5-8 Community News

This week we said goodbye to Zoe Albrecht who is on maternity leave. Zoe is a great teacher who will be missed by both staff and students. We wish Zoe all the best with the upcoming arrival of her baby and can’t wait to see her back at St Augustine's next year. 

Student Leadership 2026 

On Friday 22nd August we will look at the process of Student Leadership allocations for 2026. All Year 7 students will be presented with in depth roll descriptions for all positions. Community Leaders (x2), House Leaders (x2 per house) and Catholic Social Teaching Leaders (x2). Students will have an extension of time to submit applications from the original date, however students are welcome to begin their submission at their earliest convenience. Throughout the remainder of the semester our students will be encouraged to observe and have conversations around these roles, particularly with our current group of Year 8 Leaders. Students will also prepare a short speech to be presented to the Community at a later date before the selection process and appointments are made for 2026.  

TA Topic 

We have continued to look at our mood and food as a community and what makes us healthy. We know that eating well is of vital importance and we studied carbohydrates, fats and proteins and how these impact us. We reviewed our sleep and examined the optimum amount and what our body looks like if we don’t get enough - it can have a major impact on our health and mental wellbeing. 

The current area of work is around connections and the value of human connections vs digital ones. The process of conversations, listening, body language and picking up on social cues are important for our development and overall positivity. 

Organisation for school

We have continued to discuss the importance of being organised for school. 

The key themes we have discussed as a community are:

• Having a fully charged device every morning

• Ensuring phones are not in bedrooms at night as we know they can keep us awake

• Eating breakfast and having lunch every day

• Exercising or undertaking a mindfulness activity every day

• Ensuring homework is collected early in the week and spending time on it each night

Partnerships local excursions

This term students have focused on business, economics and careers. Through this we have been able to visit local businesses such as Bennett’s Intersport to understand the inner workings of local businesses. Students have also explored the industries available to them within our local community and will look to further expand their career options moving forward.