Week 7 Update

We are hurtling through the term at a great rate of knots! Lots is happening in team 7 & 8...

Midsummer Night's Dream: Excitement is building as we draw closer to our performance evening on Thursday December 6th. Most students are providing their own costumes, please ask your child if they have got themselves organised with this. In week 7 we are combining all of the academies; drama, dance, music, singing and visual art, to bring the show together. Many thanks to those who have sent along green fabric for our trees, we now have enough.

Attitude Afternoon: Last week we had a talk with the children about three things that they need to focus on as we head towards the end of the year. Making good choices about what we say to each other and not passing on rumours (coming to a teacher with concerning information rather than passing it on); staying out of classrooms at break times and maintaining a positive attitude to learning, being a responsible class member. We have introduced a points system, when all classes reach their points target we will have an 'Attitude Afternoon' to reward their good behaviour. The afternoon will include choices of; a movie, sport and outside games and playing on electronic devices. There will be a permission slip to sign in regards to the movie, this will come home the day before. The students have responded and we are pleased with how well things are ticking along in Year 7 & 8 at this time of the year. Roll on Attitude Afternoon!

Pool Day: A notice will be coming home next week about our end of  term pool day at Jellie Park. This will be on Friday Dec 7th, the day after our performance evening. The day starts with the final PRIDE assembly at 9am, then we will head off to Jelly Park at 10am, returning by 3pm. The children will have the option of hydro-sliding (extra cost). Hopefully summer temperatures have returned by then!

Year 8 Final Assembly & Prize Giving: An invitation will come home to Year 8 families about this celebration within the next week. Please send the reply back quickly as we need numbers for the lunch that follows the assembly. Thurs Dec 13, starting at 11am. Year 8 children finish for the year following the lunch.

Self Defence: Over the past two terms all of our girls have spent 5 afternoons developing self defence skills. Their feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. A huge thanks to Lynda Maindonald who brings the Self Defence Project to our school free of charge. We will continue to offer this biannually to our girls. Some of the girls' feedback...

• This course should continue through Beckenham because it prepared girls for future happenings. I feel like I can do anything now.
• This course makes girls my age feel stronger, safer and more confident. I want to thank everyone who made this course, it made me a powerful girl.
• It was fun, I learnt heaps and now I feel more confident and aware.

Electronics Day: 12 Year 7 students had a very inspiring and exciting day on Monday as they worked with electronics ambassadors to create electronic Christmas trees that played music and flashed lights. This model of learning, provided by Future in Tech, is superb; students work in small groups with an expert in the field. They put together circuit-boards, soldered it all together and programmed their devices. There was lots of opportunity for discussions about working in the electronics industry.