Year 7-9 Sector

AP News

Dear Parents/Carers,

I recently had the pleasure to attend the Rights, Resilience and Respectful Relationships Student Forum with a select group of year 7 & 8 students. This provided an amazing experience for our students to lead and inspire students from network schools.

The year 7 students recently represented the College at interschool sport, this brings to an end our Interschool Sport Program for the year, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the staff who give up their time to coach teams and also thank parents for their support of the interschool program.

‘R U Ok Day’ is on Friday the 14th of September, the day is about inspiring and empower everyone to meaningfully connect with people around them and support others.

We would like to welcome parents to the parent teacher interviews on Tuesday and also the end of term assembly on Thursday.  We look forward celebrating our students achievements.

Year 7 News

Over the halfway mark!

This term for the year 7s has been relatively quiet compared to the busy first half of the year!  

All six homerooms have had a switch of specialist classes (Art, Music, French & Food Technology), which was a very enjoyable experience for many as it was a change that allowed us to learn new skills and discover new things.  We also switched subjects from Geography to Civics, where we learnt about crime and justice in Australia.  In English we published our second essays based on the 2016 film ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’, and in Math we learnt how to convert between fractions, decimals and percentages.  In Science we have started to create Rube Goldberg machines, and in History we started our second learning adventure about Ancient China!  In our History teams, we tried our best to get our highest marks to get ahead in the race.  Our teams were named Mulan, Li Shang & Mushu (based on the Disney movie Mulan).

This term, the year 7 cohort have also been competing in a round robin downball competition, with each homeroom versing the other homerooms during lunchtimes and recesses.  So far the leader board looks like this: 7B’s Team Kartoffel (which is Irish for potato) are undefeated in first place, 7A’s Bikini Bot-bots are in equal second place with 7D’s Spaino’s Tigers, 7F’s Team Fortnite in third, 7C’s Krabby patties in fourth (finally not last for once!) and 7E’s Team IKEA in fifth.  It has been very exciting playing with and against friends, with many of the games coming down to the wire!  

The year 7s also had inter-school sports which was our most successful round yet. With 2 teams going through to the next round (Girls table tennis and Boys basketball).  Every team had a very good go at playing their sports.  

And just last week we had our second round of immunisations (yay!) which was a tough experience for many due to their phobia of needles.  However, they braved through and got the job done.  

We are all really looking forward to summer coming around the corner, and the fun and excitement of term 4 (with a number of activities and celebrations planned closer to the end of the year).  Thanks to all our teachers for making year 7 so much fun!

By Arya Meshkat Hazrati (7E), Joselyn Bennetts (7E) & Ariam Negusse (7E).

Year 8 News

Year 8 this term has been wild, with all the ILT’s but at the same time we have had so much fun. We have learnt many new things throughout are subjects.

In history, we have done something different from normal, we have been doing individual tasks to learn about the Aztecs. There were 3 different levels and we had the opportunity to pick which level we thought suited us the most. The ILT this term for History is about the mysterious death of the Aztec emperor, Montezuma. Immediately we were intrigued, about who we personally thought killed Montezuma. The ILT allowed us to think outside the box and imagine unique theories that made the ILT interesting. History this term has given us the freedom to choose how we learn which is one of the things we love so much about history.

In English we have watched a Movie called the Blind Side. We all loved the movie and we have currently just finished our essays on the movie. As well as doing the film study, we have also done a book club, we got into groups that consisted of around 4 to 5 people and we all studied the same book. At the end of every week we all got together and had a discussion about the book. We all contribute bringing our own ideas and opinions to the conversation. This helps us to have a diverse and deep understanding of the book from multiple perspectives.

In PE we have been learning about net and wall games. Are focus this team has been on volleyball and tennis. We have learnt many new skills such as, shot placement, movement and communication. Are Practical ILT was Newcomb ball it was a fun game because it was a cross between volleyball and netball. In PE theory, we have been learning about non-playing roles on a sports field. We have learnt the many roles of an umpire, coach and satiation. Are PE theory ILT, is where we get into groups around the size of 4-5 students. In are groups we are to pick a sport that we are going to run for 25-30 minutes.  In are groups we are to have a coach, umpire, statistician and sports administrator. We are all excited to run a sport with are class.

In civics this term we have all made our own politic parties based on similar values we believe in. Within those parties we each created a proposal to change or make a new law that would support our parties values. We then have been given a topic that is a current issue in Australia. We then have to write a speech about a solution we believe will fix the issue. We will be debating against other parties to try to get our class to vote for us and our solution.

A lot has been happening this term in math. We have been focusing on probability. We have moved on to financial math. Such as profit, loss and percentages. We have learn different ways of solving percentage problems, many that use diagrams. For the rest of the team we will be looking at linear equations.

Science has been really fun we have learnt so much is such a short team. We have learnt the many different functions of the cell. We got to look and different plant and animal cell under a microscope. We have learnt to label and draw cells. We started to move on the subject of the human body. Such as the organs that are in are body. We got to dissect a sheep’s heart. This helped us understand how the human heart works.

Health we have been learning about respectful relationships. We have been learning what we value in a relationship and to spots the signs of an unhealthy relationship. As well and learning ways to deal with different situations in relationships. Health has been one of the most enjoyed subjects because we get to have many discussions as a class. We get to express are opinions in a safe environment .

Overall team 3 has been one of the best terms we have learnt lots and had many smiles along the way.                                                                  

By Amy 8A and Millie 8B

Year 9 News

The year 9s have been busy planning their 2019 and beyond with visits from Lakeview Senior College and visits to Harvester Technical College. Students have been busy selecting their subjects for next year, applying for accelerated and sports programs as well as starting to think about work experience, being offered the chance to sign up to Victoria Police. The year 9s definitely seem excited for their futures, but with any big changes there is also a sense of intimidation and, of course, sadness that their time as Brooksiders is coming to a close. We truly hope to make these final 14 weeks with this cohort enjoyable and memorable for them all.

We thank all parents/guardians that took part in the most recent Insight Survey on Compass to gain parent and student feedback about a camp vs. end of year activities. The results from this survey shows that most families and students would prefer the last week of term to be activity based and therefore we will not be running a camp in year 9 this year. Thank you all for your input; together, the staff and students will now start to work on end of year activities that will promote unity and strengthen bonds between the students in their very last week as Brookside Students. Once planned, these activities will need to be passed through school council and then further information will be posted on Compass for you to be able to provide consent and payment. We will aim to have this all approved and ready for payments by week 5 of term 4, giving parents/guardians 4 weeks notice of the events.

In class, the year 9 cohort has been busy writing essays for both English and History and they have been working on their metacognitive skills through the use of ‘Thinking Sheets’ in all of their subjects. Metacognition is a difficult, but crucial, skill for our students to master moving forward into the next chapter of their academic lives – it promotes critical and creative thinking and, ultimately, makes a person more employable for their future.

In their history classes, students have been learning about World War 1 and the impact that that event had on the Australian identity. To further cultivate their understanding students recently visited the Shrine of Remembrance. At the Shrine, students completed a walk-through tour, learning about legends like Simpson and his Donkey, seeing an actual paddle boat from 1914, hearing the letters of soldiers and nurses read aloud and finally placing a poppy on the Shrine’s wall to remember the fallen. Thank you to Lisa Spain – the head of Humanities – who organised and facilitated this excursion. The students seemed engaged and took their new found knowledge into the classroom to apply to their essay.

Finally, a quick reminder about mobile phone use: it is school policy (as approved by school council) that students are not using their mobile phones at school or on excursions for any reason. This includes to contact parents/guardians. Students have access to school phones at all times if they need to make a call for any reason. If you need to get in contact with a student during the school day, please call the school directly. Students are well aware of the school’s policy and understand that the consequence for mobile phone use at school is an afterschool detention. We implore parents/guardians to be supporting school council’s rules and discouraging students to be using their personal phone for any reason. If a student is unwell and needs to be collected from school, they are to go through the health centre in the main office. We thank you for your support in this matter.      

Looking forward to end the term and into term 4, the students are busy working on ILTs and will now have access to lunchtime catch-up classes as well as the standard Wednesday after-school study club. Year 9 students Kristian Josevski and Deklyn Staropoli will continue to represent the student voice while sitting on school council and many of our cohort members will be participating in sporting trials at Lakeview College and/or sitting interviews in order to finalise their enrolment into an accelerated subject. Finally, our year 9s should be receiving their commemorative Brookside Polo to start wearing at the start of term 4. Exciting times ahead!

Here is a poem by Kristian Josevski, Zoe Attard and Rani Naidu  from year 9, as part of there Respectful Relationships curriculum in health class.

We hope you enjoy.

Thanks!

7-9 Sector House Competition

This term, students within the 7-9 sector have been participating and competing in a lunchtime house competition, designed by the house captains to promote teamwork, improve student engagement, and instil a sense of pride and passion within our Brookside community. 

Brookside’s current house system has been designed to foster a sense of community, awareness of others and a sense of being part of a team, with every student and member of staff belonging to either Irwin (Green), Freeman (Yellow), Hollows (Red), or Fraser (Blue) House.  Each house is made up of a mixture of students from each year level, and is led by their dedicated and devoted House captains who were nominated by their peers at the beginning of the year. 

The house captains of 2018 are:

• BLUE HOUSE – Hayley McDonald (9E) and Samuel Dumitru (8E)
• RED HOUSE – Zoe Attard (9E) and Mason Kolevski (8B)
• YELLOW HOUSE – Jesse Cavanagh (9B) and Daniela Galle (7A)
• GREEN HOUSE – Brendan Williams (9A) and Amy Greenhalgh (8A)

Throughout term 3, the house captains have been leading a dodgeball competition during lunchtimes and recesses.  Students within the 7-9 sector have been encouraged to attend in order to earn house points contributing to overall scores, which will be celebrated at the end of each term assembly. 

While year level leaders have played a part in facilitating and supporting the events, it has been the house captains who have taken the lead in the planning, management and organisation of the events, providing them with the opportunity to further develop their wider skill set as they mature and grow throughout their schooling years.

In the future we hope to develop a number of new house events, including but not limited to sporting activities, competitions and charity events.  With such a variety of events to come, the house captains hope to ensure that each student has the opportunity to represent their house in something that they enjoy or are passionate about.

Well done to all students who have been involved so far this term, and a special congratulations to the year level house captains and Mr McDermott for their ongoing leadership and support!