Year 7 & 8 News

Welcome to the 2022 learning year! 

The Year 7 and 8 Team would first like to welcome all our new Year 7 students to the Kurnai Learning Community. We would like to also like to extend a warm welcome to all our new families to Kurnai College. 

For those who do not know me, my name is Daniel Murphy and my role this year is Campus Assistant Principal and the Year 7 and 8 Sub-School Leader. I will be your primary contact with any and all communication for Year 7 and 8 students. I will endeavour to make 2022 the best school learning year I can make it and if there is anything I can do to help our students please do not hesitate to contact me.

It has been absolutely fantastic to see students settling in (or back in) to our Kurnai Learning Community. We have had a great start to the year, with all Year 7 and 8 students engaged in the classroom and our teachers are acknowledging these positive behaviours with record numbers of green positive write up across all our form groups. 

The learning in our core and practical classes have been aimed at bridging any key skills that may have been missed over the last two years of interrupted learning as well as really extending our students that have excelled in this challenging time. Our targeted reading program, TR@K, is in full swing with all students (Year 7 – 9) placed in classes according to their ability levels and working hard at increasing their phonetic reading ability. This is a key focus for the College and the results of this program in recent years speak for its value. 

As a Year 7 and 8 Team, we have started educating our students on our key foci for 2021 through assemblies and promotion around the school. These foci are important areas identified by the staff and students and they cover a range of areas including, but not limited to, Attendance, School Wide Positive Behaviour Data 

(SWPBS) and NAPLAN.

Attendance

We are already pushing as another major focus for the year, holding students accountable for being at school all day every day. At our last Year Level Assemblies for Year 7 and 8 we talked about students achieving 95% attendance. 

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our students and families on the following attendance data:

School Wide Positive Behaviour (SWPBS) 

We as a campus are really pushing our positive framework as well as introducing some minor tweaks to enhance instant engagement from our students and parents. As I mentioned above Year 7 and Year 8 students have had a record-breaking start to their positive Compass entries.

CAMP

We are soon to put out the paperwork for Year 7 Camp. This is a really important adventure for our students and the most important camp of their high school years. We will be working with every family to try and ensure 100% attendance at the camp. If you are concerned or expect to face financial difficulties with this camp, please contact us to discuss how we can support you. 

We will also be preparing for our Year 8 camp. This is another fantastic adventure for Year 8 students later in the year. 

Please note: Camps will be processed through the Department of Education Camps and Excursions rules and regulations and are subject to approval and Covid19 restrictions. We will keep in constant communication and have contingency plans in place.

Year 7 BBQ

I would like to take this opportunity to invite all Year 7 parents, students and families to our welcome BBQ. Every year we have a great turn-out of both families and teachers. It is really important that all parties work together to get the most out of your child’s education. This event is a great way to start off their high school life on a strong positive note. All Year 7 students are keen to show their families around their new school and teachers are eager to meet families to discuss their positive start. 

We will have lawn games and music as well as a free BBQ. We really value all the feedback we receive and the engagement of our families in our Kurnai Learning Community. 

Please find below the flier that will be sent home to all families this week.

Please remember that if you need any support with anything for Year 7 or 8 to contact either myself or the Year 7/8 Assistant Team Leaders, Ross Johnson and Ben Kimpton, so that we can support your child to have the best educational experience possible in their early secondary school years.