News Archives - Page 159 of 162

Term 3 Week 6: From the Head of Primary

Jo Dunn on 31/08/2018

In the last two weeks we have certainly been able to celebrate the learning that occurs at Newman College each day. The primary campuses have been busy exploring their world during the STEM festival which launched Science Week. We then came together as a whole primary school at the Lavalla Campus to celebrate the Assumption of Mother Mary into heaven with our Buddy Day connecting our students. This led us beautifully into the celebration of Book Week and the student parades.

All these learning opportunities occurred outside of the “normal” classroom setup and were wonderful ways to challenge our students. Flexible learning spaces allow our students to create and collaborate and the launch of the IDEAS Lab at Marian is a prime example of this. The multi-purpose space at Lavalla also accommodates a range of learning styles and needs and can be arranged to suit a multitude of learning outcomes.

Gratitude Project

This term the College has taken on a Gratitude Project as part of the path toward building resilience to support wellbeing in our community. On the primary campuses, staff have focused their projects around ‘daily hits’ of practising gratitude with the students. Throughout the project, activities and reflections are shared through Seesaw as well as prominently in many classrooms and we encourage you to engage in conversation with your children around practising gratitude at home. There are many simple ways that you can support this practise with your children in the family setting, such as:

Modelling gratitude – stating aloud the things that you are grateful for, and thanking each other openly
Quick gratitude chats – in the car, on a walk, around the dinner table or at bedtime, go around and each mention something you are grateful for that day
Gratitude journalling – support your children in keeping a notebook where they can write down what they are grateful for each day
Find opportunities for your children to identify those less fortunate than themselves and express their gratitude – in your local community, watching the news, reading the newspaper

Author, Alan Cohen, wrote: “Gratitude, like faith, is a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it grows, and the more power you have to use it on your behalf. If you do not practice gratefulness, its benefaction will go unnoticed, and your capacity to draw on its gifts will be diminished. To be grateful is to find blessings in everything, This is the most powerful attitude to adopt, for there are blessings in everything.”

Click here for further information, videos and examples for practising gratitude in the home.

Coffee Van Fathers Day

To thank the dads of Newman College, the Primary Social Committee (PSC) would like to offer all dads and father figures a free coffee. The PSC has organised a coffee van to be at each of the campuses to say thank you for all that you do.

STEM Festival

To celebrate Science Week, the Primary Campuses took part in a STEM festival on Monday 13 August. STEM is the combination of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to engage students, and encourage them to problem solve and collaborate. All students took part in a wide range of activities from building bridges to creating flying machines. There was a range of guest speakers and the Secondary School teachers even set off rockets at the Marian Campus. Thank you to Mrs Zelich and Ms Anderson for making it all happen.

Click here for a full list of activities from the day and more photos.

Book Week

This week we celebrated Book Week with the theme of “Find Your Treasure”. Our students dressed as characters from their favourite books bringing them to life. Reading is such an important part of our students’ learning and we are fortunate to have such wonderful libraries at each campus. Mrs Le Dan also organised a wide range of activities for the students such as author visits and even a trip to the Cambridge Library. Thank you Mrs Le Dan, Mrs Burchfield and Mrs Karagiannis for generating a love of literature. Please click here for more information and photographs from Book Week.

Artist in Residence

Our Year 2 students were lucky enough to attend a workshop with the College’s 2018 Artist in Residence Mr Andy Quilty this week. All Year 2 students came together in the Marian Hall to experience Andy’s approach and drawing techniques that serve to inspire freedom within art making. The wonderful designs will continue on this process during their art classes for the next few weeks. Thank you Mrs Spencer and Mrs Farrell. Click here for information about out 2018 Artist in Residence program.

Speak Up Finals

The following students participated in the Speak Up Finals last week: Harry Klein, Joshua Do and Aadil Thekkayil. Congratulations to all three students who were successful in moving through to the next round. There were topics that were funny and some deeply moving. Their talents are quite remarkable.

Feast of the Assumption of Mary

To celebrate the Assumption of Mother Mary into heaven, our Primary community came together at the Lavalla Campus last Friday. The students were excited to see their buddies again and work with them on activities about Mary and of course take part in the legendary Lapathon.

Thank you to Ms Warchomij, Mrs Rich and Mr Lynch for making this such a great day filled with fun and new friendships.

Click here to read more and to see more photos from the day.

Leadership Camp

Our Year 6 Student Counsellors had the wonderful opportunity to work with student leaders from years 7, 8 and 9 as part of the leadership camp last week. The students camped under the stars and cooked their own meals as well as took part in a wide range of leadership and team building activities to develop their skills and make new friends across the College. Thank you to Mr Van der Heever for making this possible and we look forward to this event growing in the future.

Visual Art Support

We would like to invite you to be part of our exciting and innovative PK-6 Arts program at Newman College. Please kindly consider supporting our exceptional Visual Art program by joining us on roster in Visual Art classes for students in Kindergarten through to Year 6. Your assistance with preparing and organising arts resources, and supporting arts learning by working alongside students, will help us to enrich and strengthen our Arts teaching and learning program. Please contact our specialist Art teachers, Ms Sarah Spencer at Marian Campus and Ms Amy Farrell at Lavalla campus for more information and to register you support. sarah.spencer@newman.wa.edu.au (PK-2) amy.farrell@newman.wa.edu.au (3-6).

Code of Conduct

It is critical that parents always work to provide a positive environment here at Newman College when communicating with one another, either in person, online or over the telephone. Conversations must be dignified and respectful. Parent social events for our families must only be used for positive connection. Anything outside of this is a breach of the code of conduct and will be managed by the College. Please click here to see a copy of the College Code of Conduct and refer to statements 4, 5 and 6.

Family Night at Scitech – Friday 31 August

Only a week to go until the exciting family event of which tickets are selling fast. Please click here for more information.

Angelico Art Exhibition

The following students have had their art work displayed at the CEWA Angelico Art Exhibition for 2018. The students have displayed outstanding commitment to their craft and we are blessed that they are able to share their talents. Thank you to Mrs Amy Farrell for your instruction and support.

Charlotte Laurent, Year 6
Ella Hills, Year 4
Ella Scott, Year 5
Zoe Ehlers, Year 3
Savannah Doyle, Year 6
Harper Gamble, Year 6

Word Mania

Congratulations to the students in Years 4 and 5 who have achieved the top rankings on the Leaderboard for Round Two of Word Mania.
Year 4 – 11th in Australia
Year 5 – 49th in Australia

Past Events

The children at Newman College are continuously engaging in motivating learning experiences that support embedding and enhancing their education. Some highlights from the past two weeks are:

Angelico Art Exhibition
Speak Up Finals
STEM Festival
Book Week
LAPs incursion – today we had the privilege of Lenny Hughes from Little Athletics Australia teaching our students some skills to help them with their athletics in preparation for the upcoming carnival on September 7

Primary STEM Festival Highlights

Jo Dunn on 30/08/2018

As part of Science Week 2018 (Week 5), students in Kindy – Year 6 were involved in a STEM Festival. The day was implemented to reinforce the important key learning area of Science.

The STEM activities were designed to complement the National Curriculum in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths by demonstrating the link between what’s taught in the classroom and the wider world.

Students were given the opportunity to put their creative thinking into action, learn how to collaborate effectively, challenge their designs and celebrate successes and failures. All of the notions mentioned shed light on our schools Vision for Learning, Shine through Discovery.

There were a variety of activities that the children completed over the day, with each being located in different classrooms across both Campuses. The children rotated every 40 minutes and were instructed by different classroom teachers whom organised a STEM based activity.

Throughout the day, there were a number of guest speakers from our wider communities whom presented on an aspect of STEM to the students and how it relates to their industry today. A special thank you to Mr Tony Stahl (Rocktape), Mr Mick Button (Rusty surfboards), Ms Tori Dewa (Qantas) and our Secondary School Science teachers Mr Shuckstes and Mr Spriggins.

KINDY – The Kindy students worked in the new Ideas Lab with some lovely Year 10 students. The children had a STEM challenge to build a chair using recycled materials that would hold a bear. They used a wide range of skills and had lots of fun.They all worked collaboratively to design and create some very comfy chairs for some lucky bears.

YEAR 1 – Year 1 had the challenge of designing and making a chair out of newspaper and alfoil to hold a small toy.

YEAR 2 – What a wonderful day the STEM Festival was for everyone in Year 2! The day was full of excitement, challenge and LOTS of thinking to complete the different tasks in each classroom! Some of the tasks were building a house of cards, a house of sticks that couldn’t blow over, building a tower of buttons, a bubble blowing device, and a paper cup challenge with no hands. It was impressive to see our student engineers collaborate, modify designs, problem solve, and persist until challenges grew to successes! The most explosive part of the day happened just before lunch when our super scientists Mr Shuckstes and Mr Spriggins conducted some sensational experiments with rockets, dry ice and different kinds of liquids. It was great fun watching the rockets take-off but….who knows where they landed! At the end they exploded some plastic bottles with dry ice and hot water. We didn’t know when it would explode, but when it did…wow! We all jumped nearly as high as the rockets! Such an amazing day where full of great learning for all!

YEAR 3 – We had a Ready, Aim, Fire!! Challenge – To build a catapult and then catapult an object into a stationary cup.

YEAR 4 – The Year 4 classes had a fun and challenging day making bridges out of spaghetti.

Year 5 – The Year 5 unit completed three engaging and fun STEM activities. In 5 Blue the students had to construct a mini trampoline to bounce a ping pong ball on. The group that could bounce the ping pong ball the highest were the winners. In 5 Green students had to construct a spinning top. The group that made their top spin the longest were the winners. In 5 Red students had to construct a geodesic dome which had to stand unsupported. The strongest dome was the winner. All year levels completed the activities well with some great adaptations of materials. There were lots of original designs and ideas.

Renae Zelich and Katya Anderson, Teacher Leaders

Student Reflection

Our first challenge was to create a marble run using pipes, tape, paper and cups. We had limited resources so we had to get creative. We started rolling paper up to make more pipes and used cups to catch the marble and transfer it to another pipe.

Our next challenge was to create parachutes out of a plastic bags, string and paper clips. There were some silly designs (some people just threw a piece of plastic in the air) but most of them were pretty good. After recess, we gathered for the paper plane challenge! We made models and raced them to see which one would go the furthest. There was one design, created by Pippa Simpson which won the competition.

After suffering many paper cuts, we all moved to the Marist Auditorium to listen to our guest speaker Tori, who spoke about how a plane flies, her position at Qantas and her previous position in the navy helping to fix helicopters.

After lunch, we had to make a trampoline that could bounce a ping pong ball the highest. We used balloons, cups, pop sticks, elastic bands, pegs and plates. While I slaved away trying to create something that would work (it failed miserably), the others in my group created a much better trampoline that bounced the ping pong ball pretty high.

The festival ended with two guest speakers. Cooper Button’s dad was first up and talked about the making of surfboards and how they float on water. Then it was Jack Stahl’s dad who talked about rock tape, the science behind it and how it stretches and lifts the skin from the muscle to help reduce bruising.

The day was very interactive and engaging allowing us to collaborate, investigate and have fun.

Charlotte Evans, Year 6 Student

Term 3 Week 6: From the Deputy Principal | Learning and Staff Development

Jo Dunn on 30/08/2018

How do our Teachers and Support Staff support our students to be engaged and creative?

Creating is the act of generating new ideas, approaches or actions and the process of applying such creative ideas in a specific context. Critical and creative thinking are integral to activities that require students to think broadly and deeply using skills, behaviours and dispositions such as reason, logic, resourcefulness, imagination and innovation in all learning areas at school and in their lives beyond school.

Our Vision for Learning – Shine through Discovery, supports teachers and support staff to encourage creativity by

Ensuring that students have a strong foundation of knowledge and skills as a gateway to discovery.
Providing a safe learning environment in which students are encouraged to take risks and think beyond the classroom.
Encouraging questioning, initiative, decision-making, problem-solving, independence and collaboration.
Fostering higher order thinking in both individual and group activities.
Using a variety of learning strategies to support the learning purpose and promote creativity.
Providing the opportunity for choice in learning environment.
Promoting critical thinking skills by engaging in strategies such as Thinking Hats.
Facilitating different types of assessment demonstrating differentiation, individualization and personalization in learning

Creativity Shines – Andy Quilty, Artist in Residence

Our 2018 Arts Festival celebration kicked off this week with Artist in Residence Andy Quilty commencing his teaching residency at the College. More information about this exciting program is available here.

Book Week

Students have enjoyed a wide variety of activities during Book Week across all year groups. From author visits and dress-up parades to quizes, riddles and book writing. More details and photographs of these wonderful activities are available here.

Code of Conduct

A reminder to all families that the Code of Conduct can be accessed via the College website here. The Code is mandated by Catholic Education Western Australia and the application of the code extends to all staff, students, parents, guardians, caregivers and volunteers and extends to all forums including social media and email forms of communication. The Code seeks to value the dignity of every person, foster positive relationships, ensure confidentiality and accountability and support professional boundaries. Events held during school hours AND outside of school hours that are associated with the College are also supported by the Code. Any perceived breaches of the Code can be discussed with any member of the Senior Leadership Team.

All families are reminded that if they have a concern about the education or wellbeing of their child, they should contact the College directly. We are always willing to support families, but school matters must be managed by the College. It is not appropriate to contact other families about concerns you have about their child. Please direct these matters to the classroom teacher, Leaders of Wellbeing or any member of the Senior Leadership Team.

The College recognises the convenience of year group Facebook pages that are moderated by parents. This is an excellent platform for sharing information involving College events and requirements. It is not appropriate to use social media platforms to seek clarity on teaching and learning or to debate College policies. Please refer these matters to your child’s classroom or PCG Teachers, or a member of the Senior Leadership Team.

We thank you in advance for your understanding and support of how we strive to partner positively with each other.

NPCC Meeting- Monday 3 September (Week 8)

The Senior Leadership Team looks forward to welcoming parents to the Newman Parents Consultative Committee meeting on Monday 3 September. The usual format will apply as outlined below:

Report from the Senior Leadership Team
Report from the NPCC Executive
Feedback Session

College Psychologists Jon Laden-Wearne and Denise Bendotti will present to the parent community on the benefits of practicing gratitude and how teachers are engaging with the Annual School Improvement Plan Gratitude Project to foster student resilience.

This forum is held in the Marist Auditorium, commencing 7.00pm.

Artist in Residence Commences at the College

Jo Dunn on 30/08/2018

Our 2018 Arts Festival celebration kicked off this week with Artist in Residence Andy Quilty commencing his teaching residency at the college. His workshops exploring an experimental approach to drawing and art making were conducted with students in years 2, 10,and 11 at Marian and Marcellin campuses. Our Arts team of staff and staff from Bunbury Catholic College, also Marist educators, also participated in an inspiring professional learning opportunity workshop to experience Andy’s approach and drawing techniques that serve to inspire freedom within art making.

Andy will return to the college on Thursday August 30 to work with Year 5 and 6 Art extension students at Lavalla and collaborate with year 12 Visual Art students to create a wall mural using experimental art techniques. This mural will be inspired by the 2018 National Marist theme of “Hope”.

The year 12 collaborative Mural will be presented to the college community at the Art festival opening, along with a portrait of Marcellin Champagnat drawn by Andy Quilty, and commissioned by the college. Brother John and Brother Terry met with Andy to talk about Marcellin Champagnat, to share his life, his teachings and Marist spirituality with Andy, to inform the portraiture work and ensure the piece reflects the spiritual life of our Newman College community.

Join us at the Newman College Arts festival opening October 10th to celebrate a showcase of student artistic talent and on October 12th at the parent evening Art Soiree to enjoy the professional Jazz band, canapes and cocktails whilst immersed in the student’s art.

Andy Quilty’s art works will also be exhibited and auctioned during these Arts Festival events.

Maree Grayden, Leader of Learning Arts PK-12

Term 3 Week 6: From the Dean of Wellbeing

Jo Dunn on 29/08/2018

Integration of hands-on learning and unconventional learning materials.

The College has an extensive elective curriculum which complements compulsory curriculum. Elective curriculum can give teachers more flexibility in assessment and pedagogy. Fostering soft skills is becoming increasingly important for employers, adult learning and for high functioning teams. Across the life of the school, students are challenged to be creative within the classroom and beyond; animating our Vision for Learning – Shine through Discovery, in many different learning environments.

STEM

One of our major goals in education is to prepare the next generation to succeed in life. One of the corner stones of this preparation is to teach children how to think critically and solve problems. Educating students in STEM subjects prepares them for life regardless of the profession they choose to follow. Critical thinking and problem solving skills can be used throughout life to help them get through tough times and take advantage of opportunities whenever they present themselves.

Problem solving activities tend to excite students about education whilst teaching them how to cope better with the world around them, and how they can change and shape a better future for the planet. We want to ensure that our children are equipped to succeed in a changing world. As we are constantly being made aware that many of the jobs our children will undertake in the future do not exist today. This is why students need exposure to a broad array of disciplines so that they are exposed to the problem solving skills required in each area. Critical thinking is a skill that is impossible to teach directly but must be intertwined with content. Greater exposure and experiences that students receive in problem solving should develop and enhance their critical thinking skills.

At Newman College we are identifying existing and creating new areas of curriculum where STEM thinking regularly occurs. We are also creating co-curricular and extra curricular opportunities through clubs and special events where students can participate, and we are fostering community and industry partnerships with the school to provide more STEM experiences and opportunities for our students to Shine Through Discovery.

Please click here to see photos from Science Week activities on the Marcellin Campus.

ASDAN

The Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN) provides flexible and engaging programs. Qualifications are endorsed by SCSA and help young people develop skills for learning, work and life. This year the Year 9 Education Support Students have been working on the ASDAN Key Steps Program, creating a webpage about themselves showcasing their talents and skills. They have also discussed different subjects they would like to study and made a podcast about this discussion. This week they are using these skills from the unit to look up possible jobs and careers they would like to work towards.

The Year 10 Education Support Centre students are also working on an ASDAN program, Work Awareness giving them skills and knowledge to align with their introduction to the work experience program at school. Year 11 and 12 students are currently working towards a certificate in Personal Safety. This program is giving them the tools to keep themselves safe both now and after they have completed their schooling. ASDAN certificates contribute to a student’s portfolio of evidence and may be used towards future study and/or training.

RUOK? (Are you OK?) Day

On Wednesday 28 August the College will be participating in RUOK Day. RUOK Day is a national day of action dedicated to reminding everyone that any day is the day to ask “Are you ok?” and support those who may be struggling with emotional problems and mental issues. Students are asked to accessorise with the colour ‘yellow’ on the day.

Guest Speaker, Glen Gerber will be addressing the Year 10 and 11 cohorts and there will be a lunchtime concert for all students to raise awareness.

Academic Achievement Awards

There have been some outstanding results from our Semester One Academic Reports.

This week many students received Academic Excellence Certificates from various courses. The criteria for receiving a certificate is to gain an ‘A’ grade and being in the top 10% of the course.

A very special mention to the following students who received the highest number of certificates in their respective Year groups:

Year 7: Benjamin Borgas – 8 certificates
Year 8: Makenzie Williams – 10 certificates
Year 9: Isabelle Hu – 7 certificates
Year 10: Kate Broderick, Tatenda Makova, Joshua Timmings – 7 certificates
Year 11: Alexandra Cavanagh, Isabelle Pang – 6 certificates
Year 12: Siena Monterosso – 5 certificates

We congratulate all the students who were awarded Academic Excellence Certificates. It is a significant achievement! Please see a full list of the recipients Academic Excellence Awards.

Just Start IT

Just Start IT is an entrepreneurial competition that puts Year 10 students in the driving seat to create and launch a mobile app that solves a problem that faces our world today. Students are placed into teams consisting of hackers (the programmers who have the technical ability to execute ideas), hawkers (the business people who know how to best pitch the project) and hipsters (the people with outstanding design skills who keep a close eye on what is “cool” in the market) and work together to make their technology startup a reality in a niche of their choice.

This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to delve into the world of business and to develop their team management, partnership negotiation and break-even analysis skills; everything a successful contestant on Shark Tank would need to demonstrate! We cannot wait for what our creative students will come up with as their exciting journey begins!

Uniform Expectations

Students are reminded that tour jackets (Marist Carnivals) are not part of the College uniform. Details of the College Sport Uniform can be found here . Black socks are not part of the uniform and I ask for the support of all families to ensure students are correctly attired.

Newman College New York Arts Tour 2019

Newman College Arts students in Years 10,11,12 are invited to join us on the Newman College New York Arts tour 2019.

This invitation is extended to year 10,11, 12 visual art, music, drama and dance students enrolling in Arts courses for 2019.

An information meeting will be conducted on Monday 3 September in the Martist Auditorium Studios 1 & 2, 7.00pm to 8.00pm. The tour company and our Tour Director will present the proposed itinerary, costs and all organisational details associated with our proposed Tour. Confirmation of the tour will be dependent on the level of interest expressed by the Newman College community. Students will be invited to apply for a limited number of positions.

Arts curriculum will be the focus of our tour. This Arts learning will be realised through practical workshops and Arts experiences, in conjunction with participation in iconic New York tourist experiences. The tour will conclude with a retreat experience at the Marist Brothers retreat in Esopus.

The tour departs Perth on 3 July returning on 17 July 2019. The approximate cost of the tour is $7,000. This is all inclusive; food, travel, accommodation, workshops, Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, tourist experiences, Arts events and Marist retreat.

Parents and students are invited to come along to listen to the proposal, ask questions and express an interest in attending the tour.
If you are unable to attend this meeting but would like to receive an electronic copy of the tour proposal please email maree.grayden@newman.wa.edu.au Any queries regarding to tour may be directed to Maree Grayden Leader of Learning Arts PK-12.

Year 12 – Important Dates

Term 3 – Week 1

Wednesday 19 Sepember – last day of normal classes
Thursday 20 September, Year 12 Celebration Day, Year 12 Celebration Assembly and final day of school activities – No normal classes.

Semester 2 ATAR Exams

The Semester 2 ATAR Exams begin in the second week of school holidays – Monday 1 October through to Friday 12 October.

Term 4 – Week 2

Monday 15 October – no Year 12’s at school
Tuesday 16 October – ATAR Feedback Day (No school for General students)
Wednesday 17 October. – ATAR Feedback Day (No school for General students)
Thursday 18 October – Graduation Ceremony Day – includes Graduation Assembly, Graduation Rehearsal and Graduation Ceremony.

VET Completion Dates

Year 12 students completing a Certificate II or III must submit all work by Thursday 20 September. Students who need to make up work, due to their workbooks not being 100% correct will need to come back during the second week of the holidays from Wednesday 3 to Friday 5 October.

Year 11 Leadership Program

This week marks the last leadership formation session for Year 11 Leadership participants. Over the past four weeks students have engaged with a number of topics such as the benefits of a growth mindset, leadership in a Catholic context and as a calling, leadership for learning and leadership for overcoming challenges. Applications for leadership positions close on the 31st of August with an interview process to follow.

Year 10 – Pathways (Onsite Applications and Interviews)

All year 10 students undertaking the general pathway must complete a portion of work experience. Application forms for the Onsite program were handed out during subject selection interviews. Students wishing to participate in the Onsite program must attend a selection interview with the team at Onsite. These interviews will take place on Monday 3 September here at the College. Students wishing to apply and sit a selection interview must complete and submit an application to Mrs Fink no later than Thursday 30 August. Once application forms have been received students will be allocated an interview time. If students need another application form, these can be collected from the Pathways office.

Year 10 Camp

The Year 10 students had a wonderful time at Nanga Bush Camp in Dwellingup. While the weather was wet and stormy most of the time, students were still able to be challenged with activities such as rock climbing, riding a zip line and bush walking. The students also participated in a variety of trust games.
I commend the students for being so resilient with the changes that occurred as a result of the changing weather conditions and thank all staff who attended.
Click here for more photos and student reflections.

Year 10 Peer Mentoring

This week Year 10 students have been encouraged to get involved with the very successful Peer Mentoring Program. Students ‘buddy up’ with the incoming Year 7 2019 students of the same guild with the aim to make them feel welcome and safe in their new surroundings. Year 7 2019 students will come to three Orientation events before the end of this year. Monday 8 October is the Orientation Day and Tuesday 30 October and Tuesday 13 November are the two workshop afternoons where our Year 10 students have organised ‘Getting to Know You’ activities and fun games. More information on the Mentoring Program will be sent out in the near future.

Years 8 and 9 Electives

Year 8 elective subject selection forms are due to be completed no later than this Friday (Week 6) 24 August. If you have not already done this, please ensure you complete the online form. Please refer to the message sent to all parents in Week 4, Wednesday 8 August, which outlined the procedure.
Year 9 subject elective selection forms will be sent out to parents on Friday (Week 6) 24 August. Forms are to be completed online and submitted by Friday (Week 7) 31 August.

Years 8 and 9 return of Laptops

To assist with the update process and to carry out warranty repairs, students in Years 8 and 9 are required to return their Macbooks on the final day of school in Term 3, Thursday 20 September. Mr Simon Martino, LOWB Year 8 and Mr Mat Puljiz, LOWB Year 9, will oversee the collection of the laptops. Laptops will be returned to students on the first two days of Term 4.

Year 7 Gratitude Program

Our focus this term in Year 7, and across the School, has been on developing Resilience. The ability to cope through life’s challenges is a necessary skill, and no more important than in your first year of high school. Our goal and focus is to build our student’s ability to work through the inevitable challenges that they face in order to function well and have the ability to overcome difficulties, take risks, and connect to other people.

Resilience is centred around three key concepts; Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness. This term we have focused on building positive habits around Gratitude. On a weekly basis, students have explored the concept of Gratitude and complete a weekly Journal to record experiences/moments/people that they are thankful for. The Journaling does not have to be overly significant in order to have meaning, it could be as simple as a sunny day, the bus coming on time, or the moment a friend made them laugh. It is in the simplicity of recognising what we have to be thankful for that helps build their resilience.

Homework Club

WACE Wednesdays: Throughout Weeks 7 and 8, WACE Wednesdays will continue running during Homework Club. There are a range of workshops on offer for Year 12 students to help them in their preparation for their upcoming Semester Two and ATAR examinations. The timetable is included below: