From our Academic Activities Captain

2021 has seen not only some incredible successes in a range of activities, but a surge in participation and enthusiasm. Although some of our competitions looked a bit different this year, our students took it in their stride and their achievements are a testament to their perseverance and hard work.

This year saw the introduction of a range of new activities. Our Oratory Club provided opportunities for students to develop their skills and confidence in public speaking, while Philosophy Club stimulated a variety of thoughtprovoking discussions. Students in Years 9 and 10 formed Loreto’s first mock mediation team, and girls from Years 10 and 11 were the first to compete in the Ethics Olympiad competition. Our Ethics Olympiad teams saw particular success, with the Green Team receiving an honourable mention and the Grey Team awarded first place and invited to the international competition where they went on to place 9th. This was a tremendous achievement for Loreto’s first year participating in the competition. After competing in a virtual capacity in 2020, it was wonderful to see the return of some debating and public speaking competitions face-to-face this year. During Term 1, our students achieved significant success in the CSDA Public Speaking competition, with a special congratulations due to Erin Longney and Indianna Cane who came 1st and 2nd in the Senior and Year 10 divisions of the competition respectively. Erin, along with Michelle Hoffman and Annika Shankar, were also each awarded the Public Speaking Winner of the Lions Youth of the Year Competition for each of their clubs. The Future Problem Solving Program saw similar success with fifteen teams competing this year, four of which were invited to the virtual National competition. Enthusiastic participation in a range of activities has largely been reciprocated across the school, whether in a formal or informal capacity. Chess and Strategic Games Club, Science Club, Mary Word and our various other clubs continued to grow in popularity. Term 4 of 2020 saw students from across all years participate in the annual Interhouse Debating competition, considering such topics as ‘sport should be compulsory for all school-aged students’ and ‘reality TV shows have been bad for feminism.’ Similarly, our student-teacher debate provided a fun way for students to engage with the world of oratory. The topic, ‘our Music Festival should showcase the talents of our staff as well as our students,’ spurred some hilarious performances from our affirmative staff team.

The memories I have created participating in extra-curricular activities during my time at Loreto are some of my fondest, whether it be my team’s final Year 12 debate, finishing a particularly

challenging FPS booklet or spending an afternoon laughing with friends as we attempted to play Catan in Chess and Strategic Games Club. I strongly encourage future students to get involved in the range of extra-curricular opportunities offered at Loreto Normanhurst and would like to thank all of the staff and students who have been involved in facilitating Academic Activities this year. I wish Olivia Alexander the best of luck as she takes on the role of Academic Activities Captain in 2022.

Sophie Earle Academic Activities Captain

Future Problem Solving

Future Problem Solving, like everything else during the pandemic, took on a different form to previous years. I was very impressed with the way our girls adjusted to online training and competitions. Their enthusiasm, flexibility, collaboration and resilience are commendable.

Our Year 12 Global Issues Team, Vivien Li, Sophie Earle, Zoe Redwin and Zara Oong, were invited to compete at the 2021 International FPS Competition based on their 2020 results. Although they could not travel to America in June, they competed virtually instead. The team placed 20th in the world for their booklet on Neurotechnology and are to be congratulated for this. The Global Issues Booklet Program (GIPS) is the backbone of FPS. Students work in teams of four or individually to use the 6-step problem-solving process to think critically and creatively about the future. In 2021 we had 52 students from Years 8-11 compete on the topics of Youth in Competitive Sports, Wearable Technology, Human Environmental Impact and Personalised Medicine.

The following girls are to be congratulated for making it

Year 8 Team: Ruby Harrison, Olivia Kent, Lily Sorensen Year 9 Team: Natalia Barone, Yvette Alford, Olivia LeeJackson, Alexis Taylor Year 9 Team: Avery Benbow, Kayla McKeown, Josephine Egan, Lauren Meaney Year 9 Individual: Shania Pimenta

through to the virtual National Finals, where they competed against the best teams and individuals in Australia on the topic of Personalised Medicine.

Congratulations to Natalia Barone, Alexis Taylor, Yvette Alford and Olivia Lee-Jackson for placing 8th in Australia out of 40 finalists, and to Shania Pimenta who placed 3rd in Australia. Wonderful effort, girls! In Term 4 we began the Year 7 FPS Introductory Course and 30 Year 7 students have now started their FPS journey and have already shown what amazing thinkers they are. A huge thank you to the staff coaches, Mr Tyler, Ms Nairn, Mr Napper, Ms Lloyd and Ms Patchell, and the amazing Year 12 coaches Georgia Cluff, Charlotte Cluff, Emily Stockwell, Ella Donlevy, Sophie Earle and Zoe Redwin. Thank you also to the FPS parents who supported the girls during virtual competitions. The program could not have continued without everyone’s support and commitment. After many years as the FPS Coordinator I look forward to sharing this role with Ms Beth Nairn next year as well as continuing as an FPS Coach. FPS has been the highlight of my time at Loreto so far – the girls are amazing and have been a delight to work with. The world is in good hands with so many creative problem solvers.

Mrs Robyn Roffey Future Problem Solving Coordinator

“Our team enjoyed our last year of FPS together. Despite the challenges of lockdown, we made many fun memories and found new ways to collaborate. We’re so grateful for Mr Tyler, who has showed us endless support over the years.”

Chloe Lee, Sophia Ingham, Audrey Kha & Cheri Hui,

“In FPS I’ve learnt so much about thinking outside the box and how to work with others to solve complex problems. I’m glad I was in a team so we could collaborate and learn from one another.”

Elina Degani, Year 8

“FPS has been a rewarding experience; our team competed in the Nationals competition, & learning about the topic of Personalised Medicine helped me think creatively and opened my mind to different perspectives.”

Natalia Barone, Year 9

“FPS was a great extra-curricular for 2021. I learnt so many new skills about problem solving and adapting to different situations and have been extremely grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing activity.”

Tahlia Moses, Year 9

Philosophy Circle Pilot Program

In Terms 1 & 2, Loreto Normanhurst engaged in a Philosophy Circle Pilot Program which ran fortnightly. Groups from Years 6, 8, 10 and 12 engaged in the program. which emerged after research in 2020 on the benefits of “doing philosophy.”

Guided by the ideas of German philosopher, Leonard Nelson who said that, “effective philosophy teaching is the art of teaching not philosophy but philosophising, the art not of teaching about philosophers but of making philosophers of the students,” the program focused on creating discussion on a range of philosophical questions among small groups who would be guided by a teacher facilitator. The program started with a guest lecture by Dr Xavier Symons of the Australian Catholic University. Dr Symons spoke to us about his life as a philosopher and bioethicist, especially his work during the COVID-19 pandemic at St. Vincent’s Hospital. He also spoke about the valuing of philosophy in the world of Classical Greece through the story of Socrates, as well as the impact of feminist philosophy through the writings of Simone de Beauvoir and Hannah Arendt. Dr Symons spoke passionately about the importance of engaging with philosophical thinking and multiple perspectives when coming to conclusions on complex issues. From this foundation, the girls and staff enthusiastically embraced the remaining sessions, which were: Session 2: The Social Consequences of Artificial Intelligence Session 3: Freedom and Rights Session 4: The Purpose of Life Session 5: Friendship Session 6: The Ethics of Space Exploration Session 7: Forgiveness

Each session was structured with an opening stimulus source followed by prompting questions which initiated discussion. As an example, Session 2 involved the circle watching a clip from the Spike Jonze film, Her, followed by discussion of the questions:

What are the social consequences of developments in the field of artificial intelligence? What could occur in society and human behaviour if A.I. can become fully intuitive?

Some robust and profound discussions took place in all groups, especially as the girls became more comfortable with listening to the views of others and allowing their own ideas to be challenged by new perspectives.

Mr. Marco Scali, Acting Knowledge & Learning Strategist;

At the end of the process, the girls and staff engaged in a survey of the experience. Outlined below are some of their responses when asked:

“It was really my kind of thing. The questions that I lay awake thinking about at night were being discussed in a group with my friends.”

Abigail, Year 8

“The openness of discussion was phenomenal. Over the course of the sessions our group meshed well, and we were able to host great, open discussion on all the topics.”

Ella, Year 12

“The best part about philosophy sessions was towards the end of each session, when everyone became really involved in the conversation, and debates started to prompt further growth of ideas. It was always very enjoyable to see people being passionate about their opinion.”

Emily, Year 12

“One thing which I particularly enjoyed was how I would leave the session with even more questions and wanting to talk more about the topics we discussed. I also enjoyed how there was no right or wrong answer, so we were all able to freely express our ideas without the thought of it being wrong!”

Imogen, Year 10

“Within the philosophy group you get to experience different opinions and ideas. Some are very contradictory to what others are saying. You also got to hear the reasoning behind different ideas and ways of thinking. I really enjoyed that.”

Grace, Year 6

“What I enjoyed about the philosophy sessions is that each session was on a different topic, and we got to talk more thoroughly and deeply about what we thought of each topic, which we wouldn’t be able to do if it was in class.”

Ava, Year 6

Each year schools from all over NSW gather to participate in the da Vinci Decathlon at Knox Grammar School. The Decathlon is an academic competition designed to challenge and stimulate the minds of school students. Students compete in their year groups, in teams of eight across 10 disciplines: Engineering, Mathematics, Code Breaking, Art & Poetry, Science, English, Ideation, Creative Producers, Cartography and Legacy. There is a different theme each year, and this year’s theme was ‘CHANCE’. Due to Covid restrictions the 2020 decathlon was cancelled, and this year a national virtual competition was organised with approximately 5,500 students across Australia participating. Due to calendar clashes, we were unable to enter teams from Years 5-6 or Years 9-11, but we did enter one team from Year 7 and one from Year 8. Tuesday May 4th in Room 39 was a very busy day, and I would like to congratulate all of the girls for their engagement, hard work and collaboration. They identified their strengths, distributed the tasks amongst themselves and worked together under extreme pressure to complete the challenges. They also had a lot of fun.

Congratulations to our Year 7 Team who placed 3rd in the Engineering Challenge out of 75 teams in their division. The task was to create a scale model of a mini-golf hole based on a sub theme connected to ‘chance’. The model had to be a working prototype designed to sell to mini-golf courses around

“It was actually lots of fun and I got to hang out with the other lovely girls who participated in this. Overall, the experience was great.”

Theresa Dong, Year 7

the world. Well done girls, and a special thank you to Roberto Jorquera from ICT and Paula Middlebrook from Diverse Learning who assisted me on the day.

Robyn Roffey Diverse Learning

“The da Vinci decathlon was actually a lot of fun. I met and hung out with the other girls and made a few new friends. The best part was when we cracked the toughest code in the last few seconds!! Overall, I loved it!”

Mahek Chandak, Year 8

“Da Vinci was very challenging, but I enjoyed working with the other people on my team to find the solutions. It was helpful to be able to use all our strengths.”

Isabelle Hartshorn, Year 7

Year 7 Team: Charlotte Bull, Theresa Dong, Sithmi Kannangara, Zoe Kha, Stephanie Knox, Charlotte Mah Chut, Isabel Marks, Isabelle Hartshorn

“Da Vinci was such a challenging, fun and brain bending experience. My favourite part was the rush and adrenaline, although stressful at times, it made it more fun! It was harder being online, but our team managed to overcome that challenge and complete Da Vinci to the best of our abilities!”

Charlotte Mah Chut, Year 7

Year 8 Team: Isabella Hillier, Madeleine Grindon-Ekins, Valentina Kuruc, Hilary Zhang, Abigail Fairbairn, Ava Garnys, Mahek Chandak, Aimee Harrison

“I found the experience very enjoyable, as it challenged me in ways I haven’t been before. I really enjoyed how rounded the challenges were allowing all of us to work to our strengths but also to try new things all with the support of our peers. Overall, very stimulating.”