Year 8

Sporting Excellence

While it’s not the outcome we hoped for, the Matilda’s efforts throughout the Women’s World Cup have had a wonderful impact on both womens sport in Australia and serve as a timely reminder of grit and grace in competition.

The impromptu ‘green and gold’ supporters day on Wednesday clearly highlighted the positive impact this event has had.

With this in mind we wish all of our Yr 8 students who are participating in a Grand Final this weekend the best of luck.

Starting to Prepare for Term 4 Examinations

While this may seem very early, being midway through a term often means that organisational systems start to stretch or break down. This happens as a result of a focus on assessments and difficulties in managing large content volumes in most subjects.

With the planned assessment block for Year 8 in Week 4 of Term 4 we will be encouraging students to do a ‘stocktake’ of their notes and learning resources over the next week with the end goal of making revision an easier process at the start of next term.

This should also be done as part of independent learning time each night, with part of this time dedicated to organisation.

This time could be spent:

• Re/organising digital resources – putting files into appropriate folders based on subject and topic
• Setting up personal notes – taking learning from class and translating into a preferred format e.g. a study book or a single Google Doc – in both cases there should be one per subject
• Developing flashcards for key terminology or language
• Starting to develop a study plan for the first three weeks of next term

Wellbeing Thursdays

One of the key focal points for our pastoral program this year has been on recognising the opportunities for wellbeing and community building that come with dedicated Tutor time each day. 

What originally started as ‘Fun Friday’ – taking some time out of the normal academic and extracurricular rigours of the day and enjoying one another’s company through activities including; trivial pursuit, card games, mindfulness colouring, basketball and dodgeball has begun to take on more of a life of its own.

We have passed the opportunity to students to have a voice in this, with a dedicated day (now Thursday) for students to plan for and run their own wellbeing and community-based activities in consultation with members of their group and their Tutors. 

The photos below provide a snapshot of this time spent during Tutor today.

Mr Tobias Horan
Yr 8 Advisor
9968 9872
thoran@redlands.nsw.edu.au