I hope this blog post finds you all well and filled with the same excitement and pride that I have experienced over the last week. Our school community has been buzzing with activity, and I am thrilled to share some highlights with you all. From Sustainability Week to the Sustainable Fashion Parade, the Festival of Creativity, and the First Tech Challenge Build Day, it has been a truly remarkable time for our students.
Sustainability Week
Sustainability Week is a major event for our school as we continue to work toward achieving the UN goals for sustainability. The week kicked off with our Sustainability assembly bringing our entire community together to deepen our understanding of environmental issues while taking action to make a positive impact. During the week, our students demonstrated their passion and commitment to sustainability through various initiatives and activities. Through Sustainability Week, we have not only raised awareness but also empowered our students to become agents of change.
One of the highlights of Sustainability Week was the Sustainable Fashion Parade. Each InStep showcased their fashion item which had to be constructed from recycled, sustainable or upcycled materials. There were strict rules around the sustainability and any items not meeting the requirements were immediately disqualified. The fashion parade was a celebration of our students' creativity and acknowledgement of the power we have in reducing our carbon footprint. Congratulations to Helen Bebbington's InStep INH01 for winning the overall award.
Festival of Creativity
The Festival of Creativity was a vibrant showcase of our students', staff and parent's artistic talents and imaginative abilities. Friday night was an amazing celebration of what we can do together as an entire community. Parents, students and staff worked tirelessly in creating the most successful event yet. We had over 1100 people in attendance and over 50 student and parent acts. It was a truly spectacular celebration of singing, dancing, instrumental music, art, drama, craft, sewing and literature. Our entire community came together to showcase what creativity means to them and the event provided a platform for our students to exhibit many of the IB Learner attributes especially risk taking. I would like to acknowledge the amazing support provided by our dedicated teachers, parents, and support staff. Their commitment to nurturing our young people and inspiring excellence is commendable, and we owe them a debt of gratitude for their efforts. In particular, I would like to recognise the leadership and tireless work of our staff Greg Thompson, Fiona Curran, Paul Hunter, Jen Colley, Renee Johnson and Kirsten Baker. I would also like to recognise the work of our parents, Winand, Kylie, Rebecca, Lily, Young and all our amazing parent volunteers. Thanks also to our wonderful Arts Captain Uhansa De Silva, production captains Tina Tao and Jua Oh and our amazing facilities team, comms and support staff. This has been a truly collaborative event for our school community and shows what can be achieved when we all work together.
First Tech Challenge Build Day
Our school's participation in the First Tech Challenge Build Day is a testament to our commitment to fostering innovation and technological literacy. We are proud to have three robotics teams who have successfully been selected to compete in the Asia Pacific Open Championship. This competition is held in Sydney over four days in Week 1 next term. To be competitive at this event the teams have been working collaboratively to design and re-engineer their robots, in particular the drive base, custom created CAD parts and the lifting mechanism have been improved. The teams have supported each other with mentoring and advice throughout this process and the designs have been re-engineered, and the robots re-built so that with each iteration they are achieving better outcomes and are on track for the competition. Students and teachers have been working on their robots completely outside of curriculum time and as such, I would like to thank Mr Hams, Ms Bebbington, and Mr Hosokawa for coming in and supporting the students on these days and throughout the holidays.
