Junior School

2024 subject allocations

Students in Year 9 2024 will be excited to know that they will receive their subject allocations in Connect this week.   Students who wish to make a subject change request will need to collect a Subject Change Request Form from the Junior School Office. Completed Subject Change Request Forms need to be submitted to the Junior School Office by Tuesday 28th November.   Students are advised that one subject change can impact the rest of their classes as well as their home group placement.  Subject change requests are a request only and changes are not guaranteed.

Students in Yr 8 2024 will be notified of their class placements in Week 9 in preparation for their STEP UP classes. 

Junior School STEP UP: Weeks 10-11

All Year 7 – 9 students will be taking part in the college’s Step Up Program in Weeks 10-11, Monday 4/12/22 – Wed 13/12/2. At the commencement of Step Up, the college will activate our new 2024 timetable, including the return of Mentor for 10 minutes at the start of the day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Throughout Step Up students are advised to check Xuno regularly as they adjust to their new timetable and learning program. 

Step Up enables students to meet their new teachers, Year Level Leaders and classmates and gain insight into the key knowledge and skills of each of their 2024 subjects. Part of the expectation of Step Up is that students will complete coursework as valuable preparation for their 2024 learning, and some subject teachers may set holiday homework.  Further details of these tasks will be provided to students and families at the commencement of Step Up. 

During Step Up our current Year 9 students will step into Senior School.  We wish them all the best and are proud of their achievements and growth over the past three years.

2024 Junior School Year Level Leaders:

Yr 7 – Nathaniel Alexopoulos & Ashley Bishop

Yr 8 – Kelly Hall & Richard Palmer

Yr 9 – Nadine Clarke & Miranda Brown

Towards the end of Step Up, our current Year 7 students will attend the much-loved Watergardens Excursion on Tuesday 12th December.  On that same day, we will be welcoming our incoming Year 7 students as part of the State-Wide Orientation Day, with these students experiencing their first full day at Gisborne Secondary College.

Our current Year 8s will have their first introduction to the RAID program on Wednesday 13th December, working in teams to complete a Watergardens scavenger hunt.  A RAID Information Night for families will be held in the second week of Term 1 2024. 

We ask that parents complete permission forms & payments for these excursions on Xuno.

Junior School Office Relocation

The Junior School Office has been temporarily relocated to A12 whilst refurbishment works are underway for B-Block classrooms and office spaces. It was great to see that most students found us with ease on our first day in operation on Monday.   We anticipate that Junior School classes and staff will be back in B-Block early Term 1 2024.

Social Innovators Program

Over 40 students from Yr 8 & Yr 9 recently participated the Social Innovators Program. Students were given the design challenge to develop new and ingenious ideas for ways to care for our people and our planet. Students worked in teams over a 2-day period on their ideas and at the end of the challenge, teams pitched their ideas to local community members and business partners.  We were impressed by the innovative ideas, from AI support dogs to transport alternatives, and how collaboratively the students worked together. The photos below demonstrate how engaged and productive the students were in the program.