Year 8 News

Hey everyone, Term 4 is almost over and our Year 8’s have been working hard to complete their CAT’s (common assessment tasks) over the last couple of weeks. With feedback week and award ceremonies all coming up quickly we are powering towards HeadStart and getting ready for our Year 8’s to begin their 2025 Year 9 program. 

KPA's

This has been another busy and successful year for the students in our cohort. We have many ways to measure that success throughout the year. One of the methods we use each work to monitor how the cohort is tracking is to look at the number of KPA’s (Kurnai positive acknowledgement) the cohort earned each week. I have shared this information with our students each week at our assemblies. 

As the 2023 year 7 cohort, they received 5011 KPA’s for the year. This year, as the 2024 year 8 cohort, our students accumulated 12670 KPA’s.  In the last week they achieved their highest total for this term of 448, further demonstrating the effort they have been putting in during the CAT period to ensure they have a successful finish to the year. This significant increase, along with the improvements in LBU averages and students individual CAT results should give our students confidence moving forward in their learning journey. 

HeadStart

Year 8’s will be beginning their HeadStart program on Monday 2nd of December. This is a great opportunity for our students to begin their Year 9 program in 2024 and get an early start to next year’s learning, as well as getting to meet new staff and in some cases new class members. HeadStart will conclude on Friday the 6th of December. We will then get the chance to celebrate one more time as the 2024 Year 8 cohort with the Celebration Day at Gumbuya world on Wednesday the 11th of December. 

LBU acknowledgements

On Thursday the 28th of November, students who achieved an LBU score above 3.5 in the most recent LBU period, will be acknowledged with the final reward lunch for the year. Students were acknowledged for their consistent positive learning behaviours across all their subjects with their certificates and the reward lunch. 

It has been great to see students enjoy these reward lunches across the year, though these are only a small benefit of the effort they consistently put in. The real reward is the learning that they can achieve as a result of their consistent effort. Well done to those who have been able to do this for the most recent LBU’s and across the year.

2025 Year 9 Team Leader

In this final newsletter for the year, I would like to announce that Ryan Mayo will be the Year 9 Team Leader for 2025. He will be guiding our students through their Year 9 program during HeadStart and throughout next year. 

Farewell 2024

I spoke at the beginning about the success our cohort has had through 2024. It’s been great to see what this group of students have been able to achieve together, and I hope they continue to support each other in 2025 and into the future. Throughout this year I have had the chance to work with the many individuals that make up our Year 8 cohort and I am extremely pleased to see the individual growth many have made, not just this year but from when I first met them as Year 7’s in my cooking classes. While I am sad to leave this group, I can’t wait to see where their journey takes them and wish them all the best moving forward into 2025 and beyond. Having been a teacher for many years, it is always fun to bump into past students out in the community and can’t wait to hear how things have gone when I see them next. 

Concerns or queries

Together with the Year 8 team, I would like to congratulate our Year 8’s on their efforts this year and wish them well as they head into Year 9. 

If you have any concerns or queries about any of the items mentioned above, Year 8 student matters, or just general inquiries, please do not hesitate to give the year 8 team a call on 51323700 or email Matthew Suter.         

Matthew.Suter@education.vic.gov.au

Matt Suter

Year 8 Team Leader