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.

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. 

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.

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! 🙂

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 (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! 🙂

Hi! My name is Sienna Garvey. I am a student in year 11 at All Saints’ College. I am currently involved in the Catalyst Leadership Team for 2023 and am interested in music and caring for others.

I am always striving to do my best, in schoolwork, and extra-curricular activities. I enjoy being involved in service groups, such as the Catalyst Leadership Team because I enjoy helping others.

In my spare time, I like to play music. I play flute and I also participate in the College’s Senior Wind Ensemble and College Choir.