5-8 Community News
Dear Families/Caregivers,
We welcome all families and students back from their two week holiday. I hope you took the time to enjoy some sunshine and some long awaited family time. We have all been incredibly impressed with the transition from holidays to school routines.
On Wednesday we hosted our iPad information sessions for families in Years 5 and 6. Our data explains that our students are heavily impacted by their screen time, especially at night.
I do have some concerns about some of the web based applications that students are using. Snapchat has a legal age limit of 13, not 10. We need to be really mindful of the impact these apps are having and the over-exposure to the materialistic visuals that our students are seeing.
For those who would like to view the slideshow about some tips and parameters to ensure that our students are safe, please see the slideshow below.
For many of the students, it was all systems go. All the students in 5-8 commenced with their termly novel reading four days a week. This continues to be a focus across our community. It's so impressive to walk into the space and to see our kids engaged in the content, reading either aloud or in small groups to improve their fluency, expression and reading comprehension. You would have also noticed that some students have already returned home with some homework. We will continue to link our homework lessons to the student's novel. If we could please ask for you to continue to monitor and track these outcomes by continuing to ask your children about their homework.
The Resilience Project content and language continue to provide our students with opportunities to practice gratitude at home and at school. Over the next few weeks, students will examine the importance of nutrition: mind-body connection. This week in TA, students tasted a variety of foods that are known to enhance their mood. I wanted to take the time to give a shout-out to the Year 8 Leaders who organised and facilitated this activity for our community. It was fascinating to see so many of students opt for the following food boosters for mood:
- Yoghurt
- Berries
- Oats
- Dark Chocolate
- Bananas
What was even more interesting was when we asked the question about how they felt on the day, so many of our students said they felt better and were able to concentrate for longer periods of the day. Let's continue to promote the importance of having breakfast, especially wholesome and nutritious foods that will provide students with the capacity to concentrate.
Lunchtime activities will re-commence this term. The annual netball competition on a Monday always draws a huge level of participation. This term we have 15 teams participating. This is a wonderful achievement but it also shows how much our kids not only value sport, but the opportunity to play team-based sports with their class peers. It has been so good to see so many kids take that step and commit to an activity, even though we are blessed to have a variety of new spaces in the yard and the use of the Rec Reserve! Tech Club is occurring each Tuesday in the Partnerships space and the Library is open for some quieter activities!
And lastly, please continue to ensure that if your child is out of uniform, a note is provided to their TA teacher. Shirts under the school shirt aren't to be worn. I have noticed that this is creeping back in. Now we are well into the colder months, please ensure that you are taking a trip down to the uniform shop in Kyabram to purchase a school jumper or jacket. College beanies and scarves are also available to purchase from the College Office.
Corey Carver and Anthony Poppa
5-8 Community Leaders
