Middle Years 

Welcome to 2021 Middle Years families! 

It has been a busy start to the year with Year 7 students exploring their new environment and Year 8 and 9 students adjusting to the new timetable and meeting new peers and teachers.

Congratulations to all students who have stepped up this year and embraced the changes, enjoying the different opportunities on offer and building positive relationships and connections to the Wantirna College community. 

We are looking forward to working with you all this year and wanted to send some key messages and information about upcoming events. But first, we’d like to take this opportunity to introduce our Middle Years Team for 2021:

Year Level Leaders

Year 7: Jacqui Franks and Jess Ivankovic

Year 8: Virginia Nugent and Alex Shepherd

Year 9: Ben Karwan and Andrea Digby

Sub School Leaders

Leader of Transition and Catalyst Programs: Kathleen Timms

Leader of Student Engagement and Wellbeing: Darren Hoogkamer

What’s coming up!

Year 7 Family Night 

A great opportunity for Year 7 families to meet each other, staff and Peer Support Leaders. The night will start with a barbecue at 5:30pm, include an information session, time to meet with Transition Support teachers and participate in a game run by the Peer Support Leaders. Details will be on Compass soon.

Year 8 Challenge Week

An exciting week where students engage in a variety of activities involving team work, problem solving, communication and fun! Events have been created on Compass for parents to consent and make payment. 

Year 9 Explore and Amplify

Year 9s have started their two new programs and have just given their ideas on which Amplify choices they would like to have available next term. All students will choose an interactive and collaborative program for Term 2 which may be an interest area or a skill they want to develop. It is an exciting new initiative for students.

Explore is a student-centred program which encourages students to explore different ideas, discover career pathways and invest in their wellbeing. We are almost finished Respectful Relationships and will move onto World of Work in 2 weeks where students will speak to people who are in different industries to get an idea of what they might like to do.

Finally, a few reminders and tips to support organisation and time management:

• Always bring a drink bottle to school to fill up between lessons
• Face masks are compulsory for all students in class and inside spaces where you can’t socially distance
• Try to bring a snack like a muesli bar or piece of fruit to refresh energy between Period 1 and 2
• Use the timetable created to place in your locker to help you get ready for the day and ensure you are on time to class!
• Make a list of equipment needed for each class so you arrive prepared and ready to learn

Kathleen Timms

Mexican Tortilla making: 

Year 9 Spanish Through Art and Culture

Last week Year 9 Spanish students made their own authentic Mexican tortillas as a cultural cooking activity. Mexican tortillas are traditionally made with nixtamalised white corn flour instead of wheat flour. We used both white and blue corn flour. Our students made excellent "masa" dough, expertly flattened their tortillas in a Mexican-made tortilla press, and learnt the secret to flipping the tortilla only twice. Que deliciosas!