Year 8

Reminders

• If you did miss out on the opportunity to speak with a specific Yr 8 teacher at the Parent Teacher Night last week, please contact that teacher directly to arrange a phone call or Zoom meeting. 
• A cell phone policy in Yrs 7-10 has been sent out to all teachers and students. The expectation is for students to turn their cell phones off and keep them locked away in their lockers or in their bags throughout the school day, between 8.20am and 3.20pm. As students are currently allowed to carry their bags with them from class to class to reduce the congestion in the locker area as a COVID-19 safety measure, it does pose an additional temptation to students with cell phones in their possession throughout the day. Teachers are reminding students to turn their phones off and to keep them in their bags to avoid this temptation. Those students on their phones are having their phones confiscated and placed in the Year Advisor office for pick up at the end of the day. Thank you in advance for assisting in reinforcing this message at home as well. 

Year Advisor Email on Managing Difficult Conversations

Please take note of the email sent home this week regarding navigating and managing difficult conversations with your teenager. At this age, students are starting to discuss and explore various topics and it is important for parents and other trusted adults to think through and create a space for students to talk openly, honestly and without judgement. These conversations can be tricky, challenging and embarrassing, yet extremely important.

Last term in the Yr 8 Pastoral Program and this term in PDHPE, these difficult topics are being discussed through the lens of risk-taking and responsible decision-making.

ICAS

Students who have been registered for the ICAS Science Assessment would have received an email last week from Mrs Bryant. The assessment will be held at 8.00am on Monday 17 August. Yrs 7 and 8 will be in LH 3.3 – LH3.4 and Yrs 9 and 10 in LH 3.5. Please try to be 15 minutes early. Students are reminded to bring their laptops with them and to check the technical requirements prior to the day. Note that the Science assessment doesn’t require a secure lock-down browser. If you have any queries, please contact Mrs Simone Bryant, Assistant Science Coordinator.

This Week

This has been a very eventful week in the Science Department as Yr 8 students were testing the amount of pressure a watermelon can withstand before exploding by placing several elastic bands around the centre of it.  As photographed below, a very brave group of Yr 8 students placed the last two rubber bands around the watermelon, Ashley Stapleton and Yumi Konetzny, while other Yr 8 students, including Hugo Little via Zoom from home, watched carefully to note the moment of explosion. 

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