Junior School

We as a school are very aware that the wintery autumn has brought upon numerous health challenges that have affected students' capacity to be present at school and engaged in learning. Certainly, within my family it feels like we have had a continuous flow of runny noses, coughs, blocked sinuses through our children. 

It has been a fatiguing effort as a parent to support, encourage, and convince my children that following up on school work missed through reaching out to teachers in person or via MS teams is worthwhile for their long-term physical and mental health, their long-term job prospects as well as their sense of achievement and success in life. However, I want to cheer on and thank the parents and carers in this DSC community that are facing this same challenge.  

We know that attendance at school leads to greater outcomes for students (as above) and we also know that when students are unable to be at school due to illness; the following up of work missed via lesson plans on Compass or talking with teachers contributes greatly to a successful return to school and the path to a thriving and resilient life.  

If you or your family have concerns and challenges in attending school or following up on work missed during this important term of learning then please reach out to your Discovery teacher, Year Level Coordinator or other Junior School Staff.   

Drew Hanna

Health & PE Teacher

Year 7 Positive Climate & Community Engagement 

Learning Task Catch Up

At Doncaster Secondary College all students are expected to submit all set learning tasks. These learning tasks provide students with the opportunity to consolidate and demonstrate the knowledge and skills learnt in class, as well as enabling the student to develop sound study habits. If learning tasks are not completed and submitted on time it will impact on your child's progress, reports and readiness for future learning. 

Recently we are running extra learning catch-up sessions for any student who has not submitted their work on time. This is to help our Junior School students catch up on any work missed, with a teacher there to help too.

Junior School Reading and Book Swap Nook

The Junior School Team has set up a ‘Quiet Reading Space’ in the upper area of W-Block. This is available at Recess and Lunch and provides students with an area that they can select a book from the collection and read!

Additionally, the collection of books are available to take home! Similar to a ‘Street Library’, students can take a book, but can also leave a book for someone else to read! 

So pop in!!

Kirk Dunn

Junior School Literacy Leader

Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal

In Year 8 at Doncaster Secondary College, we are to complete this project called BHAG. BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal. This project is about setting goals for our community’s interest. For our BHAG, we have chosen to share science experiments with the Year 6’s at Doncaster Primary School.

At Doncaster Primary School, there was never the opportunity to participate in science-themed tasks. We decided to organise a program where we’d go to Doncaster Primary School and share experiments with the students. We did the ‘Erupting Volcano’ experiment. We talked through the process of how to do the experiments.

The first time we went, we handed permission slips to the class and informed them about the program. The second time was when we conducted the experiment with the students. A big part of this program was to communicate with the teachers at both Doncaster Secondary College and Doncaster Primary school to organize this. We had to email Mrs Corfios (teacher at DPS) to get permission to conduct an incursion at DPS, while getting access to materials that from DSC that we did not have access to. We went to Westfield and got the rest of the supplies that were needed.

Budget - $20

2x White vinegar 2L (4L in total)-$1.70

Woolworths essentials Baking Soda-$2.45

Woolworths Spring Water-$5.50

Wooden Spoons-$4.50

Shine Ultra dishing liquid-$1.90

Woolworth essentials Paper White Cups-$5.50

Latex Balloons Pastel Assorted Colour-$2.50

Total: $25.75

The highlight of this program is that we have successfully conducted our experiment. We had great fun experience with the Year 6 students. Something that we could have had better preparation for was our amount of paper towels, since we did not have the correct amount to accommodate the exploding volcano experiment. 

The class was engaged for majority of the program. Overall, this excursion for us gave a lot of feedback in what we need to prepare and do next time to have a smooth-running program for the future.

- Elysahvet and Helen 8G

What a good recipe can bring out of students?

During the week of Mother’s Day, students of 7A each cooked a Fluffy Omelette during their Food Technology lesson.  Students were informed that this cooking task would be in preparation for Mother’s Day, 

Students happily took this task on board and gave it their best shot! At the end of the lesson, I was really amazed by the outstanding omelettes produced by all members of 7A! 

After Mother’s Day, I received endless amounts of positive feedback from parents enlightening me of the pride they felt towards their children and the resulting happiness from such a heartfelt present. 

Ms Ning Zhang

Food Technology Teacher

Year 8 Art

Check out some of the work coming out of Year 8 Art this week. Students were introduced to the human face and asked to draw their partners portrait using line. Can you recognise the students in these portraits??