Year 7 Celebration

On Friday 22nd of March, we welcomed Year 7 parents/carers on-site to celebrate a term of learning and engagement at UHS. 

The morning started with our Year 10 Peer Support Buddies welcoming parents/carers and students in the quadrangle. These engaged and passionate Year 10’s volunteer their time to help our newest students form connections at school and have been a great addition to this years’ transition program with a renewed focus on cross-age knowledge sharing and heightening student agency in running community events.

After a brief welcome, Year 7 students took their parents on a tour of UHS, showing them their regular classrooms, specialist learning spaces, lockers, favourite lunchtime hang-outs, and quest to locate the most comfortable place to sit on the UHS campus.

Students then bid their parents farewell at Sharman Hall and began their learning for the day. In the meantime UHS parents and carers were given the opportunity to meet Year 7 classroom teachers who joined class groups to introduce themselves. 

A presentation ensued where our Year 7 Sub-School Team presented on a range of topics relevant to Year 7’s. Some themes covered in our presentation are worth sharing and a brief summary can be found for the topics below:

Celebrating Year 7’s

Our team shared examples of individual excellence, collective achievements, and cohort milestones. It is important to stop and acknowledge all the wonderful things our Year 7 students have achieved in their first 42 days at secondary school. 

Encouraging healthy online behaviours

Another feature of our presentation focused on helping our young humans to develop and engrain healthy habits of online engagement. This is no easy task in a highly digitised world. To assist parents to help their children to be safe and kind online. Proactive steps to take including; have a conversation with students about their positive/negative online experiences, encouraging a shared and continual dialogue when things aren’t working well online, and monitoring your people’s interactions with others online. Relevant links for reinforcing positive online behaviours can be found at:

• eSafety Commissioner: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents 
• eSafety Commissioner (parental controls video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6odst87Tbo&feature=youtu.be 
• Reach Out: https://parents.au.reachout.com/skills-to-build/wellbeing/things-to-try-social-media/encourage-positive-online-behaviour   

Snapshot into our learning culture at UHS:

The final element of our presentation provided an initial snapshot into what learning looks like in a Year 7 UHS classroom. This involved students sharing examples of what their Compass, emails, and Google Classrooms look like. There was also an opportunity for our coordinating staff to share a few consistent learning activities used across our school (Positive Primers, Brain Breaks, Think-Pair-Share). They were presented in an experiential fashion so parents and carers could feel what it is like to be a learner in this space. 

Overall, we hope that this event served as an opportunity to heighten connections between the support teams for Year 7 students as well as welcoming the newest members to the UHS community. For those who attended the event (students/teachers/parents and carers) and wish to provide feedback, please complete this Google Form: https://forms.gle/pFwnsAATivFs5amNA

Once again, thank you to our wonderful Year 7 students, engaging Year 10 Peer Support Buddies, amazing facilities staff, and supportive Principal class for assisting with this event.

The Year 7 Sub-School Team - Amarinda Long, Carl Williams, George Hatzikostas and Paul Rogers