Secondary

It has been absolutely fabulous to have a month of 'back to normal' schooling for the majority of our students.  I am a big believer in routine, and it is great to see some routine return to 2022. 

It has definitely been a very busy start and we have had many activities start up for our students.  It was great to see the swimming sports go ahead and Head of Co-Curricular, Mr McMahon should be congratulated on a fine job.  We also had a number of Year 9, 10 and 11 students assist with the Primary swimming sports and they did a fantastic job.  This is one of the great positives of our school being K to 12, the chance to interact and work together. 

We also have our BISSA swim team compete next Thursday.  We wish them luck.  It is a huge challenge to go and compete at this stage and I am sure our team will perform to the best of their ability.

As a school we strive to set standards for our students.  This has been a focus for the start of the school year and will be a continued focus for our staff and students for 2022.  The first area that we have been working on is the learning environment.  I know that the students are probably sick of hearing their teachers talk about this, but maintaining a positive learning environment is a non-negotiable at our school. We will continue to work with students that have difficulty maintaining the standards we set and this may involve contacting home.  We ask that you support us as we strive to improve this throughout the year.

Another conversation I have been having this week with students is around uniform. We have a great uniform that is easily recognised around the community.  It is an expectation that the uniform is worn correctly.  We understand that there might be an occasional issue and the student might be in the wrong uniform.  To take this into account we will contact home after three infringements and provide an in school sanction during lunchtime, then after five the student will do an after school service for each offence for the remainder of the year.  We believe this is more than fair and will not be an issue for the majority of our students.

To help your child out with uniform, our uniform shop is open Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons. If you can’t make the uniform shop and know the item you want, you can also email Marlene Stapleton (mstapleton@moamagrammar.nsw.edu.au) an order form or give her a call and your child can pick up the item at student services.  If you could support us in maintaining uniform standards it will be appreciated. 

I also had the pleasure this week of attending the first Student Representative Council meeting.  The meeting was chaired by our SRC Captains Silas Kingma and Lily Hillman, who did a terrific job.  Students have had the opportunity to nominate for this group and then attend.  Silas and Lily have both said that the focus this year will be to help out the school community and advocate for the student body within the school.  I look forward to seeing what they come up with.  Congratulations to the reps who have volunteered to be on the council. 

Mr Greg Cadd

Head of Secondary School

How are we at the end of week four already? The term is flying by and it is great to walk around the classrooms and observe the teaching and learning that is happening in the Secondary School. Our students should be proud of how well they have resettled into the routine of our busy days here. My focus continues to be the learning environment, ensuring that we are being respectful of everyone’s right to learn. 

Many of our students will be starting to get some at home learning. Next week we will conduct some external Progressive Achievement Testing (PAT) with our 7 to 10 students. Our intention is to attain a measurement of our cohorts Grammar and Punctuation, Vocabulary and Mathematical knowledge. As secondary teachers we will then use the data to further establish starting points for learning, targeted teaching to ensure we are supporting our students and to monitor growth. This is a beneficial program of data collection that will involve students seeing their results and setting goals. Students will then be retested in Term 3 and the data reviewed. We hope to use this information to support our 7 and 9 students as they prepare for NAPLAN, and in our development of engaging curriculum throughout the year. 

Our Year 12 students have been working busily on many assessment tasks at this point of the year with their exams rapidly approaching. I hope that this week's Parent-Teacher Interviews have assisted families in gaining an insight into how they are managing their workload and areas in which they can focus on to prepare effectively for future assessment tasks. Ensuring a work life balance should be a focus as students’ workloads with assessment, summaries and revision start to increase. Please also be aware that Atomi is a useful platform that should be accessed by your child to support their study routines; this platform includes a Study skills section and a targeted revision component that are very beneficial. 

Our Mathematics Teachers this week also presented to our community regarding our implementation of the Maths Pathway program. During this presentation Dr Christopher Allan detailed the value in this program as a program for individualised learning in Maths. Thank you to the Maths Faculty for presenting this to our community. 

As a Deep Learning school our focus is to develop your child in the domains of Citizenship and Collaboration this year. I can hear many people ask, but what IS Deep Learning… and what do you mean Citizenship and Collaboration. We are working to empower our students to develop awareness of their thought processes and take ownership of their learning. We are designing learning opportunities that encourage our students to work as a team and discussing how well they worked with each other, as an individual, that they listen and acknowledge others. Understanding that behaviours have an impact on others and valuing perspectives and viewpoints are also characteristics of good collaborators - often these skills are more fully developed once students leave the safety of a classroom in the real world. By teaching Deep Learning, we are developing your child to be better positioned to make decisions, contribute and work with others. In the coming weeks you should anticipate more contributions from our faculties on what this learning looks like in their classrooms.

Mrs Hayley Catt 

Head of Teaching and Learning (Secondary)

What’s happening in PDHPE?

This term in PDHPE we have enjoyed getting back out into the community across all year levels in the Secondary School. 

Our Year 7 and 8 students have been involved in a 7 week swimming intensive at Moama Pool, refining their strokes and water safety knowledge. These are invaluable skills to possess in our community environment and also helps to prepare them for the annual MAG Aquathon. The Aquathon has become a fantastic tradition here at MAG. It has been running since our school commenced in 2006 and a list of best times are located outside the Co- Curricular office in the Resource Centre. This year the Aquathon will count towards the House of the Year and points will be awarded based on participation! 

Our Year 9 PASS student have also been testing their swimming ability, working hard to increase their rescue techniques in order to achieve their Bronze Medallion. Students have the gruelling tasks of timed tows, a timed 400m swim, CPR assessment and initiative scenario rescues. At the end of the Term students who successfully complete all competencies will be recognised with an LSV Bronze Medallion Award.

Year 10 PASS students are investigating career opportunities linked to our PDHPE subject. Throughout the term students have been learning and refining their coaching skills in order to take on the challenge of coaching our Primary Students in the lead up to their Athletics Carnival. 

In the coming weeks our Year 8, 9 and 10 students will participate in lifestyle sports available to our community. These include Table Tennis, Tennis, Lawn Bowls and Golf. Students will head to the Moama Bowling Club and Rich River Golf Club to participate in these amazing community resources, broadening their knowledge of how to keep active in our community. 

As part of Community and Family Studies unit Groups in Context 'People with a Disability' we have been looking at how community organisations help people with a disability meet a range of needs including employment and sense of identity. To help further explore these concepts we visited the Murray River Tearooms on Thursday to look at how they have helped meet these needs and what else Community Living & Respite Services (CLRS) does to help this group. We were lucky enough to hear from Rebecca and Anna who discussed the breadth of services and support they offer to our wider community. These conversations are invaluable to the class as they help to answer exam questions that ask about our local community area and services provided. Thanks to CLRS and the awesome team at the Murray River Tea Rooms for having us. 

Year 7 Science

Paddock to Plate In Year 8

Year 8 Paddock to Plate Food technology class made Bush Tucker Food Johnny cakes (fried damper) with lemon myrtle and wattleseed. A deep learning exercise while studying the history of food in Australia, including native foods. The students enjoyed them with bush honey or golden syrup.