From the Middle School

Ms Jade Cuningham will be supporting the Middle School team as Acting Head of Year 8 for Term 4. Jade currently works in the Middle School to support the team and will be of great value temporarily stepping in for Theresa Mimmo as she moves into her new role as Deputy Head of Boarding.

This term, our Year 7 students have had the opportunity to apply for the role of Transition Leader, an important role that sees our students work with our incoming Year 6 students. This year we saw an unprecedented number of applications. Selected students have attended training and begun the first of the Year 6 into 7 Transition Workshops. In these workshops, they built rapport with Year 6 by undertaking the team spaghetti tower challenge, shared their experience of beginning Year 7, worked to dispel untruths of high school and shared some top tips. The leaders will run two more of these lunchtime workshops, a Compass Lesson, support the Middle School team in the running of parent information evening, Links Day and Year 7 Orientation.

Below, three of our Transition leaders share their experiences of their lunchtime workshop.

The experience was a really great time for both of us, being the leaders, and the Year 6 students. I think that the Year 6 students learned a lot about the transition from Year 6 to 7. We first started with a spaghetti tower challenge and a Q&A. Finally, we told them the false rumours about years, such as it’s difficult to make new friends. They learnt what to do if they have any issues, how you move from class to class, and some simple things, like where the bathrooms are and where the Middle School office is. Overall, I think the experience of hearing about the other point of view from my transition partner was interesting. I believe that the Year 6 students will have a very smooth transition into Year 7.

Written by Peyton Ashton

Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to lead a group of Year 6 students with my transition leader partner through some fun tasks and activities. I enjoyed getting to know them better as well as talking to them about how they feel as they transition into Middle School. It was a great experience filled with many laughs and smiles. At first, I was a bit nervous to see how they would react but as I met them, I was greeted by very friendly and respectful people. Overall, I learned a lot about leadership through this workshop and I enjoyed getting to know everyone.

Written by Rachel Lin

Last week during transition day with the Year 6s, Peyton and I were able to introduce the Year 6s to Middle School and give them a brief overview about how things worked and helped them understand that most of the negative rumours that they have heard are untrue, we also answered some of their questions and told them about how amazing middle school was. Peyton and I also were able to do a fun activity with the Year 6s and the activity helped us to bond with them a lot and understand some of their worries and concerns. Overall it was very fun and I really enjoyed meeting new people.

Written by Thalia Wang

Congratulations to the following students elected to be 2024/25 Transition Leaders.

Danielle Hu	Chelsea Duan
Janet Song	Ludovica Iacovelli
Chloe Sun	Esha Marwah
Isabella Afarin	Jing Yan Chung
Diyana Palihawadana	Yenyu Chan
Thazin Naidoo	Emiliana Barry
Chloe Teoh	Cadence Wong
Penelope (Polly) Hargraves	Eloise Gavagna
Eden Ni	Anika Verma
Jennifer Kurniawan	Isabella deane
Victoria Lai	Penny Xing
Amber Lewis	Gabrielle Chan
Kaylene Chiu	Lyann Shih
Aliya Singh	Amber Lewis
Summer Zhou	Ellie Lau
Isabelle Ha	Athena NG
Hannah Zhao	Sydney Zhou
Amelia Hanstrum	Jessie Leung
Sherise Tam	Arabella Hoang
Ella Zhou	Imogen Marquez
Madeleine King	Duola Lin
Chloe Deng	Qiana Joisce
Zoe An	Chloe Xiong
Charlie Slater	Peyton Ashton
Amelia Blaiklock	Thalia Wang
Lucy Liu	Kayla kIM
Isabel Fan	Sarah Asgari
Mia Chen	Naomi Chan
Phoebe Toynton	Rachel Lin
Autumn Wang	Mikayla Yang
Emma Ouyang	Zarah Ali
Georgia Blue	Arissa Lin
Reese Zhang	Ariana Singh
Neve Anderson	Lauren Chen
Georgina Lewis	Molly Hardiman
Athena Wu	Ariel Lau
Faith Hedley	Natalie Wang
Charlotte Pang	Emeline McGovern
Amelia Quarmby	Sophia Guo
isabella deane	Chloe Saya
Adele Cassidy	Gabrielle Guo
Sophia Yeong	Gabbi Chan
Zoe Alphandary
Arden Liceralde

Garden Party Update

Each year, the Middle School creates hampers or gift baskets to sell at the Garden Party. Year 7 and Year 8 students can also volunteer to work at the Middle School stall on the day in shifts until we sell out of baskets. Due to the generosity of our students and their families, the stall is always very profitable with all proceeds donated to the college’s charity, The Barbara May Foundation.

This year, each House colour has been assigned a different basket theme. Your daughter may have already shared this with you. A list of themes can be found below.

Working in small groups, students have time across the week during Compass to plan and build their hampers/baskets.

Year 7 have been asked to bring in their items for their basket by Week 9, September 18 and as Year 8 are attending their Outdoor Education program in Week 9, their hampers/baskets need to be completed by Week 8, September 12.

Melissa Jeurgens presented to Year 7 on Tuesday. The girls were engaged and took a lot from her practical approach sharing information about healthy eating.

Melissa is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian and a Sports Dietitian. In addition to her clinic at Narrabeen, Melissa works with the GWS Giants AFL and Giants Netball as their head Sports Dietitian. It is Melissa’s mission to simplify diet and nutrition and help people see food as more than just calories. A balanced diet should not deprive you of foods you love but instead help you to be the healthiest, happiest version of yourself and enable you to thrive in our ever-changing world. Our Compass team will conduct follow up activities on Thursday.

Congratulations

Isabel Fan (Year 7) achieved some amazing results at the Australia National Eisteddfod in Canberra last weekend. She was awarded a first, second and third place across a variety of solo categories. Isabel’s passion and talent for music is so impressive. Well done!

Ayla Gorton (Year 8) is to be commended on her efforts to support and build awareness about the Women’s Resilience Centre in Mona Vale – which helps women who have survived domestic violence. She had the opportunity to attend a radio interview this week with her father where she shared her passion for helping others.

Here’s Ayla’s reflection from the day:

My dad commenced his fundraising for the Women’s Resilience Centre earlier this year by committing to run the very difficult Larapinta Trail in Alice Springs, an 82-kilometre train run.

Prior to the run me and my family visited the Resilience Centre and were given the privilege to sit in on a talk with some of the women who had been affected by domestic violence. I thought their stories were very touching. They all showed such amazing resilience and strength in face of everything they’ve been through.

My dad has now raised $120,000 which we are extremely proud of. As a family in support, we ran the Beach to Beach DY to Newport, a five-kilometre run. Yesterday, we were interviewed by the Northern Beaches radio station, where my dad and I discussed the importance of giving back to the community. All in all, it was a great experience.

Congratulations also to Eliza Lawton (Year 8) who was recognised at the Combined Assembly on Tuesday by Ms Rockwell, our Acting Principal. Lizey demonstrated a very strong commitment to our college values when competing at a National Athletics Competition in Tasmania over the weekend. Her selfless decision to care for others and demonstrate deep compassion is a testament to her character. Thank you, Lizey.

A reminder the Subject Selection Presentation will be held online on Thursday 12 September at 6.00pm for Year 8 2025 and 6.30pm for Year 9 2025.