Year 8 News

Year 8 News

The start of the term was extremely busy with high school visits and our very own Balmacewen Open Night.  Hopefully the decision about which high school to attend next year didn’t cause you too much worry and stress.  Dunedin is truly blessed with quality secondary school options and students do exceedingly well wherever the end up, especially if they have a positive disposition to both people and learning.

A huge focus for our year 8 group at our Assemblies has been looking at an “Above the line” approach to learning.  This is where the students are open to learning, work collaboratively, and are curious and creative.  Alongside important life skills such as connecting with people and directing their own learning it certainly gives the students the template to be happy and successful in life.

Both teachers and students have enjoyed the last 2 weeks where we were able to fully engage in our Term 3 Topic.  Our focus this term is Impact and our two driving questions the students will be exploring are...

• What impact do I have on my environment ?

• How can I make a difference?

We will be implementing a number of project based learning activities for the students to investigate these questions. From the performing arts, to eco-homes, reducing our use of plastic… it promises to be a hive of activity in year 8.

Rory from Attitude NZ came in this week and talked to the students about keeping safe online. This is especially relevant to our Year 8 cohort as this is increasingly a major stress concern for our students.  Having open and honest discussions with your child is the number one tip he gave to safely navigating this tool.

Kind Regards

Year 8 Staff