Senior School

Year 7 Experience Day and Orientation Morning

Last week, we were excited to welcome our 2025 Year 7 cohort and their families for two significant events. On Thursday, boys joined us for their Senior School Experience Day, where they had the opportunity to explore the campus with some Year 10s, connect with next year’s student leaders, and learn about what it means to be a member of the Senior School at Churchie. The excitement from this day carried over to Saturday when boys and their families took part in our annual orientation morning. Boys had the chance to hear from our 2025 School Captain, George Samios, before enjoying some games with their new house groups. Families also took the opportunity to start building connections with key members of the Year 7 staff team and other members of the Year 7 community. We are excited to welcome the new Year 7 team when they join us at the beginning of next year.

Joe Hodges
Head of Year 7

SPAQ-ed at the TRI

Earlier this term, Eshwar Thota Nagaraj and Ollie Burger (Year 11) participated in the SPARQ-ed (Students Performing Advanced Research Queensland – Education) programme at the Translational Research Institute. This week-long programme enables the students to work with world-renowned researchers and collect data to assist with ongoing studies. The students performed two assays for their project: an epidermal growth factor (EGF) and transferrin (Tfn) uptake assay, and also immunofluorescence staining. The students then presented their findings in a seminar at the end of the week and had an opportunity to apply for a bonus ATAR adjustment factor for entry into relevant courses at The University of Queensland.

John Martin
Head of Faculty – Science

Report by Eshwar Thota Nagaraj and Ollie Burger on their SPARQ-ed project:

Over the course of the week, our main objective was not only to gain valuable experience in the labs but also to learn how the experiments we were doing worked and how they could potentially save lives in the future. The experiments we conducted were focused on how a drug called prochlorperazine impacted a cell’s ability to consume molecules through the process of endocytosis. To investigate this, we tested how the cancer cells took in two different molecules, EGF and Tfn, when they weren’t given the drug, and tracked their progress through the cells. These molecules were digested easily into the cells, creating an almost starry pattern that can be seen in the image on the left below (Figure 1). At the same time, another group tested how the cells took in the molecules with the drug present, predicting that they would be stuck on the cell’s membranes. And it worked! As can be seen in the image on the right below (Figure 2), they developed an almost cobblestone pattern around the cell’s membranes. This is important because, with the EGF and its receptors on the outside of the cell, other treatments can more easily identify the cancer cells and potentially save more patients.

We had the opportunity to work in a PC-2 lab, deal with real cancer cells, and connect with leading scientists in the field. We made strong friendships with like-minded people from across the state and gained a great understanding of the pivotal work being done here in our city. Ultimately, the whole week was a surreal experience that we highly recommend to every boy at school.

Rod Olsen
Head of Senior School