Secondary 7/8

7/8A 

7/8A have had an exciting and busy start to the 2023 school year. We have continued to foster some incredible friendships, along with developing new ones. 7/8A have shown they can quickly adapt to new classroom structures and routines, they consistently demonstrate our Concord School Expectations through their care for others, positive mindsets, and responsibility for their learning area. 

This term, 7/8A have been exploring their emotions and the impact different activities and experiences can have on them. Through this unit students have been exposed to hands-on learning through our weekly experience days at Bounce, RSPCA, yoga, nature walks, Art Therapy and a tour of the MCG and engagement with the Australian Sports Museum. 

We look forward to continuing to build positive connections and strive to achieve our learning goals in Term 2. 

7/8B  

Secondary 7/8B have had a wonderful start to the year, doing a great job at getting into the routine of Year 7/8. We started off the year with some great team building activities, completing building challenges, scavenger hunts and games like uno, helping us to strengthen our bond as a class. 

We have also been on lots of great experience days, including the RSPCA, Rosanna Parklands, Bounce and Macleod YMCA for some Yoga. Students have been able to relate what they have learned in their discovery unit to these experience days, identifying how the activities have made them feel, before writing reflections about their adventures. 

We have also practiced buying our lunch as a class and the students have displayed great skills at counting their money to work out what they can buy. Thanks for a great term 7/8B!

7/8C

Secondary 7/8C have had a fun and engaging first term. Here is what the students have to say:

"My favourite thing at bounce were the trampolines"- Steve

"Bounce was very fun and a bit scary at the start"- Jett

“The Challenge program has been so fun, I have loved going to bowling" - Cody 

"The incursions were fun because we learnt and wrote about emotions"- Gabes 

"I have really liked sport because we get to hang out with our friends and our PE teacher Tom" - Bilal 

"The community number walk was amazing because I love seeing numbers"- Lawson 

"My favourite part of my learning has been learning about Dennis Rodman and making a biography on him"- Angus 

"I have liked going on my laptop to make powerpoints"- Marcus 

"I like learning about the calendar because it is important"- Aidan  

7/8D

78D is a classroom with 11 unique students who have lots of personality, strength, and abilities. Our interests vary from Kahoot, Pokémon, Sonic The Hedgehog and sports, specifically Gaga! This term we have been learning to adapt to and understand the Secondary School expectations. We have seen new friendships blooming and continuing to grow. Some of our students are beginning to feel confident in supporting their friends during classroom activities. We have established routines within our class. All our students have enjoyed participating in Challenge, Harmony Week and the excursion to Bounce. We have also attended two incursions recognising emotions and identifying appropriate self-regulation strategies in conjunction with the Discovery Unit. We are excited to continue our learning in Term 2. 

7/8E

Secondary 7/8E have had an engaging and educational Term 1. We began by getting to know each other through team-building games and activities; learning how to get along, support and cooperate with our classmates. We played cricket with 7/8F, completed a jigsaw puzzle where we all represented different parts but our favourite activity was building the tallest tower using spaghetti and marshmallows. One team had more success than the other!

We have enjoyed writing recounts and finding out about each other by sharing student’s autobiographies. We got in touch with our ‘Inner Gremlin’ and ‘Inner Sage’ and worked a lot on emotions. We were amazed to find that numbers are all around us when we went on our ‘Number Walk’ to Andrew Place. 

We were rewarded with nice cold Zooper Doopers. Calendar work and telling the time activities and games were taught alongside place value in Maths; all learning being consolidated with ‘Mathletics’ tasks. The ‘Minute to Win It’ games produced lots of laughs and displayed some well thought out strategies.

The highlight for most students was the excursion to ‘Bounce’. Some students conquered their fear of heights, others loved hanging out with their mates or special friends and doing bouncing and flipping on the trampolines.

Lots of learning and way too much fun in 7/8E this term, let’s hope it continues into Term 2.

7/8F

Secondary 7/8F have had a tremendous start to the year. Everyone settled in well and was able to learn the new class routines and rules. This term in literacy, the students completed various reading and writing activities. In reading, we have been reading our mentor text weekly, Ella Diaries, and engaged in various activities that look at the vocabulary as well as comprehension of the text. 

The students have also been reading in their small groups and worked on blending, segmenting, dictation and writing graphemes. In writing, we focused on how to write a recount. The students were able to showcase their writing at the end of the unit and were very proud of their writing skills. In Mathematics, 7/8F have been looking at the topics of place value and time. 

This has been taught through a variety of experiences, hands-on activities, worksheets and games. Our discovery unit this term focused on identifying feelings and describing how our body reacts when we feel a particular emotion. 

The highlight of the term would be our excursion to Bounce where everyone had a blast! Overall, the students in 7/8F have had a successful term. We are looking forward to Term 2! 

A huge congratulations to our year 7 students who have had a great start to their first year of high school! 

7/8G

In Secondary 7/8G we have had a fun and learning filled term. We started off Term 1 with an afternoon walk to the local fish and chip shop where we searched for numbers. We found numbers on letter boxes, number plates, signs and so many more places. We learned about how helpful numbers can be (and also had some yummy chips too!)

We visited the MILE room in the Discovery Centre, which linked into our interoception learning we have been doing this term with Olivia our OT. The students have been learning about how their body reacts to different things, such as a relaxing “Wellness Retreat” in the MILE room. We spoke about how this made us feel calm and peaceful.

We have been reading our mentor text “Ella’s Diaries” together as a class, which is a book about a girl auditioning for her school play. The students have been enjoying the story and have been linking it to our upcoming Spectacular rehearsals next term.

Overall we have had a great first term together. Looking forward to Term 2!

7/8H

Secondary 7/8H have had a fabulous start to the year and have settled well into the Secondary 7/8 section. 

Our favourite highlight for the term was our excursion to Bounce spending time in the rock climbing area and playing games on the trampolines. We then used this experience to write recounts that included time connective language. 

We have begun reading the book ‘The Twits’ students are really enjoying the tricks Mr and Mrs Twit play on each other. 

This term, we have focused on different feelings and how they affect our body, this has been a program called interoception, students have so far focused on their hands, mouth and heart.

Both Natalie and Stef are looking forward to what the year will bring!

ALLIED HEALTH

Occupational Therapist: Olivia Sun

What a fun and exciting term for the 7/8 Section! Our students have been enjoying and engaging in a variety of activities to develop their body awareness and opportunities to work on their social and emotional regulation skills. It also has been lovely joining the PreCAL 7/8 students on their experience days, witnessing all the wonderful moments they had and beautiful friendships they built. Go 7/8!!!

Speech Therapist: Leia Leventis

It has been a great start to the year getting to know the new 7/8 cohort! We have been working on reading, writing, communicating and extending our vocabulary relating to our discovery topic. A highlight this term was attending our section excursion to Bounce and getting to see the students challenge themselves, encourage each other and bond.