Year 6 Term 1 Newsletter

Meet The Teaching Team

6A - Tom Packham (PLC Leader)

6B - Tegan Boucher

Integration Aides - Deb Butler (6A) & Divya Rai (6B)

Welcome to Term 1

Hey Year 6 Families,

Welcome to the final milestone of primary school. We are very excited to be sharing this special year with your children as we prepare them with the tools and thinking skills required for secondary school. We look forward to seeing our students guide their buddies through their Foundation year, as well as watching our new school leaders step up to embrace their roles. We are in no doubt that it’s going to be a fantastic year and look forward to sharing it with you.

Tom and Tegan

 Specialist Timetable

Important Dates

17th Feb: 4-6 House Swimming

18th Feb: Whole School Photo Day

3rd Mar: District Swimming

6th Mar: Natural Disasters Incursion

7th Mar:  Community Picnic

10th Mar: Labour Day—Public Holiday

12th Mar: Divisional Swimming for selected students

12-19th Mar: NAPLAN testing

25th Mar: (Beach Swimming Program TBC)

1st Apr: House Cross Country

4th Apr: Last Day of Term 1- 2.30pm finish

Electronic Roles

Our electronic rolls are legal documents therefore we must be accountable for any absences. Please assist with this by informing the school of any absences as early as possible.

Teaching and Learning

Reading

Our students will be engaged in shared and independent reading routines throughout the term. We will be focusing on the comprehension skills of summarising, making connections and inference as well as building vocabulary and note-taking skills. Our first term Read Aloud is ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry which will be linked with other independent reading tasks weekly.

Writing

Students will be supported to consolidate and grow their knowledge of different genres and writing structures over the year. Our focus for Term 1 is poetry with a variety of different styles and skills. Spelling sessions will look into suffixing conventions.

Speaking & Listening

Students will be supported to develop their presentation skills with a focus on language choice (appropriate to audience & context) and voice. Questioning and justifying points of view will be encouraged through class discussions and conundrums. Additionally, a real focus on listening skills appropriate to context will be practised and developed.

Mathematics

Maths is taught using a range of games, problem solving tasks, mental maths challenges and skills practise. There is a strong emphasis on providing students with opportunities to explore Maths concepts in a variety of different ways with guidance from their teacher.  

Throughout the term, students will be monitored and assessed to establish their understanding of the topics, so that teachers can address their individual points of need. This term, students will be exploring Place Value and the different ways that numbers can be represented (square/triangular/prime, negative/positive, decimals). They will also explore BIDMAS to gain a deeper understanding of the steps and processes involved in solving number sentences. 

Humanities

“Who has the power?’’ is our Term 1 focus question for Humanities.  We will be exploring the Federation of Australia and how laws are passed through the government. We will also be researching the major laws that have been passed through Australian history and how they have shaped the way our country is today. Using information we learn throughout the unit we will have a mock parliament to make real changes to our own school.

Wellbeing

In Grade 6, we prioritise promoting our school values through weekly yarning circle discussions and respectful relationship activities. During this significant phase of growth and change for our students, wellbeing remains a high priority. Additionally, we will be incorporating lessons on safe online behaviours. This term, we are focusing on developing COURTESY skills. 

CEPS VALUES

COURTESY    RESPECT    CO-OPERATION    RESPONSIBILITY 

Friday afternoon assembly awards will be given to children who have shown personal growth specific to the school's values. To further support the school values, CEPS follows a SWPBS framework, which we refer to as CEPS Positive Behaviours Support. This framework encourages acknowledging positive behaviours displayed by students within the school. 

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

Homework

In Grade 6, our aim is to help students build independent study techniques in preparation for their further education.  Students are expected to read at home for a minimum of 10 minutes per day which counts towards the 120 minutes of homework per week (CEPS Homework Policy).

Every month, students will be given a selection of homework tasks to choose from. They are expected to complete one of these research activities per week and then publish them in their homework books by 9.00am every Friday. 

In addition, Mathletics is available and encouraged to be used for at least 30 minutes per week.

To reinforce what they are learning in the classroom, some additional tasks may be set for the students to complete. All homework tasks will be given out on Friday and due the following Friday.

Term 1 Additional Information

Headphones

We have some spare headphones in our classrooms but if your child would prefer to bring their own set of ear/headphones, please ensure that you label them. Please note that Bluetooth headphones are not compatible with our school devices. 

Please note that there were some issues with the stationary orders this year. Texas should have been on the order list, so if your child has some of their 

Phones and Devices

In accordance with the Department of Education policy, student phones that are brought to school must be switched off and handed to the teacher to be stored securely during the day. Students will not have access to these phones until 3:30 pm.

Social Media

Please communicate regularly with your child about social media and their online use as these can often lead to social issues that carry on into school. A reminder that most social media apps currently have a minimum age restriction of at least 13 years old with the government policy to ban under 16s accessing social media coming into effect at the end of this year.

Lunch/Snacks

When preparing your child’s lunchbox, please avoid nuts and nut products as we have children with allergies within the year level and across the school. Fruit break items should be able to grab and go. Thank you

Communication

Sentral

All notes, messages and information will be located on Sentral. Here you'll find info about excursions, incursions, camps, special food days, permission slips, calendar updates, newsletters and plenty more things that you will need.

Dojo

Individual messages to and from the classroom teacher for non-urgent or informal communication. Photo updates of various events will be posted to the class story.

Phone

For any time sensitive or urgent messages, please contact the front office by phone as we may not see a Dojo message during the school day.