Year 7

What a surreal experience we all find ourselves in. If people had told me I would be teaching remotely for part of this year, I would not have believed them. However, here we are, all doing the very best we can with what we have. We have all been on a very fast learning curve and I wish to thank the Year 7 students for their continued enthusiasm, persistence and efforts. It really is a joy to teach these girls, and whilst we miss the every day contact very much, we appreciate the opportunities we do have to come together to learn, share, laugh and work.  

Year 7 staff also appreciate the strong support, encouragement and appreciation we have been receiving from parents/carers. We do love our jobs and your support as we up skill our technological capacity has been motivating. 

In Wellbeing Wednesday this week, the class captains from each room had an opportunity to show leadership in our Year 7 Assembly. Our Class Captains are Alexandra Ferraro and Elysia Gilmour (Room 70), Annabelle Chapman and Charlotte Maclean (Room 71), Amelia Presnell and Alyce Jurdukian (Room 72), Aysha Nayna and Shelby Christopher (Room 73),  Evie Rousell and Elisa Humphrey (Room 74) and Casey de Kock and Kasia Salasinski (Room 75). The girls prepared slides to share with the year level involving their ideas of how to cope with remote learning and how to make the most of this time. They are to be congratulated for the outstanding work they shared. Below is a sample of the wonderful slides prepared by Evie Roussel and Elisa Humphrey (Room 70).

Congratulations to both Charlotte Maclean  and Annabelle Chapman, who have entered writing competitions during the past week. Annabelle entered the Australian Young Writers Creative Writing competition collaborating with the Mental Health Foundation Australia. The theme was ‘Mental Health Matters’. Annabelle wrote a very powerful, engaging and articulate story, entitled ‘A Song for Elodie’, which you can read below. 

Best wishes with your entry, Annabelle! Keep writing, you have a gift! 

Charlotte Maclean wrote a powerful, confident and resonant piece for the ‘What Matters?’ competition. You too have a strong voice and gift for writing, Charlotte! Keep going. Here is Charlotte's piece. 

What Matters? 

What matters? What really, truly matters? It's different to everyone, but what matters to me is the environmental future of our earth. The earth is the soul of our very existence, yet here we are faced with the fact that our earth is on the verge of self destruction. 

Every second, 2.57 million pounds of carbon dioxide is emitted into the air. When this greenhouse gas rises into the air the atmosphere warms up. The long term effect of this is long droughts, frequent flash flooding and erosion; not to mention the rate that our glaciers are melting. 

 Every year, 395 billion tons of ice melt. It's predicted that in just 23 years the Arctic could be ice free. This means rising seas and less land for people to live on and grow agriculture on. There are 7.594 billion people on earth and 250 babies born a minute. Our species is constantly growing and the world might not be able to hold the future population. 

It's not just the human race we should be worried about, think of the hundreds of species that could die due to the sparsity of snow and ice. Snowy owls, Puffins, Reindeer and Arctic Hares all rely on cold climates for survival. More than 1 million species will face extinction at the effects of climate change. Today's disregard and ignorance is tomorrow's death and extinction.  

In 2018 the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted that just by 2030 the effects of climate change will be irreversible. This means that if we don’t act now and in the next 10 years, nothing can be done and one day earth will cease to exist. The only way to stop this is to halve the amount of carbon pollution in the next 10 years but even with this factual knowledge we're still heading in the wrong direction. 

Another effect is hurricanes that are harsher and more persistent. In 2017, hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico with the aftermath of about 5,000 people dying. Now imagine that type of hurricane is normal and that thousands more people are dying regularly. Now I don’t know about anyone else but this one thought angers me to the very essence of my existence. It's despicable that so many people could lose their lives because of our ignorance and recklessness. We must continue the fight so they can have a chance at a happy future. Every single person can make a difference and it's our own obligation to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves. The earth is utterly vulnerable and has no chance at existence by itself.  

Our world is dying and only we can make a difference. Now is the time to make a difference, now is the time to save our earth, now is the time to prevent death and destruction. In conclusion I’d like to say what matters to me is the future of my life and billions of others.  

Best wishes for the weeks ahead.

Kath De Bruin

Level Leader: Year 7