Middle School 

Year 9 Music Performance Class 

Year 9 Music Performance students have been developing their instrumental and ensemble skills over the course of Semester 2. 

This culminated in a performance from each ensemble to a Year 7 class, for their final performance assessment. It has been fabulous to see the growth in both ability and confidence of students as they have rehearsed in their ensembles each week. 

They have regularly performed to their classmates to receive feedback on what they are doing well and how they can improve, and have been developing skills in collaboration and creativity that will assist them across many aspects of life.  

Kirsty Mechielsen 

Classroom/Instrumental Music Teacher 

Year 9A Class Elections 

The Year 9 Humanities Civics and Citizenship Unit focused on the study of the structure of the Australian Parliamentary System and the election process. 

Students collaborated with each other, formed into political parties (or Independent candidates), developed their policies and campaigned as candidates for the Class election 2022! 

The Unit and the election allowed students to demonstrate their understanding of the role of political parties and how campaigns can influence the voting choices of citizens. 

Anna Anetoudis

Humanities 

Year 7 Mandarin - Reflections

After learning Mandarin for a whole year, our Year 7 students have reflected on what they’ve achieved so far this year and offered some advice for future students. Here’re some of their wise words:

At first, I found Mandarin very difficult and thought that I would NEVER understand, but now I understand heaps and can say lots too. My highlights of this year were basically learning a new language and being able to stand in front of the class and read out difficult sentences. I can’t wait to learn even more next year! (Ruby)

I loved learning all the new words and phrases that we didn’t learn in primary school. I also learnt a lot more about the Chinese culture and the specialised food that each region is known for. Some tip that I have learnt is that taking notes is extremely important; even if you don’t think it is a good idea, just do it. I promise it will help you when you have to scramble to get ready for a test or a CAT. (Sophie)

I enjoyed learning everything in Chinese as Chinese is a great and interesting language to learn. I would love to use this language outside of school someday, and I hope I remember it all. I am excited for next year as we get to learn more and I can hardly wait. (Chloe)

Mandarin has been a different experience for me, especially because my mum’s side is from China. Being from China and not knowing much about the language is a bit embarrassing so I want to learn more than just saying hello. This year has shown me how little I know and how much there is to learn, like I didn’t even know how to say rice (米饭mifan)!

I think most people in our class can agree that the most fun thing we did this year was the Chinese menu: we made a menu with Chinese food/drinks of our choice that we could design and decorate however we like. (Lliya)

Year 8 Mandarin

Shopping in Chinese

In the last topic of Year 8 Mandarin, our students learned how to bargain and shop for clothing items in Chinese. We learned different bargaining strategies and did a shopping role-play as our final assessment. Students acted as shopkeepers and customers and performed in front of the class with props. It was great to see the students using the newly learned skills and phrases in an engaging and creative way!

End-of-year Restaurant Excursion

Our Year 8 ACE class had the opportunity to visit a local Chinese restaurant during their last Mandarin lesson of the year. The whole class went to the nearby restaurant Dumping & Ramen House on Jells Road to celebrate the end of the school year. We had so much yummy and authentic Chinese food, such as fried noodles, fried rice, steamed buns and dumplings, and so on! What’s more impressive was that students were able to order their food and drinks in Chinese and master using chopsticks like a pro! What a great way to apply classroom learning to real life!

Year 9 Mandarin

End-of-year cultural activities

In the last few weeks of Term 4, our Year 9 Mandarin class has been busy immersing themselves in Chinese culture by learning to play Chinese board games and making Chinese food.

Mahjong is a traditional Chinese board game enjoyed by Chinese communities around the world. It is a game of skill, strategy, and a bit of luck. After learning how to read the symbols and characters on the tiles, the students quickly mastered the rules of Mahjong and enjoyed playing together.

It was a very special session in our last Mandarin lesson! Students learned how to make dumplings step-by-step. Each of us had a go with mixing the stuffing and wrapping the dumplings. It was difficult at the start as the dumplings either didn’t seal tightly or couldn’t stand properly, but after a few rounds of practice, students overcame the challenges and made some really nice-looking dumplings, and of course, they tasted delicious!

Year 9 Reflections

The Year 9 students have written some very insightful reflections on their Mandarin learning journey this year. Here they shared highlights of their learning and offered some useful tips for future students.

One of the best highlights of learning Mandarin in Year 9 would have to be when we went on an excursion to Chinatown to learn Chinese history in a museum. We also had to find specific characters on buildings while recording ourselves asking and saying the store names in Chinese. (Mobina)

My highlight of the year was probably learning about people’s appearances and personalities. I really enjoyed this unit and found it the most interesting because of all the words and different sentences we could use. (Makayla)

One of the highlights was playing mah-jong and learning how to play it. After playing it multiple times, it’s really fun, and it gets easier once you know the strategies and how to play. (Kade)

I enjoyed the class. I used to hate school but I had this class and realised that it wasn’t even bad and I just decided that I could try my best to actually “try” and then I started to do a little better and actually did work. Because the class size was small, I felt like I could get along with everyone easier and we could enjoy the class. It was more like a group than a class. We could enjoy all of the class games, activities and excursions because we all knew each other very well. (Cooper)

Tips for future Year 9 students:

Put your school work before your videogames and stuff that doesn’t relate to education because a good education can make your life 1000 times better than what it would’ve been without it; this applies to more than just Mandarin, it applies to all subjects and classes you have during your school life. (Adam)

Pay attention, I would never pay attention in class, and I never knew what was going on. I’d always have to go off of a summary, and don’t lose your summary; it’s the most helpful thing you will get in this class. Also, the language could actually be useful in the real world, and it’s just cool to know another language! (Cooper)

If you are struggling and think you need help with a topic, raise your hand and ask, it will be worth it and it is better to understand than sit there not knowing what is going on at all. (Daniel)

Tips I have for future students is to find things that help you remember the words or characters whether it is remembering a character because it looks like something else or remembering a word because it sounds similar to something else; it all helps. (Makayla)

Chenfei (Michelle) Bian

Mandarin Teacher