5-8 Community News
Dear Families/Caregivers,
We welcome all families and students back from their two-week holiday. We have all been incredibly impressed with the transition from holidays to school routines. A big well done for 'getting up and being punctual'. I hope you are ready for a big, big term. Let's buckle up!
For many of the students it was all systems go. All the students in 5-8 commenced with their termly novel, reading four days a week. This continues to be a focus across our community. It's so impressive to walk into the space and to see students engaged in the content, reading either aloud or in small groups, to improve their fluency, expression and reading comprehension. You would have also noticed that some students have already returned home with some homework. We will continue to link our homework lessons to the student's novel. If we could please ask for you to continue to monitor and track these outcomes by continuing to ask the students about their homework.
The Resilience Project content and language continue to provide our students with opportunities to practice gratitude at home and at school. Over the next few weeks, the students will examine the importance of showing and displaying, empathy, compassion and sympathy
This week in TA, students, have commenced with unpacking and understanding Sympathy and Empathy. We looked at scenarios where we analysed the similarities and differences between each term and students gave some examples of when they have displayed a level of sympathy and empathy.
A big focus across our 5-8 Community has been around the use of SOLE, especially as we look to ensure that our students keep their hands and feet to themselves. It is really important that if students are not playing a competitive sport, they ensure that their hands remain to themselves. Your support in this manner would be greatly welcomed as we have been using these scripts with the students.
Lunchtime activities will run again this term. We have a new competition on Mondays, which always draws a huge level of participation. This term, we have 15 teams participating. This is a wonderful achievement but it also shows how much our kids not only value sport, but the opportunity to play team-based sports with their class peers. It has been so good to see so many kids take that step and commit to an activity, even though we are blessed to have a variety of new spaces in the yard and the use of the Rec Reserve!
Tech Club is occurring each Tuesday in the Partnerships space and the Library is open for some quieter activities!
Lastly, please continue to ensure that if your child is out of uniform, a note is provided to their TA teacher. Shirts under the school T-shirt are not to be worn. We have noticed that this is creeping back in.
A big well done to all students on their return, especially our SOLE Stars.
Corey Carver and Anthony Poppa
5-8 Community Leaders
Junior Park Rangers
Year 8 Guest Presenter
During Term 2, Year 8 Intervention students studied the novel Boy Overboard by Morris Gleitzman. As a part of this unit, students examined the text’s themes and issues including survival, conflict, friendships and relationships.
To conclude students’ analysis of the novel, on Thursday 5th October, students participated in a ZOOM call with previous Chief Boatswain’s Mate, Mr. Troy Norris. Troy served in the Royal Australian Navy for 15 years and spoke about his personal experiences with the plight of Afghan refugees who fled their country due to persecution under Taliban rule.
Preceding the speech, students created questions for Troy relating to the plot, characters and ideas explored throughout text. The talk assisted students to make text connections between fiction and reality and exposed students to the procedures involved when processing refugees.
We are very grateful for the opportunity to gain personal insight to the plight of refugees and as a result, students now have a more worldly understanding of the conditions refugees are subjected to.
