Wellbeing Year 7

Year 7 Camp

February 21st and 22nd saw almost all of our 204 Year 7 students travel together to the Collaroy Centre on the northern beaches for what is sure to be one of their highlights of Year 7; their first High School Camp.

Students participated in a range of activities over two days including; kayaking, standup paddleboarding, abseiling, high ropes course, laser tag, bubble soccer, archery, and rock climbing. 

It was a great opportunity for the students to get to know their peers, and teachers better, with many commenting that they made new friends over these two days and that it was a good opportunity to meet students from other homerooms.

On behalf of the girls, we would like the thank the following teachers; Miss Breeze, Miss Tan, Mr. Culbert, Mrs. Samperi, Mrs. Hicks, Mrs. Yuen, Mr. Mcbride, Mr. Lenehan, Mrs. Reddy, Mr. Isaac, Mrs. Xuereb, Mrs. Pineda Garcia, Mr. Cetinkaya, Mr. Cetinic and Mrs. Cooper.  These teachers gave generously of their time and without their support, the camp would not have been the success that it was. 

Year 7 Meet and Greet Night 

I would like to express my gratitude to the parents and caregivers that gave their time to attend the Year 7 Meet and Greet Evening on Wednesday. It was a fantastic night to be able to meet in person and begin to build the important relationships between staff and parents/Caregivers. 

If you were unable to attend I encourage you to reach out to your child’s Learning Advisor and start to develop a relationship with them. They are a wealth of information and knowledge on all things St Andrews and a great first port of call for most things. A list of the current Year 7 Learning Advisors is below:

Peer Support 

As previously mentioned during Term 1 students will be involved in the Peer Support Program. Each week, groups of 8-10 students will meet with 2 Peer Leaders and work through a range of activities that focus on a variety of different aspects of student life. Meeting in small groups allows meaningful connections to form, assisting students with the transition to secondary school. 

Over the last three weeks, students have focused on the transition to high school and looked at coping strategies to help make the transition as easy as possible. The skills they have learned will hopefully continue to be of use as they continue their learning journey. 

This week students begin to explore the idea that how they view themselves and their challenges, can affect the outcomes of these situations. Students discuss helpful ways to view challenges. They consider keeping things in perspective, separating emotions, and ascertaining facts to accurately identify the problem to be addressed. Students may, at times, feel overwhelmed by the expectations of secondary school. Encourage them to make a list or write a plan to help identify smaller tasks to make a large workload more manageable. It is important they feel supported while being encouraged to independently prioritise their responsibilities.

Overall, our new Year 7 students are settling in well and have made a great first impression at the college. I am looking forward to seeing them fully adjust to the new school setting in the near future. 

Mr. Jarryd Leaves
Leader of Wellbeing Year 7