Junior School Report

Message from the

Director of Learning - 

Ms Alice Paget

Congratulations to all staff and students for all your hard work during Term 2! The Year 7s are starting to show great understanding and confidence in daily structure and expectations at the College. Well done! 

It has been a busy start to Term 2. We have been celebrating some wonderful achievements in the Junior School, with both Aim High and the Westall Way Achievement Awards. It was fantastic to see lots of junior school students and parents coming in for Parent-Teacher Conferences last week. Well done to everyone who was able to set aside some time to receive feedback and have discussions around how we can work as a team to get the best result for each student. Please try and take on board this feedback for the remainder of Term 2, striving to achieve your personal best in each of your subjects. 

WESTALL WAY AWARDS

The Westall Way are a set of learning behaviours that bring together the College values that students endeavour to demonstrate in College life. We have a reward system (Westall Points) around these behaviours where students are awarded points for demonstrating these behaviours on an ongoing basis.

Well done to the following Year 7s who have made a gear start to their secondary education, already receiving 25 points this year and been recognised with the Bronze Award:

• Isabella
• Nick
• Meti
• Ryhanna
• Ishi
• Jyolzna
• Brighty
• Lachlan
• Valentina
• Alex
• Deziah
• Anha
• Rasheeda
• Terrance
• Rocco

Students can continue to work their way up the Westall Wall of Achievement. Keep up the great work and striving for your Personal Best!

AIM HIGH

I would like to congratulate the Year 7 and 8 students who have been selected into the Aim High program at Westall Secondary College this year. Aim High is a selective program that is offered in all subjects at Westall Secondary College. Students are identified when they show they are working above the level for a particular subject. Students are challenged with different, advanced work, to ensure they are constantly learning. I would like to thank all the staff for providing differentiated work in their classes to ensure all students are constantly challenged and in their wobble zone. 

The selected Aim High students below have been acknowledged and congratulated in their sub-school assembly this week. I would like to also make a special mention of a few Year 7 and 8 students who have been selected into the program for multiple subjects. Congratulations and keep striving for excellence!

JUNIOR SCHOOL FOOD TECHNOLOGY

This term, our Year 8 students have been completing a unit on Healthy Eating. They have been cooking food in line with the Australian Guidelines for Healthy Eating. So far this term they have made apricot and coconut balls, smoothie bowls and baked sweet potato wedges with avocado aioli.

This week our Year 8 students made hot chips and aioli, comparing the taste and nutritional value of this week's chips and aioli with last week's baked sweet potato wedges. It was hard to pick the winner! Next week, students will be designing and cooking their own brown rice sushi recipe. I can’t wait to see what designs and flavour combination they come up with!

Ms Alice Paget

Director of Learning - Junior School

Year 8 GLIT trip to 

Half Moon Bay

In Term 1, our Year 8 Global Literacy students were studying geography. Specifically, they were looking at landforms and landscapes in different areas of the world including volcanoes, mountains and the coast. For our assessment in Term 1, students visited Half Moon Bay in Sandringham to conduct fieldwork. This included identifying and sketching different coastal landforms, identifying evidence of erosion and deposition and collecting evidence to see how humans have impacted the landscape. Students recorded data on the day, such as what type of rocks were there and the wave frequency, to analyse back at school for their CAT. 

Ms Rebecca Tomkins

Year 8 Coordinator

Year 8 Science: 

Mission to Mars

All Year 8 students had the opportunity to visit the Victorian Space Science Education Centre (VSSEC) in Term 2 to be a part of the ‘Mission to Mars’. Students were welcomed in and suited up, preparing for their journey to the red planet. We were given the opportunity to be in mission control, communicating with students on the surface of Mars and assisting them in data collection. While in mission control, students communicated via headsets and had to work together to solve problems, saving their peers from a fierce ‘dust storm’. Students then swapped roles and travelled to Mars after being given extra protective equipment such as helmets and oxygen tanks. While on the surface, students had to collect rock samples, measure tremors and map the area. Once our data had been collected, we moved into the lab, analysing all the information we had found to determine if there has ever been life on Mars and if it may be possible in the future. 

Ms Rebecca Tomkins

Year 8 Coordinator