Year Seven

Food Technology 

The students have been busy in Food Technology sessions discovering new recipes, and for some of the students, it has been the first time that they have tried the dishes that they have prepared and cooked. The students have also gained more understanding of food safety and personal hygiene and put this into practice during the classes.

Over the last month, students have been busy developing knife skills, having lots of opportunities to prepare vegetables for their risotto. They have also been using the stove top to prepare and to cook their risotto, which has introduced them to sauté and the absorption method of cooking rice. It was great to see the success of their risotto and from their reflection they said they thought their risotto was very tasty, and a few were even going to cook it again for their families.

We have also made some sweets, which have included biscuits and baked cinnamon doughnuts. The students learnt the importance of preheating an oven and measuring for accuracy to get the best results. Over the next sessions, the student will be beginning an inquiry into rice paper rolls.

Financial Literacy

Over the last month, the students continued to expand their knowledge of Financial Literacy as we discussed two topics that are of great importance to many Australian families: mortgage and housing affordability. Buying a home is a significant financial decision that many of us will make in our lifetime. However, housing affordability has recently become a major issue in Australia, particularly in major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne. 

Following our discussion with mortgage and housing affordability, we also discussed the property options available and the long-term financial implications of taking out a mortgage. Year Seven students have further developed their critical thinking and information literacy skills as they researched the cost of mortgage repayments when compared to wages of their potential future employment opportunities. They have explored that the high cost of housing can make it difficult for many families to enter the property market and can have a significant impact on household finances. They also critically analysed the benefits of renting compared to owning a home. Here are some student reflections and their financial decision-making analysis from Financial Literacy so far from Term One: 

Nimrat Saini

Yoshimi Koizumi

Arian Ray

Robotics and Coding

Students have been steadily building their Python coding skills, working on if statements, labels, goto loops and screen effects. As we come to the final weeks of term, students are applying what they have learnt in their text-based adventure game projects. On a theme of their choice, students create an interactive game with multiple possible endings. They consider user interface design, graphics, visual appeal, and use their imagination to create an original storyline. It is exciting to see students developing their projects, testing their ideas, debugging and refining their work. 

Wood Technology 

Over the course of the Term, Year Seven students have been busy working their way through the various stages of the Design Cycle and creating their designed solution the “Cerberus Lamp”. Students were provided a design brief which outlined the need for the lamp, some constraints and considerations when building the lamp, and other background information to build the solution. 

With this information they then began using their knowledge of Safe Operating Procedures of various hand tools to create their lamp. 

In the remaining weeks of the Term, the Year Seven's will complete their lamp and evaluate their progress in order to identify their strengths and areas of improvement if they were to complete the project again. 

Visual Art

Students have recently finalised their Explosion Book exemplifying their knowledge of the Art Elements and Principles.  They demonstrated they were risk takers in attempting to use a variety of mediums to create their artefact.  This knoweldge will be used in their upcoming portraiture unit when students will have the choice in the materials they utilise for their final product.  Students were able to reflect on the rubric we unpacked at the beginning of the unit and conferenced with myself to decide how their learning proceeded and what goals they would set for their next unit of inquiry.  

Drama

Following their investigation of the Twelve Elements of Drama, students began their exploration of Shakespeare through the story of MacBeth. 

In order to read the play we firstly needed to understand the story. We did this is in two ways. Firstly, we viewed a modern-day translation summary and then once students understood the significant events throughout each act, we then examined key quotes from the play that are written in verse. Observations were made about how much meaning and emotion there is contained in Shakespeare’s traditional language and then how much more explanation it took to say the same thing in modern language with as much depth. 

We then began our scene work with students breaking off into smaller groups to recite different scenes from the play. Students will work towards learning these scenes off by heart and then performing them in class as part of their end of subject assessment.