Senior School Archives

Science & Engineering Challenge 2024

by Matt | Apr 24, 2024 | Middle School, NEWS, Senior School, STEM

By Maddi McLean & Miles Lyster (Year 10).

437936370_832715425567731_2024280948854569385_n

Photos: JCU Townsville

32 students from both Year 9 and 10 participated in the Science & Engineering Challenge on Wednesday in the first week of school, term two.

The students were split into groups of four to take on a series of challenges throughout the day. These included building earthquake-resistant towers, building planes, powering a city and more. However, the climax of the day is undoubtedly the results of the bridge-building competition. While most groups take on two different challenges, one group from each school spends their day building a bridge to carry a weighted cart across it.

After watching with bated breath, our bridge group which consisted of Year 10 students Maddi, Sam, Alyssa, and Chelsea tied for first, securing our landslide win at the competition, and beating the next school by 200 points. Due to the nationals being held in Townsville, our school has been able to skip the states and advance straight to the national finals in October. Hopefully we manage to place highly there, too.

Photos: JCU Townsville

To find out more about the Science & Engineering Challenge visit JCU Townsville or via Facebook

UN Youth Forum

by Matt | Mar 11, 2024 | NEWS, Senior School, Year 12

By Maddi McLean – Year 10.

On 2-3 March, 14 Cathedral students from Years 10-12 (Jack Roseby, Alex Pastega, Kayden Crome, William West, Maddi McLean, Grace Burrows, Summer Mason, Lily Johnston, Bjorn Hyseni, Do Young Park, Annabel Goddard, Abbygail Vets, Spycer Morse, Tami Mana) participated in the UN Youth Forum Townsville Conference entitled Navigating Diplomacy: Power and Influence.

On Saturday we took part in two workshops, the first around the concept of diplomacy and whether it is advantageous. The second workshop then focused on power and the military.
We then took part in an IPS (interactive problem-solving) task, with the background being the Cuban missiles. We were divided into three groups representing, Cuba, the USA and Russia, and we had to maintain our objective and choose actions to achieve success against the other countries. After this, we did our first model UN debate on military exercises.

Sunday was filled with heated model resolutions such as near-space technology and democracy versus artificial intelligence. Two of our students, Alec Pastega and Jack Roseby, won the Evatt Competition, successfully representing their allocated country in a mock UN Security Council diplomacy exercise. They have been selected to participate in the State Final in August. Congratulations, Alec and Jack.
We finished the day with an opportunity to voice our opinions on what we believe is good about Australia and what could be improved. These ideas will be taken to the UN General Assembly. Overall, the weekend was filled with challenges and lots of problem solving.

Alec Pastega and Jack Roseby, winners of the Evatt Competition, will participate in the State Final in August.

Sunday was filled with heated model resolutions such as near-space technology and democracy versus artificial intelligence. Two of our students, Alec Pastega and Jack Roseby, won the Evatt Competition, successfully representing their allocated country in a mock UN Security Council diplomacy exercise. They have been selected to participate in the State Final in August. Congratulations, Alec and Jack.
We finished the day with an opportunity to voice our opinions on what we believe is good about Australia and what could be improved. These ideas will be taken to the UN General Assembly. Overall, the weekend was filled with challenges and lots of problem solving.

To find out more about the UN Youth State Conference (QLD) visit unyouth.org.au

Year 12 Biology Camp 2024 – Orpheus Island

by Matt | Feb 27, 2024 | NEWS, School Camp, Senior School, Year 12

The annual Year 12 Biology Camp is one of the highlights of the senior school curriculum. The students spend four days based at the JCU Orpheus Island Research Station – a World-Class Research and Teaching facility on the Great Barrier Reef.

‘On Thursday the 15th of February, the Year 12 Biology students travelled to Orpheus Island where they spent their days snorkelling and using transects and quadrats to collect data in a Fringing Coral Reef Flat Ecosystem. We connected with Professor Morgan Pratchett, a conservation ecologist based at James Cook University, Australia. The knowledge and skills that students acquired while working with Professor Morgan was fantastic.’
Rebecca Smith – Head of Science Department.

Video by Iona Anderson.

Senior School Presentation Night 2023

by Matt | Dec 7, 2023 | NEWS, Senior School

The Year 10, 11, and 12 students and families gathered at the Rock Centre on November 16 for the Senior School Presentation evening, including special guests, Bishop Keith Joseph, and Mr. Daniel Christie, Chairman of The Cathedral School Board.

Photography by Jo Duncan, Matt Scully.

Athletics Carnival 2023

by Matt | Jun 21, 2023 | Middle School, NEWS, Senior School, Sports

The Middle and Senior Athletics Carnival was held at the ‘Red Track’ with Bede House taking out another win for both Middle and Senior schools.

The Interhouse Athletics Carnival was held at the Townsville Sports Reserve on 20 May, 2023.

Photography by Jo Duncan.

The carnival consisted of three track (100m, 800m, 4x100m Circular Relay), and four field events (Shot Put, Discus, Javelin, and Long Jump).

House Results

Middle School

1 BEDE 883 2 MORE 872 3 LANGTON 769 4 CHATHAM 741

Senior School

1 BEDE 545 2 MORE 479 3 LANGTON 432 4 CHATHAM 407

Age Champions & Runner Up

12 Year Girls – Harpa Miles M 20, Emily Walker M 15

12 Year Boys – Noah Shiells C 20, Hayden O’Neill B 15

13 Year Girls – Jillian McCauley B 24, Lara Burgers C 23

13 Year Boys – EQUAL Kolby Walters B 26 / Lucas Goodwin B 26

14 Year Girls – Lilly Johnston C 29, Mia Clive B 24

14 Year Boys – Aaron Roberts B 20, William McCallum L 18

15 Year Girls – Halle Burgers C 22, Kyla Grieve L 21

15 Year Boys – EQUAL Jeshua Cronje M 27 / Jayden Porter M 27

16 Year Girls – Celicia Niemandt L 32, Shaquana Castors C 25

16 Year Boys – Nathaniel Talbot B 23, Jett Mason M 22

17 Year Girls – Janae Pearce B 27, Ashlee Tengbom B 21 / Charlotte Smith M 21

17 Year Boys – Charlie Patrick L 22, Joshua Tonkin C 21

18 Year Girls – Milla Armitage B 29, Neve Rankine-Johnson M 21

18 Year Boys – EQUAL Daniel Keough B 20 / Julius Levenell M 20

Musicals & Instrumentals 2023

by Matt | Mar 28, 2023 | Middle School, Musical, NEWS, Performing Arts, Senior School

The Interhouse Musical and Instrumental performances on Friday 24 March were highly entertaining. Congratulations to Bede for their drought-breaking win in the Musicals, with More edging out Bede in the Instrumental by 4 points.

Thank you to all performers and staff for their hard work behind the scenes, to Bonnie Nicholas – Head of Arts, Kellie Rich – Head of Instrumental Music and Dance, Jo Duncan – Photography, and our amazing adjudicators, Tony Woodhouse and Claire Dickson.

The results were:

Instrumental

1st on 186 points – More

2nd on 182 points – Bede

3rd on 180 points – Langton

4th on 177 points – Chatham

Musical

1st on 184 points – Bede

Tied 2nd on 179 points – More and Chatham

3rd on 170 points – Langton