Year 7 Articles ___________________________Pages

Year 7

You would have to be living on Mars to not be aware of the challenges that everyone has faced in this unique year of 2020. The first year of secondary school for the Year 7 2020 cohort will go down in history as one that will never be forgotten. Perhaps in many years they will be telling their grandchildren about the year of school they had where they barely attended the school. Their grandchildren will probably laugh in disbelief and say something like, ‘that would be awesome,’ probably using some other adjective that the new generation will have invented as part of their vernacular. However, we know that the reality has been difficult, for students, teachers and parents. Nevertheless, whilst it has been a year like no other and far from the expectations of 336 excited young people about to begin the new phase of their learning journey, the Year 7 students of 2020 have been brilliant. They have demonstrated flexibility, resilience, innovation, collegiality and good humour throughout the course of 2020. A tumultuous year? Yes. Did the students rise to the challenge? Most definitely. We are very proud of all the Year 7 students of 2020. Term 1 provided the most ‘normal’ term of the year. Students were able to grasp aspects of the life and culture of St Joseph’s College. Their enthusiasm and participation in the Swimming Carnival and on Athletics Day was admirable. The students were participants and witnesses to a group of nearly 2000 students and staff coming together to celebrate the vibrancy of its community. The level of participation was high and there were some terrific achievements too.

At an early year level assembly, students were treated to a visit by Jordan Kamara Edwards -Gunditjmara, Aranda and Wathaurong man. He is the traditional owner/cultural advisor at Wathaurong aboriginal co-op and also the elected south west region Victorian treaty assembly member. Students participated in a smoking ceremony before they entered the gym where they learnt more about the significance of an Acknowledgement of Country and a Welcome to Country. The College’s possum skin cloak project was also presented to the students and its significance explained by Lisa Couzens. This presentation really helped students gain a deeper shared understanding of Australia’s Indigenous people’s history and its connection with SJC culture. Whilst not all students were able to attend the YMCA Lake Dewar camp in Term 1 due to the onset of COVID, those that did had some memorable experiences engaging in various fun activities, such as the flying fox, gorge walk, mountain biking and kayaking. Thankfully, those who missed out in Term 1 were able to spend a full day at Lake Dewar in Term 4 taking part in a similar activities program – a very fortunate opportunity in such turbulent times. Despite the challenges of remote learning, students still embraced many opportunities to participate in the life of SJC. Some of these opportunities included: • Service Learning • The Winter Sleepout • ACC virtual cross country challenge • Book week • The Virtual Run Australia Challenge • Various skills challenges such as the soccer skills challenge or juggling a golf ball on a club • The Movement and Well Being program 2020 has been a vastly different year to what anyone could have anticipated, yet amongst it all Year 7 students have remained positive and embraced their first year of secondary school. The broader competencies that students have had to develop this year will stand them in good stead for their future years. This is only the beginning of their secondary journey and the opportunities looking forward are exciting. We are very grateful for the support that parents have provided for 2020. It is a team effort and your support of your son’s teachers and your sons cannot be underestimated. We wish Year 7 students a wonderful, relaxing and safe break. We look forward with optimism to the promising opportunities that 2021 will bring.

Peter Malone and Meleah Zanos

Year 7

Remote Learning

This year has been crazy with remote leaning at home. The experience was great but we are happy to be back. This year has thrown many new experiences into the mix and remote learning was one of those. Just like anything remote learning had its ups and downs, personally we enjoyed remote learning. The parts we found good were sleeping in, the flexibility with work, longer lunchtimes and eating whenever you want. Something that wasn’t so great was not seeing your mates, the repetitiveness of it and having to email questions to the teachers.

Many would say they enjoyed remote learning and I am sure a lot would say that they preferred school on Campus. But we personally would say it had positives and negatives. One of the positives was that you could do whatever you wanted at lunch time, and one of the negatives would be that you had to sit in a chair and stare at a screen for 6-7 hours a day. But overall it was a good learning experience.

Oscar Dow, Xavier Martin and Fletch Grimsey-Cook, 7E

Year 7 Camp

Camp was the best thing we did in Year 7. With kayaking, raft building, and a massive zip line, it couldn’t get much better. The cabins were cozy, and the food was scrumptious. It was great to be out of the classroom and get to know our new mates. Also seeing the teachers in a new environment was good too. Our nights included trivia, a movie, and sitting around a campfire. Here the teachers jokes were terrible but their scary stories were better!

Callum Wiggett and Rindho Dunlop, 7E Disabled Surfing Association DSA at Ocean Grove Beach

On 2 March myself and my best mate Harry volunteered to help down at Ocean Grove for the Disabled Surfers Association of Australia. We were really excited to be able to volunteer to help these people experience riding a wave. Just to see how excited they were was truly amazing. On arrival we had to register and then get fitted for a rash vest and wetsuit. We gathered as a group down on the sand for a briefing, we were then split into groups. The disabled surfers were either brought down to the beach in wheelchairs or they walked with their carer. They were then transferred to the surfboard. They had to lie down on their stomachs and then the volunteers brought them out to us in the ocean knee high. As I mentioned above it was like a runway pretty much we were bumpers. If they were looking like they were heading towards us we would then assist and push the board back into the middle while they were riding the wave back into shore. Throughout the day we were offered sunscreen, fresh fruit and for lunch we could have either a sausage in bread or a hamburger. It was an awesome experience, Harry and I walked away feeling proud that we could share this amazing experience with these disabled surfers.

Oscar Budzynski, 7E and Harry Bugeja