Assistant Principal (Years 7/8) Report 

Report from Assistant Principal Years Yr 7/8

Dear students, parents and guardians,

This week marks the half-way point of the year and I wanted to congratulate all the students on their hard-work thus far, especially completing their final Common Assessment Tasks (CATs) for the Semester. Reports are being released this week and I would encourage you to have a conversation at home with your child or young person about their report, including their areas of strength and also opportunities for growth and improvement. 

Over the last month, Grade 6 students have had to make a final decision about their Secondary School choice for next year. I am also excited to announce we have received 68 applications for a Year 7 placement in 2027. I look forward to supporting their Transition into the College with the Junior School team later this year. 

Semester 1 Award Winners:

I would like to congratulate all the junior school students for the way you have approached your studies this Semester. Especially, our Yr7s for the start of your secondary school journey. All junior school students have all shown great determination and a willingness to learn. 

I would like to congratulate all our Semester 1 Award winners that were acknowledged at our recent Junior School Assembly. There was 1 student at each year level recognised for Academic Excellence in each subject. This award is given to the highest achieving student for each subject. 

We also recognising 1 student for overall Personal Best in each year level, for each subject. This is awarded to a student who has applied themselves consistently throughout the Semester in their learning behaviours, across multiple subjects. Personal Best award recipients demonstrate hard work, perseverance and demonstration of our school iCARE values are all considered for this award.

Congratulations to all our award winners across the College!

Please remember awards are a snapshot in time. There is something special about each and every students at Westall Secondary College. Keep striving, caring for yourself / those around you and giving your personal best!

Brain Care:

Recently it has been recognised by the Department of Education the importance of wellbeing, placing learning and wellbeing at the centre of school improvement. This is a notion we practice at Westall and are constantly reflecting on ways we can improve in this space. We aim to help build our young people into happy, healthy and resilient learners who can thrive beyond secondary school. This year we are in our 3rd year of rolling out a Wellbeing Curriculum at Year 7 and 8, called Brain Care.

So far this Semester in Brain Care students have taken part in a social, emotional learning program to assist them in building strategies to manage relationships. Students have been involved in individual and collaborative activities around the topics of connected listening, emotions, friendships and problem solving. Students have learnt and practiced key skills to demonstrate social and emotional learning, such as being caring, problem solving and communicating assertively (as seen in the infographics below).

Next Term we will be turning our focus to the Resilience Project. The resilience project aims to support mental health in the classroom through 3 key pillars that have been proven to cultivate positive emotion: Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness, with emotional Literacy being a foundation skill to practice these strategies.

Course Counselling / Subject selection (Year 7-8):

Heading into Semester 2, students will need to start forecasting towards 2027 and making informed decisions about their subject selections and pathways. Year 7s, you will need to think about what iCreate you would like to study, whether this be continuing on with the same one or exploring another iCreate subject. Make sure you check out the iCreate options on our school website. 

Year 8s, you will need to start exploring the Year 9/10 Electives subjects, as you will picking up one of these subjects along with your iCreate subject. More information will become available to students and parents/carers in Term 3 and I encourage all students to explore these option with their parents and guardians. 

I hope all the students, families and staff have a wonderful holiday break and come back refreshed for Semester 2! 

Until next time, take care. 

Warm regards,

Alice Paget

Assistant Principal (Year 7 and 8)