Year 7 News 

Year 7 Belong Project

THE HUMANS OF MAFFRA EXHIBIT AND THE YEAR 7 WRITERS FESTIVAL

Over the past semester Year 7 students have been learning about belonging, community and connections in their Learning to Learn classes. The Year 7 students were involved in a whole day event which investigated belonging. A group of volunteers from the B'nai B'rith Organisation presented the Courage to Care exhibit, where students heard about the stories of upstanders during the Holocaust. On the same day they investigated their own sense of belonging and wrote their memoire about how they feel and connect in their own community. By the end of the day we had 104 stories of Belonging.

Students then spent time learning about how to interview and ask a variety of open and closed questions to prepare themselves for interviewing local community members. They then chose a member of our community to interview about their sense of belonging. Unfortunately not all students were able to place an entry in the final “Humans of Maffra Exhibit” but we did have a variety of members of our community participate. We want to thank the community members who were involved, many of whom came to the College for a considerable time to work with our Year 7 students.

The Humans of Maffra Exhibit displayed the stories of people of our community. Videos of the interviews were edited and put on display and many parents and students, as well as the community members who were involved, participated. We want to thank those involved for volunteering their time and agreeing to be a part of the project.

The Year 7 Maffra Writers Festival saw many non-fiction and fiction pieces entered for judging. We had a large array of stories to read and judges were made up of both staff (teaching and non-teaching) as well as student judges. Thanks to all those judges who read multiple articles over their weekend. Congratulations to those students who entered and who won an award. Some brave students stood up and decided to read parts of their stories to an audience. Well done to those brave students who stepped out of their comfort zone to do this.

Thanks to Nicole Heber for organising the Writers Festival and to the judges and particular mention to Shane Jacobs for supporting the festival and going above and beyond for our students.                                                                           HUMANS OF MAFFRA Contributors

        Courage to care volunteers with some of our Year 7 students.

Zoo Excursion

In November 2019, the Year 7 students went to the Zoo to learn about endangered species and what they can do to help protect them. The excursion was a part of the Victorian Fighting Extinction Schools Program 2019, and involved Monash University researchers investigating how they can better inform students, schools and teachers about the extinction of species on our planet and to support students to drive action-based conservation campaigns within their own school and local community.

Students were involved in an Education Workshop which connected students to the world’s most unique wildlife and engages them in the issues confronting wildlife conservation today. They heard about local Australian threatened species such as the Baw Baw Frog, the Lord Howe Stick Insect, the Australian fur seal and the Little Penguin. They also learnt about international species under threat such as the Asian elephant, the Orang-utan, the Snow Leopard, the Gorilla and the Phillipine Crocodile. Students were asked to pledge to learn more about the reasons why these species are under threat and to take action in their own way to support these species. This excursion contributed to the learning in their Year 7 science classes as the students undertook a unit of learning about ecosystems and classification.

Highlights of the day were the lions, the butterfly room, and the elephants. The Year 7s showed exemplary behaviour on the trip and it was a fantastic learning opportunity. Thanks to the students, staff and parents who attended.