Year 8 News

Welcome to the 2025 Learning Year! The Year 8 Team would like to welcome back students to our learning community. I would firstly like to introduce myself, Sarah Lewis, as the Year 8 Team Leader. Having been at Kurnai for several years now, I have made the move over from Morwell Campus, where I have spent the last few years as the Assistant Team Leader for 7/8, to lead Year 8. I am so excited to be in this role and have spent the first few weeks of the year getting to know students, families and staff. I look forward to working with and supporting our Year 8 learning community. 

Year 8 Team

Sarah Lewis: Leading Teacher – Year 8 Team Leader

Paris Werner: Learning Specialist – Disability and Inclusion

Michelle Reid: Learning Specialist – Reporting

Robin Fitzpatrick: Advocate

John De Sousa-Daw

Nathaniel Isacs

Stephanie Barfoot

Alicia Thompson

We are also lucky enough to have several education support and tutors within our team this year; York Yu (tutor), Sophie Allford (Tutor), Ryan Johnson (Tutor) Monica Chisholm (ES).

I'm excited for all the opportunities our students will have this year and can't wait to see their achievements. I look forward to staying connected with you throughout the year ahead!

Around the Classrooms

The climate for learning has been great so far this term. Students are experiencing new electives, building skills and learning about new content. 

‘My favourite class currently in Term 1 is Science as we are learning about the types of rocks, like igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks, and metamorphic rocks, and tectonic plates and all the types of forms that can happen like a divergent plate boundary, transform late boundary, and a collision plate boundary. One of our experiments we did was the Oreo experiment where we got into groups of 4, and then we got an Oreo each, and then we broke the cookie part in half, and then made plate boundaries. That's all that has happened in Science class during our first 2-3 weeks of Year 8!’ 

– Jasper Seers, 8A

SRC/Student Leadership

SRC is changing this year with the addition of student leaders at every year level. The process is currently underway for students to nominate to be a Year 8 Student Leader. SRC assists in student agency, improved student learning and results, and happier and safer schools. Students involved in SRC/Student Leadership bring about change, be involved regarding decisions for our school, build relationships and community support and respond to student concerns and needs. SRC resposbilties may also include; writing pieces for the newsletter/end of year celebrations, assisting with assemblies, attending school events and organising year level celebrations and events. 

Camp

This year students will embark on a new camp to Phillip Island between 28th-30th July. Planning is underway, more information and consent forms will come out over the next few weeks and months. 

KPAs

As in previous years, we will be continuing the use of Kurnai Positive Acknowledgements (KPA’s), it has been fantastic to see students settling back into the Kurnai Learning Community and being acknowledged for their efforts within the classroom. In four weeks, Year 8s have received almost 2,000 KPAS!

This this is how each form tracked:

8A: 732

8B: 470

8C: 244

8D: 479

In our last assembly at the start of week 3, the top four KPA earners we also acknowledged and rewarded, this were:

• Amira Moss 
• Jun Wei Tam
• William Bailey
• Ilomusa Chirau

Contact Details 

If you have any concerns regarding Year 8 students, please don’t hesitate to contact me at (03) 5165 0600 or Sarah.Lewis@education.vic.gov.au 

Sarah Lewis

Year 8 Team Leader