Year Seven
Welcome
We extend a big welcome to all our Year Seven students and their families. Each fortnight, the newsletter will share information about the core and elective subjects students are studying. The Secondary team are very impressed with the pride all students are showing in their new uniforms and Secondary school journey.
English
We are extremely proud of the way the Year Seven students have begun their journey in English for 2023. Students have been working through the fundamentals of English recognising how the curriculum incorporates all areas of Reading, Writing, and Speaking and Listening into each lesson. It has been pleasing to see the way students have challenged their thinking of this, showing development from a Primary School setting to a Secondary School setting. Over the next fortnight, English classes will continue to work through the 'First 20 Days' of English focusing on building an understanding of vocabulary, language conventions, and spending time exploring the Jacaranda English Textbook.
Science
The Year Seven students have settled in well to their journey in Science. We have started the term with an Introduction to Science and the students are learning all about the Hazards with in the Laboratory and what equipment we use when carrying out practical investigations. All students seem to be very excited to begin to complete these investigations and will be starting them in our 'First 20 days'. In the next week, the students will be learning how to use a Bunsen Burner and focusing on how to write a practical using the correct Scientific Method.
Sara Martyn and Priyanka Bhandari
Maths
The Year Seven students have had a tremendous start to mathematics in 2023. Mr. Naidoo, Miss Priyanka Bhandari and Mr Dylan Haeusler are teachers who are engaging our Year Seven students this year. We have begun the year with a discussion on importance of understanding integers in everyday life.
Students began the term with writing a pretest based on a previous year NAPLAN paper. They are presently evaluating their responses and identifying goals that they would like to achieve before sitting the NAPLAN test. Students in Year Seven are encouraged to practice answering previous years papers and seeking clarification for questions that they find challenging.
This term will see students focus on Number. They will solve addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems by using effective mental and written strategies. In the first few days we concentrated on the place value of digits within a whole number. Students then went on to rewrite large numbers in expanded notation. From here students will move on to practice solving problems involving the basic operations.
The main textbooks used in Math is “Jacaranda Maths Quest” and it is supported with an online resource. We will be using both the online tool as well as the textbook in class. Parents are encouraged to send their children with their own Macbooks.
Students have personal timetables and have adapted well to the new routines in mathematics, having their textbooks and stationery ready for each lesson.
Health & Physical Education
The Year Seven students have transitioned into Secondary Physical Education extremely well. We started the term with Minor Games and are currently completing the Beep Test. Everyone so far has participated and gave it their best shot. Students have all been determined to beat their scores from previous years. Students over the term will be looking at Athletics and participating in variety of events like Shot Put, Discus, Javelin, High Jump, Long Jump, and Running Events.
For Health students are currently looking at essential agreements. Students are developing their own Essential agreements for Physical Education on what expectations we need to follow to improve safety and fairness amongst everyone. Students will be looking at Nutrition throughout Term 1, inquiring at how we can improve on making healthy choices.
Humanities
The Year 7 students have begun their journey in Humanities learning about Civics and Citizenship. We look at what it is be good local, national and global citizen as we reflect the IB values our school embraces. Students are encouraged to develop their voice and agency in these classes as they understand and develop their own identity and positive place in the world.
“We have an opportunity for all Australians to understand who we are, where we’ve come from, and how we can move forward and work together in a common national interest.”
- Professor Mark Rose
Spanish
The Year 7 students will be learning Spanish in a well-designed, systematic way based on the Victorian Curriculum 7-10 Sequence in 2023. We will start with basic vocabulary and concepts which is a great opportunity not only for students who haven’t done any Spanish before, but also for those who did a bit of Spanish in Year 6, as their Spanish knowledge will be consolidated through revising and practicing.
Spanish is the 3rd largest language in the world and students are fortunate to have the opportunity to learn more about this language and the people who speak it. Throughout their Spanish language journey students will be introduced to different dialects of Spanish from different countries around the world, as well as the culture and history of those who speak it.
Students began the term by learning basic expressions such as greetings and how to say thank you. We also discussed the purpose and function of languages and the important components of a language such as vocabulary, grammar, letters, words, etc.
Our Unit of Inquiry this term is 'Todo Sobre Mi'. We will cover the Spanish alphabet, numbers from 0 to 30, colours, personal details (names, age, birthday), family and pets, nationalities, and professions. In terms of communicating, this term students are expected to interact with their teachers and classmates to exchange information about aspects of their personal world, participate in everyday classroom discussions and routines and respond to simple questions in Spanish. We can't wait to learn all about our new Year 7 students through the medium of Spanish!