Year 6 - Have you got questions about high school?

We are very excited to announce that we are introducing a brand new uniform for next year’s Year 7. Families will be able to purchase the new uniform from the uniform shop at Waratah Campus. We’ll send you more details when the uniforms are ready. 

We are expecting about 215 students in Year 7 next year. Across the whole school there’ll be approximately 900 students.

Approximately 25-27 students.

Waratah Campus is bigger than your primary school so there’ll be more walking between classes that you are used to. Having said that, our buildings are multi levelled so it’s very manageable to get to each class on time within the 5 minute changeover time between periods.

Our teachers work really hard to get to know all their students so they can tailor the work (including homework) to where you are at in your learning.

If you are struggling or have concerns about any aspect of your school work (including homework) we encourage you to talk to your teachers about your concerns as soon as you can. Tell them what you find challenging and what support you need.

Our school also has a Learning and Support team who are available to support students who are experiencing learning or wellbeing difficulties. Your family can discuss with your teachers if they think you need this additional support.

Our Mathematics teachers offer additional maths support every morning from 8:15 - 8:40am before classes. In these sessions you can get help with maths homework, classwork, designing summary sheets and revising for assessment tasks.

You’ll be introduced to all your teachers and we generally ask you to call them by their surname e.g. Miss Mansfield, Ms King, Mrs Maher or Mr Morrow. If you can’t remember your teacher’s name, you can just call them ‘Miss’ or ‘Sir.’

We are very lucky to have a great canteen at Waratah with a good variety of items. You can read what's available on our canteen price list.

We are very excited to announce that we are introducing a brand new uniform for next year’s Year 7. Families will be able to purchase the new uniform from the uniform shop at Waratah Campus. We’ll send you more details when the uniforms are ready. 

We commence our school year with Year 7 starting before all other year groups, to allow you to become more familiar with the school and meet the staff and your new peers before all the other students start back for the year.

The first day will start in the hall with an assembly where you will receive your timetable, find out your roll call groups and classes. 

The focus of the first 2 weeks will be about connecting, learning to get around the school, learning to use Canvas (our online learning platform), following a timetable, learning high school processes and procedures and peer support. 

You don't need to worry about getting lost because our Peer Support Leaders will take you to all your classes and introduce you to your new teachers. 

Absolutely! Year 7 girls can trial to play in our Campus team for the Bill Turner Cup 15’s and under competition. In addition, you can participate in the Year 7 Soccer Gala Day and there maybe a Futsal Gala Day next year for you to get involved in too.

If you choose Sports Academy or CrossFit as your Year 7 elective, you will also have an opportunity to attend a Multi-sports Gala Day (which usually includes soccer) hosted by students from our Jesmond Senior Campus.

Visual Arts is one of the core subjects you will study in Year 7. It covers the topics ‘Portraits in Art’ and ‘Signs and Symbols.’ As part of these topics, you will have the opportunity to explore different styles of art, including Cubism and Functional Ceramics.

If you have a specific passion or interest in Art, you can also apply to do Visual Arts EXCEL as your Year 7 elective. In this subject you complete two body of works that are self-directed, which means you have a lot of control of what you make and explore in your artmaking.

We recommend you watch the video about our Creative and Performing Arts faculty on our website.

There are loads of opportunities for learning in Science at Waratah Campus and you can choose how much you get involved. As a minimum, all Year 7 students will study Science as one of their 7 core subjects. In this subject you will explore units on matter, separation techniques, living things, energy and space.

If you have a particular passion or interest in science, you may also apply to study one of the electives from our EXCEL STEM stream. We offer Construction in Minecraft, Executive Chef, Exploring Future Technologies and Maths in the Real World. Check out the EXCEL electives page on our website for more details.

We also recommend you watch the video about our Science faculty on our website. 

We are structuring our school day slightly differently next year. There will be 4 classes in a day.

The Year 7 team at Waratah Campus work really hard to make sure your classes provide opportunities for old and new friendships to flourish. We liaise closely with your Year 6 teachers to decide on the best class placements for all students.  

We commence our school year with Year 7 starting before all other year groups, to allow you to become more familiar with the school and meet the staff before all the other students start back for the year.

The first day will start in the hall with an assembly where you will receive your timetable, meet key staff, find out your roll call groups and classes.

You won’t do lessons as such on your first day but you will participate in activities to help you get to know your new year group, find your way around and understand our school’s processes and procedures.

When it’s time to attend classes, our Peer Support Leaders will be available to help you find your way.

Orientation Day will be spread over two days. All students enrolled to start Year 7 will attend Orientation on either the 23rd or 24th November 2021. We will send out more detailed information next term, including which day students from your school will be attending.

Yes! Year 7 are encouraged to participate in our athletics, swimming and College cross country carnivals.

There are school buses that deliver students to and from school every day. More specific information will be provided in your Orientation Day information packs.

We are in the process of restructuring our campus timetable for next year. At this stage, we can tell you that we will have four periods a day next year. Lessons on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday will be 75 minutes long and Wednesday lessons will go for 6o minutes. We can give you more details about break times at Orientation Day. 

There are loads of different opportunities if you enjoy sport. You can try out for our representative rugby league, soccer, netball (girls), basketball, cricket (boys), Touch and Futsal teams. Year 7 also feature in our College Swimming, Athletics and Cross Country teams.

Everything is up in the air with school camps and excursions at the moment. We are hopeful that we will be able to provide these experiences for Year 7 next year, but that will depend on the COVID-19 conditions for schools at the time. Whatever happens, we will find ways to connect and build new friendships.

Our school sport coordinator will make sure you have all the details to make your sport choices in the first few days of school next year. There is a lot of information to take in when you first start, so we will also guide you through the process of submitting your sport choices.  

We are still working on the 2022 timetable but most Year 7 students will have around 3 core teachers (1 teacher for English/HSIE, 1 for Maths/PDHPE and 1 for Science). You will also have different teachers for mandatory Technology and Applied Science (TAS), Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA), your EXCEL elective and sport. In addition, you will have library lessons with our Teacher Librarian and wellbeing activities throughout each term with our school's wellbeing team.

Your first stop is likely to be your class teacher and then your Year Advisor, Head Teacher of Wellbeing or Year 7 Deputy Principal. We have a tight support network and encourage you to call out early if you are troubled about anything! Year 7 will also have a peer support leader they can approach for help with smaller issues.

In Year 7 and 8 (stage 4) you will study Mathematics, Science, PDHPE, Languages other than English (LOTE), Human Society and its Environment (History and Geography), Creative and Performing Arts (Music and Visual Arts), Technology and Applied Science (TAS), as well as your chosen EXCEL elective subject. In addition, Year 7 will participate in Sport, library lessons and wellbeing activities.

We have passed the deadline date for elective preference submissions. However, if you contact our EXCEL Elective Coordinator, Miss Rose before Friday 3 September she may be able to assist you to make a change. Miss Rose can be contacted via our Administration Office on (02) 4968 1939.

You will find out your elective for Year 7 later in term 4. 

You will receive your timetable and find out your teachers for next year on your first day of Year 7.