Year 8

Key Dates

  • 9 June – Swimming Carnival
  • 6 June – Heritage Week
  • 13 June – Queens Birthday
  • 16-17 June – Senior Music Festival
  • 21 June – Athletics Carnival
  • 24 June – End of Term 2

ISA Cross Country Representatives

Congratulations to all of the Yr 8 runners who competed in the ISA Cross Country Carnival held at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre. It was inspiring to see so many Yr 8 students challenge themselves to race in the tough conditions – the course was muddy, slippery and arduous! The following students are to be commended for their participation:

  • Isobel Campbell
  • Scarlett Cortes
  • Heidi de Saxe
  • Toby Healey
  • Ethan James
  • Amber Kusano
  • Ethan Lee
  • Sachin Lipscomb
  • Landon Mansell
  • Henry Preece
  • Lachlan Price-Pontifex
  • Olivia Price-Pontifex
  • Arkie Riches
  • Max Taylor

da Vinci Decathlon

On Tuesday 24 May a group of Year 8 students took part in the da Vinci Decathlon via Zoom. These students worked exceptionally hard on some very challenging papers. Particular highlights were the Year 8’s independence throughout the day and their efforts on the English and Science papers. The following students are to be congratulated for their enthusiastic participation:

  • Etta Buggy Axton
  • Leah Chung
  • Heidi de Saxe
  • Tessa Griffiths
  • Toby Healey
  • Lucinda Maher
  • Elizabeth Whelan
  • Ingrid Rowe

 

Yr 8 Study Skills

As part of our Tutor sessions in Term 2, Yr 8 have been focusing on how they can best approach and plan for their assessment tasks. Students have been supported to use a term planner to input their assessment dates, and in workshops the Tutors have run through some key strategies to help students prepare for upcoming tasks. This week, we focused on:

Study Summaries

Follow these steps to make useful summaries:  

  1. Look through all material on the topic; your class-notes, worksheets, textbook.  

  2. Make a list of the main headings or sections. 

  3. Create a mind map overview for the topic. 

  4. For each heading, read through the information and highlight the key points.   

  5. Write down the key ideas in point form (in your own words if you can!).  

  6. Try and put information into lists or tables when you can. 

  7. Re-do a particular section if you feel the information is not clearly organised.  

To make effective study notes:  

  • use point form notes as much as possible, avoid long sentences  
  • rephrase the information in your own words  
  • only include relevant information  
  • make notes neat, legible, easy to read, well set out with a logical structure  
  • improve layout with wide margins, different colour and headings, box key points, numbering etc
  • loose leaf sheets are useful as can rewrite sections, add in extra information
  • summarising is a never ending process, keep refining, improving, adding in  
  • your summary must be comprehensive and include all information needed  
  • mind maps: one page visual overview of the topic  
  •  

Dr Tessa Opie – ‘Respectful Relationships Education: At School and in the Home’

On Monday 23 May, Dr Opie delivered an information evening on Relationships and Sexuality Education to Redlands parents and carers.

Dr Tessa Opie is the founder and director of inyourskin® and is an advocate for healthy and consenting relationships. She has extensive experience in education delivery and training facilitation. Tessa has worked as an educator across the government, not-for-profit, and private sectors, and has ongoing experience as a guest lecturer at various universities.

Her approach is sex-positive, evidence-based, and harm reduction-focused. It requires participants to actively consider their relationship values, attitudes, and expectations, in a social climate that feeds us often misleading messages about sex and relationships.

In August, Dr Opie will run a half day workshop for Year 8 students at Redlands. The content of this session will be age appropriate and tailored specifically for each year group in line with our relationships, consent and sexuality education curriculum. Further information regarding the structure and nature of this session will be made available closer to the date.

Secondary School Photos – Monday 6 June and Wednesday 8 June

Photos for the following cocurricular groups will be held in the Fahl Garden on Monday 6 June: Music ensembles; Drama, Visual Art and Ballet and Dance Academy (The wet weather venue on 6 June is the Edwards Auditorium). On Wednesday 8 June photos for the following cocurricular groups will be held in the Fahl Garden: Music Ensembles and Debating. (The wet weather venue on 8 June is Redlands Hall). Schedules for the photos will be available from the relevant departments and activity coordinators.

Yrs 7 to 12 Year Group Photos will be taken on Wednesday 8 June in the Fahl Garden. Period 1 – Yr 7; Period 2 – Yr 8; Recess – Yr 12; Period 3 – Yr 10; Period 5 – Yr 9 and Period 6 – Yr 11.

Catch-up Student Portraits will be taken on Monday 6 June. Students who missed a portrait photo during a previous photo day can attend from 10.30-11.05am at the level 2 presentation space in the Redlands Learning Hub.

All students are required to be well-presented in full school uniform, including blazers. Students are reminded to bring their Redlands student ID cards to each photo for efficient scanning and identification.

Mrs Lucienne Willis
Yr 8 Advisor
lwillis@redlands.nsw.edu.au