Year Seven

Financial Literacy

This term started with Year Seven students delving into the fascinating history of how money has evolved over time. By examining various forms of currency and understanding their purpose and significance, our students gained a deeper appreciation for the role of money in society. They explored the significance of money throughout history and recognised the three main purposes of money as a medium of exchange, store of value and unit of account. They also identified needs or wants and the scarcity of resources and developed critical-thinking skills to make efficient and responsible financial decisions. Our students explored how we could reduce our spending and make wise consumer decisions by using unit pricing and calculating ‘best-buys’, with and without digital technologies. In the following weeks, we will be focusing on developing different future career options and investigating the purposes of taxes. 

Financial Literacy as a useful life skill can help our young generation navigate the complex financial landscape with confidence and make informed decisions throughout their lives. To provide your child with a strong foundation in financial literacy, parents are also encouraged to support your child's learning journey by engaging in conversations about money matters at home and reinforcing the importance of responsible financial practices.

Food Technology

Congratulations to all the students who participated in the Food Technology sessions from the Gold group last term!

During the sessions, the students have been actively engaged in exploring new recipes and experimenting with different dishes. For many of them, it was their first time trying the meals they prepared and cooked themselves. Moreover, the students have developed a better understanding of food safety and personal hygiene practices, which they have diligently applied throughout the classes.

In the past month, the students have been honing their knife skills and gaining valuable experience in preparing vegetables for rice paper rolls and risotto. They have also been introduced to stove top cooking techniques, using them to boil water for the rice paper rolls and cook their risotto. This exposure has allowed them to learn sautéing and the absorption method of cooking rice. It was great to witness the success of their risotto dishes, and from their reflections, it is evident that they found their creations not only delicious but also worthy of recreating for their families.

In addition to savoury dishes, we have also ventured into making sweets, with a focus on baking biscuits and cinnamon doughnuts. The students grasped the significance of preheating the oven and measuring ingredients accurately to achieve the best results in their baking endeavours.

Once again, congratulations to all the students for their accomplishments in Food Technology last term. Keep up the great work! 

Visual Art

As we welcome students in the Year Seven Electives, students in Visual Art have started to show their prior learning through their first project.  Year Seven Students have been consolidating their knowledge of the Elements and Principles of Art and Design and created samples to demonstrate their skills.  Students are working towards creating an Exploding Book for their first assessed unit of work.  We started by unpacking the different Elements and Principles and then looked at how Artists use these in combination to create an effective art piece.  In the coming weeks, students will finish and assemble their work.  They have demonstrated how being a risk-taker allows them to experiment with different mediums and designs. 

Robotics and Coding

Last term, five teams of Year Seven students created autonomous robotic creatures for the Spike Prime Challenge. Ata, Annie, Jensen, Kejser, Labib, Umaar, Jerry, Keegan, Eli and Rajvir demonstrated remarkable effort, creativity and collaboration in their marvellous designs.

Congratulations to Noah and Phavaan who received a Special Commendation at the online awards ceremony. You can see videos of all five robots below.

A new term means a new group of Year Seven students learning to code in Python. Students have already created their own programs, displaying characters on the screen using print(), creating ASCII art and even using sleep() and clear() to create basic animations! These skills form the foundation of the assignment for the course - a text based adventure game where players can choose different options to give different endings. We look forward to playing these games at the end of the term!

English

This term brings a change in our focus with the Year Seven team.  We will start by reading the prescribed novel - Blueback by Tim Winton.  This will lead us into the introduction of Bookclubs.  Students will be provided an opportunity to delve deeply into the context of the Winton's book and will use this as a springboard into the next phase of reading and writing.  The novel is about the life-affirming connections between species, it also speaks toward the need for humans to stand up and protect their environment.  Once we have unpacked the novel we will then use Winton's research for the novel as a way to introduce students to information texts.  We will also be working on creating a closer link between home and school.  Students will be encouraged to bring their novel home so they can start making connections, asking questions and seeing the relationship between the author, the characters, and their own real world context.  

Health and Physical Education 

In Term Three for Health and Physical Education, Year Seven students will be focusing on developing their skills in the sports of Basketball and Netball. Each week, students will practice the sport specific skills to gain confidence in performing the movements, apply them in game-based contexts and enhance their knowledge and understanding of the rules for each sport. 

Year Seven students will also be introduced to the unit Mental Health & Wellbeing and Emotional Literacy. Students will explore topics such as what is mental health, what are hidden emotions, how do we read body language and developing resilience. 

We would also like to introduce our newest staff member of the Health and Physical Education Team, Keira Barlee. “Hello, My name is Keira Barlee and I will be teaching Year Seven and Eight Health and Physical Education. I've been teaching for 15 years in Health and Physical Education. I love all sports but mainly follow AFL and go for St Kilda”. 

The Health and Physical Education Team are looking forward to an exciting Term ahead. 

Science

This term students will be learning Physics - Forces and Simple Machines. Students have been introduced to what the different forces are, contact and non-contact forces.

Students will be making a simple machine as part of their assessment this term, so please start keeping some of your recycling! They will probably need things like cereal boxes and milk top lids as an example. 

The Year Seven's will be learning Newton's Laws of Motion in the coming week, learning the importance of having good grip on car tyres! 

Science Week is coming up next month. Students will be set tasks on Education Perfect and there will be a prize for the student and class with the most points!! Good Luck.