Junior School News
Year 7 winners on all counts
Recently, Year 7 students undertook NAPLAN testing and it was great to see so many students engaging in the challenge of achieving the best possible results in the tests that they attempted. The data that will be made available from the results of the NAPLAN tests will be an invaluable guide to assist teachers to target their teaching in the best possible way to benefit student learning.
Year 7 students are reminded that their elective subjects will change at the start of Semester Two. It is therefore important that all students carefully check their booklists to ensure that they have the correct books for the elective subjects that they will be studying at the start of next semester.
It was great to see so many Year 7 students actively participate in the recent Athletics Day. There were so many beaming faces who proudly walked away at the end of the day displaying their winning ribbons. Following on from Athletics Day, it is pleasing to see that a majority of Year 7 students have also signed up for Interschool sports which will take place on 17th June. It is a real credit to our young students, who bring a sense of enthusiasm, loyalty and pride to their school. Keep up the good work!
A reminder to all Year 7 students that they need to be punctual for school and their classes and need to be wearing the correct school uniform at all times. If there are any concerns regarding punctuality, the uniform or attendance, please do not hesitate to see your year level coordinators to discuss these matters further.
Mary Maniatis and Chris Zuccala
Year 7 Coordinators
Year 8 News
We would like to thank all students for their ongoing hard work and resilience so far throughout the year. Even though it often goes unnoticed, it is clear to us as coordinators that most students are coming to class on-time, in uniform, and with an enthusiasm and motivation for learning.
With camp now just around the corner there is a lot to be excited about in Year 8! We will be staying at The Summit, one of the most awarded venues in Victoria only an hour and a half drive from GEC. Full information is now accessible on XUNO, but please don’t hesitate to get in touch with either of us if you have any questions or concerns. Monday 20th June will be the deadline for medical forms and permission slips. These are essential documents to be submitted for students to be able to attend camp.
Earlier in the term, Year 8 also had the opportunity to participate in an immersive Medieval Day incursion experience. They played the part very well, with students posing as nobles, criminals, clergy, or samurai. Thank you to everyone who dressed up and got in character!
Daniel Bouchet-Hibbert and Jake Sherman
Year 8 Coordinators
Well done Year 9
We are proud of our Year 9 students’ effort and participation in the school extracurricular activities such as House Athletics, Algorithm Thinking Competition, Geography excursion, resume writing workshop etc. It is great to see that students are showing initiative to LEARN, GROW and CONNECT, which is our motto at GEC. Well done everyone!
There are many more opportunities coming in the future, so we encourage you all to keep checking the student bulletin and year level google classroom to sign up for new clubs (at lunchtime or after school) and for any extracurricular activities according to your interests for new adventure and learning.
Our Year 9 Parent Information night was cancelled this term and is now scheduled for early next term. This session will be after school from 3:30pm to 4:30pm most likely in week 1 term 3. We encourage all parents to join this session for information about learning at GEC and Q&A.
For semester 2 (Term 3 and 4), Year 9s will be doing two new elective subjects and therefore there will be change to the student timetable from next term.
Also, progress reports will again be released at the end of this term. Progress reports are available on XUNO that indicate the key aspects of a student's learning such as quality of work, level of effort, classroom participation, classroom behaviour and overall progress in each subject based on their assessment tasks and daily work (which includes classwork and homework). We encourage parents to contact year level coordinators or teachers if there are any questions or concerns.
We are very thankful to all the parents for their ongoing support, to enable all us Teachers/YLC to get the best of every child at school. We are seeking more support for improving the attendance rate at school, which should be 95% or above and implementation of our school uniform policy. We cannot be more proud to see how many students are already doing this well but we want to ensure students are attending school regularly. We are also proud to see how many Year 9s are respecting school uniform policy by wearing correct items.
If on any day, a student is unable to wear a uniform item, please send an email/note to school signed by parents/guardians or carers to inform the reason for a child not wearing the correct uniform.
We still need more support from parents with jewellery items and nail polish at this stage. Please check our school uniform policy for more information as no nail polish is allowed, no dangling earring are allowed and only 2 pairs of studs or sleeper are permitted and no nose piercing is permitted.
Lastly, in Year 9 only our SEAL group do Semester 1 exams along with Years 10-12. This year the 9B SEAL group will be doing 4 exams (English, Math, Science and Humanities) in week 8 on Thursday and Friday. More information is given via year level google classroom.
Best wished for rest of the term.
Parminder Kaur and Edgar Bonne
Year 9 Coordinators