Year 1 Term 1 Newsletter

Meet the teaching team

1A - Yvonne Kerr

1B - Rosie Scott

Welcome to Term 1

We're delighted with the wonderful start to the year, and we're thrilled to share that the children have settled into Year 1 incredibly well. We are extremely proud of their progress so far. The first three weeks have been a joy as we've had the opportunity to get to know each of them better. This term is packed with exciting activities, and we are eager to work closely with you to support and enhance your child's learning journey. We are very impressed with the students' independence as they enter the building on their own each morning  and put their bag on a hook. 

 Specialist Timetable

Important Dates

18/02: Whole School Photo Day

07/03: Community Picnic

10/03: Labour Day—Public Holiday

14/03: Clean up Australia Day excursion

28/03: Community Helper Dress up Day

04/04: Last Day of Term- 2:30pm dismissal

Parent Helpers

At CEPS we highly value working as a whole community and encourage the participation and involvement of our families. Our Year 1 Team will be looking for helpers on excursions and incursions. Please look out on Dojo for opportunities to help.

We also greatly appreciate parent helpers who assist with listening to students read in the afternoon. If you're available to help, please contact your child's teacher.

When helping with the children at CEPS, it is required that you wear a Working With Children’s Check (WWCC) displayed on a lanyard at all times. 

If you have not got a WWCC and wish to volunteer, 

application forms can be found online at:

www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au

Remember to sign in each day you volunteer at CEPS via the computer at the office. This is a mandatory requirement. You will  also be required to sign out. 

Attendance

Our roles are legal documents, therefore we must be accountable for any absences. Please assist with this by informing the school through Sentral, email or phone call to record the absence. Late students need to be signed in at the office by a parent/caregiver and collect an orange pass to present to their teacher on arrival at their classroom. 

Teaching and Learning

English

Reading

The Year One Literacy program will prioritise the development of your child’s phonics skills. Through daily sessions, your child will strengthen their phonological awareness, learning to recognise and manipulate syllables, onset rhyme, and phonemes. They will receive explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, focusing on rhyme, phoneme recognition, and blending phonemes to form words. Your child will engage with decodable readers and participate in activities based on the Synthetic Phonics Get Reading Right approach by Joanne Dooner. They will also explore both fiction and nonfiction texts, discussing them to deepen their understanding.

Additionally, your child will be read to daily, with high-quality picture books used to model comprehension strategies such as sequencing and retelling.

Writing

As part of their writing development, your child will be guided to write words and sentences with correct letter formation, sizing, and punctuation. They will also be encouraged to expand their vocabulary and practice correct grammar. Our focus will be on writing personal recounts, where we will explore the structure and language features of this text type.

Speaking and Listening

This term, we will focus on enhancing your child's speaking and listening skills. They will be encouraged to actively participate in class discussions, sharing their thoughts and experiences respectfully during group activities and yarning circles. 

Mathematics

Your child will begin the year with a strong focus on Number and Place Value. They will engage in a variety of hands-on activities and investigations designed to enhance their counting and pattern recognition skills.

Throughout the term, your child will be explicitly taught the mathematical language required to understand the concepts and skills being introduced. They will also use number lines to reinforce their ability to skip count. In addition, they will focus on understanding the place value of numbers up to 120.

Humanities

Your child will be exploring the role of Community Helpers and learning about their importance. If you know anyone who works as a Community Helper (e.g., police officer, firefighter, librarian, etc.) and would be willing to share insights about their job with the students, please let your teacher know.

We will have a Community Helper Dress-Up Day on Friday, March 28th, where we encourage students to come to school dressed as a Community Helper. More details to follow.

Additionally, on Friday, March 14th, we will participate in Clean Up Australia Day to experience firsthand what it's like to be a community helper. We are excited to engage in this meaningful activity!

Well Being

CEPS VALUES

COURTESY    RESPECT    CO-OPERATION    RESPONSIBILITY 

Each week all classes will engage in Respectful Relationships lessons as well as discuss our CEPS Skill of the Week. These lessons will encourage the development of skills that promote our school values and the positive and personal growth of all students. GROWTH MINDSET: This Term the students will explore ways that they can change their thinking from ‘I can’t do it yet but I can get there’. We will be looking closely at the power of ‘Yet’ and we will develop strategies to overcome difficulties in their learning and build on their resilience and positive outlook.

In Year 1 we continue to give out weekly awards on a Friday afternoon assembly for students who have displayed the CEPS values.

Your child may receive a CEPS raffle ticket for displaying the expected positive behaviours! Award winners will be drawn and announced during assembly on Friday afternoons. 

Supporting learning from home

Please ensure you listen to your child read for at least ten minutes each night, and take time to read to them as well. Students will bring home one decodable reader and two free-choice books. A home reading roster will be provided for each class, indicating the days your child will be changing their reader. We also encourage students to practice the camera words sent home, and a Dojo message will be sent when new camera words are introduced.

We hope you enjoy the library books sent home. Please return them in the library bag on Wednesday. 

If you have any queries along the way, please feel free to contact us using our emails listed below or you can send a Class Dojo. If any more urgent concerns arise, please organise a time to meet with your child’s teacher.

Yvonne Kerr (Yvonne.kerr@education.vic.gov.au)

Rosie Scott (rosie.scott@education.vic.gov.au)

We use Sentral to communicate School and Year 2 Information and Class Dojo to communicate the following: - 1:1 communication between teachers and families - Staff posting pictures to celebrate classroom learning. We hope you have been enjoying the Dojo posts and photos from your teacher!