Secondary 7/8

Term 3

7/8 A

This term has once again challenged our traditional ways of learning. Jasmine and I are so proud of all our students in Secondary 7/8A and the resilience they have shown throughout these difficult times. The care our students have shown for each other during remote learning 6.0 has been heart-warming to see and they should be commended on their support of their peers. We would also like to thank the wonderful well-being team of Concord School, the Section 7/8 team and all our amazing families for their support and dedication towards our students on and off site. 

Remote learning has brought it's challenges; however, we were still able to participate in different online activities throughout the eight weeks of lockdown. Students in 7/8A were able to attend a couple of incursions with Melbourne Zoo Victoria to reinforce our understandings about environmental impacts on our environment and threats to animals’ habitats, along with sharing their favourite books during Book Week and having the chance to dress-up. We have also been involved in weekly section assemblies and our 7/8 Spectacular rehearsals, which has been a chance to share the amazing work being done and catch-up with their peers. 

We have most enjoyed creating a range of different puppets that are made from trash we found in our homes. During our morning WebEx sessions, we have loved playing different Kahoots helping with creating deeper understandings of our literacy, numeracy and inquiry focuses. We have most enjoyed learning about living and non-living things, Global Issues, explanation texts and arrays. 

.

78B 

The students in 78B have coped brilliantly in another year of lockdowns. With large numbers logging on to WebEx each day, we have almost a full class in attendance. Other  than the reading, writing and math's we have been studying, the students’ commitment to showing up each day online has provided a valuable feeling of community in these challenging times. Each personality plays an important role in our morning meetings and grouped together creates something special. To battle the fatigue of lockdown learning we have; played online games, rushed around in home based scavenger hunts, creatively made trash puppets and shared, often bemusing, memes. The occasional guest star appearance of pets and siblings have also added some much needed variety to the proceedings alongside the specialist lessons ranging from food tech to outdoor ed. Well done 78B for making the best of a trying situation. Let’s hope that we will all be back learning at school in Term 4.

78C

Term 3 was another wild ride for students in 7/8C. We were at school, then we weren’t, then … who can remember anymore. For students and staff it was a head spinning blur, and we should all be commended for facing the endless lockdowns head on and supporting each other. I’m sure, or at least very hopeful, that we will all come through the other side more resilient and capable of dealing with the many and varied challenges life will throw at us. During remote learning we did some math's, reading, and writing where students did their best to engage with the learning under difficult circumstances. Everyone experienced a degree of fatigue from the daily class Webexes but we managed to keep them as fresh and interesting as possible with games such as Skribbl, Scattergories, Kahoot! And Blooket. The virtual Trash Puppets incursion was a highlight for many - this was not only a lot of fun, but also deepened our understanding about how we can make a difference by reducing our impact on the natural world. Everyone has their fingers and everything else crossed so that we can hopefully return safely to onsite learning in Term 4.

7/8D

Yet another term that challenged traditional learning methods. Natalie and I are very proud of our students who has demonstrated resilience in overcoming the changes and inconsistency that Lockdown 6.0 caused. We also would like to thank all families, the well-being team of Concord School, all staff especially the section 7/8 team who had diligently taken turns to care for some of our students who were onsite. 

Despite the limitations that remote learning brings, we were still able to participate in various different activities online throughout the eight weeks of lockdown. In conjunction to book week, students of 78D were able to suggest their favourite book to their peers in section 7/8 during assembly. We have continued to practice and participate in dance rehearsals for the Hair Spray performance that will be held in term 4. We have also attended a couple of incursion with Melbourne Zoo Victoria to reinforce our understandings about threats on wildlife and their habitats. 

We particularly enjoyed creating puppets that were made out of thrashes. Most students showed increased engagement during this activity. We enjoyed sharing our creative end products to each other during our WebEx meetings. For literacy we have continued working on creating informative and explanatory texts while exploring non fictional material on global issues such as extinction, endangered animals and sustainability. On the other hand, for numeracy we have been working on increasing multiplicative thinking strategies and practicing measurement in daily lives. 

7/8E

When we started term 3 we began to learn about the environment, the impact that humans have and how we can make a difference. We interviewed Flora, Karlie, Ashley and Nicole and asked them the question, “What do you think the main environmental issues are right now?.” 

During a very long Remote Learning we have researched; Extinct and Endangered Animals, Deforestation, Global Warming, Climate Change, Plastic Waste, Palm Oil and Coral Bleaching. We had heaps of fun learning about the 6R’s by making Trash Puppets. We would like to introduce our Trash Puppets to you; Josh made by Aidan who says, “I like food”, Bixie Rockelle who says, “Oh honey” & Wu Paul who says “You better werk” made by Phoebe and Betty made by Karen who says “Blue is beautiful”. We are planning a project based on plastic bread ties so that we can make a small difference. We are really hoping that we can go to the Zoo in term 4 and investigate further.

Remote Leaning is hard but we have stayed connected and we have enjoyed; weekly Spectacular dance lessons and some acting lessons, daily WebEx class learning with Karen and games with Jess, interesting videos and online games we have played. Karen particularly liked receiving e-mails and work from the students. 

7/8F

Let’s face it, I think we would agree the term has been long with another period of remote learning. Despite the lack of many things for the students, they have shown a tremendous amount of adaptability and maintained their enthusiasm during this time. They have appreciated seeing each other each day on WebEx and valued what one another have had to say.

We have completed our daily task boards, shared our pets, tried to appreciate our local surroundings, even made a dish or two and celebrated birthdays. Here are a few photos of our learning in during remote.

HOW MUCH FRESH WATER ON OUR PLANET ?

Every living Earth needs water to survive.

It is important that we take care of the Freshwater on our planet because less than three percent of our planet’s water is fresh water. 

WHY FRESH WATER IS IMPORTANT? The plants, animals, microbes, rocks, soil, sunlight, and water found in and around the lake is called freshwater ecosystem. 

I can see worms, yabbies, ducks, swans…. around the lake.

I also see a lots of plants too. 

7/8G 

We started Term 3 optimistic for what lay ahead. We soon realised it would be a term spent mostly in lockdown. The students of 7/8G have adapted amazingly to the challenges that have been thrown their way and there are many positives to take away.

We were lucky to have an Experience Day to Latitude in week 1 where we tried things that pushed us out of our comfort zones and allowed us to experience many different emotions. We also made a trip to Coles to purchase food to make lunch. Everyone checked off items on their shopping lists and made comparisons between products by looking at the price tags.

In Maths we focused on place value and making ten. Students skip counted by 10 and made models of numbers using tens frames.  We compared numbers to identify more and less with the support of a number line.

In English we have used different texts to explore emotions and the Zones of Regulation. We have tried to connect stories to ourselves and thought about how we would feel in the situations represented.

Throughout the term we have engaged in hands-on language experiences each week. We made bookmarks, spice rub, a nest and puppets to name a few. All students have loved creating and then writing about their creations.

This term students were highly engaged and mesmerised by the Olympics and Paralympics. We tracked the number of gold medals collected, watched the games on TV and held a mini Olympics morning at school.

During our morning WebEx sessions we have discussed gratitude and added things that we are grateful for to a list. It is amazing to hear what each other is grateful for. Here are a few things we have been grateful for this term: bubbles, mum, dad, internet, WebEx, fresh air, sunshine, siblings, friends, feelings and clean water.

7/8H

It’s hard to believe that Term 3 has come to an end. It has been a challenging term but I am deeply impressed that all 7/8H students have worked hard to learn and stay positive. We continued to build our knowledge and skills during our WebEx sessions, from reading words, writing sentences to matching numbers. We all enjoyed our language experiences and explored describing people, place or objects in different ways. We sang the song of what-like words and learned to think of words in terms of the colour, size, shape, feel, taste and look. 

In terms of Experience Days, we were fortunate to visit Latitude and Kmart at the start of the term. Ilana and Karen were very brave completing the obstacle course all by themselves at Latitude. We also tried a range of activities in other ways after the lockdown. Hossein, Marcus and Spencer enjoyed the virtual roller coaster rides and designed their own versions. Abudi, Ridley and Humdan not only created their trash puppets, but also gave vivid descriptions about them. Even though we are not physically together, our hearts are well connected! Look forward to seeing you all back next term!

I