Years 7 - 9 Update

November 2020

Year 9 Update

Our Year 9s recently completed a research group SAC on Australian Indigenous People. It was a task that involved students working together to complete research on a particular Indigenous people or tribe, their culture, hunting practices, technology and weapons, and location and landscape.

They had to design a poster, and produce a final copy as a team. Then they each had to partake in a learning walk to provide documented feedback on the other groups posters. It went really well and each student did a fantastic job!

The indigenous Australian groups, included the Wathaurong, Pijantjatjara, Yolngu, Yorta Yorta and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Students worked in pairs to create posters, booklets and dioramas. It was a welcome break to get ‘hands-on’ after spending so much time online in remote learning!

As part of NAIDOC Week 2020 celebrations the work of 9A has been put on display at the Goldsworthy campus and the dioramas created by students shared with the junior campuses to highlight the kinds of projects students complete in year 9.

Year 10 2021 Courses and Costs

The 7-8 Community News

At Kryal Castle

The last couple of weeks have been incredibly busy! Students have settled back into face-to-face learning onsite fantastically and have been working very hard on all areas of their learning on every campus.

This term students have been exploring ‘Vikings, Shoguns and Conquests’ in HASS and other curriculum areas. Thus far students have dipped their toes and completed a mini-exploration of the Middle Ages, Japan and the Shoguns and The Spanish Conquest of the Americas. These mini units have given students a taste into what different eras looked like; similarities and differences, and provided a reference for them as they move into their project, where students will create an artefact/written article to add to a classroom museum.

To accompany our HASS topic our year 7/8‘s visited Kryal Castle in Ballarat. It was an amazing excursion, where students were given presentations in five different learning modules (archery, siege, nobility, weapons and armoury and torture). These presentations were full of valuable information, replica swords, armour, siege weapons and a great chance for students to be involved in the learning.

One of the highlights for the day was watching the championship joust at lunchtime. It was a great spectacle as the knights battled out a close battle with Prince Phillip scraping away with a 3-2 win. The Students had the chance to meet the knights, get a photo and ask them questions. Prince Phillip lives at the castle and has won world championships.

Students would have walked away from Kryal Castle with an abundance of knowledge and information they will use in their upcoming HASS projects.

Enough from the teachers! Let's hear from the students:

Everybody was so excited to go to Kryal Castle because it was our first excursion since COVID hit, we thought we might not get the chance this year. Once we got to Kryal Castle we met five people who were dressed in medieval clothing. During the day, we worked through different learning modules, each module showed all the different ways people lived in the Middle Ages. My class did the Archery module first. We learnt how to shoot arrows at targets and the purpose they served during battle. Secondly, we did the ‘Nobility’ module where we learnt about hierarchy and power during the Middle Ages. Then we went downstairs for the Weapon module - we learnt about all the different weapons and how they were used and changed over time. A highlight for me was definitely the lollie shop at lunch.

What a great day - definitely worth the wait!

Year 8 into 9 Transition Program 2021 -

This term has seen our year 8’s head over and begin the transition process into year 9 at our Goldsworthy Campus. Each fortnight, campus groups will be visiting Goldsworthy, where they will meet staff members, participate in transition activities, and engage in prospective elective subjects. Students extremely enjoyed their first experience at Goldsworthy and are eagerly waiting to continue the transition program.

And student feedback

On Tuesday 27th, the year 8’s had Transition to Goldsworthy. Most of the year 8’s were extremely nervous, while some felt excited about this new step in our education. We learnt about the programs and subjects that will be running next year in year 9 - the opportunities sounded amazing. From there we began to pick our elective subjects for 2021.

While we were there we met lots of different staff and student support teams at Goldsworthy. We met the wellbeing team, The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander team, the year 9 and 10 coordinator, SEED and IMPACT organisers as well as Ms Parcell, the career advisor at Goldsworthy.

We can’t wait for our next transition day on the 10 November to continue to learn and explore the Goldsworthy Campus. We were all really impressed and left excited about the opportunities that lie ahead.