Assistant Principal (Years 7/8) Report 

Report from Assistant Principal Alice Paget

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 for the Semester. Reports are being released on the last day of Term 2 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 90 applications for a Year 7 placement in 2025! 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 acknowledged at our whole school assembly last week. There was one student at each year level recognised for Academic Excellence. This award is given to the highest achieving student across the year level, in a range of subjects. Their dedication to their studies and hunger for excellence is truly inspiring. 

We also recognising one student for overall Personal Best in each year level. A student who has applied themselves consistently throughout the Semester in their learning behaviours, across multiple subjects. Their hard work, perseverance and demonstration of our school iCARE values is such an asset to our school community. 

Lastly, we recognised the students exceling in their iCARE values and learning behaviours, toping the Westall Way points leaderboard in their year level.  Westall Way Achievement Award acknowledges students who continue to lead by example. 

Year 7:

Overall Academic Excellence: Anirudh MARUR

Overall Personal Best: Lilianna LAZO.

Westall Way Achievement Award: Reece PHAM, Nehal Manikanta BADDIREDDI and Mylla TRAN. 

Year 8:

Overall Academic Excellence: Matilda SOK

Overall Personal Best: Zoe MOULDER.

Westall Way Achievement Award: Callum COLLISON, Hannah DINH and Valantine ATHANASSIADIS.

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 student at Westall Secondary College. Keep striving, caring for yourself and 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 have rolled out a new subject, as part of the 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 2025 and making informed decisions about their subject selections and pathways.  I encourage all students to take the time to look into the subject handbooks over the holidays to explore their options for next year. 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 new iCreate Handbook as we have a few new subjects on offer. 

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. I encourage all students to explore these options with their parents and guardians over the holidays and discuss with their teachers upon their return in Semester 2. 

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 (Years 7/8)