Learning Specialist Update

Dear Families, Students and Community Members,

Welcome to Week 9! Congratulations to all of our Senior students on the completion of their exams and the GAT. We wish them all the best with their results. 

This week brings with it our whole school rollover into the Semester 2 timetable and subjects. Subject changes for Senior students have been processed and should now be reflected in their timetables. It is strongly recommended that students check their Compass timetables daily for changes including new electives and room changes to ensure they are aware of where they need to be and what they need to bring to each lesson. 

Teachers have also been busy completing semester reports which provide students and families with important feedback regarding learning progress throughout Term 1 and Term 2 of this year. Of course parents and students can access their learning task results throughout the semester on Compass so the semester reports tie all of this information together to represent their overall result for each subject. Semester reports can be accessed by families on the 4th July. With the semester reports feedback and Semester 2 beginning, this is a great opportunity for students to reflect, reset and set some personal learning goals for the second half of the year.

Junior School Update

Year 7 Kingston Youth Services Visits

Over the course of Term 2, Year 7 students have been visiting Kingston Youth Services in Mordialloc. This is a fantastic service and is a free and non-judgemental space to support anyone between 12 to 25 years with links to the City of Kingston. They offer youth support and counselling, skills workshops and youth events that students can utilise or participate in. 

Platform 81 (Kingston Youth Services) is close to public transport, with many amenities including: bathrooms, snacks, games, counselling rooms, free wifi, quiet spaces, and much more. Students who visited were able to see the space where Youth Services facilitates its Community Based Programs, and hear from the Youth Work team themselves to find out more about the services and programs the students can access. Students also learnt more about Youth Services' free mental health support services and had the opportunity to meet the friendly onsite Counsellors. 

If parents or students would like further information about Platform 81 or Kingston Youth Services please feel free to reach out to their team at youth.services@kingston.vic.gov.au

Year 7 & 8 Integrated Projects

This year we have continued to build and extend our Integrated Projects program. These projects make connections between subject areas and units of work so students can investigate real-life applications of the curriculum they are learning. They also give the students the opportunity to build their interpersonal, organisation and time management skills through working and collaborating with others. We have the Year 8s and Year 7 SEALs who are currently undertaking their Marketing Madness Project which ties together their Marketing and Persuasive units for Humanities and English with their Energy Transformations unit in Science. Students will be required to create a toy demonstrating changes in energy and a marketing campaign to spruik their toy, Students will have a chance to present both in the Marketing Madness Expo on Thursday 3rd July. There will be prizes for the most creative and well presented projects. 

This term, the Year 8s also completed their Surf n Turf Projects which combined Rocks and the Rock Cycle in Science with Landscapes and Landforms in Humanities. Students visited Cape Schanck and conducted field studies on the types of rocks and land formations that can be found in our local environments. They worked in groups to present their findings.

Year 7 students completed their ‘What a Load of Rubbish’ projects earlier this term which focused on Separating Techniques in Science and Measurement in Maths. Students looked at the effect that separating techniques could have on our local environment, specifically the Mordialloc Creek and completed a task using their knowledge of separating techniques and measurement to break a mixture into its individual components. They will also be delving into Persuasive Techniques (English) and Business and Economics (Humanities), using their skills and knowledge to create a Shark Tank Oral presentation.

Finally, we farewell Ms Woodbridge and wish her all the best with her family leave and Ms Balfe who has returned to Ireland. 

Bryony Lowe

Learning Specialist - Junior School