Junior School Highlights

Year 7 News

 As we begin a new adventure of online learning together, we couldn't be more proud of the dedication our Year 7s are showing towards their learning. 

Each day we are seeing Year 7 students interacting in their team check ins, kick starting their day with eagerness. 7G is even getting creative with Fun Hat Friday! Students are getting organised and connecting with their peers, making the most out of this new online learning model. 

The Year 7s have been collaborating through video conferencing in their different subject areas, even attending virtual excursions via our Library's virtual tour. We have seen some outstanding examples of students getting involved, especially in Physical Education sharing their innovative movement videos.

We thank all the Year 7 students and especially their families for all the hard work you are all putting in. During this time it is so important to get fresh air and look after our Mental Health. We are here for you every step of the way. We are in this together.

Jess Ballingall and Lou Tsarpalas

Year 7 Coordinators

Year 8 News

A day in the life of remote learning for Harshitha Meenakshisundaram, Year 8.

The day starts by signing in to my team classroom, and filling out the daily-check in. The day is ahead of me, and how am I feeling today? Happy - I tick the little box.

Most periods start by logging into the corresponding classroom and joining any meets that the teachers would like you to. I look down, oops I’m still in my jammies! Since we are still going to school, it is important to respect the learning environment, starting with a dress code.

Staying motivated to do work can be difficult in these times, but there are two things that can remind you to stay on task. Firstly, it is seeing your friends’ faces in virtual classroom meets, and secondly, it is the words DUE DATE flashing two metres high in front of your face. The happiness of seeing real people combined with the imminent panic that the work is due should be enough to power you along.

Coping with remote learning can seem hard, but it is important to remember that it’s just school, with the added benefits of food anytime and more breaks than usual. I find remote learning an interesting challenge, and although it can be hard to adjust to a completely online environment, I’ll get there in the end. If you stay on task and have enough time away from your screens, I guarantee that you’ll get all the work done and still have some time for fun!

Stay safe, stay home and we’ll be all back at school in no-time!

Harshitha Meenakshisundaram

Year 8

Hi Year 9s!

We’d just like to say well done to you all on showing a lot of maturity and self motivation during this challenging time for learning. It is a difficult time for everyone and you have conducted yourselves really well.

A couple of things that you need to make sure you are doing:

• Check in at 9AM every morning for Team by signing the google form for attendance.
• You must check Gmail every morning and especially before each class as some posts are scheduled so will not appear early.
• You must go to all your classes as per your Timetable, particularly when you have a video lesson. This means Google Classroom when you have that lesson on your timetable.
• Communicate with your teachers if you are struggling, or if you feel like you need more work to do!
• Make sure you are familiar with the GEC behaviour policy for learning online (that is in this newsletter as well).
• You all should be able to log into your XUNO account with your student ID (not gmail) as some of you have sent us inquiries that you don’t know how to do so. You can see your new timetable and other information.
• How to use XUNO - A video is posted on your Year 9 Google classroom.

Your next progress reports are coming up soon, and it’s really important that you are engaged with school so us teachers know that you’re here and learning!

Finally, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact us by email, we are happy to spend our time making your lives easier. At the moment it’s not just about learning, it’s about enjoying life as much as you can – and how school might be able to help you.

Parminder Kaur and Jake Sherman

Year 9 Coordinators