Year Eight 

English

This term in English, Year Eight have been studying Shakespeare’s classic, “Romeo and Juliet”.

Through the lens of this term’s statement of Inquiry, “Language evolves over time, however the themes and messages communicated can remain powerful and relevant”, the classes have began fearlessly exploring Shakespeare’s language and making connections to our modern-day vernacular.

Classes are beginning to incorporate ‘reader’s theatre’ into the learning, which has encouraged students to read and engage with the script collaboratively, and deliberate questions about the plot, asking “is the relationship between Romeo and Juliet true love, or just infatuation?”, and “what is Shakespeare actually trying to say?”.

As Year Eight tackle these bigger questions, they are beginning to unpack themes, and share their understanding of these themes through creative expression and analytical discussion.

Science

This term,the students have embarked on an exciting journey to explore the fundamental concept of the States of Matter - Solids, Liquids and Gases with specific reference to the arrangement of particles and their properties. They also explored plasma and Bose-Einstein condensates, two less common states of matter with fascinating properties! They have started working on exciting student research projects incorporating their knowledge about Scientific Method into their learning. As the term progresses, the Year 8 students will delve deeper into the fascinating world of Chemistry exploring some further key concepts in Chemistry learning about elements and compounds.

We are incredibly proud of our students for their enthusiasm and curiosity. They are developing a solid foundation in Chemistry that will support their future studies and everyday lives.

Mathematics

This term, our Year 8 students have been diving into the world of Algebra. They've been engaging in a variety of activities that help them understand how to use the four operations with terms that include variables and coefficients. Students have also been working with expressions to explore substitution, and they've recently started using the distributive law to expand expressions. This has made algebraic concepts more accessible and practical for their everyday use.

In the next few weeks, we will be building on our algebraic knowledge by focusing on expansion, simplification, and factorisation. Students will learn how to identify the highest common factors in different terms and use this skill to factorise various expressions. This will be an important step in mastering the fundamentals of algebra and will set the stage for more complex problem-solving.

We are pleased to announce that over two one-hour sessions, all Year 8 classes will participate in a free incursion called, "Talk Money." This program provides an introduction to essential financial concepts, tailored for secondary school students. The workshops are designed to be inclusive and relevant, ensuring that every student gains valuable insights into money management and finance.

In a few weeks, we’ll be shifting our focus to the topic of data. This unit will give students the opportunity to explore how individual data values, including outliers, can impact the range, mean, and median. They'll also learn how to distinguish between a population and a sample, and investigate different techniques for collecting data, such as census, sampling, and observation. This unit will equip students with essential skills in understanding and interpreting data, which are crucial in today’s data-driven world.

We look forward to an exciting term ahead as our students continue to grow and develop their mathematical skills!