A huge congratulations to all students across Year 9 who participated in our recent Swimming Carnival held at the aquatic centre.  I would like to give a special mention to Sarah Nicolson who broke records in the 25m Backstroke and 25m Breaststroke and to Miss Attard for her efforts in organising and supporting such a wonderful carnival on the day.  Students across Year 9 who weren’t competing on the day stayed at Kings Meadows and were supported to continue teaching and learning programs taught mostly by our Year 9 team. 

Students in Year 9 have commenced NAPLAN testing this week and our staff have spent a significant amount of time making sure that all devices are fully charged, working to their full potential and that timetables and learning environments are supportive of engagement and participation for students during testing. We wish all students the very best during their testing this week.

Our average attendance across Year 9 at the end of last week was sitting at 90% with illness affecting some students.  As always, we will endeavour to check in with students who have unexplained absences or are away for extended periods of time to remove any barriers they may be facing and to support their engagement and wellbeing at school.

In our last Year 9 grade meeting our staff discussed the importance of acknowledging the ‘effort’ that our students are putting in during the school day.  Recognizing students' efforts, rather than solely their achievements, fosters a growth mindset and enhances motivation. When students perceive that their hard work leads to progress, they are more engaged and persistent in their learning. This approach not only boosts self-esteem but also cultivates resilience, leading to improved academic outcomes.

As a result, each teacher of Year 9 students will endeavour to give one or two students across the week a ‘Chip Champion’ card or an ‘Incredibly Good Human’ card with a feedback statement on the back highlighting the improved effort that was noticed.  These feedback statements will also be celebrated on our foyer screen anonymously with the hope of further creating a positive and uplifting environment while helping students learn that effort looks different to different people.  Our ‘Incredibly Good Human’ cards will be given out to students who we notice are treating others with compassion, kindness and help when needed as a way of building and strengthening healthy relationships amongst peers. 

Before I conclude our Year 9 report, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of our staff in updating and improving the learning plans of students in our year group.  We will continue to work as a team over the coming weeks to make refinements to these plans and will be further consulting with parents over the coming weeks to make sure there is a strong sense of partnership and consultation in their development.  This year all students in Year 9 with a learning plan will have a ‘student voice’ component included where they share their strengths, challenges, goals and important information with staff who will be teaching them. 

We hope parents and students find these improvements to the way we develop learning plans, supportive of strengthening our team-based approach towards personalising learning and wellbeing outcomes for students across our year group. 

YEAR 9 CONTACT DETAILS: