Junior School Update

Year 7 Update

Lucy Anderson, Sophie Balfour and Keeley Aglinskas

Our Year 7 students have hit the ground running this term. Over the past two weeks, they have participated in a Homegroup Olympic Games, featuring daily challenges with points awarded to the winning homegroup. Our Year 7s have been highly engaged and demonstrated excellent community spirit, which may have been inspired by the hot chip lunch prize for the top homegroup. As of this update, the games are ongoing, so please follow our socials for the winning homegroup announcement!

Miss A took two of our Year 7 Leaders to Somers Primary School, where they enhanced their leadership skills by organizing and leading activities for Grade 4 and 5 students. They represented Western Port exceptionally well and displayed outstanding leadership. Additionally, several Year 7 students travelled to Balnarring for a volunteer tree-planting event. They assisted local experts in planting new vegetation to aid in the area's regeneration. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive, and we are immensely proud of their contributions.

Our State School Spectacular participants recently attended their first dress rehearsal. This program aims to unite government school communities, promote high achievement in the arts, and foster student well-being and pride in their schools. The rehearsal was an excellent opportunity for them to showcase their hard work.

As the term progresses quickly, please monitor Compass for Student Led Conference bookings, which will be available in Week 9. Additionally, keep an eye out for permission slips for the Year 7 Inter-School Sports Day, also scheduled for Week 9. Further details will be emailed by Jamie Heneghan.

Year 8 Update

Tiegan Whitby, Jade Kairys and Tim Bunawan

As a team, we are very impressed with the start to Term 3 that our 8s have had. We have an absolutely jam-packed term full of incursions, excursions and big decisions. Students have been working hard in their iCARE classes to select what elective subjects they are interested in doing next year, students will be required to have their final selections in by the 16th of August, these will then be communicated home later in the term. 

We are also looking forward to having a cyber safety session with the year 8s in a few weeks’ time, in this sessions students will learn all about how to keep safe online. Finally to end an already busy term we look forward to going on Spring Break in week 8! Students will participate in three days of activities and excursions with more details to come very shortly…. 

Year 9 Update

Robyn Williams, Georgia Skilton and Lenita Engelke

What a fantastic start we are having in Year 9!

Mrs Williams took 17 students from Yr 9 and 10 into the city for the Future thinkers event. Students took part in a day to explore the design process. Students were given the opportunity to work hands-on with industry mentors from FujiFilm Australia. Students heard about how they use the design process to tackle problems of practice to ensure they remain effective and competitive in the print industry. 

Students worked in small groups with a mentors on a problem and then went about identifying the key stakeholders, constraints and limitations, possible solutions and explored their ideas through brainstorming and teamwork. Students worked together with the mentors on their project for the entire day and finished the day presenting back to the whole group on their solution and action plan for tackling the problem. This was a great experience and opportunity for our students. 

This term we have two more great opportunities for our Year 9 students; firstly the Rail Careers school engagement program led by the Rail Academy. The program proactively engages with school students to raise awareness about career opportunities in the rail, light rail, and construction industries. As a part of this program, our year 9 students will have the opportunity to visit the Rail Academy for an industry immersion day and learn about the rail industry.  Students will hear from industry professionals about their personal career journeys, get a close-up look at the role safety plays within rail and gain a unique insight into the diverse and interesting work available in the rail sector.  This event will occur on Thursday August 29th.

Our second Careers excursion opportunity will be to visit the Puckapunyal Military base. This event has been developed to showcase the variety of careers (full-time and part-time) available in the Army and Defence. It will provide students an insight into: Benefits within the Australian Army which is one of the world’s leading military forces.  The experience will offer valuable opportunities to have one-on-one discussions with Australian Defence Force (ADF) members to discuss their experiences and lifestyle interaction with ADF Recruitment team about current job vacancies, salary and benefits, Defence University Sponsorship, Defence Force Academy, GAP Year, STEM opportunities. Students will visit and tour the Puckapunyal Military Base and see Army personal in action. Students will see displays of a range of buildings, resources, vehicles and activities and take part in a range of activities designed to engage students in a fun and inclusive way. This excursion will occur on Friday 13th September. For more information please contact the Year 9 team.