Teaching & Learning

Welcome back for term 3. Everyone has busily commenced the term and we are planning some great learning for term 3. Our focus this week will be on the Discovery Centre and how the different spaces have been set up this semester to support our Integrated Units. We will also take a look at the Maths and English content being taught at Concord this term and offer some hints for how you can help support this learning at home.

Discovery Centre

Our Integrated Unit through line for Semester 2 is the environment. Lower Primary students are learning all about sea life while our Upper Primary students are focusing on the farm and our secondary aged students look at feathers, fur & leaves and harsh environments.

Our amazing Discovery Centre is always used as a tool to support this learning and to give our students the opportunity to have some hands on multi integrated learning. This semester the Centre has been decked out to feature elements from all four learning areas. Our MILE room has a mini farmyard with a chicken coop where students can investigate how animals go from the paddock to the plate and work through a variety of hands on tasks to support their learning. There are also some native animals and plants from the Australian bush to support our Secondary 7-8s with their understanding of feather, fur and leaves and there are even traces of deforestation where students can study human impacts on environmental change. For the first time ever our sensory room has become part of the integrated design. The room has many furry, fuzzy and fluorescent features from under the sea and students can use all of their senses to explore what life is like several layers below the surface. Have a look at the attached pictures and remember to ask your child what they are learning in the Discovery Centre.

Maths In Term 3

This term our students are starting to learn all about money and financial mathematics. The skills that they are working on vary from simple coin sorting and exchange of coins for items to developing a financial plan. We find financial numeracy is of significant value to our students and the purpose for these skills is to develop some confidence and independence in our students.

As you know, all students learning is supported by repetition of skill and it is for this reason that support from home can help to consolidate a skill. With money, the act of shopping really supports students to develop these skills. Whether they are simply working on the initial skill of developing the confidence to exchange money for goods or they are ensuring they are receiving the right change practise makes perfect. If you do have the time we would love it if you could encourage your child to take a lead role when shopping.

English In Term 3

For the first few weeks of term three our students are learning how visual language can support them to read texts and make meaning from content. Developing our students understanding is a key element of their learning. We tend to break the comprehension into multiple elements and our focus over the next few weeks is how we develop that understanding through visual supports. Many of the texts that we read have visual supports to help us understand. Supermarkets and fast food franchises can be identified as easily by the symbol as they can by their written name. Newspapers have photographs to aid our understanding. At this time we are developing our student’s understandings around these concepts. To support at home you might continue with the shopping theme. Again depending on your timeframe you might want to just talk to your child about the products you are buying and ask them some questions about the images in the supermarket and on labels and what they tell us about the items in the supermarket.

These are just a few simple strategies to help you to support your child and their learning at home. Just remember that every learning experience helps and to enjoy working with your child as we do here at Concord School.

Kirrily Lamers

Assistant Principal