Year 7 & 8 News

Welcome to the 2023 Learning Year

The Year 7 and 8 Team would firstly like to welcome all our new Year 7 Students to

 the Kurnai Learning Community. We would also like to extend a warm welcome to our new and returning families.

For those who do not know me, my name is Daniel Murphy, and I am the Campus Assistant Principal and Year 7 and 8 sub-school leader. I will be your primary contact with all and any communications for Year 7 and 8 students. In 2023, I also welcome Sarah Lewis as the new Assistant Team Leader for Year 7 and 8.

I will endeavor to make 2023 the best learning year I can and if there is anything I can do to help our students, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

It has been fantastic getting around to classrooms and seeing students settle in (or back into) our Kurnai Learning Community. We have had a great start to the year, with all Year 7 and 8 students engaged in the classroom, our teachers have been acknowledging these positive behaviours with thousands of green positive write ups (KPAs). Our targeted reading program, Tr@K is also full swing with all students (Year 7-9) placed in classes according to ability. This is a key focus for the College and the results in recent years speak for its value.As a Year 7 and 8 Team, we have started educating our students on our key focui for 2023 through assemblies and promotions around the school. These foci are important areas identified by staff and students and they cover a range of issues, including, but not limited to; Attendance, School Wide Positive Behaviour (SWPBS) and NAPLAN.

Year 7 & 8 Team

Daniel Murphy: Assistant Principal & Year 7 and 8 Sub-School Leader (Maths)

Sarah Lewis: Year 7 and 8 Assistant Sub-School Leader (English, Media, and Tr@k) 

Sarah Eccles: Disability & Inclusion Specialist (Science) 

Erin Gruis: School Improvement Specialist & Tr@k Coordinator (English)

Megan Schwarzenberg: Advocate (Food Technology and Textiles)

Mark Johnston: Advocate (Design Technology and Electronics) 

Anna McGregor: Humanities & Tr@k

Wenjing Sun: Chinese

Jesse Berryman-Lambert: Digital Technologies, Maths and Tr@k

Nyssa Beebe: Maths, Music and Numer@k

Patrick McGrath: Physical Education and Outdoor Education

Sandra Treloar: AUSLAN & Humanities

Shawna Miller: English & Tr@k

Oliver Clark: Humanities, English and Tr@k

Jessica Qu: Science and Maths

Mark Heiberg: Humanities, Maths & Numer@k.

Year 7

The new Year 7 cohort has settled into our Kurnai Learning Community brilliantly; learning how to get into their lockers, navigate our campus, make new friends, and build relationships with their teachers. Getting around to classrooms and seeing learning occur around writing narratives, Civics and Citizenship, numbers, Physics, PE, Health, AUSLAN, Digi Tech, Textiles, Chinese and Music has been great, especially after learning disruptions from COVID over the last few years. 

Year 8

Our Year 8 students have also settled back in and are well and truly a part of our community now. They have been learning about Persuasive Writing, Landforms and Landscapes, Measurement and Geometry, Geology, PE and Health whilst also undertaking a range of electives such as Food Tech, Chinese, AUSLAN, Art and Visual Communications. 

Student Leadership

Congratulations to our newly elected student leaders at Year 7 and 8. These student leaders will work with their peers and staff to lead and drive our school forward and make positive change. 

Year 7 BBQ

I would like to thank all of the students, families and staff who attended our Year 7 BBQ on the 8th. We had a huge turnout, with free food, live music from our Kurnai band, and Youth Space coming down to provide activities. It is a really important event that all parties work together to get the most out of your child’s education. This event is a great way to start off their high school life on a positive note, show their new school off and for staff to meet and engage with families.

Camp

We are soon to put out the paperwork for Year 7 Camp. This is a really important adventure for our students and the most important camp of their high school years. We will be working with every family to try and ensure 100% attendance at the camp. If you are concerned or expect to face financial difficulties with this camp, please contact us to discuss how we can support you. We will also be preparing for our Year 8 camp. This is another fantastic adventure for our Year 8 students later in the year.

Attendance

We are already pushing as another major focus for the year, holding students accountable for being at school all day every day. At our last Year Level Assemblies for Year 7 and 8 we talked about students achieving 95% attendance.