This issue
- Principal’s Message
- Important Dates
- Enrichment Update
- Sports Update
- X and Why?
- Sustainable Futures
- Revolutioneering in Engineering a Monster
- Year 12 Biology
- Year 12 Psychology
- Year 12 Physics
- Year 12 Farewell Breakfast
- Diwali Celebrations
- Seishokaichi High School Study Tour
- Changemakers Reflections
- Service Club Christmas Collection
Principal’s Message
Year 12s farewell: Our Year 12s have been farewelled today. In the tradition of the ASMS we celebrated their achievements with our assembly yesterday and staff cooked up a breakfast-storm this morning. It is a significant milestone for our Year 12s, and we wish them well in the final assessment processes.
Year 12s, this is a moment to pause and look back on everything you’ve achieved. Over the past three years, you’ve grown not just as learners, but as young adults ready to take on the world. You’ve faced challenges — some expected, some that none of us could have seen coming — and through it all, you’ve shown perseverance, courage and care for one another.
When I spoke to some of you last week asking about your highlights and memories of this place the range of responses was vast. In addition to the experiences such as camps, exchanges, staff vs students, Passion Project, the learning came through and the personalisation and independence which many felt that they wouldn’t have got in their local school.
When I walk through the school and see you collaborating, leading, supporting your peers, and pushing yourselves beyond what you thought possible, I see the very best of what the ASMS stands for: curiosity, creativity, and community. You leave here not only with academic accomplishments but also with a deeper understanding of yourselves and a wealth of life experiences
On behalf of everyone at the school, it has been an absolute pleasure to serve as your principal. Your teachers, mentors, and peers take great pride in your successes, and today we celebrate this milestone with you. Take a moment to thank those who have supported you, be they teachers, parents, or friends, whose encouragement has helped shape your journey.
Finally, while this is the end of your classes, it’s not the end of your connection to this place. You will always be part of the ASMS story. We can’t wait to see where your curiosity and ambition take you next — whether that’s in science, the arts, technology, health, or something entirely new.
The end of year results will be available for students on Monday 15 December 2025 from 8:30am from the SACE website. On result day there will be a prominent banner on the SACE Board website with a link that directs students to check their results in the Students Online System. Students are advised to check their accounts beforehand and ensure that they are using a personal email address and not their school email address as this email address will become inactive after students leave school.
Our Presentation Night (26 November) is our final opportunity to celebrate with students, and invitations to Year 12 families will be sent via email soon; I look forward to seeing our Year 12s officially graduate from the ASMS.
Hats off to teachers this World Teachers’ Day: Next week the ASMS is going to celebrate and thank our teachers for their work in educating, inspiring and supporting our students. Several of our students have taken a moment to take their “hats off” to celebrate teachers, and to tell them what they mean to them.
Transition Day: On Wednesday 19 November our current Year 10 & 11 students will be welcoming students new to ASMS in 2025. Over the coming weeks our students will be preparing activities to ‘induct’ our new students to the culture and agency of the ASMS.
Will you be at the ASMS in 2026? As we start to plan for 2026, we would ask that if your child does not intend to continue at the Australian Science and Mathematics School for the 2026 school year, that you let us know as soon as possible via a phone call to the school on (08) 8201 5686 or via email to info@asms.sa.edu.au. It is important that we receive this information early so that another student in Years 10 or 11 has the opportunity to join the ASMS.
Kylie Eggers,
Principal
Important Dates
| Colour Group Excursions | 24 October |
| World Teacher’s Day | 31 October |
| Remembrance Day | 11 November |
| Transition Day | 19 November |
| Year 12 Presentation Night | 26 November |
| Student Free Day | 1 December |
Enrichment Update
Oliphant Science Awards
On Friday 17th October Anton attended the award ceremony for the Oliphant Science Awards. Whilst we had a number of student entries across a range of categories in the Oliphant Science Awards, Anton is of special mention for his submission into the Commemorative Science Writing Topic.
Passion Project Showcase
Another great wrap up to a busy Term 3 in Passion Project happened during Week 10 last term. Students showcased a range of different projects, and we welcomed community and industry members from Engineering Australia, Flinders University, the Department for Education and Blackwood High School to experience our showcase. In particular our visitors noted the diverse skill set of our students and readiness for a variety of fields in the workforce.
Australian Maths Trust Enrichment Program
Congratulations to Year 10 students Matthew, Cem, Yoshi, and Year 11 student Cooper for undertaking the Australian Maths Trust (AMT) Maths Enrichment Program. The program has run each Passion Project session for the past 16 weeks. Well done to each student for their resilience in this long-term challenge, their problem-solving skills are to be commended.
Active Citizenship Convention
The Active Citizenship Convention showcases powerful examples of student-led environmental advocacy and active citizenship in South Australian schools.
Our student, Luci, was identified by the Department for Education and Green Adelaide as being an example of outstanding example of informed, ethical action and community engagement.
Congratulations to Luci for her incredible work in the community, here is what she had to say about her experience being filmed for the Active Citizenship Convention:
“Hi, my name is Luci, and I was recently filmed to share about my advocacy in the youth voice and climate justice space. The film was shown along with other students’ achievements at the Citizenship Convention held at Adelaide Oval and focused on highlighting initiatives and projects taken by young people. I had a great time filming and sharing not only my personal experiences, but advice for other young people who want to make change. I shared about how I created and manage my Adelaide Hills Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) group, and other achievements such as organising a local community clean up and free barbeque.”
Watch the full video here.
Sports Update – Volleyball Win!
Our Australian Science and Mathematics School volleyball teams did spectacularly well in the Schools Sports SA Carnival at Glenelg on October 17.
Our boys team came in first in the open division, and our girls team came in second. This is a fantastic achievement for our school, and it is the second year in a row that the ASMS has brought home first prize.
Thank you to all our students for their involvement in the sports carnival.
X and Why?
For the past few weeks students have been investigating the science of water quality, with a focus on the Flinders Lake. After learning some background chemistry and biology, students investigated a variety of impacts of poor water quality in both global and local settings. They then conducted a battery of physical, chemical and microbiological tests have shown that it is not even close to be safe to drink, with students now designing and testing their water treatment designs.
This has not been an easy task, and students have shown impressive collaboration, deconstructing this problem, as they look to tackle multiple issues with multiple techniques such as filtration, sedimentation, chlorine treatment and pH treatment. It’s still early, but the signs are good for the production of (technically) potable water. Given that Adelaide uses nearly 550 million litres per day, managing our limited supplies will always be important.
Sustainable Futures
In Sustainable Futures, our cycle investigations streams of Bioluminescent Tourism, Oyster Reef Restoration and Great Barrier Reef are coming to a conclusion in Week 2 with the final submission of student’s collaborative investigations. These have taken the form of investigating the effects of nitrate concentrations on algal blooms, seeing the detrimental effect of ocean acidification on calcifying organisms and discovering how light cycles affect oyster filtration (to name a few). Students are using their mathematical modelling of exponential, logarithmic or logistic functions to determine rates of growth/decay in these situations and drawing from learning from other Central Studies and throughout the year to use statistical measures to analyse the reliability of these experiments.
Moving forward, in Week 3 we start Module 4 -The Earth Summit, where students will combine their English and Science skills to represent a Sustainable Development Goal’s impact on a developing or developed country of interest. This will see us out until the end of the year.
We are calling all crocheters in our school community! As part of Sustainable Futures, we are working towards an art installation of a crocheted coral reef in our foyer, which will showcase the juxtaposition between living vibrant coral reefs vs the devastating effect of global warming and ocean acidification resulting in coral bleaching. We have students and teachers opting in to create crocheted coral, but we would love to extend the invitation to our school community to contribute towards this project! In you are interested in participating and would like some links to patterns, please contact Sustainable Futures leader -Sam Moyle.
Revolutioneering in Engineering a Monster
Students have been flexing their critical and creative capabilities through working on their Revolutioneering projects in Engineering a Monster! From initial identification of problems, to ideating solutions, and now bringing them to life – this is a project that enables students to grow an appreciation for the design cycle process, and an understanding that not all problems can be perfectly solved in their first iteration.
From utilising computer aided design software, 3D printing, laser cutting, coding, or taking it old school with handheld tools, students have found this project to be a rich opportunity for technical skills development. We look forward to showcasing these projects at Frankenfest in Week 6!
Year 12 Biology
The Year 12 Biology classes have celebrated the end of the year with a class party and revision session, complete with custom 3D printed headbands to wear, party bags and more. All the best to the Biology class of 2025 as they head into their exams.
Year 12 Psychology
This week marked the end of our official Year 12 classes for 2025. The Stage 2 Psychology classes finished their final lesson with a psychology revision party. Students dressed up and brought in ‘Psychology’ themed food to share. Students completed a range of fun revision activities such as Psychology Celebrity Heads and Pass the Parcel!
Year 12 Physics
On the last day and lesson of Term 3, one of our Year 12 Physics classes walked up the hill to the Physics Department at Flinders University where we met with Dr Alex Sibley. Dr Sibley manages the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Auger Nanoprobe facilities. He gave us a VIP tour of their state-of-the-art microscopes and lasers.
One highlight was a sputter-coater – a machine for coating biological samples before placing in a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The sputter-coater places a thin (~5–20 nm) gold or platinum metal film on the specimen surface. Figure 1 shows a platinum coated bee. Figure 2 shows the bee when viewed under the SEM. We hope that seeing such impressive equipment will inspire students to consider Physics at university.
Year 12 Farewell Breakfast
Our students celebrated their final day at school with a Year 12 Breakfast hosted by the ASMS staff. They will now be busy revising for their exams which start at the ASMS on Monday 3 November! We wish our students all the very best in their exams and ask that they be kind to themselves. Our students have worked very hard all year, and exams are just a snapshot of their achievements. Well done to our Year 12s, they have such exciting times ahead as they enter a new chapter of their lives.
A special thank you to parent, Kate Canaway, for making muffins for the entire cohort, and to Lisa and Deb for their hard work behind the scenes coordinating this event.
Diwali Celebrations
On Monday 20 October, our ASMS school community celebrated Diwali during Learning Studies.
You may know Diwali as the “Festival of Lights.” It is one of the brightest and most important festivals celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and some Buddhists across the world, including many here in our Adelaide community. At its core, Diwali is a celebration of the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance. It is a time of great joy, hope, and new beginnings.
During Learning Studies, our school community celebrated Diwali by making origami candles, paper lanterns, mini foam Diyas, drawing mandalas and drawing henna designs. A special thank you to Savin, who put together this learning program for our students to participate.
Seisokaichi High School Study Tour
This week we have had 5 students, accompanied by 2 teachers from Seishokaichi High School in Japan. Throughout the week the students participated in our Engineering a Monster and Industrial Design classes, working towards their own specific projects on problem solving with technology. During Passion Project on Thursday afternoon, Seishokaichi students had the opportunity to present their work to members of our ASMS cohort.
During their time here the Seishokaichi group also visited the Tonsley Innovation District for a tour of the SAGE Automation workshop and met with leaders within the College of Science and Engineering to speak about Industrial Design and experience their new Manufacturing Innovation Hub.
Changemakers Reflections
It has been a big year for our Changemakers, who have been busy working as a team to ensure that the students of the ASMS are able to have their voice heard and enact real change through their contributions. Here is what they had to say about their experiences this year.
“This year as Curriculum Changemakers, we have taken action and implemented many changes into the schooling system at The ASMS. These include:
- Reviving the codesign programme to run again for another successful year.
- Collaborating with Central Studies Leaders and the wider teacher cohort
- Forming a group of fifty students to collaborate on the learning design of EoLs with teachers.
- We have also collaborated with this group to gather their feedback on Central Studies and issues that affect the student body.”
– Aden, Arden, Clara & Trinity
Service Club Christmas Collection
For many years the ASMS Service Club have collected non-perishable food and gifts from the school community, to donate to St Vincent de Paul – who give these to families in need at Christmas time. There are only a few weeks left of Term 4! Gifts could be anything suitable for small children up to teenagers and adults. Food items that would make a Christmas Day special are always appreciated. Please bring items to Deb’s desk in LC3 – The Christmas Tree will be up soon.
Thanks
Debbie
Service Club Coordinator
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