What's Happening in the Senior School

Year 5

What’s Happening in Year 5 in July

Hi Year 5 community, we hope everyone has settled in nicely to the beginning of term 3.

The athletics Carnival will be held on the Monday of week 4, the 3rd of August. Students have been participating in athletics training on Wednesday afternoons, ensuring we have a good idea about what the event entails before we get to the big day. Everyone should be very excited for what should be a fantastic day where we get to show case our skills and work together to represent our houses!

This term we have begun our Science unit. We will be exploring Particles and how matter is formed. This will also lead into our excursion to Scienceworks, something we are all looking forward too.

All year 5’s will be continuing their leadership workshops starting with the Grade 3’s on Monday in week 2. The leadership workshops include Art, Sport, Digital technology, sustainability and our Upstanders Program.

Wellbeing

Explore the links between their emotions and their behaviour
Reflect on how personal strengths have assisted in achieving success at home, at school or in the community

Literacy

Understand how noun groups/phrases and adjective groups/phrases can be expanded in a variety of ways to provide a fuller description of the person, place, thing or idea
Understand the use of vocabulary to express greater precision of meaning, and know that words can have different meanings in different contexts
Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing text structures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience
Reread and edit own and others’ work using agreed criteria for text structures and language features
Develop a handwriting style that is becoming legible, fluent and automatic
Understand how to use banks of known words, syllabification, spelling patterns, word origins, base words, prefixes and suffixes, to spell new words, including some uncommon plurals
Read and complete associated activities with our class novel The Grandest Bookshop.

Maths

Students will be completing Shape and Decimals for the remainder of term 3. This will include:

discussing what it means for outcomes to be equally likely and comparing the number of possible and equally likely outcomes of chance events; for example, when drawing a card from a standard deck of cards there are 4 possible outcomes if you are interested in the suit, 2 possible outcomes if you are interested in the colour or 52 outcomes if you are interested in the exact card
discussing how chance experiments that have equally likely outcomes can be referred to as random chance events; for example, if all the names of students in a class are placed in a hat and one is drawn at random, each person has an equally likely chance of being drawn
commenting on the chance of winning games by considering the number of possible outcomes and the consequent chance of winning
investigating why some games are fair and others are not; for example, drawing a track game to resemble a running race and taking it in turns to roll 2 dice, where the first runner moves a square if the difference between the 2 dice is zero, one or 2 and the second runner moves a square if the difference is 3, 4 or 5, and responding to the questions ‘Is this game fair?’, ‘Are some differences more likely to come up than others?’ and ‘How can you work that out?’
comparing the chance of a head or a tail when a coin is tossed, whether some numbers on a dice are more likely to be facing up when the dice is rolled, or the chance of getting a 1, 2 or 3 on a spinner with uneven regions for the numbers
discussing supermarket promotions such as collecting stickers or objects and whether there is an equal chance of getting each of them
discussing and listing all the possible outcomes of an activity and conducting experiments to estimate the probabilities (for example, using coloured cards in a card game and experimenting with shuffling the deck and turning over one card at a time) and recording and discussing the results
conducting experiments, recording the outcomes and the number of times the outcomes occur, and describing the relative frequency of each outcome; for example, using ‘I threw the coin 10 times, and the results were 3 times for a head, so that is 3 out of 10, and 7 times for a tail, so that is 7 out of 10’
experimenting with and comparing the outcomes of spinners with equal coloured regions compared to unequal coloured regions; and responding to questions such as ‘How does this spinner differ to one where each of the colours has an equal chance of occurring?’, giving reasons
comparing the results of experiments using a fair dice and one that has numbers represented on faces more than once, explaining how this affects the likelihood of outcomes
using spreadsheets to record the outcomes of an activity and calculate the total frequencies of different outcomes, representing these as a fraction; for example, using coloured balls in a bag, drawing one out at a time and recording the colour, and replacing them in the bag after each draw
investigating Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children’s instructive games (for example, Diyari koolchee from the Diyari Peoples near Lake Eyre in South Australia), to conduct repeated trials and explore predictable patterns, using digital tools where appropriate

Knowledge Unit

Students will be beginning our science unit with focuses on:

Understand the tier 3 vocabulary: matter, solid, liquid and gas
Identify the properties of solids, liquids and gases to classify matter.
Model the arrangement and motion of matter particles in solids, liquids and gases
Identify the observable properties of solid matter.
Explain the observable properties of solids, liquids and gases by modelling the arrangement and motion of their particles

Year 6

What’s Happening in Year 6 in July

Welcome back to Term 3! We hope all our Grade 6 families enjoyed a relaxing break and are feeling refreshed for another exciting term ahead. There is so much to look forward to over the coming weeks, with plenty of opportunities for our students to learn, connect and celebrate together. Some of the highlights include celebrating the Prep students' 100 Days of School with our Prep buddies, our much-anticipated House Athletics Carnival, and the continued excitement as we prepare for this year's school production of Shrek. We can't wait to see our students embrace these experiences, challenge themselves and create many memorable moments throughout the term.

Wellbeing

As part of our wellbeing program in Weeks 1 and 2, our Grade 6 students have participated in two engaging sessions delivered by the Elephant Ed team. These sessions focused on identity, diversity and body safety, helping students develop the knowledge and confidence to build respectful relationships and contribute to a safe, inclusive school community. Students explored gender stereotypes, learnt about diversity and the LGBTQIA+ community, and discussed the importance of treating others with respect and kindness. They also developed an understanding of personal space, consent, communication, body safety, and identifying trusted adults who can provide support when needed. These age-appropriate sessions encourage students to appreciate differences, establish healthy boundaries, and make safe, respectful choices as they continue to grow.

To celebrate NAIDOC Week, our Grade 6 students have enthusiastically taken part in the school's "Deadly Door" competition. In Aboriginal English, the word "deadly" is a positive term meaning excellent, amazing or awesome, and is widely used to celebrate the strength, achievements and richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and cultures. Our students have embraced this theme by working collaboratively to design vibrant classroom door displays that honour Indigenous culture, identity and connection to Country. The project has provided a wonderful opportunity for students to deepen their understanding of the significance of NAIDOC Week while celebrating Australia's First Nations peoples through creativity, teamwork and respect. If you're here for pick up or drop off, we'd love you to stop by and admire our 'Deadly Doors', we're incredibly proud of the creativity, care and thought that has gone into each design!

Literacy

Over the coming weeks, our students will be reading and exploring The Lost Thing by acclaimed Australian author and illustrator Shaun Tan. Through this thought-provoking picture book, students will examine important themes such as belonging, identity, empathy, acceptance, conformity and the value of noticing those who may be overlooked. They will explore how authors and illustrators use language and visual techniques to communicate deeper messages and encourage readers to think critically about the world around them. As part of this unit, students will also compare the picture book with Shaun Tan's Academy Award-winning short film adaptation, analysing how meaning is conveyed through different mediums by examining visual imagery, sound, symbolism and storytelling techniques. In addition to diving into this powerful story, students will also continue to strengthen their grammar skills through targeted lessons that support their writing and communication.

Maths

Over the coming weeks in Mathematics, our Year 6 students will be developing their understanding of adding and subtracting fractions by learning how to find the lowest common multiple (LCM) and use equivalent fractions to solve increasingly complex problems. A strong knowledge of multiplication facts is essential for success in this area, so we encourage families to support their child by setting aside regular time to practise multiplication tables until they can recall them with automaticity. Students will also be exploring angles by estimating, measuring and constructing angles using a protractor, as well as investigating angles formed by intersecting lines and on a straight line. They will apply their understanding of angle relationships to solve problems, explain their mathematical reasoning and develop greater confidence in using geometric concepts in real-world contexts. Later in the term, students will turn their attention to decimal numbers, strengthening their understanding of place value, comparing and ordering decimals, and applying the four operations to solve authentic mathematical problems. This work will help students make meaningful connections between fractions, decimals and percentages while building confidence and fluency with decimal calculations.

Knowledge Unit

This term in Science, our Year 6 students will be investigating the fascinating concept of biomimicry- the practice of drawing inspiration from nature to solve real-world problems. Throughout the unit, students will explore how light behaves, investigate electrical circuits and energy transformations, and examine how the structural and behavioural adaptations of living things help them survive in different environments. They will use this knowledge to consider how the natural world has inspired innovations in science, engineering and design. As a culmination of their learning, students will complete a Biomimicry Design Project, where they will apply scientific understanding and creative thinking to design a product or system inspired by nature that addresses a real-world challenge.

Homework

Students are expected to read for a minimum of 15-30 minutes, five times a week, to improve their reading skills. We would love to see students bring in their diary to share this reading with us. Additionally, for those who have purchased a subscription, Mathletics tasks are set to reinforce and build on their mathematical knowledge.

Reminders

Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th July- Parent Teacher Interviews. Please book a time on Compass.
Wednesday 29th July - Prep 100 days of school celebrations – The Year 6 students will be joining the Prep students for their celebrations on this day, including a special lunch together. Please still pack a snack and water bottle. Year 6 students are also invited to dress up in their pyjamas for the day (which the Prep students will be doing, too!)
Friday 31st July- Open Afternoon 3pm.
Monday August 3rd- House Athletics Carnival

Please remember to consent and pay for upcoming events before the day of the event!