Middle School Update

There has been a wonderful level of engagement amongst our Year 7 and 8 students and teachers over the last couple of weeks. With the support of parents and carers we continue to provide opportunities for everyone to be involved in activities building on the positive culture that we are very fortunate to have at Salvado Catholic College.

To briefly mention, a special thanks to Mr Loh with the support of Mr Old for our wonderful Inter-House Athletics Carnival. With the help of Year 7 and 8 teachers and non-teaching staff, especially Mr Phillips for his hard work in setting up and packing away after the carnival.

Last week the Year 8 Reflection Day was run in the Covered Assembly Space with 24.7 School Ministry group. It was wonderful to see our young people engaged in the numerous year group and smaller group activities. There were lots of fun games and dancing with the committed staff that provided to the focus of us being ‘Stewards of Creation’.

A big thanks to Mr Meynell for the time, effort and guidance that he provided for the 29 students who were involved in the Creative Edge program which culminated on Saturday at Curtin University. It was fantastic to see our students challenge themselves and to do so well in this unique opportunity for them and the College. It was also great to see so many parents there to support and to chat with as they waited patiently for the performances.

Our staff continue to offer co-curricular options for our students and we are very fortunate to have teachers who volunteer their time to help our young people learn in different ways. Mr Cave has started work with a group who completed Woodwork in Semester One and its great to see the models they are putting time into creative with his expert guidance and support.

Parents and carers please continue to support the College with the expectations and guidelines with regards to uniform and personal presentation of your children. Our guidelines were recently emailed out as a reminder, and it was reassuring to know some changes were made to rectify some hairstyles and make-up concerns as examples. With your continued support it will help ensure that teachers can spend more time, focus and energy on the most important aspect of our occupations which is the teaching and learning of our students.

Brendan McGrath

Head of Middle School (Year 7 to Year 9)

Creative Edge

When reflecting on their weekend involvement in the Creative Edge Problem Solving Challenge, our 29 Year 7 and 8 participants were quick to use words such as 'fun', 'challenging', 'nerve-racking', 'stressful' and 'engaging'. An innovative competition which cultivates critical and creative skills, we are very proud of our students, who certainly learnt a lot over the last few weeks.

Despite the many pressures associated with being on stage, delivering an impromptu speech, and thinking 'ad lib' when lines are forgotten or STEM models break, the students persevered when faced with adversity and many are already talking about how they will improve next year!

We thank all of our students for their involvement as well as the many parents and extended family members who were a marvellous support on the day.

Mr Meynell

Lily Evans - Year 7

Last weekend we went to Curtin University to participate in the Creative Edge Problem Solving Challenge. We started this challenge by having a Creative Thinking workshop at our school and after that workshop students met up every Tuesday morning to work together on their presentation. Over the time we were working on this challenge we have learnt to work in teams, manage time effectively and think creatively. The hardest part for me personally was memorising my lines and creating the costume; I am sure most people left it till last minute. We were able to support some of our friends by also watching their presentations too. This challenge didn’t only help us learn something new, but it helped us meet new people and try new things that we have never tried before. Overall I’m sure we all think that this was quite a challenging but very rewarding experience.

Hana Willis - Year 7

On the 27th of August we went to Curtin University to participate in the Creative Edge Problem Solving Challenge. This event challenged us to think outside of the box. We had a workshop delivered by Mrs Boyatzis, which taught us to think differently. We also had to design costumes and do a 10 minute presentation which I personally thought was the hardest. We were put in small groups of 7 or 8, with our focus being the importance of literature. For the presentation I was picked for the role of playing Mulan. We had to design costumes for our characters (there were other characters as well played by different people such as Robin Hood and Rapunzel) by using household recyclable products. The most hardest part for me was learning my lines. I did not do this early enough so I was on the way to the university trying to memorise my lines. This led to me forgetting my lines on stage but luckily someone filled in for me. Creative Edge was a very challenging experience but was a lot of fun. In our groups we were put with people that we don’t know very well so was a good chance for us to get to know a few people better.

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