Year 8 News: Cybersafety, Indonesian, Veritas Mentoring and Science

Cybersafety and the use of social media continues to be at the forefront of many  conversations with Year 8 students and their families.  The government link below offers a lot of information for families to view and discuss together on issues such as cyberbullying, protecting your personal information and image abuse.

https://www.esafety.gov.au/

Cyberbullying behaviour might include:

• Abusive texts and emails
• Hurtful messages, images or videos
• Imitating others online
• Excluding others online
• Humiliating others online
• Spreading nasty online gossip and chat
• Creating fake accounts to trick someone or humiliate them

There is also a useful article in this newsletter, Safe on Social Media.

CURRICULUM NEWS

Bahasa Indonesia Term 4

This term students have consolidated their learning around the different modes of transport found in Indonesia. They have also extended their knowledge around travel, map reading, locating places on a map and being able to follow directions, all in Indonesian.

Mentoring

In our Veritas Mentoring sessions this term, students are looking at the concepts of Alcohol and Drug Education as part of a harm-minimisation program titled ‘Harmful Behaviours’.  The program provides students with the opportunity to investigate both legal and illicit substances and negative consequences associated with their use. Students will be equipped with positive and empowering strategies to assist themselves and their peers in avoiding harm associated with these substances, mostly notably through knowledge and healthy choices.  All material is age appropriate and sourced from the Department of Education and Early Childhood development material.

In addition to the work completed at school, we strongly encourage all parents and carers, to discuss harm-minimisation strategies and healthy choices associated with alcohol and drugs with your son or daughter.

Science

As reported in our last newsletter, Year 8 students have continued to work on a group project to design and build a bridge. Students have a limited range of materials to meet a strict set of specifications. The students have incorporated their understanding of how forces act upon structures to create designs that will withstand as much load as possible when the structures are strength tested at the conclusion of the project. There are varying roles within the group including an Accountant, Architect, Engineer, Foreman and Project Manager and each group has been allocated a budget of $100,000 to use on materials for their bridge construction. The ultimate winner from each class group will be the bridge that has the best strength to cost ratio. The students have been thoroughly enjoying this task and the opportunity to apply their learning to a practical situation.

Mrs Jan Lake and Miss Cara Lewis, Year 8 Year Level Coordinators