Year 7 & 8 News

Year 7 Camp 

Our Year 7 Camp planning continues with permission forms being due back as soon as possible. From the Year 7/8 Team’s point of view, we believe it is really important that we have all students participate in this camp.

Camp Coolamatong works really well with us and we ask for you to please work with us to overcome any barriers to your child attending so that they can get the full benefit of the curriculum and opportunities that we offer to them in Year 7. 

The students were certainly very excited about camp and the activities in store when I spoke with them all earlier in the week. If you need any assistance overcoming barriers for your child to attend camp, please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss.

Year 7 and 8 Goals (Kurnai Positive Acknowledgments)

I would like to promote the continued fantastic start our students have made towards their learning. We understand the importance of celebrating the positive success our students demonstrate every day. 

This can mean showing improvement in the learning or behaviour right the way through to our high-end academic achievers. As you can see below the numbers of our positives are extraordinary and I encourage you to continue the conversations you are having at home about the positive choices our learners are showing every day.   

Number of Positive student chronical entries:

Top Students for Kurnai Morwell in all year levels 

FREE CAMPS

We are lucky enough to offer, in addition to our regular Year 7 and Year 8 camps this year, a completely free week-long camp in Term 3. The Student Leaders have been through a list of approved camps and have selected a camp each.

The Year 7 students will be going to Portsea. The Portsea camp will offer every Year 7 student the opportunity to participate in the activities below all completely free. We anticipate the permission forms to come out during Term 2. We will be aiming to take all of our 105 Year 7 students to the camp on the 8th – 12th Aug. 

• Giant swing
• Flying fox
• High ropes
• Orienteering courses
• Sports oval
• Basketball court
• Dodgeball court
• Gaga pit
• Giant slide
• Direct beach access
• Sea kayaking
• Snorkelling
• Beach activities
• Campfire
• Bush cooking
• Bush hut building
• Environmental activities
• Bushwalking
• Bike riding
• Scooters
• Team building and leadership activities
• Arts and crafts
• Disco
• Movie nights
• Special interest activities

The Year 8 Student Leaders have selected a Ranch Camp to take their year level to. The camp again will be completely free for every student. The Mill Valley Ranch camp offers the following experiences 

• Horse Riding with large undercover arena and access to on property trail rides
• Canoeing
• Raft Building
• Lake Swimming
• Archery
• Crate Climb
• Commando Course
• Low Ropes
• Beach Volleyball
• 9 Square in the Air
• GAGA
• Team Games
• Initiatives

The Year 7 and 8 Team are looking forward to getting all of our Year 8 students to the camp with permission forms coming out in Term 2. 

Both camps combined are in the $100,000s and offer a fantastic opportunity for our students to experience and learn life skills, all completely free of charge to our families under the State Government’s Positive Start initiative. If you have any questions about these camps or our regular camps, please feel free to contact me at the school. 

FEELING SAFE AT SCHOOL 

We have been talking with the students about the right to feel safe at school and the need for everybody to respect the safety of others. This has been an area that we have been particularly impressed with this year. Like all schools, from time to time issues arise and we work actively with families and students to resolve them. If you ever feel like your child is experiencing issues at school, encourage them to communicate with us and follow up with us yourself to make sure they have. 

Year 7 and 8 Attendance

I would like to take this opportunity to promote attendance; going to school every day is the single most important part of your child’s education. Students learn new things at school every day. Attending and participating in school will help your child develop:

• important skills and knowledge to help them learn
• social and emotional skills such as good communication, resilience and team work

Children who attend school every day and complete year 12 have:

• better health
• better job opportunities
• higher income across their lives.

There is no safe number of days for missing school. Each day a student misses puts them behind.

Across our college we have an attendance target of 95%.