Year 9 News

Dear Year 9 Students and Parents,

Well done on adapting so well to Remote learning.

Adapting to online learning, balancing school work and family life, plus everything else that comes with COVID-19 has been incredibly stressful for many. But I want to emphasise you are all doing an amazing job! This is new for us all: for you as students, your parents and as your teachers and I want to thank you all for your willingness to make this a positive experience. I want to thank all those who joined us on Thursday for our first remote assembly – which was a historic event! But I know some of you unfortunately missed out due to our meeting reaching capacity and I wanted to emphasise some of the important key points.

Thank you so much for your feedback in the survey.

Some common points raised were: many students are feeling overwhelmed with workload, not having enough time to finish things off and finding it stressful that everything is due on a Friday. The overwhelming message was that students are missing friends, the connection and social aspect that school provides. Your feedback has been taken on board and teachers are continuing to work on getting the balance right.

Please remember that at this time it is also important to reach out to your friends and loved ones and make those connections in any way you can. You might go for a bike ride, call a friend while going for a walk or spend some time learning a new skill with a parent or sibling (like baking a cake!). It’s important that we don’t lose that feeling of connection during this time when we are all staying at home.

Also remember that Microsoft Teams is a school space. We need to be sensible and act in a way that is considerate of others in all our interactions on the platform including in our chats and video calls. Be sure to make use of the direct chat option in Teams to speak directly with your teachers to ask questions, express how you’re feeling or negotiate extensions for tasks. You can contact any of the Year 9 Wellbeing Team directly as well. We are here for you.

Mr Murray emphasised our College Respectful Relationships Pledge, in particular focusing on “empowerment”, being responsible for your own learning and working in your own time to complete tasks. Some of you also highlighted this in your survey responses as a positive to learning at home.

Our College psychologist, Libby Whiting, spoke about the Wellbeing Space and accessing counselling remotely. You can seek support directly from anyone in the welfare team (Libby, Mia, Penny or Michael) or contact the Year 9 Wellbeing Team directly and we will help to connect you.

Ms Ben discussed some of her handy tips on organisation and Ms Butler went through the weekly timetable template (find this on Compass newsfeed or on the Year 9 Students Teams page) to help manage your schedule. Mr Leardi offered his advice on getting the balance right, reminding us all that physical health and wellbeing works hand in hand with mental health and wellbeing - if one is down, the other will usually follow and vice versa. You can find resources on organisation and wellbeing tips on the Year 9 Students Team page.

We also spoke about future pathways and looking ahead to 2021. We know that for some, looking ahead might provide a welcome distraction. Now that we are at home, this is a great opportunity to speak with family about future pathways, thinking about your likes and dislikes and interests inside and outside the classroom. Next week you will each complete a Careers lesson to start to initiate these conversations. Mrs Perkins, Careers Leader, will also be contacting parents/guardians on how to best support their child with these activities at home.

Don’t forget our Iso Stories competition, which has great prizes to be won! I’ve already received a few entries after our assembly, please keep your photos and videos coming. I’m looking forward to sharing these with you on our Teams page.

Special thanks to Jack Carter, Middle Years Drama Captain, for getting us up and moving with his brain break activity and to Ryder Testolin, Middle Year College Captain, for his reflections on remote learning (see below for Ryder’s reflection).

Lastly, learning from home isn’t forever, we will see each other again soon. The Year 9 Team is here to support you so please reach out. Let’s concentrate on the positives, remember that when we challenge ourselves, we learn what we are capable of achieving. Think like a proton and stay positive!

Ms Cottone, Ms Ben, Mr Leardi, Ms Fleming and Ms Butler

Ryder Testolin, Middle Years College Captain reflection:

Good morning guys. I hope everyone is well and doing alright at home in isolation. Hopefully everyone has been enjoying the little things, like being able to eat whenever you want or do school in your pyjamas. I’ve really been enjoying the fact that I don’t have to walk to school anymore! I hope everyone has been getting their heads around online school. Personally, I’ve found online school pretty similar to normal school, it took me a while to get my head around it - having to work independently. I really like that even though school is over a laptop, I can still see and talk to all my friends. Anyways, the Middle Years Team is running a competition called “iso stories”, in which students will write stories about their isolation experiences. The best stories will be shared weekly. All entries have to be submitted to Ms Cottone via teams or email. So if you’ve done something crazy, funny or weird during isolation share it with us! Stay safe and enjoy isolation.