Senior School

Study Hub — Academic core skills Years 8 to 10 essay writing

Presenter: Ms Fiona Philip
Registration: Limited space available; please email Kelly.Jackson@churchie.com.au to register for the sessions.

Week 5: Writing thesis statements

Date: Wednesday 21 February
Time: 3:30 to 4:15 pm
Location: The Centenary Library (CLG110)

Thesis statements are crucial as they provide a clear and focused direction for an essay, setting the tone and scope, and guiding the reader through the writer’s argument or analysis. In this session, we will practice the art of crafting compelling, clear, and concise thesis statements that will elevate your essays and presentations. 

Week 6: Integrating evidence and making evaluations

Date: Wednesday 28 February
Time: 3:30 to 4:15 pm
Location: The Centenary Library (CLG110)

Key to a successful essay or argument is clear evidence and justification for your argument. In this session, we will improve the quality of your evidence and effectively integrate it into your argument. We will then ensure we include clear evaluations linking our arguments back to our thesis statements.

Week 7: Cohesion

Date: Wednesday 6 March
Time: 3:30 to 4:15 pm
Location: The Centenary Library (CLG110)

Cohesion in your assessment writing is crucial as it ensures that your ideas are presented in a clear, organized, and understandable manner. This session uses linking words, consistent tense, and a logical structure to connect sentences and paragraphs, making the text flow smoothly. By improving your cohesion, you will enhance the quality of your essay or presentation.

Kelly Jackson
Senior Learning Support Coordinator

Year 12 IB Chemistry

Currently, across all Year 12 subjects in the IB Diploma Programme, students are completing their internal assessment that will be moderated by the IB. In group four (science) subjects, internal assessment involves the collection of data over a significant period of time.

The scientific investigation that students undertake is an open-ended task in which students gather and analyse data to answer their own formulated research questions. Students are encouraged to explore an area of specific interest.

Dr Mikhail has been pleased to see that her students have all chosen unique and engaging topics:

• Bentley Burke is looking at the effect of varying metal reactivity on the heat of enthalpy of a single displacement reaction as measured through calorimetry.
• Finbar Curran is looking at how the specific heat capacity of water changes with increases in salt solution.
• Ellis Hogan is looking at exploring the relationship between specific heat capacities being affected by variable hydration levels of metal sulphate solutions.
• Charlie Liu is looking at the effect of changing the concentration of electrolytes on the amount of metal deposition also in electrolysis.
• Bill McCart is looking at how the rate of reaction of a chemiluminescence reaction is impacted by the concentration of a rate-determining reactant involving L-Cysteine inhibited luminol.
• Jack McGrath is looking at the effect of current on the amount of copper metal deposition during electrolysis.
• Haris Omar is looking to investigate the effect of exposure time to air on lactic acid concentration in milk (i.e. what happens to milk when you leave it out for too long).
• Thatcher Phillips is looking to investigate the effect of temperature on vitamin C degradation.
• Angus Richards is looking at the effect of the concentration of electrolytes on the overall EMF or cell voltage in an electrochemical cell.
• Vincent Wu is looking to determine the amount of actual copper in our copper coins through titration.

Best wishes to the class as they complete these investigations.

Catherine Prosser
Dean of International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

Senior School wellbeing page

Please see here a link to our new Senior School Wellbeing page.

The purpose is to provide a landing page for Senior School families with a focus on wellbeing. Students and parents can now access:

• Mental Health and Wellbeing Resources
• Our new Wellbeing Curriculum (Year 7 to 12)
• Parent Wellbeing Lecture Series
• School TV (Parent wellbeing resource to support with parenting)
• House pages
• Links to a variety of other useful information across the tenets of the School. 

In addition to this, notices relevant to the Senior School will be posted here (in addition to relevant year level pages). 

For parents wishing to find quick access to this page it can be found under the ‘Quick Links’ section in myChurchie.

For any issues with access to this page, please contact the IT department via MySupport@churchie.com.au.

Parent Wellbeing Lecture Series

Last week, Dr Terry Byers presented A Learner’s Toolkit for Parents – How to set up your son now for success in the future. To view the PowerPoint slides please visit the Parent Wellbeing Lecture Series page.

Josh Di Bella
Deputy Head of Senior School (Years 10 to 12)

Rod Olsen
Head of Senior School