Year Eight 

Financial Literacy

Year Eight Financial Literacy aims to equip our young students with the life skills and knowledge to navigate the complexities of personal finance and make informed decisions about money management, budgeting, and investing. We aim to nurture responsible financial habits and develop a solid foundation for their future financial success.

Our Year Eight Students started their Financial Literacy journey this semester by investigating their financial personalities and what their strengths and weaknesses are when dealing with money to help them make better saving and spending decisions. We explored the SMART (specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timeline) model and set short- and long-term financial goals as well as creating the budget planner. We also identified some ways to save money and worked out how long it would take to reach saving goals and the steps to take to put the plan into actions.

Following our discussion with spending, saving and budgeting, we budgeted the monthly costs to live and work in Melbourne for two different financial situations. Students researched the costs of rent, food, transport, utilities collaboratively and compared across the different living budget. In the next weeks, they will be completing a final budget with the options most suitable to them by justifying their decisions. They will also be presenting their findings and shared their self-reflections in a group to conclude this budgeting project.

Food Technology 

In the first session of Food Technology, Year Eight students engaged in a comprehensive review of kitchen hygiene and safety practices. They also revisited the design process employed in food preparation. Following this, the students had the opportunity to explore the Food Tech room, gaining insights into the functioning of a kitchen and receiving an introduction to fire safety.

Throughout the term, the students will focus on honing their knife skills, including chopping, slicing, and dicing. They will become familiar with various types of knives and their specific uses. Additionally, they will practice different cutting techniques tailored to different ingredients such as vegetables, fruits, and meats. Emphasising the utmost importance of safety when handling knives, we will ensure a thorough review of proper handling and storage procedures.

The second session for Year Eight students centred around revising accurate measuring techniques for both dry and wet ingredients. They also received instruction on the correct usage of ovens and were made aware of safety considerations when working with electricity. During this session, the students had the opportunity to prepare and bake cinnamon scrolls and choc chip cookies. I hope that some of the culinary creations made their way home to be shared with family members. Overall, the students achieved success and obtained pleasing results.

Visual Art

As we welcome back the students in the Year Eight Electives, students in Visual Art have started to show their prior learning through their first project.    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

A brand new group of Year Eight students are beginning to code the BBC micro:bit in the Python coding language. Students have been exploring how to display custom text and graphics on the 5x5 LED matrix and collect readings from the onboard thermometer. In coming weeks, they will create probes to measure soil moisture levels and put these skills together to design a smart garden system.

Spanish

To start our new Unit of Inquiry: Mi Ciudad, students were supported through the process of creating individualised goals for their learning. These goals needed to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely (SMART). Setting goals for their own learning and study in Spanish gives agency and accountability to students in their language learning. We will check-in mid term and again at the end to evaluate whether the students were successful at achieving their goals and reflect on what strategies they used to reach success, or what they could do differently next term to improve even further.

This term students will be learning how to describe features of their house and town and how to give and follow directions. Some examples of activities students will engage in are scavenger hunts, a house tour, and creating their dream house!

Health and Physical Education 

In Term Three for Health and Physical Education, Year Eight students will be focusing on developing their skills and game sense in the sports of Basketball and Netball. Each week, students will practice skills specific to each sport, apply the movements in game-based contexts and enhance their understating of offensive and defensive strategies and player positioning during gameplay. 

Year Eight students will also be introduced to the unit of Body Systems. During this unit we will explore the various systems in the human body such as the Musculoskeletal system, Cardiovascular system and Respiratory system and gain an understanding of how each system plays their role in physical activity. 

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. 

Mr. Mernik 

Science

This term has commenced with the students being introduced to the smallest part of any living organism, the Cell. Students have learnt the difference between a Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cell. 

This week saw students using microscopes, learning the correct way to draw images from different magnifications (x4, x10 and x40). They made onion cell slides, using the skin of the onion and methylene blue to stain the skin to be able to see the cells. 

In the coming weeks, we will be moving onto Learning about different body and plant systems. 

Science week is coming up in August. We have set up a competition on Education Perfect for the students. At the end of Science week, the student and class with the most points will win a prize. Good luck to All!