Middle School

Year 7 – A Year of Opportunities!

While our existing St Andrews students enter Year 7 as an extension of Middle School, we should not forget that Year 7 is also the start of Secondary School, even though this is not such a clear distinction at St Andrews. Students who join us in Year 7 from other schools are very aware of the fact that they are now starting their secondary education.

Year 7 brings many challenges to our students, but challenges are opportunities to improve and I trust that our Year 7 students and parents will take this viewpoint. At the start of Term 4 last year, some of our Year 7 students took the time to write down their insights about the year in an article entitled "The five most important things I learnt in Year 7". From a teacher’s point of view, these are amazing insights, and I would like to share some of these articles with you in this and coming newsletters.

I have enjoyed the experience of Year 7 at St Andrews Christian College. I have gained many new skills and I feel I have improved in all areas: academic, personality and extra curricular. Below are the five most important things I have learnt in Year 7.

WAYS TO STUDY FOR EXAMS

Exams are a crucial part of Year 7, and it is very important to study hard and do well. Throughout the year, many of my classmates have shared their study methods with me, including cue cards, memorisation and summaries. These are all fantastic strategies for ensuring good marks; however, I would like to suggest my method for excellent exam study, namely note taking. Writing short notes helps you to summarise the information in the text in a direct way. Dot points allow you to revise quickly and think about the most important facts while writing them down.

HOW TO WRITE A TEXT RESPONSE ESSAY

A text response essay is a very important essay type, and it is essential for all students of English to be able to write in this way. The text response essay is based on the structure of a persuasive essay, but the topic will be about some aspect of the text (book) you are studying. The basic text response essay follows a simple I3C formula, consisting of the introduction, three body paragraphs and a conclusion. Each body paragraph has very straight-forward structure, based on the acronym TEEL. TEEL stands for topic sentence, evidence, explanation and link. These sections come together to make up the perfect body paragraph.

LAUGH NOW, CRY LATER

This is a useful motto that reminds you not to mess around in class while important concepts are being taught. From this saying, I can tell you that if you do not focus in class, you will regret your decision sooner or later – meaning you might cry! My English teacher used this phrase when the class got restless while she was explaining something.

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT TO KEEP YOUR LOCKER NEAT AND TIDY

Lockers and locks are given to students by the school, with the responsibility to keep them organised and clean both inside and out. The purpose of the lockers are to help students to keep their books and instruments organised and safe. When your locker is messy, you are unable to find anything, and important items can sometimes go missing. You can lose your homework or diary, and even end up in detention! Keeping your locker neat and tidy at all times, should be the pride of every student. Lockers should not be taken for granted!

ALWAYS WEAR THE CORRECT UNIFORM TO SCHOOL

It is very important to wear the correct uniform to school. Whether it is winter, summer or sport, correct uniform maintains discipline throughout the school. This is one of the most important things I have learnt this year!

Suhani Poddar (8L 2018)

Year 7 has been a challenging year with many new experiences. Through the year I have gained more knowledge on many special and important things. Some of these things are organisation, studying, how to get over problems, understanding different personalities, how to shoot in netball, and many more.

One of the top important things I have learnt this year is the importance of organisation. Before coming to Year 7, I found myself quite good at organising, but Year 7 took me to a whole new level! You need to be able to get to classes on time, have the right books, etc. To accomplish this, you need to have some kind of system in class and in your locker. From this I have felt that I had learnt a new life skill that will stay with me and help me for the rest of my life.

In year 7, tests and exams are popping up more often. Another important skill I have gained in Year 7, is the knowledge of how to study and prepare for these. It is always good to study more rather than less, but in an efficient way. The teachers and students have shown me many new techniques on how to study, and I have made my way through them to find the best for me: writing notes, answering questions and reading over the chapters/notes.

This has been a very challenging year for me, and I have been faced with many challenges and problems. With the help of friends, teachers and my parents, I have found ways to overcome problems one by one. To me, this is the best thing I have learnt: to share my problems and find ways to deal with them. All of my family, friends and teachers have helped me see this, and I thank them so much!

Starting Year 7 was like starting all over again. A new school, new environment, new people, new friends. An important thing I learnt was to understand that people have different personalities. This is important to me, because it helped me to appreciate people more, and how to make them feel better. This has also helped me to make great new friends, and to talk to others comfortably.

Being able to shoot in netball might seem like such an unimportant skill to some. When I learnt to shoot, it was so important to me, because it made me very happy. It encouraged me, and showed me that I could do anything if I tried my best and put in all my effort. It also showed me that we do not always succeed on the first try.

Overall, Year 7 has taught me so many life skills. I became stronger, with much more knowledge of the world.

Michelle McCabe (8L 2018)

It is heart-warming for us a teachers to see how students absorb the things that we teach them and take the lessons that they learn seriously – I am sure the same counts for parents.

I hope these articles will be an encouragement for all the Year 7’s of 2018!

Christa Cloete

Year 7/8 Coordinator

Cyber Wisdom

From 2018 onwards, students in Year 7 and 8 will be allowed to take their iPads home every day. It is both critical and inevitable in today’s educational framework that more and more work gets done on some type of device. As teachers, we need to prepare our students for a technology-based future, but we also want to see them become responsible citizens of that future. Parents have an important role in partnering with the school to help students use their devices wisely, without being constantly distracted by social media.

The article quoted below stresses this balancing act and the role of parents to help assure that their children get sufficient time away from the screen, in order to improve their sleeping patterns and help them to concentrate better. Creating solid house rules around the use of social media during Middle School years, will give parents the advantage to direct the amount of hours their children spend on cyber media even in later years.

A survey commissioned by cyber safety platform Family Zone, found teenagers are being robbed of valuable sleep time in the lead-up to exams due to a combination of stress and too much time on social media through their mobile phones and laptops.

The same devices that they are using to study are also a constant distraction.

Key findings of the survey show:

• 83 per cent of parents think their children sleep less during exam periods. 78 per cent of kids agree.
• Over 70 per cent of parents and kids say that their kids/they get between 2-4 hours less sleep each night during exam times.
• 61 per cent of parents state the reason that their kids sleep less during exam periods is due to increased screen time for studying or recreation.
• Almost 90 per cent of parents describe electronic devices as a distraction in their kids' everyday life, while 86 per cent of children say they are.
• 40 per cent of kids say electronic devices become more of a distraction during exam periods.
• 83 per cent of parents say that their kids have electronic devices in their bedroom, while 70 per cent of kids state they are more likely to have devices in their bedroom during exam periods.
• 62 per cent of kids are concerned by the amount of screen time that occupies their time, while their parents are more worried, at 72 per cent.
• 75 per cent of parents say their kids’ devices don't have parental controls installed, while 88 per cent of kids say they don't.

“The survey confirms what every student and parent know, mobile devices are affecting study and sleep times, especially in the distractions social media presents 24 hours a day," cyber expert, David Kobler, says. 

“It is important for parents to take charge of their children’s social media usage, creating rules around the times and content they are accessing, to give them the best chance in the end of year exams.

“Digital devices are critical for all students for study purposes these days, so they need to be within arms-reach, but this also means, so is the distraction to use them for non-study purposes. It's a tough balancing act for students and parents."

(Article by Education HQ News Team, 17 October 2017.)

From our side, we can make the following suggestions:

• Go through the Digital Use Agreement with your child, and ensure that they know what they are signing for, when they sign the agreement together with you.
• Keep a copy of the Agreement handy at home.
• Restrict casual use (playtime) on iPads to the weekend and then only where the students are visible or sitting with the rest of the family.
• Emphasise that the school iPad is not a toy, but rather a learning resource.
• Charge the iPad where it will not be accessible to your child during the night – for instance in the master bedroom.
• Be aware that the younger generation knows much more about technology than most of us as parents or teachers do, and that they might use that knowledge to hide what they are really doing on a device.

We are so privileged to have an informed and supportive parent body at St Andrews, and we look forward to sharing the responsibility for our students’ future with you.

Many blessings

Christa Cloete

Year 7/8 Coordinator

Middle School Duolingo Championship

During Year 6, 7 and 8, students have the opportunity to be part of the Middle School Duolingo Championship. Some students have already signed up for Duolingo in Year 5, but by the start of Year 6 all students should have a Duolingo profile. Parents of Year 6 students or new students who still need to sign up, can go to Duolingo.com on a desktop or laptop, and help their child to create a profile.

It would be much appreciated if parents could ensure that students have a set of earphones that they can use in class while playing Duolingo. However, while there are some opportunities to do Duolingo in class, this area of French is seen as the students’ French homework, and should be worked at a few times each week at home.

Keep a look out for the names of our Duolingo Golden Owls in the next newsletter!

Thank you for your support in encouraging our students to steward every opportunity that comes their way.

À bientôt!

Madame Cloete

French Teacher, Year 6 - 8

Extra Curricular Activities

Here is a list of extra curricular activities available to Middle and Senior students during Semester 1.

Sonia Sires

Extra Curricular Activities Coordinator