MIddle School LIfe Week

Year 7

On the Monday of LIFE week, all year 7 students completed the first leg of the Camino Salvado, which had been started a few weeks before. We walked from Banks Reserve in Mount Lawley to Guildford. All students walked happily in groups, and we made such fantastic progress that we finished earlier than anticipated. Tuesday was spent in Guildford, exploring the history of the settlement through visits to Woodbridge House and the Historical Precinct. Students also completed a treasure trail around Stirling Park. This enabled them to understand the historical links between Guildford, one of WA’s oldest settlements and Ellenbrook, one of WA’s newest settlements. Wednesday was spent in small groups either walking or riding around Ellenbrook to visit some of the pre existing artwork around Ellenbrook. Several students exclaimed that they didn’t know there was so much art work around Ellenbrook. The rest of the day was spent brainstorming and coming up with a final design idea for their piece of art. The students worked together in their groups on Thursday to create their art. Some pieces were completed on the Friday. On the Friday all students wrote a persuasive letter to the City of Swan to explain why their art work should be displayed in Ellenbrook, as an English assessment. They all made an iMovie of the week’s events, before sharing a sausage sizzle with their parents and proudly displaying all of their hard work from the week.

Year 8

LIFE Week for Year 8 students is centred around the theme of 'Gratitude and Stewardship,' and focuses on Dom Rosendo Salvado, patron of Salvado house. The week began with all students completing a section of the Camino Salvado pilgrimage and also experiencing a retreat run by the team from Middle School Ministry. These days allowed the students time to connect with each other and with nature, whilst also preparing themselves for the exciting days ahead.
On Wednesday morning, the students departed for three days at New Norcia. 2015 was a landmark year for Holy Cross, as it was the first time in the camp's history that the students cohort has occupied both buildings, which marks an exciting point in the school's growth. Once in New Norcia, the students explored the beautiful old school buildings and soaked up the sunshine with some fun on the basketball courts.
Over the course of the three days, the Year 8 students were able to complete a range of activities including building stone axes and mia mias, picking fruit in the orchards, tasting fresh biscotti in the bakery and learning how to find bush tucker. They were warmly welcomed by the monks and the New Norcia staff, all of whom went out of their way to teach the Holy Cross students something different about their lovely town. Group activities such as campfires and quiz night created a friendly and positive atmosphere and the students impressed the townspeople with both their behaviour and their engagement with their learning.

The New Norcia camp focused around the Big Ideas question for Winter Term 'How can we re-energise the past?' and required the students to chose an area or building in New Norcia and convert it using 21st century sustainability standards. These plans will then be presented during the students' very own episodes of 'Grand Designs,' where they will introduce their audience to the town and explain the changes they would make. The students enjoyed choosing their area of focus and have already come up with some creative solutions to New Norcia's sustainability challenges. We look forward to viewing the finished products at the end of the term.
LIFE Week was an engaging, challenging and enjoyable experience for the Year 8 students. It enabled students and staff to consolidate their relationships and allowed the students to develop their capacity for independent work. This year was another reminder of Holy Cross College's wonderful relationship with the people and history of New Norcia -  a relationship that we hope to keep developing many years into the future.

Year 9 LIFE

During LIFE Week, Year 9 students followed the ‘Yellow Brick Road’ and took their learning outside the classroom as they explored the big question: Where is the Great City of Oz? Students spent the week either in the City of Perth or in Sydney and Canberra as part of the College’s inaugural Sydney-Canberra Tour.

As part of their Big Ideas project, students focused on exploring the heart, brain, courage or imagination of at least one of the cities of Oz and LIFE week provided them the opportunity to develop their understandings and make evaluations of the city or cities they visited.

The Perth City experience saw students visit the Francis Burt Law Education Centre as well as compete in Yellow Brick Road challenges at Perth Zoo, Scitech or the Bell Tower. Students also discovered the heart and brain of the city at Parliament House and they had opportunities to discover a wealth of information about Perth city at the State Library of WA. Their week also included a visit to the Perth History Centre, tours of either St Mary’s Cathedral or the Art Gallery of WA, Mass at St Mary’s Cathedral and a focus on Kings Park in which students explored the Memories and Memorials trail.

The week ended with an Italian Lunch and bocce games at the Perth Italian club. The students who visited Perth City were provided with the opportunity to develop some independence and gain a deeper understanding of their capital city through the lens of heart, brain, courage or imagination.

LIFE Week 2015 also set the stage for the College’s first Sydney-Canberra tour for Year 9 students. A group of 20 Year 9s travelled much further afield to visit the “Great Cities” of Sydney and Canberra. Their journey took them first to Sydney, where they visited Darling Harbour, The Rocks, Mary Mackillop Place and the Sydney Opera House as well as St Mary’s Cathedral and the Sydney Jewish Museum. The journey to Canberra took in the Australian War Memorial, Parliament House and the Museum of Australian Democracy, Questacon, the National Archives and the Australian Institute of Sport before heading to Smiggin Holes where students were treated to one and a half days of skiing or snowboarding. For many students it was the first time they had seen snow. By the end of the tour, students had a deep appreciation for what made Sydney and Canberra two of the “Great Cities of Oz” and they had found many examples of heart, brain, courage and imagination.

Over the next few weeks, students will complete their cross-curricular inquiry into the heart, brain, courage or imagination of a great city of Oz and they are producing research journals, multi-modal books and photo narratives which will be showcased during Senior School transition week next term.