Junior School Report

Message from the

Director of Learning -  Junior School

Ms Rebecca Tomkins

Hello to all our Junior School families and students, 

I’d like to start by saying a massive CONGRATULATIONS to all of our Year 7 and 8s students for such a great start to the year. Year 7s, your teachers throughout the school have been impressed by the way you have adapted to secondary school life, even if this is very different to what you are used to. It is so nice to see everyone settling in comfortably for the end of term. Year 8s, your teachers have been amazed at the growth and maturity you have shown and the incredible efforts you have been putting in at the start of the year. A big thank you as well for making the Year 7s feel so comfortable providing a warm welcome into the Westall family.  

We have had an extremely busy term in Junior School. The Year 7s have been on not one, but two excursions so far – we shared photos of the Adventure Day and the Surf Life Saving excursion in our previous newsletter. The Year 8 students had the opportunity to visit Half Moon Bay for their Global Literacy class – thank you Mr Graewolfe for telling us all about it!

It was great to see all our Junior School students embracing Harmony Day celebrations earlier this term, either wearing orange for the day or sharing their cultural dress with the rest of the school. It was a fantastic day (despite the weather) and the Year 8s were able to show their performance they had been working so hard to perfect. We have photos of the year 8s practicing ‘You and Me’ in Mandarin as a part of their studies for Chinese. Well done! 

Next term proves to be equally exciting for our Junior School students, as we are going on camp from Monday 15th – Wednesday 17th May. Thank you to everyone who has already bought back their camp forms. If you have any questions about this or any other upcoming events, please reach out to your year level coordinator. 

Thank you for your dedication and enthusiasm this term, have a restful break and we will see you all in Term 2!

Ms Rebecca Tomkins

Director of Learning - Junior School

Year 7 Design Technologies – Woodwork

‘Chopping board’

The Year 7 students worked on a range of design briefs to produce a functional ‘chopping board’. The purpose of the chopping boards varied, some students made boards for cutting fruit and vegetables, meats, serving cheese and presenting assorted foods. 

The students used the following materials and equipment - pine timber, sandpaper, pedestal drill and olive oil to give the board a gloss finish. Olive oil serves as a natural sealer and most of all an edible ingredient that won’t harm you or the food that is cut on.

The year 7 students couldn’t wait to take their boards home to put them to use. These made great gifts for mums, grandparents and the kitchen!  “Talk about sustainability” 

Ms Helen Ifandis 

Year 11 & Arts/ Technology Coordinator

Year 8 Visual Arts – ‘Art elements in Portraiture’

The students in Year 8 Visual Arts have been working on developing their art ideas and concepts using portraits and the art elements. These include LINE, SHAPE, COLOUR, TONE, TEXTURE and PATTERN. Pastels, coloured pencils, copic markers, textas and fine liners were amongst the range of media used to execute the art work. 

Examples of their wonderful achievements can be viewed in the gallery below: 

Ms Helen Ifandis

Year 11 & Arts/Technology Coordinator

Year 8 Digital Technologies – PODCASTS

The Year 8 students designed and implemented podcasts and documented the process in an electronic portfolio. 

They identified the audience, designed and planned a storyboard and script. The students implemented audio software on their using smart phones and desk top device to record and manage recorded files.

The podcasts were uploaded to Microsoft teams and then transferred onto the school devices so that they were made available for the wider school audience to listen to on the Westall Expo night. The podcasts will be made available on the Westall website shortly.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate such a talented lot of students who wrote phenomenal scripts and stories on world issues such as Climate change, bullying, crime stories, what’s on in entertainment and interviews on world sports.

Ms Helen Ifandis

Year 11 & Arts/Technology Coordinator

Year 8 Fieldwork Excursion to Half Moon Bay

The Year 8 Global Literacy team is happy to announce another successful expedition to Half Moon for our Geography field trip. Despite great hardship and privation (the Fish and Chip shop was closed!) the students had a great time applying what they had learned in class in a real-world environment. There were some genuine “light-bulb” moments and the expedition really helped students see the effects of wind, waves and human interaction on the coast. Students demonstrated an ability to not only identify different types of rocks and formation of that dynamic coastline but also discuss the various qualities of the rock, their formation, and how those qualities had shaped the environment they were studying. The level of detailed understanding of the intricacies of coastal forms and management that many students showed was very impressive. Many pictures were taken and interesting discussions had before our students headed home.

Mr James Graewolfe

Teacher

Year 7 Bunsen Burner Safety

The Year 7s showed remarkable maturity when they carefully listened to the instructions of how to safely operate a Bunsen burner. Afterwards they were able to successfully demonstrate their ability to work safely with open flames while lighting and closing a Bunsen burner, earning them their Bunsen burner license. During their CATs they further applied these skills and awareness of safety procedure to successfully boil liquids and record their temperature over time. Well done, young scientists!

Mr Ibti Mahmood

Maths/Science Teacher