Year 7 News

What a busy few weeks the year 7’s have had - after camp in week 6, we had Reconciliation Week and students were lucky enough to experience a special planetarium incursion. 

Students have been providing feedback to our school through the “Attitudes to School Survey” and some focus groups have been speaking with staff about areas we can improve on at Kurnai College. We value student and parent feedback, as this helps us develop our school, and teaching/learning programs. 

Some students have expressed their interest in participating in our new piloted Aspiring Athletes Program beginning next semester, and we are still working towards out KPA goals for the term. Students have suggested 5 days of fun to end the semester in week 11 as a reward. We think this is a fantastic way to end what has been a long and busy term, more information about this will be available soon! 

CATS and Semester Reports

This week, the year 7’s will be commencing their Common Assessment Tasks (CATs) for the semester. CATs are a summative assessment completed at the end of the unit, to show teachers their learning throughout the term. In electives, this may be year 7’s only CAT for the subject. The CAT contributes to teacher assessments (they are not the only way teachers assess) and the results of all subjects and all assessments will be published in semester reports, these will be available via COMPASS by the end of term. There are no parent teacher conversations this term (these are term 1 and 3) so if you have any concerns about your child’s report, please reach out to the classroom teacher at any time via phone call or email. 

Subject Changes

As Semester 1 draws to a close several subjects will be finishing up for students, as electives will be changing rotations in Term 3. Peer Support will also finish up this term and students will be participating in Health next semester instead. The students have really enjoyed Peer Support this semester and we thank the Peer Support leaders for their work with transition this Semester. 

Camp

Wow, what an incredible four days camp was! A lot of tired students and teachers returned from Coolamatong in week 6, after a jam packed and very busy 4 days! From bush cooking to sailing and everything in between I know I came home with some sore muscles from all the activities, but most of all, we came home proud of the students and the amazing way they behaved on camp. 

Every student on camp stepped up and challenged themselves whether it be tackling heights, going out on water, riding a bike, or eating bush tucker, it was truly inspiring to watch the students face these challenges with perseverance and really supported our camp theme of resilience. 

A huge thank you to Mr White for all his hard work planning the camp and making all the trivia and minute to win it activities we played together before bed, and thanks to Miss Dodd our camp first aider and medication dispenser who was the first up each morning to get everyone organised for the day! Also, a special thanks to the teachers and education support staff who came on camp, we appreciate you putting in the extra time and lastly, the kids!! Thanks for a sensational camp year 7’s. 

Learning Behaviour Updates

We saw an increase in perfect 4.0 LBU’s this round with 7 students achieving the top score! CONGRATULATIONS:

Coming extremely close with 3.98 congratulations to: 

Mia Castrillon, 

Taylah Savage and

 Zahlia Smee. 

Also, the following students received a learning behaviour update above 3.9 and received a HOT CHIP lunch last week for their amazing achievement!

Lastly, we had 50 students receive awards for achieving a Learning Behaviour Update above 3.5 and 89% of students achieved an GPA above 3.0, an outstanding achievement from the cohort and a true testament of their incredible work ethic, engagement, relationships, and excellence. Keep it up guys!

Attendance 

The weather has certainly cooled off and the germs, flus and bugs that come with it have been wreaking havoc. Please don’t forget to contact the attendance hotline/ log an attendance note on COMPASS if students are away/ attending appointments etc.

Art

The year 7s have started to paint their puppy sculptures they have been working on all term. 

Erin Gruis

Tear 7 Team Leader