On behalf of the Mathematics Faculty, I would like to welcome all students and parents back to Kilbreda for another fantastic year. It has been great seeing the enthusiasm and joy from students and I wish you all a fabulous 2024.

In this article, I would like to introduce one of our two STEM leaders, Helena Parker. Helena and her fellow leader, Kiara Reddy, radiate enthusiasm and joy daily and I am so pleased that they are our STEM leaders for 2024. They are passionate about STEM and I am excited to see what wonderful activities they have planned to engage and pique students interest in STEM this year.

Karen McMullen
Learning Leader: Mathematics

STEM Leader: Helena Parker

Hey lovely readers, my name is Helena Parker and I am super excited to be one of the two awesome STEM leaders for 2024. This year at Kilbreda, I am studying a range of STEM subjects including Chemistry, Biology and Mathematical Methods.

Some of my favorite moments in STEM at the College include:

• Back in Year 7, my now good friend and fellow STEM Leader, Kiara and I joined the Robotics Club spontaneously knowing very little about robots and technology in general. However, it was so much fun to experience and learn new things and little did we know, that from joining that club we would become lifelong friends!
• Chemistry can seem like a daunting subject to pursue. However, I can think of so many memories that I have made and will cherish forever because of this subject. For example, we do many experiments and some turn out perfectly, but my favourite ones are the ones that don’t always go to plan because something extraordinary can occur and you always learn something new.
• Mathematics has always been one of my favourite subjects and last year I undertook two types of Maths. I cannot even begin to fathom how much incredible moments I have from ether getting a hard question right or finally understanding challenging topics. In Year 10, I particularly enjoyed in being part of the TT Rocks Competition. Sadly, despite all the hard work and effort my class put in we lost. However, just encouraging each other as team was enough for us to enjoy the experience.

I strongly believe STEM is important for young people, especially young women to get involved with as much as possible. It provides, not only new experiences, but new knowledge that allows us to feel empowered. STEM is an ever-evolving world with new discoveries every day and new fields for people to dominate. With more and more women joining the STEM force, it is advocating to all how intelligent and powerful women can be!

My goal as a STEM Leader in 2024 is to get as many people involved with STEM related activities and subjects. Whether it be helping and supporting students undergoing Science and Math or encouraging all students to get involved with our STEM Competitions and activities throughout the year. For example, coming up on 12 to 14 March is a Maths Competition run by TT Rockstars. Students from Years 7 to 10 would of recently signed in to the website to help boost confidence in timetables, a very simple but important skill for all aspects of Maths. Now TT Rockstars are holding their annual timetable championships and it would be awesome to see some healthy competition between students at the College, after all who doesn’t love bragging rights not to mention the variety of cool prizes up for grabs to the winners!

At the end of the year, I hope to have made at least a little impact on as many lives as I can to help young people discover their passion for STEM. It is so special for me to see other’s faces light up of pure joy when they find new interests they love.

Helena Parker
STEM Leader