Year 7 News

It has been a really busy few weeks for the year 7 team and the students. We have had excursions, athletics, some wins in schools sport, positive behaviour rewards and we have just started NAPLAN for 2024. The year 7 students have done a sensational job managing themselves and have really embodied our campus pillars of Work Ethic, Excellence, Engagement and Relationships in every excursion, outing and opportunity where they represented our school.

As we move towards the Easter period and school holidays, we would like to think the term is winding down, but really it is just as busy as ever. Over the next few weeks, we have year 7 Volleyball, NAPLAN, Mindful Aus are coming in to do a presentation, we have been keeping track of our KPA’s and are hoping to have a Pyjama Day as a reward by the end of the term!

This week I asked the year 7, SRC students, to share their experiences of what’s been happening! 

Gippsland Tech School

On Thursday 22/2 and Friday 23/2, year 7 students attended a Technology Taster program at the Gippsland Tech School.

"Tech School was so fun we learnt to use VR headsets and we made new things to help people with disabilities to wake up or do things. We played games and had so much fun." -- Declan Morley.

"The other week, our year 7 cohort went to the Tech School, the activities we had were VR, Coding, prototypes, and robotics. All the year 7’s had so much fun, at the recess and lunchbreaks, people would challenge each other at the table tennis, play video games, and others just talked and hung out. At the end two of our SRC members thanked the staff for a great time."

– Riley Ottey

College Athletics

On the 27 February we held our annual College Athletics Day, at Joe Carmody Reserve Moe. A huge Congratulations to Amira Moss who was the overall year 7 Girls Champion on the day.

"On athletics day, we always had something to do! We started around 9:30am and did different activities like running and jumping as well as other activities like water balloon toss and limbo. With running we had a 100 metre, 400 metre and 800 metre, some people wanted to do the 400 metre and the 800 metre but the 100 metres had the most by far. With jumping, we did long jump, high jump and most interestingly, triple jump. When my group did it almost no one understood how to do it. Then the water balloon toss had a surprising result with a 4 way tie for 2nd place. The limbo was as it sounds, not too many people but we enjoyed it. As an extra event there was a footy kick off in the centre of the field."

– Blake Russell   

"Hi, my name is Liam and I participated in the Kurnai Athletics Day. At the athletics day it was enjoyable because we got to choose what activities we wanted to do. I really enjoyed it and I think everyone else did too. My favourite activity was high jump because I am good at it. On the day my house (blue) won, and it was a really fun day."

– Liam Thomson.

Boys Cricket

On the 6th of March, the year 7 boys cricket team competed in what was supposed to be a round robin event, for progression to the next level. The cricket team is made up of students from both Morwell and Churchill Campuses and we are very impressed the student’s sportsmanship and talented play on the day. 

"On the 6th March we went to Traralgon College for school cricket. We were supposed to play Lavalla, but they didn’t have a team, so we only played Traralgon College. We balled first and got them all out with a wicket, then it was our turn to bat, we go over their 21 runs and ended up winning it all for the year 7 team and the school!" 

– Lachlan Lindsay

NAPLAN 

 On 13th March NAPLAN began with year 7 and 9 classes. We began with the writing test and the year 7’s were so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The students reported really enjoying the writing prompt “the Window” and I read some amazing stories from our budding young authors. NAPLAN will continue this week and Week 8, with the last year 7 test: Numeracy, scheduled for Wednesday 20 March. 

"On Wednesday, the day of NAPLAN, in the morning we had hot chocolates and then after periods 1 and 2, in period 3 we went to the library to do NAPLAN. After NAPLAN I was happy with my story that I wrote about a window in an abandoned building that went into a portal."

– Tyler Aarons.

"The morning of NAPLAN everyone was so happy, we got hot chocolate and some healthy food to help my brain it was the best I loved NAPLAN day. The NAPLAN test was a bit scary, but when everyone sat down, we felt more calm. I didn’t think it was hard, but it did challenge us. Everyone was happy when it was over."

– Ebony Griffiths

KPA’s and Learning Behaviour Updates

Throughout the term we review several data sets to monitor the year 7 students’ performance and track the cohort. This term we have seen the year 7 cohort exceed all goals and expectations in all areas. Currently the year 7 students have the highest attendance average in the school with all classes sitting between 89 - 95%, this is a credit to all our parents, caregivers, and families for making attendance to school a priority, thank-you!

The last round of learning behaviour updates saw ALL year 7 classes exceed a GPA average of 3.65, this is an outstanding effort from every student and better than any other cohort/ year level in the school. 7 ALPS achieved the overall highest GPA with 3.9. The highest possible GPA is a 4. 

"The year 7’s have been receiving Kurnai Positive Acknowledgements (KPA’s). This term year 7’s have been rewarded for meeting their KPA goals with an extended play at lunch and we are hoping to get a pyjama day on the last day of term if we can get 1,200 KPA’s."

– Molly Mulder

Upcoming Events

CAMP: Just a quick reminder Year 7 Camp is next term. Please ensure you complete the permission form on COMPASS and if you need to make arrangements with the office for a payment plan, this can be arranged. If you need any help with the process, our office staff are happy to help.  

MINDFULL AUS: We have been fortunate enough to secure a date this term for the year 7 students to engage with Mindful Aus. This will be an incursion on the 26 March. Mindful Aus have been visiting primary schools in the area delivering the “healthier hearts and lighter minds” program. If you would like more information, please visit the website https://www.mindfullaus.org

We have the end of term approaching and with that, is our second/final learning behaviour update for the term, these will be published next week and should help inform teachers and parents of student progress prior to parent teacher conversations.

Parent Teacher Conversations can be booked via COMPASS these will run on Wednesday 27 March and Thursday 28 March. This is a great opportunity for you to sit down with your child’s teachers and discuss progress and development. But, please don’t feel you have to wait for parent teacher conversations to discuss concerns, if you have any questions, you can contact classroom teachers via email in COMPASS or telephone.

Art

Mona Lisa Appropriation

Pop art 

Gradient Grid Drawing

Erin Gruis

Tear 7 Team Leader