The Learning Zone

"Coming together is the beginning, staying together is progress,

and working together is success." - Henry Ford

We are definitely back in the swing of another year of learning at St Joseph's. As we work together to support your child's learning, a great question that parents and carers can ask their child after school is what did you learn today? This is powerful, as it allows your child to focus on the learning that took place during the day and explain their understanding to you. A focus on their learning supports our 'Living Well, Learning Well Framework' and will assist them in seeing that they are growing in their learning. Learning is forever, if you are willing to learn and determined to learn, no one can stop you, so at St Joseph’s let's put MAXIMUM EFFORT into our learning.

As our learning journey continues you will hear your child talk about learning intentions and success criteria at school. This is used as a common language to guide the learning across our school. Our learning intentions are set at the start of each lesson or unit of work and discussed with the students in regards to ‘what are we learning today’ in that particular   lesson or lessons.

This aligns with the common language being used in our Armidale Diocesan schools. The success criteria is used to assist students in how they can achieve the learning intention. Most of the time it is co-constructed so the students understand ‘what the teacher is looking for’ and what meeting the learning intention looks like for them. A focus on their learning will assist them in seeing that they are growing in their learning.

NAPLAN Information: Year 3 and Year 5

Each year the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is undertaken by students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Students will participate in tests for writing, reading, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. 

NAPLAN 2024 will take place from Wednesday 13 March to Monday 25 March. 

NAPLAN is just one part of our school learning assessment program. The tests assess literacy and numeracy skills your child is already learning at school. 

In preparation for NAPLAN, our school will undertake activities to help students become familiar with the format and functionality of the online tests. 

The public demonstration site is available to see the types of questions, tools and functions used in the NAPLAN tests.

Further information about NAPLAN for parents and carers is available on the NESA website. 

Armidale Diocesan Mathematics Initiative (MaST)

Once again this year our whole school from K-6 are part of an Armidale Diocesan Mathematics Initiative known as the MaST Project. Please see the information below to assist your child at home.

Maths At Home:

Kindergarten - 2D Space

Kindergarten have just completed a unit of work on 2D Shapes. It is important that students experience shapes that are represented in a variety of ways, eg 'tall skinny' triangles, 'short fat' triangles, right-angled triangles presented in different orientations and of different sizes, and shapes that are represented using a variety of materials, eg paint, images on the computer or use string.  Students should be given time to explore materials in order to represent shapes by tearing, painting, drawing, writing, or cutting and pasting.

Shapes For Kids: The Complete Parents’ Guide To Teaching Shapes

Stage 1 - 2D Shapes

Stage 1 have been learning to recognise, describe and represent shapes including quadrilaterals and other common polygons before moving onto Representing Whole Numbers. Did you know ...

• 'Quadrilateral' comes from the Latin quadrilaterus, meaning four sides or flanks. Squares and rectangles are examples of quadrilaterals.

Counting stairs or objects in two, threes, fives and tens is a great way to assist your child.

Talk about numbers whenever opportunities arise. Ask questions such as “Which is bigger/smaller/the same/different?”

Let your teachers know the answer to this problem.

Stage 2 - Representing Numbers with Place Value

Here are two problems Stage 2 to get you thinking about numbers! Have fun!

First person to give the correct answers to Miss Buckland or Miss Sampson receives a 'cool' prize!

Stage 3 - Representing Whole Numbers

This week Stage 3 begin focusing on developing their skills associated with numbers participating in a range of activities. 

Below are two problems Stage 3 to get you thinking. First person with the correct answers to Mr Paterson will receive a 'cool' prize!

Andrew, Holly and Vinh each have some money.

Vinh has half as much money as Holly.

Holly has three times as much as Andrew.

Andrew has $12.00.

Have a wonderful week!