti reaching upwards from the corners to form a point at 50cm, and a small piece at the top to get the building to 60cm. There also were braces on the first design. These were extra pieces of spaghetti from the base to the walls that would add extra support, also making the building more earthquake resistant.

Design sketches for our first prototype

However, once we started constructing our building, we realized that our building wasn’t stable and it collapsed before we could fully build it. This was because the long pieces of spaghetti that we were planning to join together at the apex weren’t as strong as we originally thought. It was impossible for us to build the tower without it collapsing so we decided, as a group, to change our idea and for a bit of fun, we stuck the pieces together to form a pole. Technically, it fitted the requirements but it wasn’t our most creative idea so we went back to the designing process to create a new spaghetti building.

The spaghetti pole building

Even though our first design didn’t work, our group was resiliant and determined to improve on our next spaghetti building. We did more research and discovered that along with triangles, hexagons are strong shapes. We decided that our next spaghetti tower should incorporate both of these shapes to be earthquake resistant. Also we were given new criteria by our teacher. Our spaghetti building now had to be:

  • A minimum height of 25cm
  • Have a sheet of paper on the top
  • A platform of at least 10 x 10 cm at the top

The new criteria made it a bit easier for our group to create a new design for our final building. We incorporated hexagon shapes and triangle shapes to strengthen the building and make it earthquake resistant. Our new design looked like this:

Hexagon spaghetti building design sketches

After we created our new design, we had to build it. I worked well with my group members to help build the tower. First we build the hexagon-shaped base, then the walls, platform and supports. We were all very pleased to see the building stand up. This is what it looked like:

Hexagon-base spaghetti building

After we built the building, it was time to test it. All of the class had to test their buildings on the Rumble Table, which is an earthquake simulator. We put the piece of paper on top of the platform on our building and selected a lego figure to put on there too. Then the teacher shook it on the Rumble Table for 10 seconds and our building did not fall apart or snap.

Rumble Table test

Olivia, Howard, Zayn and I were all super happy with the result. We all had different strengths in this project. For example my strengths were collaboration and resilience. I was able to work well with my group and tried to keep everyone involved. I was also resilient; when our design failed, I didn’t get too disappointed but started rethinking our design. Olivia and Howard both had really good design and problem solving skills. They worked really well on creating designs for the spaghetti building and could problem solve to make sure our building fit the requirements. Zayn also had good collaboration skills as well as effect-communication. We all worked well with him constructing the spaghetti building because he could easily tell us what part of the building to build next so it wouldn’t collapse. For example, we build the opposite sides of the building up so it wasn’t too heavy on one side. One big strength my whole group had was organisation. We were able to stay organised because we had a collaborative word document and could share information, links and create deadlines.

Pictures from our word doc showing the shared information

Altogether, we were always on track and collaborated well as a team. We showed resilience when our designs failed and could problem-solve to get the best outcome. We were inquisitive in our research and I have learnt more about strong building structures and that hexagons are one of the strongest shapes. Since we worked so well together, we had a good outcome and enhanced skills such as resilience, problem solving and collaboration.

A change that I would make to the engineering process is slightly altering the design process so we can have a practice joining together the spaghetti with blue tack. This is so we can feel how it joins together because this was one of the downfall of my group’s first prototype. Our very first design didn’t work because the spaghetti didn’t originally join like we had planned. If we changed it to allow a practice, many other groups wouldn’t have this problem and there wouldn’t be as much need for redesigning. Overall, the process was enjoyable and I developed many skills like collaboration, problem-solving and resilience.

Capabilities Wheel

Ceramic Semester 1, 2021 Reflection

This semester, one of my electives was ceramics. I was very excited to start to start the course and learn new things because I haven’t worked with clay before. I really enjoyed the course and this E – portfolio will share photos of some of my finished pot, research project and how I have improved my capabilities.

My finished pots:

My pots are 2 different sizes, 1 blue and 1 purple. I used a pencil to make the bumps on the sides.

During the course, the class was given the task to research the Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods. I previously didn’t know much about these two periods and using my capabilities I was able to do really well on this task.

This is the capabilities wheel:

The main capabilities I improved were inquisitiveness, problem solving and creativity.

My inquisitive capability was improved this semester because of the research task I did. We had to research about the Palaeolithic and Neolithic period; 2 different periods from the Stone Age. I developed my inquisitive capability because I had to research something I previously knew nothing about. Inquisitive is a good capability to have and further develop.

Another capability I improved this semester was problem solving. This is a good skill to have in ceramics because there are many problems that have to be solved. Some problems arose when I was making my final pots because you had to keep the surface of the clay at a good consistency. It couldn’t be too wet or dry. I used my problem solving skills to have the right amount of water so my pot surface wasn’t too wet or dry. Problem solving is a good skill to have in life because it helps keep control of our work.

I improved my creativity capability by designing how I was going to present my findings of the two periods in my visual diary. I also had to be creative when designing my own pots and then glazing them. Creativity is an important skill in art but it can also be used in other subjects so I enjoyed this course and enhancing my capabilities.

This is a picture of my finished research task in my visual diary:

In conclusion, I enjoyed this ceramics course and learned several new things. It was a different course than I would normally do but I enjoyed working with a new medium, clay, for the first time.

Maths Statistics Project

We are researching the study habits of year 9 students at All Saints’ College. This research is needed so we can understand how choosing whether we want to take an ATAR course or General course would affect the amount we study. We have surveyed all the year 9 students to make the data accurate. Although this data is only accurate for our school as other schools might not have a large amount of student wanting to take an ATAR course.  

Our initial thoughts were that students who are aiming to take an ATAR course will study more than students who aim to take the General course. These results have been collected from the entire Year 9 Cohort (141 students).   

Eliminated bias: ways we have eliminated bias:

– Sample order bias. All year 9s have been surveyed.  

     – Question order bias. Questions on the survey were randomised.  

    – Social desirability bias. Questions on the survey use impartial language. 

    – ‘Yes-man’ phenomenon.  Same strategies as social desirability bias.  

The questions in the survey were randomised to eliminate sample-order bias. We have surveyed all Year 9s to be more accurate. Questions on the survey use impartial language to avoid social desirability bias and ‘yes-man’ phenomenon.  

We understand the sampling method is biased because All Saints’ College is a well-educated school, and more people are likely to choose an ATAR pathway than other schools. The sampling size is all Year 9 students and at this point some people might change their mind before making their final decision about their pathway.  

We are researching this topic in interest of understanding the different study habits of students in Year 9 who want to take an ATAR course or General course. The data in the graphs represent the different amounts of time students do homework each night, and if they find it useful to listen to music while studying or doing homework. 

Conversion of frequency to percentage: 

The graph below represents and shows the percentage of people aiming for the ATAR Pathway and how long they study for each night compared to how percentage of people aiming for the General Pathway. As you can see from the tables above there are a lot more students at ASC aiming for the ATAR Pathway, we can assume this is because All Saints’ is a high fee-paying school which rises expectations in both the students themselves and their parents to do well in the future. With 121 students in Year 9 aiming for ATAR and only 20 aiming for the General Pathway. Our hypothesis was correct though as we thought that people who are aiming for the ATAR Pathway would study more than students aiming for the General Pathway.  

What is really interesting about this graph is that both sides of the graph are both positively skewed. This suggest that more people in both categories study less more other people. Both graph peak at around 0.5 – 1 hours per night, whereas the highest score for both groups was 3, although 3 was not an outlier it was a choice that wasn’t picked often.  

The parallel box plots show the time (on average) students in which 2021 Year 9 students at All Saints’ College study for each night. The responses ranged from 0 hours to 3 hours. Students who are aiming to take the General Pathway in Year 11 and 12 had a lower mean value in which tells us that students aiming for the General Pathway study less. 

The mean, median and mode of the students aiming for the ATAR Pathway are all higher than the mean, median and mode of the students aiming for the General Pathway. Interestingly the range, quartiles, minimum and maximum are all the same. 

Our next question was about how many students found it helpful listening to music while studying, what is interesting about these pie charts is that a lot more people in both categories find it helpful to listen to music than not to. The choice ranged from Always, Sometimes, Rarely and Never.  

For both categories Always was the most popular option with 50.41% of students who are aiming for ATAR choosing it, and 85% of students aiming for General. We can again, take into account that a lot more students at All Saints’ choose the ATAR Pathway. 

There can be bias in our project due to All Saints’ College being a school full of well-educated students. This creates bias because many more students have chosen an ATAR pathway than another school with different circumstances. These results cannot be summarised as all Year 9s but only the Year 9s at ASC. These results of how many hours Year 9s study can be implied to the school by knowing how much time Year 9s spend on homework or study. The school could understand the difference of study habits of Year 9s wanting to do an ATAR or General pathway. Future research could include several more surveys like this across the school for different Year groups. We believe as you age, the difference between the amount of study for ATAR or General pathways increases.

The truth to why Lloyd Rayney’s case was unjust

In this project, we learnt about the principles of justice that uphold Australia’s legal system, such as the presumption of innocence, an impartial judiciary, and the right to legal representation. I studied the case of Lloyd Rayney, and analysed how these principles were both upheld and violated in this case. After writing an essay on the topic, we were required to incorporate feedback and edit the essay so that it was fit for online publication. This essay is the end result of that editing process. It demonstrates my ability to take feedback, and to refine a piece of written work to produce a professional result.

Our legal system aims to follow the principles of justice however, this is not always achieved. An example of the principles of justice not being met (compromised) is Lloyd Rayney’s case. Lloyd Rayney’s case was unjust because the media spread false information about him, leading members of the public to believe he murdered his wife Corryn Rayney. Lloyd Rayney’s trial was unjust because the principles of justice Innocent Until Proven Guilty, Burden and Standard of Proof and Equal Treatment Before the Law were compromised. One principle of justice that was met was Independence of Courts. Principles of justice are important because they bring justice and fairness to trials. If we did not have them, people like Lloyd Rayney would be falsely accused of crimes they did not commit.

Lloyd Rayney’s case started with his wife, Corryn Rayney, attending a boot scooting class in Bentley and not returning home one night to their home in Como. Ms Rayney was reported missing by her husband on August 8, 2007. A week later, her car was found in Subiaco with an oil leak trailing back to Kings Park. Her body was found buried in Kings Park on August 15, 2007. The body was found buried with the head down which speeded the decaying process; it was unclear how and when she died. The investigation of her death lead to Lloyd Rayney’s home being search by search warrants. They discovered he had tapped into Ms Rayney’s phone and had been recording her messages, weeks before her death. During the investigation, a press conference was held in 2007 and Detective Senior Sergeant Jack Lee, who was in charge of the investigation spoke to the media. He stated Lloyd Rayney was the “prime and only suspect”, meaning Lloyd Rayney was the only suspect the police were investigating. This was misinterpreted by the media, and it led to members of the public believing he was guilty of murder. Much of the public had already heard about Lloyd Rayney’s case through the media and he was not able to have an unbiased jury. Instead, a single judge made their decision and Lloyd Rayney was found not guilty of murdering Corryn Rayney. Her killer is still unknown.

The principle of justice Innocent Until Proven Guilty was not met in Lloyd Rayney’s trial. This principle means that you are treated as innocent until enough evidence has been found to prove you guilty beyond reasonable doubt. This is important to ensuring a fair trial because you are not seen as already guilty before your trial. This principle was compromised in Lloyd Rayney’s case because he was seen as guilty because of the media’s misinterpreted information from a press conference in 2007. Detective Senior Sergeant Jack Lee stated Lloyd Rayney was the “prime and only suspect”. The media had seen this as Lloyd Rayney guilty and spread distorted information that he was definitely guilty. People also assumed he was guilty because Lloyd and Corryn Rayney had marital problems. Lloyd Rayney was seen as guilty as by the public and brought injustice to his case.

Burden and standard of proof is another principle of justice that was compromised in Lloyd Rayney’s case. This principle means that there needs to be sufficient proof to find someone guilty of a crime. There must be proof beyond reasonable doubt. An example of this principle of justice being compromised in Lloyd Rayney’s case is that he was the only suspect to be investigated in his wife, Corryn Rayney’s, murder. It was not fair for Lloyd Rayney to be the only suspect investigated because there could have been proof for another suspect other than Lloyd Rayney. The principle of justice Burden and Standard of Proof was compromised in Lloyd Rayney’s case and made it unjust.

Equal Treatment Before the Law is another principle of justice that was compromised in Lloyd Rayney’s case. This principle means that irrespective of their gender, race, sexuality, identity or ability, everyone has the right to have legal representation in court. This is important because it allows everyone to have a fair trial and eliminate bias. An example of this principle of justice being compromised in Lloyd Rayney’s case is when Detective Senior Sergeant Jack Lee stated in a press conference to the media, he was the “prime and only suspect”. This is not equal treatment because what was stated in the press conference got misinterpreted and spread around media and ruined his reputation. Since everyone had heard about Lloyd Rayney’s case, they had already formed an opinion and it would be impossible for him to get an unbiased jury. The principle of justice Equal Treatment Before the Law should have provided Lloyd Rayney an unbiased jury; instead it was compromised and made his case unjust.

One principle of justice that was met was Independence of Courts. This means courts must be separate from media, parliament and government and make uninfluenced decisions. This is important because media can be a major influence on cases, and this makes them unfair. This principle of justice was met in Lloyd Rayney’s case because his case has massive amounts of media influence, but the final court decision was unbiased. The media convinced members of the public that Lloyd Rayney was guilty of murdering his wife, Corryn Rayney. It was impossible to provide Lloyd Rayney with an unbiased jury because just about everyone already had an opinion on the case. Since there was no jury, a single judge made the ruling and Lloyd Rayney was found not guilty of murdering Corry Rayney. The Independence of Courts is an important principle of justice because it allows for a fair trial, and bias from other sources can be eliminated.

Our legal system aims to follow the principles of justice although this is not always achieved. Lloyd Rayney’s case was unjust because of three of the principles of justice were compromised. They are Innocent Until Proven Guilty, Burden and Standard of Proof and Equal Treatment before the Law. If all of the principles of justice were achieved, Lloyd Rayney’s case would have been fair. One principle of justice that was achieved was Independence of Courts. Despite minor flaws in our justice system, it does a great job at bringing justice to Australia. For improvement, cases like Lloyd Rayney’s should have had less media coverage so that Lloyd Rayney had privacy and could have an unbiased jury. Principles of justice are important and all of them must be met to make a case just and fair.\

InnovatED Reflection

This semester in InnovatED I continued to work on the $20 project with my group members Sunishka Verma and Olivia Loke. We really improved on our business by changing how we market our product to be a trinket box. We also improved our personal skills by learning how to manage a business.

To create our product, we used creative thinking to decide what we were going to sell that people would want. Our original idea was to sell folders made out of plastic that can be attached to computer bags. This was too hard for our group to do so our idea evolved to lazar cutting, to change thee folder to be a smaller box, and then to change it to be a trinket box.

I developed my capabilities by working with others on a project I had never done before. I developed problem solving by changing the product so it would sell better. I also developed creativity by designing the advertising our group used at our market.

I improved in the subject by knowing how the lazar cutter works. Before I didn’t know anything about how it works or how to cut something but now that I have used it a bit more, I am becoming more familiar with how it works.

One of the things I found challenging was deadlines. Our group didn’t sell at the market; we only took pre-orders. We had so many that we decided not to sell at the second market. We did this so we would have stock to sell at the Transition Showcase. We were a bit further behind other groups because we had only just decided our final product.

The part of my learning that I would like to showcase is the trinket boxes. Our group is making stock to sell at the Transition Showcase. This shows our growth in capabilities by showing our process and newly developed skills.

About me 2020

My name is Sienna Garvey and I am currently attending All Saints’ College and am in year 8.

My main interests are music and netball and I enjoy reading and spending time with my family, friends and pets. My favourite academic subjects at school are English and Science but other subjects I enjoy are Music, Drama and Food.

The values I am best at are organisation, resilience and leadership. I plan ahead using a diary and calendar. I am resilient because I keep going through tough times and control my emotions. I am a natural-leader and collaborator, in group work I help keep people on task and guide people who need extra help.

One value that I could work on is self-aware. Self-aware is about changing your thinking to be more uplifting and positive. Ways to be more self-aware is doing mindfulness and spending quiet time by yourself.

I hope you enjoyed learning something about me! 🙂

Health Online Learning Reflection

This unit was about learning how to be respectful and do the right thing while online. We had booklets which we filled out and in class we watched some videos explaining what we should do in certain situations. I have learned lots; here are some of the things I learnt.

At the beginning of the unit, the online apps I used were Tik Tok, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, Google, Eportfolios, Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Whatsapp, FaceTime and text messages. I still use these apps but I’m more cautious when uploading something or accepting a follow request from someone I don’t know.

One of the key things I learnt in this unit was empathy is about listening to the person rather than trying to make them feel better or talk over the top of them. Lots of people start with the phrase ‘at least’. Examples are ‘you don’t need a new phone – at least you have one!’ or ‘your Nanna died, at least you knew your Nanna, I never did!’ This is a common mistake people make when they are trying to make someone feel better. It doesn’t work and sometimes makes someone even sadder.

One of the things I learnt that will affect my online behavior would be that it is important to be careful of what you post. Pictures, text messages and videos can be saved and shared and can affect you later in life. Ms Winter explained that your online footprint (what you have done online) can affect your reputation. Some businesses won’t let you work for them because you might be negative online.

One way I could improve online would be to not judge someone by one video, post or picture. Normally I would see something and think ‘why would they pose like that?’ or ‘what’s the point of taking a picture with only half your face in it?’ Now I feel that maybe that’s what some people like to do so I should respect that and not let it bother me.

In conclusion, I have learnt how to be respectful online, for myself and others. I will continue to be safe and will definitely report if something bad happens.

 

My netball team has made the finals!

My netball team (Winthrop netball team) has made the finals in our comp! On Saturday we play our first game of finals.

I am excited to be making finals this year! Even though it means a lot more hard work, I am up for the challenge!

If we are unsuccessful and get knocked out, I will still feel proud of our team.

Our first finals game will be this Saturday on the 7th of September and I can’t wait! 🙂