Our School in Focus – No. 24 – 2026

This week we celebrate the joy of reading in our annual Book Week parade on the Primary Campus. It is always a highlight of the calendar to see so many wonderful costumes and links to favourite childhood stories. Well done to all those who went to great lengths to create costumes for their children! 

The Book Fair has been running this week and thanks to an enormous effort by Lauren Holten, Annette Syred and their team of helpers, our students once again had the opportunity to purchase a book for themselves or their classrooms. Thank you to all those who helped in the set up and the supervision of the sessions.

This coming Sunday, many of our Year 4 students will make their first Holy Communion as they undertake Sacrament of Eucharist . We wish them all God’s blessings in this exciting phase of their faith journey.

This weekend, Father Stephen Victor, who has been the parish priest in the Northam parish for the last 3 years, will be saying his last masses before he heads to St Anthony’s parish in Wanneroo. We thank him for the input he has had into the school over the last few years and wish him well for the move to his new parish. Father Peter Porteous will become the new Parish Priest and we look forward to welcoming him to Northam.

This week, the Year 3 students took a walk to St Joseph’s Parish Church as part of our Eucharist unit in Religious Education. Students have been learning about the Eucharist, and to conclude the unit, they explored the church sanctuary and its key features. The students asked plenty of questions, made thoughtful observations, and enjoyed exploring both inside and outside the church.

During this term’s Earth & Space Science focus, our Year 7 students took the Earth for a spin while investigating day and night and the process of how eclipses occur.

Our Year 8 students discovered through investigations that biscuits aren’t just good for morning tea, they’re also fuel. Students burned small samples of food and measured the resulting increase in water temperature to investigate how much energy food contains. A simple demonstration showing that the energy we eat really is energy, although setting your lunch on fire is not generally the recommended way to count kilojoules.

As part of the Year 9 Science program, students have been studying how biotic and abiotic factors affect population size, species diversity and ecosystem health, as well as how sampling techniques can be used to estimate populations, monitor ecosystems and investigate human impacts.

Following their classroom learning and some initial trials in the school grounds, students travelled to Eadine Springs to apply these skills through practical fieldwork. Across three sites, students collected water and soil samples, completed quadrats and transects, and used digital probes to measure soil pH, temperature and moisture content.

Mrs Beglin, our laboratory technician, coordinated the digital data, while Mr Gargano, Mr Hillyer and Mr Greenley assisted with collecting soil and water samples. Miss Mutter supported students by taking and labelling photographs of quadrats. These images allow students to cross-reference their sketches and improve the accuracy of their data collection.

In the morning, the two classes rotated through three sites in different orders: the base of an artificial lake, the waterfall and the top of the ridge. After morning tea, both groups completed a final quadrat and transect, recording biotic and abiotic features. Students then returned to the classroom to complete a series of experiments using their field data and samples before producing a science report on Eadine Springs.

The students showed outstanding application to the tasks at hand throughout the day. The excursion provides a direct link between classroom theory and scientific investigation, while supporting discussion of biodiversity, ecosystem health, human impacts and sustainable ecosystem management. It also links with the concept of stewardship of the Earth and humanity’s responsibility to care for the living creatures and natural environments entrusted to us.

For National Science Week, the Year 9A class worked in groups of three or four on the Science Teachers Association of WA online quiz. This involved examining 12 different questions relating to applications and scenarios from all areas of science, in two separate sessions. The students are most confident, and we look forward to receiving the results later in the term.

Year 10A and Year 11 Human Biology investigated DNA extraction by using strawberries to get up close and personal with the material that carries the instructions for life. DNA may be microscopic but get enough of it together and it becomes a strange slimy-mucous substance you can pick up with a skewer. Science can be wonderfully weird.

For National Science Week, our 10A class sat the International Chemistry Quiz, run by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) through the University of New South Wales (UNSW). The students found the single period multiple choice test, challenging but also highlighting the broad application of chemistry across many different areas of science.

The Year 10B Science class have been delving in to what makes us ‘us’, our DNA. Looking at what makes each of us unique, and how we get our looks and traits from our parents. This included a laboratory experiment of extracting the long strings of DNA from a strawberry (which we share 60% of our DNA with). The class will be moving into looking at how our traits are passed from one generation to the next, and why some traits show up more than others. Do you have brown hair or blonde? Brown eyes or blue? Attached or detached earlobes?

Our Year 12 Physics students have studied a range of areas including particle accelerators and investigations into the Large Hadron Collider, electric motors, blackbody radiators and Infrared technology. Our Year 12 Physics students investigated electromagnetic induction using magnets, copper tube, coils and voltage probes. The students allowed magnets to move through a coil, and a copper tube to see how movement can produce an electrical current and measured the related changes. A very practical method to explore how magnetism and electricity are linked.

Our Year 11 Physics students have delved into the world of fundamental particles, investigated radiation and radioactive decay processes, wave theory and interference patterns and conducted practicals to investigate factors impacting the speed of sound and confirming the speed of light using a regular household microwave oven.

As a part of the Year 12 Chemistry practical component, the students produced Esters. Our laboratory became considerably more fragrant as the students made a range of esters by reacting different alcohols and carboxylic acids. Esters are responsible for many familiar fruity and sweet aromas.

Three Chemistry students recently participated in the annual Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) Chemistry Titration Competition held at Curtin University.

Competing alongside some of Western Australia’s most capable young scientists, our students embraced the challenge of performing a highly precise chemical analysis, applying the advanced laboratory skills they have developed through their Chemistry studies. Their task required exceptional accuracy, concentration, and scientific rigour as they determined the concentration of an unknown solution through the process of titrating.

This year’s competition attracted 354 students from 40 schools, forming 105 teams from across the state, our students finished in 66^th position. Well done young chemists.

Our Year 11 Aviation students are getting very close to finalising all the content and required skills for their upcoming Remote Pilot License assessment day. The students recently consolidated their practical skills developed throughout the year, focusing on a range of tasks such as vertical 45s, vertical rectangles, Figure Eights and judging horizontal distances, all of which could be assessed in the upcoming practical.

The students have also been busy working through their required units and revisiting concepts in mapping, meteorological effects, flight theory and radio telecommunications, all of which may appear in the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) theory test that when passed, qualifies our students as an accredited drone pilot.

Morag Lancaster, Mike Hillyer, Cam Greenley, Jada Yengkopiong, Gerhard Vogel, Beth Beglin and Mark Gargano

Science Learning Area staff

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