A Step Back in Time; Year Sevens go to Melbourne Museum and NGV

Over a period of two weeks, all Year 7s went to visit Melbourne Museum and the NGV. We learnt about Ancient Civilisations, including indigenous Australians as well as the history of Melbourne.

In the museum, we had a presentation about ‘A load of old rubbish’, showing, living conditions and health issues in the late 1800’s. We got to inspect artefacts and it was fun to try and figure out what they were. Some were full pieces while others were only fragments of the original item. From these items we could somewhat learn how the people lived.

Did you know that Melbourne was nicknamed ‘Smelbourne’? This is because it was not very clean and had little money to keep it neat. It was interesting to find out what happened to the houses and buildings such as Little Lonsdale St. We saw pictures from what the street looked like and how it has changed today. For a better visual aide there were two lifelike models of the houses for us to explore.

It was surprising that there were so many indigenous languages in Victoria and we even got to hear them all at the ‘First People’s’ exhibition, also at the museum. Their history and culture is fascinating.

After getting lunch from Melbourne Central, we then went to the NGV. Here we learnt about Ancient Civilisations and artefacts from around the world. We delved deeper into this topic by doing sketching, discovering, and describing artefacts.

Overall, this excursion was a great educational experience. We enjoyed taking a break from learning in the classroom and hearing from some experts in the museum!

Mia Rose

7M2

Verbal Combat Incursion

Every Year Seven crowded into the Lyceum space. Everyone was whispering and chatting to their friends about their expectations for the performance that was about to be shown. All of a sudden, it began, and everyone stopped talking. All at once, music began to play and the Lyceum was brought to life with music and singing.

The production was about cyber safety, and was based on a true story. It began with the voices of two characters, showing where everyone sat at lunchtime, and which people sat in which groups in a certain area of the school. It was set in the yard of a high school, with two kids, chatting about their lives online. They gossiped about all the new photos they had been tagged in, and the new videos and rumours that were floating around the web. These students were named Rocky and Gabrielle.

The scene changed and in walked a new girl, who has just started at the school, looking worried and lost, and clutching a small, black book. From then on, the play progressed into a swirl of rumours, people gossiping, and trying to be somebody else. Nobody was sure who to believe, or who to stand up for.

The performance taught everyone about how to be safe online, and it was all about being yourself and not living in someone else’s shadow. It was an amazing performance and all the Year Sevens were engaged and laughing along to the jokes, giggles bouncing off the walls and roof.

By Amy Deller 7L2

Photographs taken by Evie Ball 7L2

Social World

Last term in Social World, the year 7’s were given the task of public speaking. We had to write, then read out to our class, about a topic we were passionate about. In my class, people wrote their articles on fashion, North Korea, eating eggs and exercising. Before we started the public speaking bit, we all watched a video on stage fright, to help us calm our nerves. It made a lot of people more scared though. We then all read out our speeches, and the best speaker with the best topic in each class had to read it out to the whole year level; in my class, Darby was the best speaker. After all the best speakers read out their speech, the best one was picked out, which was … in class …

This term, we have just finished our topic, which was the book Skellig. We first had to read the book, then write an essay answering a question of our choosing that related to the book.

We have now started a new topic; history. We are working on historical thinking skills, such as analysing causes and consequences that were made in the past and lead on to being famous history; looking at the perspectives of different people in times of importance and significance; and establishing historical significance, because when the internet was first introduced, there wasn’t as much ‘buzz’ about it as there is now and it is an important part of our lives, but back in the 1980s, when it was first created, it was not seen as an important time in history.

Throughout this year we also have the task of making our journal. Our journals are personalised diaries. We write ‘diary entries’ in them, and our teacher gives us questions of deeper thinking, or personal questions that we have to answer. The questions include topics such as politics, belief, religion and more. As a class, we then have to discuss what we have all written.

Social World is a fun place, where we incorporate learning with fun.

Lily - Rose Campbell

7R1

Illustration by Baowen Jiang 7R2

Cross Country

On May 31st the cross-country team woke to a beautiful day, cool yet sunny, perfect for running. The team met in the cafeteria and took a school bus to Princes Park, where we would be running. The track was three kilometres around the park. The track consisted of gravel and concrete and was very wet, so our sports uniform got muddy and dirty. Despite the mud it was an amazing place to run and we were very lucky to have the opportunity to run cross country there. As Victoria Trentin, one of the cross country team said, “It was a lovey day to be running and a great course to run on.” Like her, I thought it was a fabulous experience.

Everyone did so well, we all tried our hardest and I am very proud to say I am part of the MGC team. The teamwork we all showed was amazing and the results reflected this. Out of the 49 students that attended, 37 of us made it through to regionals. In the girls 13 event Bethany Zmak came in first, with Victoria Trentin second and Charlotte Bourke third. Alessia Acquuaro came third in the girls 14 and Sunshine Spencer easily won the girls 15 event with Amelie Kean second. In the girls 16 event MGC got another clean sweep with Emily Cumming first, Venezia Naylor second and Florence Webb third.

We would not have been able to do it without the help of Mr. Clarke, Ms Tellefson and the student helpers. Special thanks to Mr. Clarke for organising the training, taking time out of his own lunch time to help us.

Maidie Spark

7M2

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