Wellbeing Year 7
From the Leader of Wellbeing - Year 7
Year 7 has now passed the halfway point in their first term of High School. Overall they have continued to transition well to college. However, the transition period is quickly closing and the expectations of Year 7 will begin to increase as they now settle fully into life at St Andrews.
Learning and Wellbeing Focus - Organisation and Home Learning
Over the next few weeks, Year 7 will be focusing on the importance of organisation and home learning. The skills that we will be focusing on are key in their progression through the learning journey and the aim is to provide students with the tools they need to achieve their best.
It is important that Year 7 establish a strong ‘Home Learning’ routine early in their high school career. Home Learning at St Andrews is designed to support the College’s Learning Framework. Home Learning plays an important role in facilitating continual improvement in student learning. It is suggested that students in Stage 4 (Years 7 & 8) plan to complete up to 60mins of home learning every week day.
Examples of Possible Home Learning Tasks:
- Writing summary notes
- Practice exam-style questions
- Editing and refining written work for submission
- Readings from texts and/or novels and reading for enjoyment
- Revision questions from completed units of study
- Self-directed research assignments and major works.
- Complete physical exercise challenges
- Rehearse lines for the play or for a public speech/presentation
- Practice playing musical instrument(s), rehearse with band members
- Constructing/contributing to their Learning Journal - reflections on their own learning
- Watching a video clip/news segment posted on the Google Classroom
- Revision of unit content to be followed by a quiz in the next lesson.
Year 7 have been provided with time, during their Wellbeing period, to work closely with their Learning Advisor to begin to construct ‘Home Learning Timetables/Plans’. It would be beneficial if you could follow up this process with a conversation around these ideas and ensure that students are focusing on the planning and implementing home learning.
Student Accomplishments
At St Andrews we love to highlight student accomplishments and successes. We want students to be proud of the amazing things that they achieve and always share these achievements with Mr Leaves so that we can include these in the newsletter.
This week we have the opportunity to celebrate the achievements of Elijah Andrew from Learning Group B6!
Elijah has been selected as one of only 20 junior riders from across Australia to race in the 2022 Oceania Junior Cup (OJC). This is a fantastic achievement and we are keen to watch Elijah as he races throughout the year.
Please see the report of the event below of the first round action:
Google Classroom
Google classroom is an essential tool for all students here at St Andrews. It is also equally important that parents and caregivers have access to the platform to make sure they are aware of the work that is taking place by the students and anything that is missing or has not been completed.
Over the next few days, the administrative staff here at the college will be working to send an invitation to all parents/caregivers to allow access to the Year 7 Wellbeing Classroom Page. By accepting access to this page you will then be automatically invited to all classroom pages that your son or daughter is enrolled in.
This will allow you to receive a weekly update on the progress of your child and help them keep on top of the high school workload.
If there are any issues with this process please feel free to contact Mr Jarryd Leaves.
Mental Health Workshops
Transitioning to high school can be a really challenging time for students and it can sometimes be very challenging to deal with the mental health challenges that are presented by your sons and daughters.
Here are some free online workshops run by headspace for parents/caregivers, to help you provide even more support to your child's mental health this year.
CLICK: Mon 14 Mar - 12pm – 1:15pm - Communicating with my young person
CLICK: Mon 21 Mar - 6:30pm – 7:45pm - Helping my young person during COVID
CLICK: Thur 7 Apr - 6:30pm – 7:45pm - Helping my young person during COVID
Other dates are available for various areas in NSW. Sessions are all online. Other dates/
Mr. Jarryd Leaves
Leader of Wellbeing Year 7