The new school year begins....
By Lisa Dixon | Posted: Thursday January 25, 2018
We hope everyone has had a great Christmas and Summer Holiday break and welcome back all our returning and new Year 8 students for 2018. It will be a busy start to the year as teachers and students begin the year developing new class relationships and routines. It is an important time to ensure that the start of the year sets the tone for a successful year ahead. There are so many opportunities and exciting learning activities planned for our Year 8 students and the challenge for all is to set goals and with a positive attitude make the most of their final primary school year.
To help you achieve the most out of this year, Balmacewen Intermediate has developed a values and skills approach to all activities. The School Values of Respect, Excellence, Perseverance and Kindness - PERK will be the cornerstone of everything we do this year as well as our SUPER SIX learning skills that we want to develop in our students.
These include…
Aiming high and striving for excellence
Working both collaboratively and independently
Being a critical and reflective thinker.
Persevering and being able to problem solve
Being organised and ready to learn.
Having a growth mind-set.
All classes will be unpacking these key of ideas of the skills and attributes that will contribute to their success and progress this year.
Our Term focus for our Integrated theme this term is called Adaptation. Through this unit we look at how our students adapt to a new classroom environment and expectations for Year 8 students and our main integrated theme includes looking adaptations and structures that enable survival of living things in a range of habitats. We will be heading out to the Aquarium to study marine animals and plants, the butterfly house at the Museum to look at tropical rainforest animals and plants and ultimately the students for their Term One Inquiry will invent and create an animal of their own for a habitat of their choice.
One key area of focus for Year 8 this year will be the ongoing Health programme of Cybersafety and the Digital Citizenship. Digital technology and PBL - Project Based Learning will also be a key element of our programmes,
We are looking forward to working with you with your child on their learning journey this year and look forward to the Meet the Teacher night (February 7th) where we can share more information about our programmes with you.
Year 8 Teachers