Assembly Awards

Earlier this term the Year 8's and this week the Year 7's had an assembly to present some awards. The Positive Recognition Awards reflect on the students in and out of class behaviours, learning habits and school values. The Attendance Awards congratulates those students that have attended more than 90% of the time. The Sparx Awards reflect on the progress made in the Sparx Maths Homework Program.

The Year 9's recently had an assembly. Five students were awarded Habits of Excellence awards for displaying excellent learning habits, those students were Imogen Nash, Andy Martland, Grace Schill, Ruby McNamara, and Molly Mills.

Year 7 Woodwork

This semester the Year 7s have been learning about safety in the workshop and working with wood to create a stool. Here are some of the finished products.

Year 8 Humanities

Part of the Humanities course includes looking backwards in time and learning the medieval art of shield making. Pictured are students shields from Miss Novak's class. Planning and designs were researched for those that wanted historically accurate shields. Others took a creative approach to making their shields choosing symbols and words important to them. This ended in a mock battle where the students' creations were put to the test to see who had made the strongest shield. That honour went to Angus of 8C. The prize to the most creative went to Bella and the most realistic was a tie between Myles, Poppy and Gabby of 8C.

Year 9 Community Challenge & Melbourne Camp in a Day

Our Year 9 students have engaged in a range of activities across this term. Each class participated in their allocated rotation and completed regular Resilience Project activities designed to help them build their understanding of their emotional selves. Students also completed Morrisby testing, which will give them some ideas about what career paths they may be suited for once they finish schooling.

The highlight of the term came in the Melbourne Camp in a Day. Students assembled early on a cold dark Mirboo North morning and jumped on a bus for the trip into the city. The morning was spent learning more about the Big Issue and the impact of homelessness. Lunch was a combination of chips, pizza and gaming, as students took full advantage of the couches at Fortress. A scavenger hunt was undertaken after lunch across the city. Students then met at the Hard Rock Indoor Climbing Centre where they learned how to climb, but more importantly how to support their climbing partner so that they were safe on the wall.

All students showed courage in getting onto the wall and climbing as high as they could, which for some resulted in reaching the very top and a triumphant descent back to the ground. After a dinner break, students undertook a ghost tour of the city, and then jumped back on the bus for the return journey home. In the final weeks, the students completed a Sports Fest day, engaging in activities such as lawn bowls, croquet, Zumba and water aerobics. They will complete another day like this in October.

To finish off the term, students will be completing their Round Tables, which is a mock interview process where students will be reflecting on their learning from the semester and describing how they have developed their character. This is designed to simulate the job interviews they will experience when they finish school. If you see a group of well-dressed Year 9 students around the school on our final Friday and wonder why, this is the reason.

SPARX MATHS

Sparx Maths has been on the march this term for our Year 7s, 8s, and 9s. On-time submission rates have improved across all year levels.

The highlight was being in the top 20 schools in the world for one week with our on-time submission rates!

Each week we are handing out plenty of certificates to students that “level up” (reach the next 10,000 XP milestone).

7B was the standout earning the “chips in the park” award for Term1 and 2 with their impressive on-time submission rates for this semester, although they were closely followed by 7A and 7C.

We are considering extending the “chips in the park” reward to one per year level next semester. So, keep getting your SPARX in on-time.

Most importantly is the learning growth that is occurring due to students completing one hour of mathematics' homework per week, which is specifically targeted at their level.

Reports

You may notice that there are two marks on your report for SPARX Maths.

One is the percentage of weekly homework completed ON TIME.

The second is the percentage of weekly homework tasks that were completed (this includes completing the task after the deadline).

Best tips for ON-TIME completion…

Start your SPARX work early in the week (opens Saturday morning, 6am), so that you can ask your teacher for help if you need it.

Watch the videos carefully. We don’t see many students getting “stuck” as the videos are well designed to help students to overcome specific challenges in each problem.

Big Science Competition results! Congratulations

Well done to the following students who undertook the Big Science Competition earlier in the year. Whatever your results, you should be proud of choosing to undertake this challenge against the top students from around the country.

Year 8 JESSIE POLAND - Distinction

COOPER WEBB - Participation

Year 9 IMOGEN NASH - Participation

CHRISTOPHER PROCTOR - High Distinction

Year 10 JACOB DALY - Credit

OLIVIA HENNING - Credit

BILLY JENNINGS - Participation

ELLA NOWACKI - Participation

Your certificates will be available next term, and you are welcome to see Mr Anders for a detailed copy of your results to review. Congratulations and well done!

Science news!

More great Science news! Jacob Daly, Ella Nowacki and Olivia Henning have won a place in the Monash Scholar’s Program, which is a mentoring program in Science over two years.

Jacob Daly has also won a place on the John Monash Regional Science Exchange Program, where he will live in a host house for 3 weeks in term 3, whilst completing an intensive 3 week Science Program at their Clayton campus. Exciting science stuff for these amazing year 10s!

Year 11 Biology Excursion

Year 11 Biology Students had an amazing day investigating the genetics of sickle cell anaemia.

Year 10 Gipps Tech School Excursion

They explored Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality and used their skills to fulfil a design brief.

LOTE - German Exchange Program

Exciting news! The MNSC Sister School Exchange Program with Germany is back! At the end of this year we are sending two of our students to our Sister school, the Alfred Amann Gymnasium in Bönningheim, Germany. We will welcome their German exchange partners in March 2024.

Dr Karl - Live

A lucky group of students got to see Dr Karl live in Traralgon. He spoke about many mind-bending things today like:

• The smoke from the 2019/2020 bushfires caused the last three years of La Ninia in Australia

• We do not make any bricks in Australia anymore. They are all imported!

• We are the only country in the world that can’t make white paper from plantation timber.

• We can make transparent windows out of wood, which are better insulators than glass.

• We can make wood that is stronger than steel.

• The current heating of the earth due to greenhouse gas increases is equivalent the heat from 600,000 Hiroshima bombs every day!

• We can fix global warming.

• This generation is the smartest generation ever.

And his predictions for the future would not be out of place in a Science Fiction Movie. These included:

• In the future you will order your new phone and it will be 3D printed on your home printer.

• The next generation will live forever with a genetic modification.

• In the next 10/15 years we will go to the GP and they will scan our DNA and 3D print a vaccine specifically for us.

Dodgeball Round Robin

Attention all Year 7 and 8 students! A Dodgeball Competition is starting with your names written all over it. Get your fellow students into gear and represent your form group Term 3 in a month long Dodgeball Tournament. It will be form group against form group with the top teams from the Year 7s and the Year 8s playing off for the grand prize: a sensational sugary surprise.

Keep your eye on the dates and make sure you get your whole class there on time: 1:00pm sharp each Monday and Tuesday. Mr McKenzie (Monday) and Ms Hogg (Tuesday) will be running these events so see them if you need to ask any questions about the rules.

ROUND ROBIN

WEEK 1 - Monday 10th July = 7A versus 7B Tuesday 11th July = 7C versus 7A

WEEK 2 - Monday 17th July = 7C versus 7B Tuesday 18th July = 8A versus 8B

WEEK 3 - Monday 24th July = 8C versus 8A Tuesday 25th July = 8B versus 8D

WEEK 4 - Monday 31st July = 8D versus 8A Tuesday 1st August = 8D versus 8C

WEEK 5 - Monday 7th August = 8C versus 8B

Tuesday 8th August = Year 7 champions play off

WEEK 6 - Monday 14th August = Year 8 champions play off

Tuesday 15th August = Year 7 versus Year 8 Grandfinal!

UNO champions

After an intense series of lunchtime games of UNO this term, we have a tie in the championship. The joint winners are Mylee Williames and Olivia McGrath. Well done girls. If you come to the library at recess tomorrow (Friday) you can collect your prize. We will run another championship next term.

Semester One Reports

Dear Parents, Guardians, Caregivers, and Students, Semester One Reports are now available on Compass. If you have any questions regarding these, please feel free to email the teacher directly, or contact the front office.

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