PRIMARY (F-6)

 School Leader Report - Kara

Welcome back!

 

The chatter and excitement returned this week as children and adults alike reconnected with those they hadn’t seen for two weeks. There were lots of enthusiastic stories to share and many centimetres grown!

 

We hit the ground running this week with the College Feast Day Mass and Grandparents visit. 

 

Next Thursday 31 July is an out of uniform day to raise funds for the Opening the Doors Foundation. Children can give a donation for this cause to their Learning Mentors in the morning. All money donated supports First Nation's communities and individuals and is a partner to Catholic Education Sandhurst.

 

Assemblies continue this term in Weeks 3, 6, and 9, held in the Blackbox.

 

Swimming lessons will take place in Week 9 - the last week of term. Stay tuned for further information closer to time. 

 

Between now and then, it is a good opportunity for children to practice drying and dressing themselves, particularly our younger children as this will support their confidence and capability at the pool.

 

Finally, we are excited to celebrate the Foundation children's 100 days of school on Wednesday August 6!


Class Reports

Foundation

And just like that we're back for Term 3! Students spent time settling back into routine and catching up with her friends. 

Students wrote a holiday recount about what they got up to in their holidays and shared with their classmates. 

This Term we will continue to consolidate our reading strategies and writing skills. Students are encouraged to read daily and have new Term 3 reading logs that have been sent home to track their at home reading.  

In Maths the students will be strengthening their understanding of numbers and place value up to 20. Students have been learning about adding ‘one more’ or taking ‘one less’ from a number. 

On Tuesday students explored some new provocations in our classroom related to our new inquiry topic: light and sound. 

It has been a fantastic week back at school. Foundation students are looking forward to our 100 Days of School celebration coming up on 6 August. 

Year 1 

To begin the term, we have been reading Something Wonderful by Raewyn Caisley and Karen Blair. We loved learning about Sam and how he pulls things apart to create new inventions.

Just like Sam, we have planned our own inventions! Over the next few weeks, we will be using craft materials to build them. We are so excited to get creative and make something wonderful of our own.

 

To get ready for Grandparents’ Day and to link back to our St Anne’s Feast Day celebrations, we teamed up with the Year 5’s to create something special for our grandparents or a special friend.

It was so lovely to see the students full of ideas, chatting and working together with their buddies and the adults in the space. There were cards, drawings, picture frames. The creativity was flowing and there was such a great buzz in the room!

Year 2

It was a smooth start to Term 3, with the children quickly settling back into routines for learning. The Religious Education unit Jesus’ Story was introduced this week. The unit focuses on learning about Jesus through the four Gospels and aims to help children develop an understanding of Jesus’ importance in our lives today.

 

We have begun our next storybook study titled The Stone Lion by Margaret Wild, a beautifully illustrated book about a statue that sits outside a library. Our first lesson focused on predicting what the text might be about, using the front cover and title to spark thinking.

 

In Maths, we have continued working on ordering four-digit numbers on a number line, and the children were introduced to the greater than (>) and less than (<) symbols.

This week, the children received their Term 3 reading diary to record their nightly reading practice. Children are expected to read each night to help build confidence, fluency, and comprehension skills.

 

There was a terrific atmosphere around the school on Friday afternoon, with many grandparents visiting and engaging in planned fun activities. For those grandparents who were able to attend, the children truly enjoyed their presence.

Year 3/4

Students in Year 3/4 have settled back into our routine so quickly and with enthusiasm! Catching up with old friends and meeting new friends has gotten everyone off to a fantastic start to the term.

 

We have begun a new topic for our Inquiry; this term students will be learning about Ecosystems starting with our tuning in lessons this week on 'Living and Non-Living Things' in our environment. 

In Mathematics, students are busily learning new strategies for solving addition and subtraction equations including rounding up and down to the nearest ten and compensation.

 

In Literacy, students have been reading a picture story book entitled ‘Finding Our Heart’, writing personal responses to this text, and studying a variety of new vocabulary used in the text that they can then use in their own writing pieces. 

Year 5

This week we have started our new class text Waves. Our learning will be about migration and the human stories that go with that.

 

In Maths we are learning about adding and subtracting fractions, eventually including mixed numbers. 

 

Inquiry this term will focus more closely to our class texts, and this week we began a project on animal migration. So far we have looked into what? why? and where? We have researched animals from around the world to find the answers;

  • What animals migrate?
  • Where do they come from? Where do they go?
  • Why do they migrate?

We will present our findings in a keynote, which will build upon technological skills in presenting data and information, as well as including animations and images to add detail.

 

In preparation for Grandparent’s Day on the weekend, and linking back to our St Anne’s Feast Day celebrations, the students collaborated with 1LH to create something for our Grandparent or special friend. The creative juices were flowing, as well as students communicating and collaborating with each other and their adults. Cards, pictures, frames, statues were all in works.

Year 6

Our grandparents joined us for the Kahoot this afternoon. The Grade 6 students enjoyed answering questions about the 1950s and 1960s, supported by their special people and learnt a thing or two in the process. We thank our grandparents for taking the time to visit and spend time with us.

The Year 6 Social Justice Team are well into their colouring/drawing competition and already they have some amazing entries flowing in. If your child needs a new competition form, please see the Year 6 team. Drawings and colouring are due on the 8 August. 

Specialist

Primary students have put in a fantastic effort during Physical Education classes over the course of the first semester. The attitude and enthusiasm to undertaking physical activity while developing some new skills was mostly of a high standard.

The Grade 3 /4 students ended their Basketball unit by going off-site to play indoors, which helped develop a greater appreciation for the sport, and lots of fun was had.

The Grade 5 and 6 students were outstanding during their street hockey unit. The skill development levels of some students were very pleasing. The level of engagement was high, and as a result, a team will be put together to play in the Shepparton Hockey 7’s tournament in August.

This term, the big focus will be on Athletics. This is to assist preparation for, and exposure to various events in readiness for the upcoming College Athletics Carnival.

-Darren Ogier

Reminders:

We remind all that the college opens at 8:30am. This enables educators time to prepare for their day ahead. We appreciate your support in helping our educators be successful. Yard duty staff begin at 8:30am to monitor play spaces before the school day begins at 8:55am.

 

Upcoming Dates

Please refer to the calendar on PAM for upcoming dates for activities and events.