Building collaboration and community at Years 7&8

An active and engaged Junior School

With only a week or so until the end of the term, we are provided a great opportunity to reflect many of the exciting events that have presented in the Junior School over the last couple of months.

The term began dramatically as many of our Junior School students took part in the school production, ‘Guys and Dolls’. A fantastic show for the audience and a brilliant experience for the cast and crew. The annual Year 7 Public Speaking competition, debating competitions, numerous sporting events, the ski trip and more continued to keep our students engaged and active members of our community. Our recent Parent, Teacher, Student conferences provided another opportunity to discuss the impressive work happening in classrooms and to explore approaches to further support the progress of all of our students.

As we head in to Term 4, there are many exciting things to look forward to. The Meliora Sequamer Awards are a celebration of the contributions made to our school community by our students. The evening is incredibly positive as we celebrate the efforts of those who continue to make a difference to our school. The Year 7 and 8 Showcase (21st November) is another opportunity to celebrate the work of our students throughout the year, and a highlight on the Term 4 calendar. The evening provides an opportunity to hear about the impressive work taking place in classrooms, the involvement of our students in co-curricular activities and the opportunities and events to look forward to in the year to come.

Gerard O'Shaughnessy

Head of Junior School

Year 8 Philanthropic Project

Over the last few weeks our Year 8 students have been working tirelessly to raise both funds and awareness for Ladder. Ladder is a Collingwood based charity focused on tackling youth homelessness. There is a good chance you’ve seen some of their advertising in conjunction with the AFL Finals. Ladder work closely with AFL clubs and players to bring much needed attention to the plight of young people who are ‘doing it tough’.

Over the space of a week, our Year 8 students held a variety of events to fundraise for this worthy cause. Many students spent hours baking cakes, biscuits and other goodies in preparation for the bake sale. Other students coordinated a hot chocolate stall and others ran a talent show in the Hall. Furthermore, students ran a sporting competition and a giant Kahoot quiz in the library. A ‘guess the number of lollies in the jar’ competition saw staff and students alike engaging in the most clever strategies to reach a suitable guess, while the ‘match the teacher to the baby photo’ was met with all of the ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaaahs’ you’d expect to hear in a maternity wing. A number of retailers and service providers on the High Street in Northcote generously donated products and services that were used as prizes in a raffle.

The efforts and enthusiasm that went in to supporting the work of Ladder and coordinating these events was impressive. Under the guidance of Ms Keane and Mr Barrett, Year 8 Program Leaders, the Year Level Captains (Hannah and Eve) and the class captains, close to $1000 was raised.

The Philanthropic Project each year level engages with continues to build great support for many worthy causes, as well as provides additional opportunities for our students to collaborate, lead projects and build important enterprise skills.

Special thanks to the following retailers on the High Street for their support:

A Quirk of Fate

The Friendship Tree

Salon Duval

Year 8 Cybersafety

Throughout Term 3 our Year 8 students took part in workshops looking at cyber safety. Run by Paul Giddy and Jess Kelly from our Student Services team, students explored a number of strategies to keep themselves safe online. With such unprecedented access to social media and online forums, it is incredibly important that students have a clear understanding of the risks that this access brings. Paul and Jess highlighted the social, emotional and legal ramifications for posting, uploading or sharing images or statements that may cause harm or embarrassment. In addition to exploring the risks, students were also supported in exploring the appropriate ways to respond to concerns that stem from online behaviour. Revisiting cyber safety is incredibly important, many thanks to Paul and Jess for coordinating these sessions.

Some reminders

Our students should be wearing their Summer uniform on their return to school in Term 4. Some of our students have grown tremendously over the last six months, so it is worth ensuring that the uniform still fits like it should. Students will be able to take advantage of a 2 week ‘grace period’ wearing winter uniform if the weather is still particularly chilly or additional uniform items need to be sourced. During Term 4, Junior School classes will continue ‘as normal’ until the final week of school when ‘End of Year Activities’ commence. All equipment and material should continue to be taken to classes until such time.