Year 7 have continued their exploration of Ancient Egypt, learning about a society from thousands of years ago who still captivate our imaginations today. Students are also learning how to analyse the reliability, limitations and overall usefulness of sources. This will help students think more critically about the information that is presented to them. 

Our Year 8 students are studying ‘Water in the World’ in Term 2, a topic that explores how this most precious resource impacts our lives and is managed through droughts and floods. This is an important understanding for Australian students to possess, exemplified by the floods in recent years and the prediction by meteorologists that we are heading into another dry spell over the next few years.   

This term Year 9 have undertaken a study of the World Wars and Australia’s involvement in these conflicts. On Monday 15 of May, students will be participating in an incursion; WWI - Fighting the Kaiser. This is a performance that incorporates songs, poems, letters, anecdotes and other sources to explore the experiences of the ANZAC soldiers fighting in World War One. The presentation covers experiences from Egypt and Gallipoli to the Western Front. This experience will enhance student understanding of WWI and Australia’s role within that conflict.    

In Geography, Year 10 have been studying coastal management and will also be attending an incursion presented by Professor Rob Brander, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW. This opportunity will provide year 10 students with a better understanding of the geological processes that impact our coasts, and suitable strategies to manage them. We look forward to welcoming Professor Brander in week 5. 

Our seniors continue to work towards their HSC, with Year 12 students now more than halfway through their courses. With prelim and trial exams fast approaching, it is important that senior students are continuing to focus on their work at school and undertake study at home. Like many things, if students can effectively work together they can improve outcomes for the whole group. John Hattie, a leading researcher in Education, rates peer feedback and group work as having a large effect size on student performance. This of course needs to be facilitated in a constructive way but students in HSIE often get opportunities to work together, as seen in Legal studies below where students recently worked on providing peer feedback on an essay task undertaken in class.