Year 7 News

Welcome back, Year 7!

We hope everyone had a restful and safe break.

As we progress into the second half of the year, we find ourselves once again, remote learning. Students are familiar with remote learning now and have demonstrated a confident approach to Term 3. We will continue to have Zoom Meetings during Home Group, sessions 1, 3 and 5. In addition, we are using communicative platforms, Compass and Microsoft Teams.

Our Year 7 students have started off very well, Learning Task submissions across all subjects have been fantastic! The Year 7 team are very impressed with our students; the effort, enthusiasm and resilience shown is above and beyond.

Thank you again to all parents and guardians for your ongoing support during remote learning. We truly appreciate the time and effort invested. If you’re finding that your child is becoming overwhelmed or needs additional support (academically or emotionally) during this time, please notify their teacher or Ms Casha via email or phone the College.

Please note that Home Group Zoom from 8:50am-9:00am is compulsory. If your child is unable to attend due to an appointment etc. please notify their Home Group teacher or simply add this to Compass.

What is the purpose of Home Group/Morning Circle?

1. Sets a tone for respectful engaged learning in a climate of trust

2. Builds and enhances connections among students and between students and teachers

3. Merges academic, social, and emotional learning

4. Motivates students by addressing the human need to feel a sense of significance and belonging and to have fun

5. Through the repetition of many ordinary moments of respectful interactions, enables some extraordinary moments

Kriete, R. & Davis, C. The Morning Meeting Book, 2017.

We have no doubt that our Year 7 students will continue to put in 100% effort this term. We are hopeful that classes and school will return to ‘normal’ soon, however in the interim, we know our Year 7 students will try their absolute best to achieve.

Ms Casha

Year 7 coordinator

Diaries of a Year 7 Student…

Year 7 Physical Education Term 3 by Alexander 7D

During isolation, working without social interaction is hard and can be boring without anyone to talk to, even during zoom meetings, but with all this, there is still room for a laugh! All Year 7s were instructed to do 30 minutes of physical activity with evidence that you have done the exercise for 10 weeks. So, I went on a run on Thursday morning and took a photo to show evidence that I did the exercise. I don’t think my teachers expected that I can run in a marathon! And to think that I had the time to before our 8:50am Homeroom Zoom meeting! That is what I call, using your time productively, running in a marathon…before an 8:50am meeting.

My Remote Learning Experience by Teisha 7B

Remote Learning has not been easy especially when we found out that we were having a second wave. I know when my sister found out that online learning was continuing, she was not happy at all but we still managed. Remote Learning for me is actually not that bad, I mean we treat Remote Learning as if we are really at school.

First, we wake up at 8am where we then get dressed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, etc. We do all this before we begin our Remote Learning day so we are a bit more productive. At 8:50am we start our learning day with a class zoom meeting for our daily morning circle. After the morning circle I tend to check my emails and Microsoft teams so I don’t miss out on anything important. After I’ve checked everything, I start session 1 and 2. For lunch everyday my mum makes us make ourselves some lunch (a sandwich) and after we have eaten, we get free time until session 3 and 4 start. For recess we do the same as what we did at lunch. We try to complete all our lessons before 3:15pm so we don’t have to keep working.

I don’t think Remote Learning is the best way to learn but we all have to try our hardest and hopefully we can all go back to our friends and teachers very soon.

What Home School Learning Has Been Like by Chelsea 7D

Home school learning has had its ups and downs, one of the downs would be not being able to see our friends but it was good that we have Zoom meetings because we get to see our amazing teachers who have made this a lot easier for us. They have set up Microsoft Teams so we can ask questions when we need to, and we also get to see all of our friends. Remote learning is a different experience for all of us. Hopefully we can go back to normal school learning soon.

Life in Lockdown by Mia 7a

This is week 2 of lock down, it has not been that bad yet, but it is getting a bit more stressful than I thought. Now there is a new law saying we must be wearing masks everywhere we go, and it is so annoying continuously having to wear a mask everywhere even when you exercise. There are a few things that aren’t so bad like spending more time with my family, catching up on tv shows you like and doing things you enjoy in the house. Lockdown for me has been nice, being able to sleep in for a bit and not rush around looking for my school shoes and clothes and being able to just stay in your pjs and not having to change. I still am having to do my school work though, but its good being able to still see my friends and teachers it makes me happy.

Thank you to our brave Year 7 students for their contributions, well done.

If you would like to feature in our next newsletter: ‘Diaries of a Year 7 Student…’ please email Ms Casha.

Ms Casha

Year 7 coordinator

Year 8 News

Our year 8 cohort has had a smooth transition into 2020, taking what they have learnt from year 7 and quickly settling in to their new homerooms and classes, and developing relationships with new students and teachers.

They have hit the ground running in these past few weeks, setting up classroom norms and expectations within their homerooms, and further developing the skills they need to become self-reliant and accountable young adults via the start-up program (from discussing what it means to work as part of a team, to investigating growth mindsets and the importance of never giving up!).

During term 1, students will begin to delve deeper into their subjects, creating electrical circuits in Science, producing persuasive videos in English, solving increasingly complex problems involving negative numbers and fractions in Maths, and investigating colonisation during the middle ages in Humanities.

Term 1 also brings it’s fair share of fun with our upcoming 7-9 swimming carnival, 7-9 athletics competition, inter-school sports and a number of lunchtime clubs run by the teachers. Plus we have our Year 8 beach camp still to come later in the year!

Students will begin to come home with homework tasks and can be expected to have at least some form of homework for the rest of the term. All homework will be written in their school diaries for your referral.

Brookside's weekly Study club will also begin in the coming weeks, occurring every Wednesday afternoon from 3:15pm to 4:00pm. Attendance at Study club is voluntary (unless specifically requested by a teacher) and is a great opportunity for students to remain at school to study with their peers and with the support of their teachers. It is highly recommended for students to attend.

Please feel free to use your child's school diary as an additional means of communication with your child's subject and homeroom teachers. We welcome all communication with parents and are happy to answer any questions or concerns you may have in relation to your child, either through diary messages, phone conversations or in person.

For further information, questions or enquiries with anything year 8 related, please contact your child's homeroom teacher or year 8 coordinator.

Thanking you in advance,

Chris Hermansson (Year 8 Coordinator).

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