Year 8 Connection Week

During the first week of term 1, Year 8 students engaged in a week-long program of activities designed to give our young people the opportunity to connect with their peers and their teachers known as Connection Week.

The program aims to allow opportunities for students to:

• Building Community and Fostering Belonging

• Developing Essential Skills

• Promoting Well-being and Resilience

The week began with students engaging in an extended session with their Mentor Teachers which was designed to set expectations, foster connections with their new classmates and teachers as well as foster their organisation skills by talking about the power of habit building.

The Ignatian Spirituality session allowed students to explore the ethos we strive to embody at the College, and tour the school for a better understanding of some of our iconography including the statue of St Ignatius (which takes pride of place at the front of the college), the artwork on the Loyola Building as well as many other sites around the campus.

The Police Presentation on online behaviour centred around how we can connect respectfully and safely in the online world. We were very fortunate to have this delivered by 4 members of the Victorian Police force including Shane Connolly and Mick Tatlock from Ocean Grove and Dee Kuchenmeister from the Geelong Community Engagement Unit.

Finally the Mentor Team Challenge gave students the opportunity to work as a team through a variety of challenges including games such as ‘Mute Line Up’, ‘Pictionary’, Minute Mysteries’ and ‘Guess the song’. In each activity students earned points for their Mentor group which were tallied at the end with the winning Mentor Group receiving a hot chip lunch!

Overall it was a week full of fun, connection and learning. A big thanks needs to go to the Year 8 Mentor and Subject Teachers for facilitating the week, Ms Jackson for her organisation and Mr Dillon for his assistance in ensuring the week ran smoothly.