Year 8

This Week

As a Year Group, our students will be contributing to thanking the essential workers in our community as a Pastoral effort from Yrs 7-12. Yr 8 will be sending letters to our local delivery services, including our nearest Australia Post locations. We have an eager group of students helping to organise this effort and appreciate all of their support and enthusiasm in writing these very important messages.

Thank you to all parents who participated in Brett Lee’s presentation on Cybersafety earlier this week. While students are spending more time online with remote learning and modern technologies, his message was even more important. He shared valuable information and resources while reinforcing the message that the internet world works very much like our physical world and our teaching and discussions with students about rules and structures online should highlight these parallels. A few notes and resources are below.

Brett Lee’s Cybersafety Presentation

This webinar was designed to empower parents with the knowledge and strategies to support their sons and daughters to be as safe as possible when online. He encouraged parents to set clear rules and boundaries, to always make the final decisions, to use management controls, to stay up-to-date with their children and their technology usage (what are they using and when) and to communicate with their children regularly about what they are doing online. This all begins by starting the conversation, including:
What? All programs, apps and websites
When? Time limits and occasions for using these devices
Who? Restrictions on who they can/cannot connect with
Where? Where it can/cannot be used
How? Language that is acceptable online and what to do when there are problems

Further information for parents on Gaming, the Dark Web and 5 Principles to Stay Safe Online can be found on Brett Lee’s website, www.internetsafeeducation.com .

Careers Week

Next week is Career’s Week at Redlands and all students are invited to participate in two guest speaker presentations through the Zoom links in the attached flyer. Yr 8 will also participate in a special Careers Matching Game next Friday and they are all invited to participate in the Great Debate taking place at lunchtime. Registration for this event is open to all students through the Library iLearn page.

Study Skills Tip For May

While some students and families have embraced remote home learning, others are still struggling with certain aspects. Dr Prue Salter has released a video series answering the most commonly asked FAQs to help Yrs 7-12 families make the learning taking place at home as effective as possible this term. You can access this series here: https://pruesalter.com/RHL/RHL.php

The one hour session is broken into 17 bite sized chunks of mini-videos.

Topics covered are:

How can families make the home environment a better space for learning?
How much schoolwork should students be doing each day?
What is the best way to approach the day’s learning?
How involved should parents be and what if they also have to work at home?
How important is it to stick to the curriculum?
Any specific advice for senior students?
What if students have trouble learning this way?
What should senior students do if they feel they are disadvantaged?
How can students stay motivated to do their schoolwork at home?
How can students stay more focused in online lessons?
What do you need to know about webinars?
How much screen time can students have outside of schooltime?
What can students do outside of their schoolwork to be more effective learners?
What are the top tips for parents?
What are the top tips for students?
Where can you get help from?

www.studyskillshandbook.com.au, Username: redlands, password: 68results

Ms Alissa Ynson
Yr 8 Advisor
9968 9863
aynson@redlands.nsw.edu.au