Glen Waverley Primary School Level 5 Newsletter

Welcome to Term Four

Dear Parents and Guardians, 

 

Welcome back to another engaging term of learning. We begin this term energised as we look forward to reflecting, connecting and continuing to build our leadership skills and transfer in learning! 

 

Please take a few moments to read what learning we have planned for this exciting term.  

 

Important dates  

  • Tue Nov 1st – Melbourne Cup Public Holiday  
  • Thu Nov 3rd - Whole School Fun Run  
  • Mon Dec 12th - Moving Day 
  • Tue Dec 13th - 2023 Day 
  • Wed Dec 14th – Reports go live on Compass 
  • Wed Dec 14th – Scienceworks Excursion  
  • Fri Dec 16th - Class Parties 
  • Tue Dec 20th - Last day of school, 1:30pm finish 

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING 

To enhance our Social and Emotional Learning (You Can Do It), we are going to utilise the Student Voice that our Junior School Council Representatives shared with us at the end of Term Three. Our students would like to focus on confidence, leadership qualities, and adaptable friendships as we transition into Year Six. Keeping these themes in mind, we are going to plan YCDI learning that our students can use to build an understanding of how friendships can be fluid and it’s okay for them to change throughout our time at Primary School, leadership qualities and how you can still be a leader without a badge and confidence, how this looks different for everyone but it is still something we can all build.  

 

To support your child’s learning at home, you could encourage them to:  

  • Discuss their weekly YCDI focus and personal goal which has a focus on friendships, confidence and leadership 
  • Ask them ‘How could you transfer this into your home setting? Encourage them to take a risk and try something new. 
  • Engage in conversations about disappointment and ‘bouncing back from challenge’. 

ENGLISH 

During Term Four, students will reflect on their personal, positive qualities and experiences that would make them a suitable candidate for a leadership position. They will apply this understanding of themselves to create formal writing that is ‘engaging, honest and speaks directly to an audience’.  Further to this, they will analyse inspirational historical speeches and past GWPS School Captain speeches to guide their ideas and structures when creating their own. In Reading, students will perform a deep analysis of texts, as a result, they will learn how to determine the authors purpose, use schema to connect with texts and pay attention to how the author has used punctuation.   

 

To support your child’s learning at home, you could encourage them to:  

 

Share a job/university application with your child and discuss; 

  • the use of formal language to communicate your ideas  
  • what makes the author stand out in the application  
  • examples of how you connect personal traits with leadership qualities. 

 

MATHEMATICS 

This term in Mathematics, students will continue building their ability to track progress through the SURF strategies Menu. They will continue their exploration of Financial Maths, with a focus on Best Buys, Percentages and the language within it. For example, they will develop their understanding of how to compare the price of products to determine the best value and they will also investigate the differences between ‘percent of’ and ‘percent off’. Students will be learning about Patterns and Algebra with a significant focus on real-life transfer of learning. They will be contextualising expressions and equations in order to understand the purpose of their use. Through real life pictorial representations, learners will form connections to unknown values. 

 

To support your child’s learning at home, you could:  

  • Ask them ‘How did you get to this answer?’, ‘Is there another way to solve this?’, ‘Why/why wasn’t your strategy efficient?’ 
  • Take your child shopping and ask them to compare similar products, asking them ‘Which would be the best value for money?’, ‘How do you know you are correct?’ 
  • Give your child a receipt from your shopping trip, asking them how they might work out percentages of the total, for example ‘What is 50% of the total cost?’ 

INQUIRY 

In Term Four Inquiry, students will be guided by the question “How do business and consumer choices about the use of chemicals in products impact the world around us?” They will explore where chemicals exist, the periodic table and elements found in the body. Students will also look into physical and chemical changes through investigation and experimentation. Following this, they will research what drives business and customer choices, the real-world impact of their decision making and how they can have a positive influence on world around them. 

 

To support your child’s learning at home, you could encourage them to:  

 

  • Look at different household items and consider the effect it is having on the environment, for example banana peels or soft drink bottles. 
  • Replicate experiments they have done at school to show you what they have discovered, for example ‘The Egg Experiment’. 

 

If you have any other queries or matters you would like to discuss with your child’s teachers please don’t hesitate to organise a meeting via email or in person.  Your child’s wellbeing is always at the centre of our thoughts and actions. 

 

We thank you for your ongoing support and assistance. We are looking forward to a wonderful term. 

 

Kind Regards, 

 

Bianca Liburti, Trish Singh, Kimberley Stevenson, David Joyce, Sarah Donald and Ryo Sugihara