Junior School

NAPLAN: Literacy and Numeracy 2023 

We have received the individual NAPLAN results for Year 7 students and have sent these out to parents along with an information sheet about the new reporting standards.  

Yr 7 Refugee Story

Religion in Year 7 has a strong emphasis on justice & morality, that’s why for the past term students have been reading the book Detention by Tristan Bancks. Written with compassion & empathy the book follows a character named Sima who is a young asylum seeker stuck in the limbo of Detention in Australia.

This is an important book which exposes readers to the plight of asylum seekers and the anguish of refugees. In the conclusion to the book, the students got to hear first hand from Somayeh, a refugee from Iran, who sought asylum in Australia 10 years ago due to inequality & lack of freedom. Somayeh’s story brought to life for the students the very real journey that many people go through to get to safety and the lengths that are taken to achieve freedom again. Somayeh highlighted how she had a very happy upbringing, enjoyed going to university, becoming a teacher & starting her own family, but in an instant her whole life changed. Somayeh had no choice but to flee her country, with her husband & two young children, emphasizing that seeking asylum is never a choice but a fight for your life, sometimes when you least expect it.  

Somayeh reached out after visiting to say that, “your students are amazing and one of the best and most engaged and calm audiences I ever had. It was a pleasure coming to your school”. We are very proud of how the Year 7 cohort have taken on this topic with empathy, understanding and a kind heart, and we greatly appreciate Somayeh sharing such a deeply personal experience with us here at Academy.

Hannah HaleReligious Education Learning Leader