This issue
- Principal’s Message
- Important Dates
- Parent Information Nights – Year 11 to Year 12 & Supporting Safe Choices
- Parent Engagement Survey
- Enrichment & Sports News
- Careers and Pathways
- X and Why?
- Engineering a Monster
- Role of Learning Studies
- Year 12 Media Studies Excursion
- Did you know there are many benefits to being an ASMS Homestay Family?
- Immunisation Catch Up Clinic
- Library News
Principal’s Message
At the time of publishing there are approximately 12 weeks of classes left for this year’s Year 12 students. I would like to restate our commitment to these students and assure them and their families that we are here for any support required. However, we also acknowledge that the students themselves need to make a commitment and put in effort to achieve their SACE and the post-school options they are striving for. Please contact your Learning Studies teacher or specific subject teachers if you have any queries or concerns regarding your students’ progress.
In the coming weeks Year 11s will be hearing about and investigating their Learning Program for 2026. We say Learning Program over subject selection as we want the students to use their agency to focus on what they want to learn rather than the discrete packets that stand-alone subjects are sometimes bundled into. We ask students and families to consider their learning and pathway preferences and speak with us about how this can be achieved. We will have a large range of stand-alone and personalised learning programs on offer in 2026.
Open Night:
Our next Open Night for prospective students is August 14 6-8pm. You can find more details and register at: ASMS Open Night Registration. During the event, attendees will have the opportunity to meet with our school leaders, teaching staff, and students. This is a great chance to experience our school’s unique interdisciplinary learning environment, discover how our students shape their own learning, pursue their passions, explore emerging sciences, and benefit from our university links and pathways. Please feel free to share this information with anyone who might be interested. If you have any questions or need further details, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Staffing:
Campbell Harvey is away from the ASMS for Term 3. In his absence we welcome Wendy Li to the X and Why? teaching team and Alix, Matt, Sophie and I are supporting the Extraordinary Learning class.
David Yanni left the ASMS as of the start of Term 3. I’m thankful for his work in the Aviation program and as a member of our wider teaching team. I wish him all the best for the future. PK Saxena will continue teaching in the Aviation program for the remainder of 2025 and Isaac Weddle will support the class in the navigation and piloting aspects of the 2025 course.
International Science Fair, September 2025:
Every year, in Week 7 of Term 3 the ASMS holds its annual International Science Fair (ISF), welcoming students from schools around the world and the country to join our Year 10 and 11 cohort for a magnitude week of Challenge Based Learning (CBL). In the lead up to ISF, students from the ASMS choose a theme for the event to explore. This year’s theme, Challenging Your Perspective, will be the basis for each CBL, leading students’ exploration, interrogation and collaboration to investigate real world issues, propose solutions, and solve challenges.
With so many additional features to our normal week the usual school timetable will change slightly. Our normal short day will change from Tuesday to Monday with dismissal at 1pm Monday 1 September. Tutoring which usually occurs on Tuesday afternoons will be cancelled for that week. Each day will start and the usual time of 8:40am with every other day that week (Tuesday to Friday) finishing at 3:20pm. Don’t forget to stay up to date on the week’s activities and what the students get up to on our Facebook and Instagram.
We hope everyone is looking forward to another amazing event and welcoming our international, interstate regional and local school visitors to the ASMS!
Kylie Eggers,
Principal
Important Dates
| Mini Expo – TAFE, AIE, Flinders & Adelaide Uni | 6 August |
| Primary Maths Extension Group Session 2 | 7 August |
| National Science Week | 9-17 August |
| Bullying No Way: National week of action | 11-15 August |
| MASA Quiz Night | 13 August |
| Book Week | 16-23 August |
| Parent Information Night: Supporting Safe Choices | 20 August |
| Parent Information Session – Year 11 to Year 12 | 27 August |
| Wear It Purple Day | 29 August |
Two Upcoming Parent Information Nights
Parent Information Night: Supporting Safe Choices
We invite all ASMS parents and caregivers to join us for an engaging and practical evening focused on understanding risk-taking in teens and how to support safer decision-making. This session will explore why risk-taking is a normal part of development, what influences teen behaviour, and how parents can apply harm minimisation strategies to reduce potential harm while staying connected and supportive.
This session will explore why teens take risks, what current trends for teens taking risks look like, and how a harm minimisation approach can help reduce potential harms. You’ll leave with practical strategies for having open, honest conversations at home and a chance to strengthen partnerships between home and school.
Date: Wednesday 20 August 2025
Time: 7pm – 8:30pm
Location: ASMS
We are also looking for your input into future parent night topics. If there are any topics that you would like us to present to parents please share your suggestions below:
Together, let’s build the knowledge and connections that help our young people thrive safely.
Book here!
Parent Information Session – Year 11 to Year 12
Students who are in Year 11 and their caregivers are invited to an information session where pathways through Year 12 and beyond are discussed.
Not sure of the Learning Program you want for Year 12? Wondering about different post-school pathways? Not clear on what your post-school options are? Thinking about which university or RTO to attend? All of these and more will be discussed.
Come along with your child to hear from experts, have the opportunity to ask questions, investigate options and start to make decisions about the future.
Date: Wednesday 27 August 2025
Time: 6 – 7:30pm
Location: ASMS
Book here!
Parent Engagement Survey
You’re invited to complete the 2025 annual Public Education Parent Survey. The 2025 parent survey opens late July and closes midnight Sunday 7 September 2025. During the survey window you will receive an email or SMS from the Parent Survey Team with a unique link to participate in the survey.
If you have not received an email or SMS with your unique survey link by Friday 15 August 2025, please check your spam or junk folders. Otherwise, please contact education.ParentSurvey@sa.gov.au and include our school’s name in your email. A new survey will be sent to you.
The survey takes less than 10 minutes and will help us understand:
- what we’re doing well
- where we can improve
- what’s important to you.
It has been coordinated centrally so that added administration workload isn’t placed on the school. Your answers won’t identify you or your child. Only collated feedback will be provided to our school. Information collected will inform school improvement planning and activities at the school.
The survey closes midnight Sunday 7 September 2025.
Enrichment & Sport News
SAHMRI Virtual Tour Launch – National Science Week
Six of our STEM students and a supervisor will visit SAHMRI on Thursday, 14 August, for the launch of Inside SAHMRI, South Australia’s first interactive virtual tour of a Medical Research Institute. Our students will have exclusive early access, participate in discussions with leading researchers, and tour SAHMRI’s state-of-the-art facilities.
Sports Update – Table Tennis and Basketball
Our students will be competing in the Statewide Schools Table Tennis competition next Thursday. Additionally, our boys’ basketball team will be playing their Round 2 Knockout match in Week 5. We wish all participants the best of luck!
Winter Conversation at Government House
On Friday, 1 August, ten members of our school community will attend the Winter Conversation at Government House. Her Excellency the Governor will host Katherine Bennell-Pegg, Australia’s first nationally-qualified astronaut, to discuss her journey, the growth of South Australia’s space sector, and future opportunities in our state’s space industry. This will be a great chance for our students to learn from an inspiring South Australian.
Careers and Pathways
SATAC
SATAC released a 3 video series on ATAR, Scaling and using SATAC for university applications found here. Year 12s will need to have a SATAC account to apply when applications open in August.
Year 12s received a SATAC Q&A session in Week 1, some of the key actions are:
- Update SACE Students Online email to personal email to receive results
- Make sure SACE Students Online has sharing permission to Tertiary institutions active
- Create a SATAC account, using a personal email, as University offers can go until March 2026 and beyond.
- Make sure to have a Unique Student Identifier (USI) number, ready for their SATAC application
- SATAC Applications in and paid for by 30 September, late fee will apply afterwards.
If students are unsure or have questions relating to SATAC, they should speak with Jason, Tertiary Pathways Leader, or their Learning Studies teacher.
Tertiary Open Days
Open Days have begun at the major Universities and tertiary institutions, with individual campuses having different days. Many of these events occur on weekends throughout July or August, so the ASMS strongly encourages students and families to attend; however, no school excursions are planned around these dates.
- Flinders University
- Adelaide University
- Torrens University
- Tabor College
- Academy of Interactive Entertainment
There are many other institutions locally or interstate that students may also wish to investigate.
ASMS Mini Career Expo
In Term 3 Week 3, 6 August, ASMS will be hosting Flinders and Adelaide University, TAFESA, Academy of Interactive Entertainment, and ADF Careers on site as part of a mini career expo. This serves a different purpose for each year level.
This time of year is important for:
- Year 12s, as SATAC will be opened up, they are making choices about life after school, potentially the last opportunity to ask questions of institutions before applying for tertiary education.
- Year 11s as they are looking into choosing subjects for Year 12 throughout Term 3, making decisions based on course requirements or recommended subjects.
- Year 10s are engaged in Career Education and are forming/exploring pathway options for the next couple of years, what immersions or opportunities are available throughout Year 11/12.
Engineering Australia
As part of Engineering a Monster (EaM) and Career Education, Engineering Australia brought 4 engineers from different fields to share with students their expertise, pathway journey and how they follow the design cycle in projects. All the different specialisations of engineering make up 80% of the VET-qualified labour force and 38% of the University qualified labour force in 2020. Nearly all industry sectors are expected to require more engineers, with a shortfall of 50,000-100,000 Engineers before 2036.
In 2024, 25% of ASMS graduates were offered positions in Engineering courses at university.
3 speakers, Ben from Aurecon, Oliva from CMW Geosciences and Anthony from Guidera O’Connor, shared their wealth of experiences working in the industry, the flexibility and overlap between engineering disciplines, the opportunities worldwide that Australian engineering graduates have available to them, and the soft skills that are key to success in the industry. By highlighting the key steps that they follow in their project management, they connected with students in their EaM design projects. Making sure students connected their ideas with the end user, didn’t rush but stayed within the problem when considering solutions and the importance of communication with all stakeholders throughout the production stages. Even the best solution idea might not get selected if you can’t communicate the design idea successfully.
Students will work through the design cycle, preparing their products for the Frankenfest in Term 4 to showcase their final products.
X and Why?
Phage Hunters
Phage therapy is the use of bacteriophages (or bacterial viruses) to treat bacterial infections and is growing area of medicine as antibiotic resistance grows. In the Phage Hunters module of X and Why? students were challenge by Prof Rob Edwards of Flinders University to find, isolate and DNA sequence phages from water and soil samples. So far, we have isolated 24 phages at the ASMS. On Wednesday of Week 2 we were able to walk to Professor Edward’s lab and were supported by his staff to start the sequencing process, which, while taking 48hrs, started very promisingly.
The next step is to conduct bioinformatic analysis and we are hoping to find some new phages in this study and students have to be congratulated for working so well in the lab on what is a very complex set of procedures. A special thanks must go to Anna in the ASMS labs and Professor Rob Edwards and his team for supporting us in this module.
First Aid Fundamentals
Over 125 students chose to investigate First Aid Fundamentals. Included in the unit is the availability of paying for an obtaining their Provide First Aid certificate, which is a nationally recognised qualification. This is helpful in a variety of situations including getting a job, babysitting, looking after family, community, and sporting teams. The first group of students are in the process of completing this qualification before further groups start and complete theirs. Students chose this course for a variety of reasons, but a common one was, “I want to know how to try and avoid trouble, but if I do get into trouble, I want to minimise the damage to myself and others. Or if others get into trouble, I want to learn how to help them. So, help myself and/or others if I can”. It’s hard to argue with that logic.
Sounds of Science
In the X and Why module the Sounds of Science, students learned about the physics behind soundwaves. They produced and recorded sounds to see the properties of the waves and to understand how sounds are produced. The specific knowledge for soundwaves was furthered through comparison to other types of waves. Guitars were used to understand how instruments can produce a vast variety of notes and how harmonics work. Water glasses were filled with different amounts of water that allowed for tuning the notes produced when tapping the glasses. This understanding was then applied to design and build an instrument. The students were highly engaged in the building process and came up with a broad variety of instruments. These instruments were the characterised to identify the notes they could produce and if the notes matched the intended ones from the design. The Ideation Studio was utilised for 4 sessions in total. Some students were able to improve their initial design, gaining deeper understanding in the process. Through the process the students had fun learning and building their instrument.
Engineering a Monster
The current module in Engineering a Monster is Engineering Tasters. This week and a half unit provides students the opportunity to develop their science inquiry skills of data gathering, analysis and evaluation. Students will experience a variety of challenges that are focused on different categories of engineering: mechanical, biomedical, aerospace, chemical, civil, and geospatial. Activities such as designing puff cars that utilise optimum design principals, creating prosthetic legs to empower those with mobility constraints, and creating edible juice pearls have had students engaged with hands-on play and learning!
Through providing opportunities for challenge-based learning, students can continue to grow their attributes in the areas of creativity, and curiosity. These activities will prepare students to create their own engineering design for the remainder of the term.
Role of Learning Studies
With Semester 2 in full swing now, just a reminder that Learning Studies is a consistent time and space throughout their ASMS experience where students get support and pastoral care. We also have many new students and families with the start of the new semester, who are maybe unfamiliar with the ASMS environment and culture.
While the whole school year is busy with due dates, school events, extra curricular opportunities and students home life, Term 3 presents unique challenges for students, as they start feeling the pressure of decisions being made about their futures.
All students have pathways opportunities available to them throughout this term and towards the end of the year. SATAC Applications open on the August 4, Year 12s may be feeling the pinch of trying to finish their subjects but also having to make decisions about what comes after school. In some cases, this may be 10-12 weeks away for students. Year 11s will be looking to start choosing what Year 12 subjects they need or want to do in order to start activating their pathways after school. Year 10s will have some pathway options available to them, which they will need to make informed choices for, such as whether to apply for the ASMS Cert III in Information Technology or if the Flinders Assessment Centre Pathway is something they want to pursue early in Year 11.
Learning Studies (LS) is a central time that students have with their Learning Studies Group (LSG) teacher. The role of the LSG teacher is to act as the first point of contact for any concerns about your child’s learning and wellbeing at school and to advocate for students by:
- Having an impact on student’s self-concept, learning and behaviour by modelling attributes such as empathy, acceptance and warmth.
- Providing a positive adult-student relationship
- Being accessible and readily available to help students
- Providing support and direction for students
- Establishing clear academic plans and goals
- Providing emotional support and information about personal health and safety
- Helping establish a sense of connectedness and a safe environment at the ASMS
As parents, you can be communicating with your student’s LSG Teacher if you have concerns, you want to clarify something or don’t know how to direct another inquiry. Learning Conversations will be happening in Weeks 9 & 10, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait until then to start a conversation.
Year 12 Media Studies Excursion: Filmmaking in Action
Last term, the Year 12 Media Studies class spent a full day at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, taking part in hands-on training in video planning, shooting, and editing.
Students were set a major challenge: in just 40 minutes, they had to create a three-act story structure and bring it to life. They rose to the task impressively, spending the remainder of the day filming and editing their improvised short films.
This experience was excellent preparation for their upcoming Production task, where they will create short horror films with a focus on atmosphere and technical skill. The day was a great success, with every group completing their film before heading home.
We look forward to seeing their creativity and learning come to life in their final projects, but this time with a full term to develop their work instead of a single day.
Did you know there are many benefits to being an ASMS Homestay Family?
Not only do you get to open your home to an international student for them to experience Australian day to day life, but your family will have the opportunity to build lifelong connections and learn more about the world around us.
We have two homestay opportunities coming up this year!
Opportunity 1 – Term 3 Weeks 6 hosting students from Canada for up to 6 nights
Opportunity 2 – Term 4 Week TBC hosting students from Japan for up to 7 nights.
As a homestay family you will have the opportunity to not only show off the wonderful things that make Australia and South Australia unique, but you will also have the chance to learn about your homestay student’s culture too!
Homestay families are not restricted to ASMS families, anyone can be a homestay family so please spread the word and tell your family and friends! To find out more visit our website here.
All family types are eligible to become homestays so get in contact with us now via email international@asms.sa.edu.au or by completing the Homestay Registration of Interest form.
Immunisation Catch Up Clinics
For Year 10 Students who missed the Meningococcal vaccinations through the school immunisation program, the City of Mitcham offers free immunisation at their clinics. For more information, head to their website here for more information and details on opening times.
Library News
Exciting events and celebrations this term: NAIDOC week, National Science Week and of course a library favourite Book Week!
CBCA 2025 Older Reader Books
The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) is now 80 years in the making what an amazing achievement and celebrating….
Children’s Book Week | 16–23 August 2025
This year’s theme Book an Adventure as we read stories that take us across many lands, and countries, back or forward in time and of course enjoy our favourite stories and authors.
This year’s shortlisted selection of books features a diverse range of stories that captivate young minds and encourage a love of reading. So, if you get the opportunity why not explore these literary gems and book an adventure!
All books will be on display at ASMS in Week 5 and will be available for borrowing. Winners will be announced on the 15th of August.
Australian Science and Mathematics School Annual Book Week Parade will take place on Friday 22nd August. We look forward to seeing our staff and students showing their Book Week inspo costumes either to the theme or their favourite book or author.
Need help? Get in touch with ICT
If you are having any issues with the portal, or Daymap, please get in touch with by emailing ict@asms.sa.edu.au.