Starting high school comes with mixed feelings for both students and families as the excitement and anticipation is often accompanied by apprehension. For the students at Gymea Technology High School, day 1 at high school saw students excited and connected as they worked alongside Peer Leaders and teachers through engaging activities, building relationships ready for a successful year.
Gymea Technology High School has a distinct advantage in that our students, drawn from 30 different primary schools, have already become accustomed to the school and each other after a very successful Head Start to High School program. Those in-school sessions, back in term 3 and 4 of last year, brought about a very important familiarisation for both families and students, set the tone on the expectations for successful learning, and importantly, built positive relationships so that students and teachers alike got to know each other. Underpinning quality teaching is knowing our students and the partnership that our families have so strongly supported from the beginning of that transition and continuing into this first school year of high school has helped connect us together to set up a very strong start for Year 7.
The first day of high school was focused on a number of activities that prepared students for the academic journey including navigating timetable classes. It was also focused on building positive relationships with peers and teachers through strong and enjoyable team building exercises while building expectations surrounding socially responsible behaviours. Students embraced technology on the day as they engaged in some activities in the technology centre and smiling as our digital media students created wonderful ID photos for each of them. They each enjoyed a wonderful barbecue lunch prepared by teachers as a welcome to year 7.
These activities will continue for Year 7 as they learn more about high school, embrace the new learning approaches and navigate a successful journey ahead.
Another program important for Year 7 and unique to Gymea Technology High School is the Skillup program. The school’s strong performance in both literacy and numeracy with student’s mathematics, reading and writing is in no small way supported by the Skillup program. A dedicated subject called Skillup appears within their timetable and is focused on these learning basics that will support their success across all of the key learning areas.
In week 4, Year 7 will receive their first weekly progress summary that identifies not only their progress with literacy and numeracy, but their engagement in class, with their online homework and their participation across the school.
A strong start to what will be a wonderful year for each of our year 7 students. A warm welcome to all of our year 7 students and their families to Gymea Technology High School.
