5-8 Community News
Dear Families/Caregivers,
A new school year means, new memories!
Welcome back! For those who do not know, the 5-8 Community is made up of the following wonderful staff members who strive to provide the highest level of care and support to every single child in our community.
Years 5 and 6
Mr Rikki Busch, Mr Robert Kirby, Ms Biannca DeAngelis, Ms Nicole Evans, Mrs Maggie Borrelli, Mrs Sophie Robinson, Ms Rachel Partridge, Damien Barnett, Zanthia Bowles and Tracey Learmonth.
The Years 5/6 Team are located in the SK 1234.
Year 7
Mrs Emily Poppa (Di Bella), Mr Rodney Alley, Miss Billi Johns, Miss Melissa Milani and Terri. The Year 7 Team are located in the SK 5678.
Year 8
Mr Michael Hill, Mr Jeff Lewis, Miss Taneisha Sampson, Miss Molly Boyle. The Year 8 Team are located in the F-Wing.
Partnerships for the Future
Mr Corey Carver, Mr Anthony Poppa, Mrs Bianca DeAngelis and Elly Westerveld. The Partnerships Team is located in the B Wing
A big welcome to Mr Jeff Lewis who joins our College Community, straight from University. We wish them all the best in 2023.
Please make contact with your child's TA teacher at any stage.
We have kicked off the year with the commencement of our TA (Teacher Advisor) Communities. For those of you who are not familiar with the 5-8 TA system, it is our school wide Pastoral Wellbeing model, which allows our students to practice and develop positive learning, social and emotional habits. Our 5-8 TA model allows our students to flourish in these areas:
- Collaborative and rich learning experiences with students and teachers in year levels 5-8
- An opportunity to learn and practice Gratitude, Empathy, Mindfulness (GEM) strategies/techniques from The Resilience Project and SOLE
- Promote and develop students capacity to lead through various learning activities
- Catholic Social Teaching principles and practice, prayer, meditation and social justice awareness
- Undertake rich Italian language and cultural opportunities. Who doesn't love the Italian food and culture?
At the beginning of each school day, from 8:50am to 9:10am, all students in Years 5-8 will meet in their TA Community. They will use this time as an opportunity to not only further develop their relationships with one another, but each student will spend some time working with new and unfamiliar teachers across their community.
Each TA Community is led by a teacher from each of the year levels. TAs gather across the Strength and Kindliness building, Project Room and F-Wing. We will run an extended TA lesson, which will occur in Period 1 each Wednesday morning.
A TA timetable that supports the foundation of our TA and a map highlighting the location of our student's TA classes can be found below.
In TA this week, the goal setting template has helped direct the students to set a SMART goal for the term. The students have been exploring their own data from their report by anaylsing their strengths and weaknesses. A very positive experience!
All students in Years 7 and 8 have been introduced to their own individual 2023 Student Diary. These tools will be used as a form of communication and for students to take to each of their classes, along with their device and their book/s.
Please continue to support this change by reminding students to bring their diaries to each of their classes and then back home.
The teaching of SOLE (Self, Others, Learning and Environment) in the 5-8 Community, continues to be a focus where students are provided with ongoing opportunities to practice respect in various areas within the school. Our new SOLE matrix has some really good material that continues to be unpacked with the students.
Corey Carver and Anthony Poppa
5-8 Community Leaders