Year Eight 

Spanish

Recently in Spanish we have been using Gianfranco Conti's Language Gym to support our Spanish language learning. We have been revising past topics through the skills of reading, writing, vocabulary building, and listening.

Students have also started building their Spanish speaking portfolio that they will be adding to throughout the year to document their progress. Explicitly teaching letter sounds and phonetics will help students to improve their pronunciation and fluency when speaking Spanish. This is a skill that we will be dedicating time and effort to improving throughout this year.

Last week we started work on the verbs 'ser' and 'estar'. Both verbs mean 'to be' but deciding when to use one or the other depends on context. Students have been using the acronyms DOCTOR and PLACE to help them remember the rules for when to use 'ser' and when to use 'estar'. These are both high-frequency verbs and we will be using them when we learn how to describe the physical appearance of a person in the upcoming weeks.

Science

All Year Eight's have successfully managed to obtain their Bunsen Burner Licences and have learnt all safety aspects of working in the Laboratory.  Our Eight Aces class designed their own experiment on dissolving time of sugar. They were able to decide what type of sugar they used, what solution they were going to use and also the temperature of their solution. Their results were interesting. 

We have now moved onto our Chemistry unit, where we will be investigating the states of matter, elements, compounds and mixtures, then moving onto chemical and physical changes. 

Make sure that you check out their class Schoolbox pages so you can see what they are doing in class. 

English

Our excellent Year Eight's have begun their first Novel study  of 2023-

 The Simple Gift, written by  Steven Herrick -  an award winning Australian Author.  This text is written in free verse and addresses real world subjects that our pre-teens experience - developing independence, love, friendship, and family.  Australian poet Les Murray famously wrote "Good friends are family that you get to choose" and this novel affirms that sentiment, as our Year Eight's strengthen their connection to our school community they lead.  Already, the early discussions our students are having about the themes in this text are mature and insightful.  We hope families talk about this novel with the students, so they can appreciate the hard work our students are doing and the skills they are developing as critical readers and writers.  

Humanities 

In Year Eight Humanities, students have continued to explore Landscapes and Landforms as part of our Geography unit. 

Students have investigated Rainforests, Deserts and Mountain Ranges (to name a few) and continue to evaluate these landscapes using SPICES (Space, Place, Interconnection, Change, Environment and Scale). They have looked at sustainability initiatives at a local, national and global level and some even proposed their own! 

Each lesson, we discuss the impact of humans on landscapes and how this has altered these environments for both better and worse. We have spent time considering global proposals, such as putting solar panels in the Sahara, which would supply the world with four times its current electricity needs, and have begun to recognise that there is no easy solution to the very complicated issue of human versus environmental needs.

Mathematics

The Year Eight Mathematics students have been diving into the world of index laws. Laws of indices are an important topic in algebra and is the foundation for more advanced concepts like logarithms and calculus. It helps students simplify expressions, make them easier to work with, and solve equations more efficiently. 

Over the past few weeks, our students have explored the four index laws including Product Law, Quotient Law, Power Law and Zero Law. Students have engaged in various activities that challenged them to think critically and apply their understanding of index laws in different contexts. By applying these index laws, students can simplify complex expressions like (x^2y^3z^4)^2/(xy^2)^3 into a much simpler form. 

We also understand that these concepts can be challenging and may require more practice and reinforcement. As we have completed the units on integers and index laws, students will be taking a post-test on Essential Assessment to demonstrate their understanding of the topic and help identify areas where they may need additional support. After that, we will be moving onto Probability.

Health and Physical Education

The Year Eight Students have been furthering their skills in Athletics over the last couple of weeks. They have looked at key techniques used when participating in Relay Running and Hurdle Jumping. The aim was to develop their communication and teamwork skills. We also focused on High Jump, developing their ability to take off on one leg and successfully jump over the bar. All students gave it their best and were very engaged in trying to get the best possible score.

For Health, Students have been developing their knowledge in Nutrition. Students have been looking at what influences our food choices. Students have looked at how culture, advertisements, cost and social influences effect our ability to make decision on food. Students have been analysing how what the outcome will be if the influences lead to poor food choices.

Student achievements

Congratulations to our students that are continuing to strive for excellence in their learning and extra-curricular activities. 

This week we would like to extend our congratulations to Dom, Elliott, Vanessa, and Angie for being selected as the 2023 College Swimming team Captains. We are proud of your efforts and look forward to hearing of yours achievements and that of the swim team you are leading.

We would also like to congratulate Ashlea Tan who has been selected to be part of the Australian Optimist Sailing Team (AOST) and to represent Australia at the 2023 African Optimist Championship in Morocco. She will be competing with the Australian team for two weeks from the end of April to mid May this year. To be selected Ashlea was required to complete in a tournament where she placed in the top 10 girls of Australia in this Sailing class.

We are extremely proud of your efforts Ashlea and your Saltwater peers, teachers, and school community will be cheering you on while you compete in Morocco.