Junior School Report

Message from the Director of Learning

- Ms. Alice Paget

Congratulations to our Year 7 students who have completed their first year of secondary school and now transitioned into their Year 8 classes. There are some very exciting opportunities for our Year 8 students as they transition into Year 9 and begin their electives.

After meeting our new Year 7 cohort at Orientation Day on the 11th December, I am looking forward to continuing their transition and welcoming them into Westall Secondary College in 2019. We will be running an alternate program for Year 7 students, as part of the first 3 days of 2019, to allow them to settle into their new environment, make new friends and build rapport with their teachers and other support staff.

Please take the time over the holidays to ensure you have bought all the required textbooks, exercise books and stationary, to ensure your child has the best learning opportunities. On behalf of the junior school team, we wish you a safe and relaxing holiday!

JUNIOR SCHOOL AWARDS 2018

On Thursday, 29th November, we celebrated the achievement of many students at the College and said farewell to our Year 12 students. With only 2 prestigious awards presented at each year level, it was a very tough choice to nominate the recipients this year. The Academic Excellence Award is presented to a student who had excelled academically in the particular subject, and the Personal Best Award is presented to a student who strives for excellence in all of their subjects.

Year 8 Academic Excellence: Thalia Wong

Year 8 Personal Best: Victoria Puia

Year 7 Academic Excellence: Farhan Isa

Year 7 Personal Best: Dhai Aljahdali

On Friday, 30th November, we held a whole school assembly, where we recognised academic excellence and personal best in individual subjects. Congratulations to all the award winners below!

Ms. Alice Paget

Junior School Captains 2019

We are very excited to announce our Junior School Captain appointments for 2019, Kellana Carnahan and Zaima Seyed. Kellana and Zaima went through a written application and interview process, to be selected for the position. Both girls are ecstatic to be selected and look forward to bringing some great ideas to the junior school in 2019. Well done girls!

Orientation Day

On Tuesday, 11th December, we held our Orientation Day for our new Year 7 students coming into the College. We had a jam-packed day of activities to assist students in getting to know the school, their teachers and other students. The highlight of the day was definitely the Amazing Race, where students had to discover multiple locations, and pass through a couple of roadblocks. The students had a great time at the photo booth, as part of the final destination for the Amazing Race!

The day was filled with opportunities to get to know students from other Primary Schools, including a ‘get to know you’ Bingo and team building games. They also developed a bunting to help decorate the Junior School, and provide an opportunity for the teachers and students to get to know each other. Each student decorated part of the bunting, with their talents, hobbies and flag of origin.

They then had a taste of what it is like to be in a secondary school class. Students were able to participate in one class from: Food Technology, Chinese, Art and Physical Education. Some of the activities included, decorating a terracotta bowl, making banana splits in Food Technology, learning some cultural songs in Chinese, and playing some modified invasion games in P.E.

We look forward to welcoming back our new Year 7 students into the College next year!

Year 8 Access Monash Program

(University Discovery Day)

Year 8 students were involved in a University Discovery Day at the Monash University Caulfield campus on the 23rd November, as part of the Access Monash Program. The Access Monash Program works in partnership with Westall Secondary College from Year 8 to Year 12, to inform students’ decision-making, and to support their engagement and knowledge of university and campus life.

The University Discovery Day exposes students to a university campus through fun and interactive challenges. The day aims to help students become familiar with, and feel connected to, a local university campus and to start considering university as an accessible and dynamic environment. It opened up the students' minds to the options available in tertiary education and potential pathways in areas of interest.

Year 7 Scienceworks

On Friday, 9th of November, all Year 7 students visited ‘Science Works’.

Firstly, we had to take the train to get there. When we arrived, we placed our bags in lockers and had time to eat our snacks. Then we went to our first activity and did lots of fun things.

We had some free time before our next activity. The activity was called the ‘the lightning show’. It was a funny show, because some students were up on stage and they made us laugh, especially Mrs Blias. We had time for lunch at the end of the show.

Our next show was at the Planetarium to watch a film. We were laying down in chairs that folded back so we could see the movie above our heads. I think some people fell asleep during the movie. When the movie finished, we left Scienceworks and headed back to school.

We all had a wonderful and fun day.

Mohammad Najib

Year 7

It was early in the morning when we left for our excursion to Scienceworks. I was very excited. By the way it was very far, it was near the West Gate Bridge.

When we arrived, the teachers instructed us to place our bags in the locker and have our snack before the first session began.

We went to a building to watch the ‘lightning’ show. As we entered the room, I was a little scared because it was very dark, but I quickly adjusted and enjoyed the show. Mrs Blias looked so funny because the presenter made her hair look like it was floating in the air. At the end of the show, we had time for lunch.

We went to the next sessionm which was a documentary about planets and stars. Some people fell asleep on the very comfortable chairs. I really enjoyed the show.

Shajida Shajida