St Augustine's College Kyabram

5-8 Community News

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

 

The past fortnight for many of students and staff has been extremely busy.  Preparation for the Years 5/6 and the Year 8 camps, along with some celebrations for a number of our year levels will guide our community to the end of the term. 

 

This fortnight we have welcomed close to 25 new students and their families to our wonderful school. These students have chosen St Augustines College and we feel really privileged to be working with them. Their next transition day will be next Thursday, 2nd December.

 

Our Years 5 and 6 students experienced a fantastic camp that will be one to remember. Thankfully the weather held up and we had some beautiful days.  The students were fantastic and deserve some recognition.  Community members from Ballarat expressed their gratitude to our students for being so polite and demonstrating SOLE out in an unfamiliar community. The focus now shifts to further preparation for the Year 8 overnight camp in Moama.

 

Thankyou for making the time to book a TA interview. These conversations are really important as we look to continue to develop our relationships with our families. Evidence suggests when there is a positive relationship between home and school, our students will receive and experience positive interactions and opportunities.

 

In TA, along with TRP and GEM, the coursework that has been created to support the students over the next fortnight aligns to their personal and social health. Themes that continue to be covered:

 

  • Discussing the range of strategies that could be used to cope with difficult tasks or changing situations.
  • Defining resilience and adaptability and giving examples of how they are displayed.
  • Understanding that people experience situations uniquely, that people may react differently to the same situation.
  • Compiling a list of strategies to guide responses to challenging moments in life.
  • Exploring the contested meaning of concepts including freedom, justice and rights and responsibilities, and the extent they are and should be valued by different individuals and groups.
  • Comparing and evaluating two conceptions of freedom.
  • Examining how various cultural groups are represented, by whom they are represented and the purpose and effect of these representations.
  • Identifying the challenges and benefits of living and working in a culturally diverse society.
  • Investigating why people may apply different reasoning in different circumstances.

Having our children attend their classes and TA on time is ever so important. TA commences at 8.50am and concludes at 9.10am.  TA enables students to feel a sense of inclusion amongst their community which will foster opportunities for them to further develop long-lasting relationships with their peers and teachers.  Please continue to ensure you remind your students about attending class on time. If they continue to miss the start of every lesson, learning opportunities are missed.

 

Again, throughout the past fortnight, there continues to be a strong focus on having our students label their emotions. When our children are in the green zone they are able to make appropriate choices. However, when in the red we need to continue to work with our students by providing them with necessary support. We need your help to support us with some of the strategies which will build consistent and familiar tools to manage at home and at school.  

 

Please consistently check in with your children about their use of their technology and personal devices. At the moment, apps such as SnapChat, Instagram, and Discord are posing some challenges at home which are then being brought into the school grounds. If you feel your child is being bullied online, please report it to your child's TA and to the eSafety Commissioner. These two websites provide instructions about how to report online abuse.

https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-issues/esafety-guide 

https://submit.esafety.gov.au/Produce/wizard/ca3acccd-07bf-4a12-9c0e-f93e50a46ab6?portal=1

 

Our final Years 5-8 Assembly will be held next Wednesday, 1st December.  Assembly will be live streamed from 12.06pm via the College FaceBook page.

 

Lastly, we really wanted to applaud the Year 8 students for their commitment to the 5-8 Community. They will transition into Year 9 next week and we wish them all the best as they make their way to enter their senior schooling years. We look forward to welcoming this year's Year 4 students to our Community in the coming weeks! A very big thank you to our Year 8 leaders for their commitment to their leadership roles.  We look forward to watching our 2022 school leaders blossom in their roles.

 

SOLE Focus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anthony Poppa and Corey Carver

5-8 Community Leaders

Year 8 Market Day

5/6 Camp to Ballarat 

By Cooper Wilson

 

Did you know that Ballarat is the 3rd largest inland city in Australia in terms of population? The city was established in 1838 and it is located at the foothills of the central highlands. One of my favourite things was the gold pouring demonstration. The guy told us that the same gold he was pouring had been poured into a gold mould and then was melted again for every demonstration for over 25 years. The gold was worth about $500,000 dollars for a block and the best gold you can get is the 24 carat gold. Sovereign Hill has 22 carat gold and sometimes Ballarat gets 24 carat gold but it’s not often.

 

My other favourite thing was looking into the shops and seeing all the olden time things like seeing people bend wood. I liked the lolly shop where they make toffee apples and the bakery where they make the best sausage rolls in the world and the other shops were really cool too. 

 

My next favourite thing was going to Mars Stadium where the Western Bulldogs play sometimes. It was so cool going onto a football field where footy players play. The other cool thing was going to the coaches boxes and pretending to be Nathan Buckley and being BT doing the commentating. The rooms where they train were sick as well. They had a wall of all the people who played for the Ballarat Rebels and had been drafted into the AFL. Nitro circus had been there on the dirt bikes, scooters, bmx’s and other crazy stuff.

 

Ballarat was an awesome experience. Every single second was an awesome time. I felt so happy when I got there and the most exciting bit was to see who was in the cabin with me. I got in a cabin with Henry and Jack. I can’t wait to go back there again!