Junior School Report
Ms Rebecca Tomkins
Westall Secondary College
Message from the
Director of Learning - Junior School
Ms Rebecca Tomkins
Hello to all our Junior School families and students,
Can you believe we are already halfway through the year? It has been a packed first semester with a range of events, camp, excursions, and incursions for all our Junior School students. Your teachers would like to commend you on the enthusiasm and hard work you have shown for the first half of the year.
As we wrap up for Term 2, our Year 8 science students have had some fantastic opportunities to test their curiosity with a visit to GTAC to design a bionic arm. Back at school, students have been able to dissect a heart to support their study of the different body systems. Thank you, Ms Luong-Nguyen and Mr C, for writing about these experiences in the newsletter (some photos of both have been included).
Next term, our Junior School students will begin to think about their next steps. Our Semester One reports will be released early in Term 3, and students will begin to consider their subject selection for 2024. For current Year 7s, this will mean choosing new iCreate preferences for next year. For our Year 8s, this will include considering their Year 9 electives. Exciting things ahead!
But first, a well-deserved break. Our Junior School staff are wishing all our students and their families a safe and relaxing holiday. See you in Term 3!
Ms Rebecca Tomkins
Director of Junior School
Photos of heart dissection from Year 8 science:
Heart dissection for 8SCI.D. Noah, Mohammed and Sukhraj dissecting their heart.
Identifying the different parts of a sheep heart.
Maika, Sofia and Vivian dissecting their heart.
Miss Read - Year 8 Cooking Class
Miss Read - Year 8 Cooking Class
Science Excursion to GTAC - Year 8s designed a bionic arm!
Continuing from their virtual workshop in May with GTAC, All Year 8s finally got to go onsite to GTAC in June! We had to split up different dates as the venue could not fit all of us so 8B and 8C went on Tuesday 6th of June and 8A and 8D went on Wednesday 7th of June. After a train and tram ride, we were welcomed at GTAC and were given scenarios of 3 limb different people and their needs when designing an arm for them.
We had Zahara who played drums, Baz who rock climbs and Talia plays hand ball (4 squares). Students were working in small groups and each group had a mentor who were completing their PhD in various aspects of Science. Students were able to build a robotic arm and had to critically think how each part of the arm works (shoulders, elbows, wrist and fingers) when it came to challenges such as using a drum stick to hit the drums, using a bat to hit a moving table tennis ball and completing a pull up on a retort stand.
We even had the opportunity to use motion sensors as our arms as we have nerve impulses and were able to move the bionic arms without the program! The bionic arm would move like how we moved our arms! We even got to spend time at Melbourne Central food court before heading back to school. A big thank you to Miss Jessica Cichy, Ms Jessie Li, Ms Gowri Nair, Mr Shankar Chandrasegaran, Mr James Graewolfe, Mrs Reia Grey and Ms Jennifer Phillips for their support in making this fun excursion happen!
Loan Luong -Nguyen
Numeracy/ STEM Learning Specialist