WELC Report

Message from the

Acting WELC Coordinator -

Ms Debby Morgan

We are quickly nearing the end of 2021. Yet another year filled with lockdowns and school closures; however, our students have again shown strong resilience and commitment, which has helped them maintain a high level of attendance and involvement during the last two terms. The WELC staff are so proud of all our students this year.

In late October, local students returned to on-site learning. They have enjoyed being able to see their friends face-to-face and enjoyed the opportunity of being able to chat, eat lunch and play board games together. Six of our students continue to learn online. We congratulate these students for maintaining their attendance and punctuality, despite the time differences between their countries and Australia.

We held Parent-Teacher interviews on 11 November and we encourage all students to take the suggestions and advice they received during these meetings and put them into practice during the last few weeks of term. In the next few weeks, students will complete their final assessments where they can show all they have learned during the term.

WELC students attended a Wild Action online incursion on 25 October. They were shown around Chris Humfrey’s private zoo and were introduced to many different Australian animals. Students were able to see animals right up close and were shown the special skills and characteristics of each animal. Chris emphasized the importance that each animal has on the environment and encouraged all students to think about protecting each animal and thinking about what impact they, as human beings, have on these animals.

On 17 November, students participated in First Aid training. Students learned the number to call in an emergency and the specific skills they would need to deal with different emergencies. This included dealing with bleeds, unconscious people and people who have stopped breathing.

At the end of this term, 10 of our students will exit the Language Centre. Over the next few weeks, these students will participate in Transition classes in WELC. Some of them will also do some orientation days at their new school. All exiting students will receive a Transition Report. This report will demonstrate the wonderful improvements you have made in English during your study in the Language Centre. All the best to those students who will go to a new school next year! We hope that you take all the things you have learned from the Language Centre and find them useful in settling into your new school. We hope you will come back and visit us sometime in the coming years too.

School will finish on 16 December and we will have a long summer break. Term 1 will start on 31 January 2022. I wish all students a happy and safe holiday with family and friends!

Ms Debby Morgan

Acting Coordinator

WELC Art Elective

WELC students have been doing Art as their elective in Term 4. Students have been doing different activities including one-point perspective, Halloween pictures and presenting fruit in two different ways. We have included many of the students’ artwork in this newsletter.

During the last two years, we have all had to wear face masks a lot. In Art, the WELC students designed their own style of face masks. Students also experimented with optical illusions which you can see in their 3D hand drawings and the optical illusions of a chequered cube.

Team A – Acrostic Poems

In the Language Centre, Team A has been learning about acrostic poems. The students experimented with describing themselves in an acrostic poem, using only adjectives. They also took inspiration from our online incursion from Wild Action and described the unique characteristics of one of their favourite Australian animals in a separate acrostic poem.

Their poems are shown below:

Active

Loyal

Interesting

Cheerful

Easy-going

Ducks are omnivores.

Under the lake and on the lake.

Coots are medium-sized water birds.

Kingdom is animalia

Alice

Eager