Year Seven News

Dear Year Seven families,

Hobsons Bay Division Swimming Championships 

On the 21st of March a small group of Year 7 students represent Saltwater P-9 College in the Hobsons Bay Division Swimming Championships at the Werribee Outdoor Pool. Dominic B from 7C, Aahil S from 7D, Aaryaman B, Hanna K, Vanessa M, Vedant S and Ashlea T all from 7E competed in various swimming events such as Freestyle, Backstroke, Breastroke and Team Relays. Each student represented themselves and the College impeccably and should be proud of their achievements.

Highlights of the day were Vanessa’s 3rd in the 13-15 year old 200 metre Freestyle and 2nd in the 13-20 year old 100 metre Backstroke. Hanna’s 2nd in the 50 metre Backstroke and 3rd in the 100 metre Freestyle. Vedant’s 3rd in the 13-20 year old 100 metre Backstroke. Dominic’s 3rd in the 50 metre Butterfly and Aahil’s 2nd in the 13-15 year old 200 metre Freestyle. 

The boys team also participated in the 4x50 metre Freestyle Relay and 4x50 metre Medley Relay with a 4th and 3rd place respectively. 

After a great day of competition in the pool and plenty of smiles, the boys Saltwater College students were Runners Up in the Junior Boys Division. 

Well done to all students involved. 

Mr. Mernik 

Gaol Excursion

What an amazing day we had on Monday at our Old Melbourne Gaol excursion. All students have returned to school with a renewed interest in justice, law and order, civics and of course, super excited to have seen and walked the path of history. 

During the guided tour, students visited cells, hallways, the gallows and walked the same path that Ned Kelly walked within the Gaol. They viewed his armour, saw death masks of notorious criminals that had been executed there and even stepped inside Cell 17- the haunted cell. 

Within the courtroom drama, students reflected on historical laws and punishments and merged them with modern crimes. It was great to see students involved in the court taking on roles such as the defendant, attorney and magistrate.

We are so proud of how our students behaviour reflected our College and IB values through respect, kindness, inquiry, communicator and risk takers.

The feedback from everyone who attended this excursion has been overwhelmingly positive.

Students are in the process of completing tasks during class time associated with their learning from the Gaol. 

Congratulations to all involved in such as positive day.

Below is a student reflection: 

The Old Melbourne Gaol, the site where the famous bushranger Ned Kelly was incarcerated and hung. Most prisoners died in boredom because it was a tiny cell and they couldn’t make noise other than involuntary noises (such as sneezing, coughing, blowing nose, etc). As a journalist, I was shivering as it was creepy to go in there; I felt like I was back in Ned Kelly’s time where he was standing where I was….

I would strongly recommend going there because it is a really good place to visit as it had ghost scenes, Cluedo games, Hangman tour, Court Room Drama and much much more!!!

Maths 

It has been an interesting term with students adjusting to the routines of having a new teacher for different periods. 

In maths students are continuing their work in number, gaining new knowledge in using long multiplication and long division strategies to solve equations. All students have identified goals that they need to work on and when they have time in class or at home, they work on accomplishing their goals. We have set aside the maths period on Fridays to continue work on goals and to conference with the teacher about challenges and successes they encounter. Students are able to access video clips, online tutorials and worksheets to support their independent learning.

Students have used essential assessments to assess their understanding of Measurement and to set new goals on this topic.

The Aces class has been working with Integers. Students have identified the position of negative and positive numbers on a number line. They have applied addition and subtraction strategies to integers and are able to add and subtract negative, positive as well as a mixture of both negative and positive numbers.

As the students continue to strengthen their knowledge of number, it is encouraging to see many students work through the Mathletics tasks set. I would encourage students to continue to memorise their Multiplication Tables, as this is the foundation that cements most mathematics skills and content.

Food Technology

This week students had the opportunity to research and make a cookie that had connections to either their own culture, or another world culture. We had a variety of 

different cookies amongst the two classes, ranging from British shortbread and hobnobs, Filipino ube cookies, Japanese matcha cookies, Australian Anzac cookies, Indian Nan Khatai, Italian butter twists, amongst others. Take a look at some of the delicious cookies the Year 7 students made!

“My cookies were Melting Moments and it was the best cookies I've ever baked!

With the lemon filling and the crunchy biscuit, it was soooo tasty :)”

• Hala Baker 7C

“For my cultural cookies i made wagon wheels, I made some without chocolate and some with but I preferred the ones without just because the chocolate was so hard to work with and it was hard to clean up”

• Molly Gill 7E

Visual Arts

Students in Year 7 Visual Arts have recently completed their clay coil pencil holder pots and their pots  are currently at the bone drying stage. In the clay making process, this stage can take a few weeks to completely reach "bone dry" so the clay work can then move into the next phase of the ceramics firing cycle. Students artworks will be fired at the Saltwater Community Centre Kiln and we are very grateful to Nandita at the community centre for liasing with us on this community partnership. 

Plasticine painting portraits

students who have finished their ceramic works have also created plasticine portraits where they have learned to paint with plasticine and develop their modelling and fine motor sculpturing skills. This was an extension activity for students who completed their ceramic work on time. Year 7 students will also complete a reflection form and artist statement where they will be graded on their understanding of Ceramic, it history and cultural relevance, how it is used today, tools used and various stages of clay from the origins and creation of clay to the final 

Financial Literacy

Over the last month, the students continued to expand their knowledge of financial literacy as we delved into understanding what Albert Einstein deemed as the ‘eighth wonder of the world’, compound interest. We explored different scenarios involving how time has an effect on building wealth in the long run. We compared simple scenarios where Person A started 10 years later than Person B whilst investing the same amount, with the same rate of return, and how that dramatically changes the overall wealth of Person A when compared to Person B. We also explored scenarios where investing small incremental savings, such as 10 dollars per week, over the course of 50 years with an annual interest rate of five percent could yield over 108 thousand dollars when cashing out. I am very impressed with the critical and creative thinking skills that these Year Seven students have displayed and certainly ponder where my life would currently be if I were taught this knowledge when I was their age.

Following our discussion with compound interest, we also looked at the downside; the accumulation of debt as we explored the dangers of credit cards. We investigated the tricks of the credit card trade by making just the minimum payments as specified by credit card issuers. As a class, we discussed a scenario where $10,000 debt was accrued on a credit card (17% interest rate), and a minimum monthly payment of $142 was paid monthly. It would take 36 years and $61,060 in total payments in order to clear the 10 thousand credit card debt. Hopefully, this scenario was eye-opening for the students to get them to rethink acquiring credit cards, and if they do, to make sure that they consciously pay off more than just the minimum balance in order to lower the financial impact on their lives in the future.

To wrap up financial literacy this term, we examined the concepts discussed in the book, ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ by Robert Kiyosaki. We examined the concepts of assets versus liabilities and how one helps to ‘put’ money in your pocket, while the other ‘takes’ money out of your pocket and keeps you within the debt cycle.

Hopefully, the students have gained some valuable knowledge this term in financial literacy and here are some student reflections from the past month:

Financial Literacy is my favourite subject. I like it because of I’m learning about the concepts that I will see later on in life such as compound and simple Interest, debt, wages, taxes, mortgages, and more. I learnt a lot about this course of study. The most interesting thing in Financial Literacy was that it will help me in future references and in case anything happened, I know what do to and how to avoid it next time. Hala Baker – 7C

In Financial Literacy, I’ve been very interested in exploring assets such as stocks and cryptocurrency. I’ve enjoyed learning about things that I can invest in to hopefully make my life easier down the track like compound interest versus simple interest. I’ve also learnt how credit cards can affect my future financial life and how to make smarter financially literate decisions. – Molly Gill, 7E

Financial Literacy is a fun and interactive subject because it helps you learn about money managing tips and guides before you’re grown up so that when you are older you can make better financial decisions to prevent you from going broke and having financial issues. It is interactive because we can ask questions instead of watching non-interactive webinars online. Overall, financial literacy is such an enjoyable subject because it relates to the world around us. – Chris Kim, 7

Robotics and Coding

As we come to the end of Term 1, students undertaking the Robotics and Coding elective are finalising their text based adventure games. This assignment has seen students apply their learning of the Python coding language to code their own game. 

It has been remarkable to see students grow in knowledge and confidence, especially since the majority of students had never previously coded in Python. They are now able to write code to display text, await user input, create and display variables, write if statements, create labels and use loops. 

In the final week of term, we will connect the learning to industry. In partnership with CS in Schools, each class will attend a Zoom session with a volunteer guest speaker who will describe their career journey in the field of Computer Science.                                                      

Dance

The Year 7’s have been busy completing the task set out of putting together the second half of a routine. Students had a routine started for them with choreography and set positions set out, and had to combine their efforts and work as a team to complete the second part of it. This prompted many different reactions amongst the class, yet also prompted students to be more open minded, to communicate and collaborate to achieve the final goal. The students then had to perform what they had created to fellow students and staff, showing off their creative abilities and flare for the others to see. Both classes brought different elements and concepts to their performance showcasing individuality as a student and a group.                                                                                                                 While their performances were well received amongst their piers, this highlighted what team work, commitment, and consistency can achieve and accomplish when all members combine collaborate together. There were so many key important elements that were discussed and reflected upon throughout this process that had nothing to do with dance but rather the outside world. Yet through dance and this process we were able to identify the similarities between both and how they cross over in so many ways. This opened up students to adjusting and elevating their mindset when thinking about other areas in life such as their sports teams, projects, jobs, perception and being proactive.Congratulations to all the students and all you’ve achieved this term, well done!

Interschool Sports

On Tuesday the 29th of March Saltwater College participated in their first ever Secondary Hobsons Bay Division Interschool Sports Carnival. Around 45 Year 7 students represented the College in sports such as Tennis, Volleyball and Cricket. These teams would complete against other Year 7 students from other schools in the Hobsons Bay area. 

The day was filled with great sportsmanship, resilience and teamwork. To cap off what would be a memorable day for the students were some favourable results and the College’s first pennants. This included both the Boys Volleyball and Cricket teams finishing Runners-Up. A special mention to the Boys Tennis team finishing 3rd and a hard-fought effort by the Girls Tennis team finishing equal 2nd, though after count back, missing out by one game and had to settle for 3rd. 

Thank you to all students who participated in the Carnival, training sessions and giving their best efforts on the day. Also the staff members who gave their time to coach and supervise the teams. 

Below are some student reflections.

Cricket Day

March 29th Tuesday was the day everyone had been training for. It was officially match day. Everyone was ready to go out and defeat the other 2 teams which were Williamstown High and Alamanda - our biggest threat. We arrived at the grounds to see Williamstown getting ready, doing stretches. We had our 2 captains Vihaan and Kavin. It was time for the game, Saltwater vs Williamstown.

For this game, Vihaan was the captain. We won the toss and decided to bowl. The game started with Kavin opening the bowling. The first over we had put on pressure but got no wickets. The following overs it was Shivesh and then back to Kavin. We had 1 run out by Tahaa and 1 dropped catch. It was then in the 5th over we had one catch, and we had many runs given in the 6th over. In the 7th we got another one and the wickets just continued.

After this it was time for batting, scoring more than 60 runs with our opening partnership. Sukhraj retired while scoring a 6 and then Vihaan went in. We had won the match but continued. Only 4 people got to bat in that game and won by 9 runs. Williamstown had 80, and we scored 89.

The next game was against Alamanda where we had to bat. Nearly all out on the 6th over, Vedant had potential to help get runs for us, and he did, he got a total of 19 runs. We finished with 8 out scoring 49 runs.

Alamanda batted next where we got many people out slowly. The game was very tight, it was the third last ball when we got someone out and needed to not give any runs at all. The next ball was unlucky, the batsmen smacked it for 4 runs, causing us to lose the game by 2 runs. The Alamanda team came out screaming in joy, happy that they had won.

The end summary was that we had won 1 game, and we had lost to Alamanda who had beat both teams.

Players: Kavin, Vihaan, Aahil, Tahaa, Vedant, Aiden, Rithesh, Aarya, Shukraj, Eshan, Chucky, Luka, Shivesh

Coach: Todd Robinson

Volleyball

"The competition was fun and challenging. We worked collectively together to help win the points. Our toughest game was against Alamanda in the last round. Unfortunately, we didn't come away with the win but it was enjoyable all the same" - Lillyann 7D

"The tournament was exhilarating and really brought us together again. The teamwork was excellent and improved with time. We came second overall, losing to Altona in the final. Next year we will work on our defence and teamwork to make sure we come away with the win" - Genti & Abel 7D