Head of Junior Years

At Good News we are blessed with parents who support our teachers in the work which they do.  Not only do they support the teachers but also their children as they grow and learn in many ways.  This article contains some tips for this very important job.

Supporting School Learning at Home

When parents support school learning at home, this shows our children that we truly value education and the school. Your job as a parent is to encourage them, support them and challenge them to learn and do their best. If you can instill in them the mindset that learning is a process, that is positive and enjoyable, they will grow up to be lifelong learners who thrive on challenges.

• Parent involvement in educational activities with their children, is associated with improved educational outcomes for all students
• Children at all ages, with parents interested and involved in their learning, have a clear academic advantage
• Children do not stop needing their parents because they get older, or because lives get busy
• You don’t have to be strong academically yourself to have an impact on your child’s education. Evidence shows you just have to be supportive and positive about learning.

Top tips

1. Read with your child from an early age and encourage a positive attitude to learning from reading – both books and online.
2. Promote a positive mindset in your children to help them see the benefits and enjoyment that can be found in learning and improvement.
3. Don’t put too much pressure on them. Encourage them to be as good as they can be and help them plan how to improve.
4. Be willing to help with homework, even if that just means asking them questions.
5. Let them be independent learners and be there to support if they want to do the home learning themselves.
6. Encourage them to see mistakes as an important part of the learning process and help them to see how to use their mistakes to learn.
7. If homework is causing stress or arguments, put it aside and take a break and try again later. 

Acknowledgement: Dr Bruce Robinson: “Your Support of Learning Impacts Your Child’s Results at School” in The Fathering Project, February 2022.

Term 4 is always a busy one and our students have continued to learn through a variety of different activities.

Chicks in Prep

The Preps were delighted to receive 2 chicks and 8 eggs in an incubator to enrich their learning about living things.  They waited patiently for the chicks to hatch and were risk-takers as they learnt to hold them very gently.

Prep and Year 1 Reading

Our Year 1 students have been practicing their fluent reading skills by reading out loud to the Prep students. It also gave the Preps an opportunity to spend some time in their 2023 classrooms.

Year 3 Universe

The Year 3 students thought long and hard about a name for their learning space and came up with the perfect answer, as they began to explore their latest unit of inquiry about the Solar System when the Year 3 Universe was created.

Year 4 Incursions and Excursions

The Year 4 students visited Narana Aboriginal Cultural Centre.  Narana means a deep listening and understanding and aims to promote reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, by developing a better understanding of culture through community connections.  This was the perfect way to finish a unit of inquiry where the students had been building their knowledge about indigenous perspectives and Australian history.  The emu chicks and learning how to throw a boomerang (so that it comes back), were highlights of this day.

To dive into their final unit of the year, the students participated in a Democracy, Community and Me incursion where they learnt about different levels of government and actively participated in a mock local council meeting. They then created triaramas which illustrated local, state and federal levels of government.  This unit culminates in the students applying for 2023 Year 5 Leadership roles.

APSMO Maths Explorers

The APSMO Maths Explorers programme allows students in Years 3 and 4 to collaborate with their peers and work together to make decisions about the way they explore a problem, regardless of their abilities. All our Year 3 and 4 students participated for the first time this year. They all received a participation certificate and those achieving a perfect score were presented with a cloth badge at the Week 3 Assembly.

Next week’s assembly features the Year 5 students who will present some of their learnings and actions from the PYP Exhibition, which was held on Thursday 3 November.