Middle School Report

Message from the Director of Learning

- Mr. Tom Tahos

Finally, the process of subject selections for 2020 is coming to a close.  Thank you to all students who met the timeline and submitted their online selections. There will be a couple of weeks of follow up interviews to finalise the selections.

Students have returned from a three-day camp, which by all reports was a fantastic experience, more details to follow in our next newsletter.

A reminder to our middle years' school community on the following school expectations:

• Correct school uniform must be worn to and from school.
• Attendance and punctuality is vital.  
• Please communicate with the school if there are reasons your child cannot be at school.
• Attending class with the correct subject materials and completed school work.
• Checking compass and the school email on a daily basis is really important in being aware of what is going on at school.
• Headphones and mobile phones must not be taken to class.

Take care.

Mr. Tom Tahos

Year 9 EAL Excursion -

Immigration Museum

Wild wind, heavy rain and icy-cold temperatures didn’t stop our Year 9 EAL students from making the most of their excursion to the Immigration Museum. Focusing on the theme of identity and belonging, our enthusiastic students explored how ethnicity, ancestry, language and spirituality make up our sense of who we are.  A highlight was the powerful moving images at the entrance of the exhibition, showing how our first impressions are formed and assumed by what is immediately visible to us. Despite coming home soaking wet, the excursion was an awesome adventure.

"This excursion was a great way to learn about identity and belonging. I enjoyed the presentation from our host from Bangladesh the most."       

Luijin Alghamdi

"An amazing excursion - I liked seeing the tattoo exhibition and creating my own to show my identity."                         

Peter (Jinzheng) Ren

Ms. Duyen Vo

Year 9 EAL Teacher

Year 9/10 Chinese Movie Excursion

On August 9th, the Year 9s and 10s Chinese class headed off to the city to watch a Taiwanese film, “Long time no sea”. The film was based on a young boy living on Orchid Island learning an Aboriginal Taiwanese dance for a dance competition in Taipei where his father resided and worked but neglected him to earn a living for his family of three. Even though our class had unfortunately missed ten minutes of the film, we did enjoy watching the movie as much as we wanted. It was a heart touching story and we can understand many conversations of it, apart from some Taiwanese Aboriginal dialects. The movie was very informative about Taiwanese aboriginal culture, inspiring us to learn more about our cultures and to appreciate our good lives in Australia.

By Jessica Dang and Michelle Dang