RECONNECT REFLECTIONS

It was wonderful to welcome back our Year 8, 9 and 10 students this week, friends were reunited and ready to learn onsite again! Our student managers have put together a terrific program (Reconnect) to help students reconnect with their peers, get active and settle back into school again.  

Student responses:

In our first lesson of Reconnect last week, we were able to, as the name suggests, reconnect with others in year seven. We played a series of fun games like Pictionary and quizzes, that required teamwork and cooperation, and had discussions within our class about our experiences with online learning. At the start of the lesson, everyone was a bit disconnected from each other, and rarely putting themselves out there and trying to add to the discussion, but as people started to contribute and help the discussions grow everyone settled back in. Reconnect was a great way to settle into school from a very unprecedented time, and I believe it helped not just me, but countless other year sevens to settle back into school.

Malachy, Year 7

While learning from home, the students had difficulties with attending school online, but more so their social life was also restricted. Students were unable to spend time with their friends as they normally would during lockdown. As we are now able to come back to school, the teachers organized a program called ‘Reconnection’ to give students a chance to reconnect with each other and have fun in our classes. I believe that the reconnection classes are a huge success as it gives us a chance to talk to our peers again, after a time difficult to socialize. My Reconnection class experienced a highly enjoyable class spending time with our friends by completing fun quizzes, cooperating in a team to build Lego cars and simply talking to each other, which we had missed out on for a very long period of time. Having a set class called Reconnection encouraged us to start socializing as we used to and I am looking forward to the next Reconnection class this week. 

Monika, Year 7

I got to experience the new program put in place by the school which is called the Reconnect. There are many different activities to do each week and this week my class got to do Basketball. It was great to meet many new people and also socialise with students. It was a lot of fun and a great way for students like myself to be able to relax and have some fun back at school.

Gavi, Year 8

Reconnect was a refreshing way to get back into the flow of things and interact in a fun way with some peers. It also gave you a chance to relax and relieve stress whilst finally returning in our first week of school.

Blake, Year 9

Our first week back to school, after a very long period of remote learning, we had our first session of Reconnect. Reconnect is a program designed to reintroduce students back into their school lifestyle. Today we did some speed dating and a signature worksheet, where we went around in our class asking questions trying to find someone who hadn’t broken a bone, or supports a certain footy team and then during the speed dating we asked questions like “What’s on your bucket list?” or “If you were a ghost for a day, where would you go, or who would you haunt?” Although these questions may be simple it’s a good way to reintroduce ourselves to each other, and our classmates. I’m looking forward to future lessons of reconnect and the other activities we are going to do.

Flynn, Year 10

This year Reconnect served as an opportunity to reunify our year level using fun and engaging activities. Being able to interact with peers discuss personal stresses in an informal environment allowed us to engage with our year level on a deeper level. On Thursday 15th October, each class participated in a Kahoot based on current events, this included topics like sports, general knowledge, COVID related and some questions specific to year 11s.

However, while Reconnect was an opportunity to engage socially it also served as a learning tool. On Thursday 22nd October we discussed exam preparations and focused on tips for success. We believe that reconnect has been a useful initiative especially considering the current circumstances, to not only maintain the community aspect of our year level but in preparation for our final year at Brighton Secondary College. 

Issy, Emma, Kiyara and Cass- Year 11