Middle School Report

Welcome back to all Middle School students! It has been a positive and exciting start back to Term 3, and is going to be a jam packed and engaging term for the students! This term has started off with Year 7 Go Climb excursions, interactive Humanities incursions, the start of the Year 9 City Experience and in a few weeks the Year 8 ice skating excursion. It was really exciting to hear the feedback from the Year 7 students and teachers about the Go Climb excursion, the participation from our students and the encouragement shown towards each other to scale the rock climbing walls. I am really looking forward to hearing about the students experience in year 8 and 9.

Just a reminder that winter school uniform is to be worn in term 3. Hoodies and leggings are banned items and should not be worn to school. If students are cold a plain white or black long sleeve top (with no logos) can be worn. A focus for the Middle school team this term will be student attendance. It is vital that students are attending school to benefit their learning and feel connected to their peers and the college. If your child is away please log their absence on Compass.

I would like to welcome Hassan Mansour to the Middle School team as the Year 8 Coordinator. Below is a reminder of the Middle School team, if you have any concerns or questions contact the following leaders:

Year 7: Elise Westphalen, Lucy Gardner and Kaitlyn Wakartschuk
Year 8: Rachael Salter and Hassan Mansour
Year 9: Michael Agosta and Jarrod McDonald

Thank you,
Belinda McKenzie
(Acting Middle School Assistant Principal)

Year 7:
Welcome back to all our wonderful year 7s! Its been great to see so many of you showing our school values by giving all learning a go in class, trying new subjects and wearing our full winter uniform. Students this semester have swapped their specialist subjects, moving from ceramics and digital technology to music and drama (or vice versa). It has been exciting to see our students feeling so positive about our new subjects and giving all their learning their best efforts!

Congratulations also to our year 7 students who attended Go Climb on Tuesday and Wednesday. We had a fantastic day having a go at mini golf and rock climbing. All students had a great go at challenging themselves and trying something new! Students supported one another and really focused on teamwork to encourage each other to attempt the challenging rock climbing walls!

In week 2, students also attended a Wanyara storytelling incursion for Humanities, as part of their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture and Peoples unit. Students learned about Aboriginal histories and our local culture, learning about artefacts such as didgeridoos and possum skins. Students were respectful and engaged learners and we were very grateful for the opportunity to learn about the history of our local area

This term we are focusing on our attendance across all year 7 classes. We have introduced a year 7 attendance competition and are keeping track of all 'lates' across the year level. The class with the least number of lates each week wins a prize, such as jelly 'frog in the pond' or ice cream sundaes in the Food room. Congratulations to the following classes who have won our attendance competition so far:
Term 2 Week 8: 7J
Term 2 Week 9: 7F
Term 3 Week 1: 7D
Term 3 Week 2: 7D and 7F

We are also running an individual competition for students with 100% attendance. At the end of week 5, students with 100% attendance will be invited to a pizza lunch. We will then monitor attendance until the end of term and run another pizza lunch for students with 100% attendance at the end of term. Every day is important for our learning and we are excited to reward students for their excellent attendance!

Year 8:
Welcome back! It is wonderful to see so many year 8 students showing the “Respect All” school value by wearing the correct uniform. Students should not be wearing hoodies or any non-school items.

Many students have also continued to demonstrate the college's value of “Embrace Learning” by attending classes with the correct materials for learning.
The following students are currently leading the year 8 house points. House points are given by staff members as a way to recognise the positive behavior and/or influence students have on others by reflecting the school values.
Fabian Ciez
Ayana Bhalla
Vivan Shah
Leilani Tauiliili
Kevin Thai
Congratulations to these students for being recognised for showing the school values every week! Keep up the great work!
Everyday at school counts and helps with learning, building confidence, creating strong friendships and a sense of connectedness with the school community.
Congratulations to the following students who had 100% attendance for term 2, this is an amazing achievement.
8A: Ahmed Abbas, Kaavya Chahal, Fabian Diez, Valentino Rossignoli, Navik Senaratine
8B: Mohamed Akil, Zion Christian, Bhargavi Kanagaraj
8C:Thomas bondor, Harith Farhan, Seemal KC, Roan Thomas, Anthony Vazourakis
8E: Manjot Singh, Nicholas Vazourakis, Lehar Kumar
8F: VIvan Shah, Sean Sharma
8I: Sara Chandra, Iesha Das, Ryan Jolly, Aaron Nieves, Jason Stojanovski
8J: Ayana Bhalla, Alexander Naumovski

Congratulations to the following students who have 100% for the whole year!
8A: Fabian Diez, Navik Senaratine, Valentino Rossignoli
8B: Mohamed Akil
8C: Anthony Vazourakis, Harith Farhah, Seemal KC, Thomas Bondor
8E: Vivan Shah, Nicholas Vazourakis
8F: Sean Sharma
8G: Aadi Mahajan, Christian Vazourakis

Last term students who achieved 90% or more attendance were invited to enjoy a treat where they built their own ice cream sundaes. The feedback from students was very positive and I will be looking at offering a similar reward at the end of this term to acknowledge all the students who continue to come to school each day.

This term we have a lot on offer for the students.
Weekly clubs on offer include:
Art club, textiles club, games clubs, breakfast club, writers & readers club, maths club, science club, dungeons & dragons club

We have already had some guest speakers to visit the year 8’s. These include the Victoria Police who came and presented information about about appropriate behaviors and the laws relating verbal and physical assault. Guy from the Victorian Police came on Friday 14th July and chatted to the year 8 cohort about what assault is and the impact it has on the community as well as the long term effects it has on the community, victims and perpetrators. On Monday 17th July we had Dom come and present information about an individual's “digital thumbprint” when using apps (snapchat, instagram etc) and how to manage their content safely.

This term we have some excursions and incursions planned including Ice Skating and a visit from the Islamic Museum.

The year 8 students will have the opportunity to start selecting their subjects. In 2024 year 8 students will do electives that they have selected. We are lucky at ECSC to have such a wide range of subject selections on offer.

A big congratulations is due for the year 8 boys and girls soccer team that played inter school sports in term 2. Both teams played very well, showed the school value of ‘Respect All’ and made it through to regional competition which will occur in August. We wish all players good luck and no matter the result the achievement to make it to the regional sports is excellent.

I would like to introduce Hassan Mansour to the Middle School team. Hassan will be the year 8 coordinator for the remainder of the year. Hassan teaches maths across a number of year levels.

Year 9:

Well done to all year 9's on a successful Term 2 and an overall very positive first semester of the year. This semester included many highlights such as: Interschool Sport, Soccer Academy, Morrisby Testing, World Cup Tournament on the oval, Cultural Diversity Day, The Man Cave incursion and Forensic Science excursions.

Both Jarrod McDonald and myself are excited to continue working with the year 9 students as they begin semester 2 with new selective subjects and exciting events and activities to participate in. Leadership will be continuing to focus on attendance, correct uniform and also providing our students with an engaging year 9 program.

Year 9 students will be completing subject selections for 2024 between Friday July 21st and Friday July 28th. Students should have received an email with a WebCode to access subject selection. Students and families can access the subject selection handbook via the Edgars Creek website and can speak to Michael, Jarrod or their teachers if they have any questions.

During term 3 students will be required to wear the winter uniform. Please encourage your children to attend school in the correct uniform. A reminder that the PE uniform is only to be worn on days where our students have a practical PE class. Students wearing non-school items will receive a consequence.

We have a lot in store for year 9 students in term 3 with City Experience beginning in week 3 & 4 for all year 9 students. Students will participate in rock climbing, bowling and laser tag. Students will have lunch in Melbourne Central before returning to Epping station by 3:20pm.

We have also organised a PlayStation 4 FIFA competition that will run during lunchtimes as well as the year 9 soccer program continuing throughout term 3 on a Friday, which allows the students to participate in a professional training program. Our soccer academy program will run each Friday morning for selected students to improve on key skills and characteristics.

We look forward to working with you and the students as we begin to think about year 10 2024 subject selection and preparing students for their chosen learning pathways.