Term 2

7/8 A

Term 2 has been an exciting and memorable time for 7/8A. Our Year 7 and 8 students had the amazing experience of attending their respective camps Campaspe Downs, The Summit and Concord Camp.

All students were super excited for camp but understandably some were nervous about spending time away from home, however, all students showed incredible resilience and stepped out of their comfort zone, which should be commended.

The activities students participated in required them to show their teamwork skills, trust, and bravery, while being open to new adventures and experiences. Students climbed towers, dived through mud and ziplined through nature. Every student gave their best effort and should be incredibly proud, not to mention how well all students demonstrated our Concord School values.

7/8A are in fully swing for our upcoming Spectacular performance, students have been practising their dances weekly. We have a few lead actors in our class who are showing amazing progress with their lines. Our term may have been slightly interrupted with Melbourne’s fourth lockdown, but the learning did not stop.

It was wonderful to have the opportunity to meet some amazing pets and see students learning in a different environment. However, we are all very glad to be back in the classroom. Thank you to all the parents/ carers that supported the students in 7/8A and I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing break.

7/8B

78B have had a busy Term 2 with Year 8 camp at The Summit and Year 7 Camp at Campaspe Downs. Camp gave the students an opportunity to mix with their peers across the section and challenge themselves in terms of building independence and trying new and potentially daunting activities.

Bryce, Sam and Lach’s camp highlight was the Giant Swing and Jasper loved rock climbing, making it to the top of the wall. Krystal faced her fears in the Mud Run and started a dance party, and Yenuli won the pattern challenge. Lachie enjoyed hanging out with friends and Mark felt brave on the Leap of Faith. Oliver had most fun canoeing and Thai loved the Flying Fox over the lake, while Tracey and Jacob held the fort at school.

In Maths we have been learning how to subtract using different strategies, as well as identifying number patterns and shapes. In Reading and Writing our focus has been identifying fake news, which ties in with our Inquiry Unit focussing on critical thinking. The students are learning to question whether we can believe everything we see and hear on social media.

Our work on Zones of Regulation has continued to be engaging and has helped the students to identify their emotional state as well as develop strategies to move to a mindset in which they are ready to learn.

The students should be commended for their commitment and hard work during yet another lockdown. We are very much looking forward to an exciting Term 3 and are busy practicing our dance moves for the upcoming Spectacular.

7/8 C

In Term 2 students attended camp and engaged in an experience that was both challenging and rewarding. Across both camps we saw tremendous student growth in terms of their resilience, independence and willingness to try new things. Students and staff enjoyed building new relationships and strengthening existing ones. These bonds will be beneficial for the rest of the year for maintaining student engagement and enthusiasm.

At camp, students also had a strong focus on “getting comfortable being uncomfortable” - that is to say, that they need to overcome their fears and anxieties by pushing themselves out of their comfort zone in order to truly grow as individuals. This theme will continue to run throughout the year in 78C.

Preparation for the Spectacular performance of Hairspray also continued apace. Many students expressed reservations about engaging in the production before rehearsals began, but have since warmed to the idea and realised that it will be a whole lot of fun. Again, we have encouraged students to do things they are scared of, while they are scared, in order to foster lifelong skills of challenging themselves and having a go.

Within our class we have continued to enjoy playing Gaga and Block Soccer, with student demonstrating great sportsmanship, cooperation and teamwork. The class also enjoyed playing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Games such as “Barambah gimbe”, “edor” and “brajerack” during Reconciliation Week.

A major focus of our Inquiry unit was on critical thinking and questioning whether we can always believe what we see and hear on social media and television. We conducted a fun and thought-provoking activity where we edited some video footage to suggest that Trey’s favourite food was Tiger, and Aleshia’s favourite food was Zebra! Hopefully students absorbed the idea that you can’t always believe what is presented to us.

7/8D

Term 2 has been one to remember for 7/8D. Our Year 7 and 8 students went to their respective camps Campaspe Downs, The Summit and Concord Camp. Understandably, most in our class were a little nervous about spending two nights away from the comforts of home. Being out of your comfort zone is not an easy place to be. So, we were incredibly proud of all our students to go on their unique experiences.

The activities the students participated in required skill, bravery, trust and a sense of adventure. They defied gravity as they climbed towers and ziplined through nature. They battled their way through the freezing mud, hunted (don’t worry, it was a scavenger hunt) and came through victorious regardless of if they won or not. They safely returned to Concord exhausted but with many stories to share.

Our term may have been slightly disrupted with Melbourne’s fourth lockdown but the learning did not stop. Did our microphone always work? Were all of our internet connections stable? Absolutely not! Did we cope? Yes, we did! Our morning WebEx sessions were well supported by students, parents and much-loved pets. Ollie the Cockatiel, Luna the Bulldog and Chester the Beagalier made regular appearances on our online sessions. We did the best we could as we predicted texts, explored shapes, subtracted household items and played games together. Thank you to all of the parents/grandparents that supported 7/8D with their learning tasks.

Secondary 7/8D is a creative class which kept us entertained each day. This term, Lily often brightened our days by singing pop songs, Disney songs, musicals and jingles (Spectacular). Tyler loved playing ‘Guess the Sound’ and correctly identifying the car the sound belonged to (Inquiry). Dominic kept us active as he discovered how to play some Indigenous Outdoor Sports (Reconciliation Week).

Saif used his imagination to predict what happened next in a text (Literacy). Diesel and William used their talent and sketched many drawings as an alternate way to share their short stories (Free Write). Amelie shared many experiences of her adventures with her bird Ollie (Speaking and Listening). Engelo wrote a creative narrative about a bank heist (Literacy). Lucas deciphered clues and travelled the world to catch a rogue operative on Google Earth’s Carmen Sandigo (Location). Jackson wrote an amazing fake news article which he shared with the class (Literacy). We can’t wait to see what creativity next term will bring.

7/8E

78E have had a wonderful term. We have worked hard and socialised well!

In Math's we have learnt how to add and subtract using different strategies and played around with number, shape and colour patterns. Location was fun because we learnt how to read and create maps. We wrote descriptive stories and recounts using lots of awesome adjectives and adverbs.

We also used the five senses to add engaging details. We are now critical thinkers and can determine what is real and fake news. We worked with a partner to interview them and then we split the answers so they didn’t match the question and came up with some really funny interviews.

Reconciliation Week was celebrated through our Reading program. Jess shared her Indigenous artwork and gifts that she was given when she worked near Alice Springs. They were interesting and very creative.

‘Hairspray’ rehearsals are amazing and heaps of fun. We are learning three dances and our actors are working hard to learn their lines. Even though we have had our last lessons via Webex it is still fun.

Camp was a highlight for many students. Year 7 Campaspe Downs description by Phoebe, “I have to climb up the stairs. I can see the view but I can’t see clearly because there’s tears in my eyes. I was kinda scared and my tummy felt sore like it had butterflies doing deadly cartwheels. But I did it.” Year 8 The Summit by Dale, “…..was tremendous because it had lots of amazing things. The gorgeous glistening reflection of the water is beautiful.”

Remote Learning was boring because we didn’t get to see our friends at school but we did manage to socialise online each morning. Karen made our morning learning fun by playing lots of games. 11am games with Jess were great because we saw our friends from other classes and Webex dancing with Laura made our dancing skills improve.

Let’s cross our fingers that we will be at school and no more Remote Learning for the rest of the year.

7/8F

What a term it has been! We have come to week 10, and the students' experiences have ranged from wonderful outdoor adventures of the Summit and Campaspe Downs to Spectacular Practice, then adapting to another period of lockdown and their daily task board. In reflection, they have indeed shown a great deal of adaptability and resilience during the term.

We have had a solid number of weeks across our curriculum areas. The students developed excellent mathematical strategies covering addition and subtraction and some great outdoor learning with our location activities.

In Reading, we have focused on the main idea, prediction of text and building our comprehension strategies through many varied texts. Thinking critically about printed and oral text has been a focus, looking at real and fake news.

In Writing, the students enjoyed looking into Descriptive Text and developing this through writing about their camp experience. Our Inquiry Unit into Self Regulation and zones has been a beneficial learning curve for the students and investigating some problem-solving strategies to go alongside this.

On another note, we celebrated Poppies 2nd birthday, had a fantastic two nights and three days on our camp adventures, and moved onto our Spectacular dance practice.

7/8G

7/8G have had a busy term of learning at school, on camp and on our Experience Days.

We started our weeks with hands on activities which helped us to prepare for our Experience Days. We made grass heads, lion masks, tents and paper aquariums. These sessions helped us to learn new words and try things we hadn’t before.

We have explored how we can be good citizens and care for the environment. We engaged in Experience Days where we could see animals and plants and this helped us to strengthen our understandings. We enjoyed walks around waterways and gardens but our highlight was our visit to the Melbourne Zoo. Seeing the animals made us want to look after the environment even more.

We looked at where paper comes from and then made our own paper using scraps from the Visy Bins. This helped us to see that a lot of work goes into making a piece of paper. Madisyn and Wyatt loved squishing the small bits of paper in the water, the rest of the class were not so keen!

The biggest highlight for Term Two was school camp. Most students attended the year 7 camp at ‘Campaspe Downs’ or the year 8 camp at ‘The Summit’. All students tried different activities, some that they had never tried before. There was lots of laughter from students as they challenged themselves. On the year 8 camp, mud and puddles were a big winner. The Monster Mud Course saw Wyatt, Logan, Aansh and Cohan climb through water and up ladders. It was freezing but they all did the course with a huge smile on their faces.

The year 7 camp saw students canoeing and using the low ropes course. Ben, Adrian and Madisyn were also excited to go on the scary giant swing.

It has been a busy term full of learning, laughing and great memories.

7/8H

78H have had a fantastic term with lots of fun activities at school, excursions on our Experience Days and the Camp!

In Maths, we have learned about counting, time, addition and subtraction. We made groups of all kinds of things and applied our skills in counting animals at the Melbourne Zoo and describing our weekly schedule.

In Writing, we’ve done different language experiences, from making fish bowls to contaminated water. These not only deepened our understanding of our impact on the environment, but also proved to be very engaging for students to write about. We are so proud to see many students improve their letter-sound knowledge over the time and become more confident in generating their ideas! Well done!

In Reading, we explored various books about environment and continued to learn about more letter sounds. The fourth lockdown kinda disrupted our routines, but it was great to see that students enjoyed presenting their work on Webex. Therefore, we launched the Reader’s theatre in the class, where students choose a book at their level and keep practising until they can perform like an actor/ actress. Students are very excited and I am looking forward to film some wonderful performance.

For our inquiry unit, unfortunately we were not able to visit the aquarium or the farm due to the restrictions, but we had great fun learning about animals and their habitats at the reserve and the zoo. Spencer, Humdan and Hossein did a great job identifying the rubbish on the ground. Ilana and Abudi were very sad when they heard the seals were previously injured in the wild. It broke our heart to see the huge Pacific garbage patch and made us realise that we need to reduce and recycle rubbish.

All the students participated in sorting them and designing a poster about recycling. We also made a song about saving the planet. Ridley, Karen and Marcus helped change the lyrics a bit and we love it so much!

Last but not least, many of us had a wonderful time at camp. Understandably, we were a bit anxious coming to a new place and staying with other people in the same room. But we all settled quite well and really went beyond to be the best we can be. Marcus completed his first ever mud challenge and Spencer and Hossein did canoeing together beautifully.

Humdan and Ridley enjoyed all activities and did an exceptional job following the bedroom rules. I’m so impressed to see the students working together and becoming more independent in looking after themselves!

Wish you all a great holiday and we can’t wait to see you again!

Secondary 7/8

Issue 2 · 23 Jun 2021

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