Dear Families,

At Westbreen Primary School, we are committed to ensuring every student is supported and challenged in Mathematics. This year, we are pleased to offer a range of enrichment, extension, and targeted support programs designed to meet the diverse needs of learners across the school.

🧠 Chess Club

We are excited to introduce Chess Club, where students can develop strategic thinking, problem-solving, and logical reasoning in a fun and engaging environment. Chess supports students to think ahead, test strategies, and build perseverance.

➗ Westbreen Olympiad Program

Our Maths Olympiad Program is commencing this term, providing selected students with rich, non-routine problem-solving tasks. Students will be encouraged to apply creative strategies, collaborate, and persevere through challenging mathematical problems during weekly sessions.

🌟 Victorian High Ability Program (VHAP)

Selected students may also participate in the Victorian Department of Education VHAP program, which provides online extension learning designed to deepen mathematical understanding and extend high-ability learners beyond the classroom curriculum.

🎮 VCES Maths Games Challenge & Other Events

The Victorian Challenge and Enrichment Series (VCES) is a program designed to support high-ability students in Years 3–6 across Victorian government schools.

Students will have the opportunity to participate in a range of engaging workshops throughout the year, including the Maths Games Challenge. These experiences are designed to extend students’ mathematical thinking through rich, challenging tasks that promote collaboration, strategic thinking, and advanced problem-solving in engaging and competitive contexts.

🚀 Gateways Program

Last term, selected Grade 4 students had the opportunity to participate in the Gateways “Eureka Program”, where they extended their learning beyond the classroom through engaging and challenging activities. Students developed their higher-order thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills while working collaboratively with students from other schools. This valuable experience encouraged them to think deeply, share strategies, and tackle complex tasks in a supportive and enriching environment. We are extremely proud of the way our students represented Westbreen and embraced these learning opportunities.

📊 Small Group Intervention & Extension Support

In addition to enrichment opportunities, we are also implementing targeted small group intervention and extension programs. These groups ensure that:

students who need additional support receive targeted teaching to strengthen foundational skills
students requiring extension are challenged with deeper, more complex tasks
all students are supported to make strong growth in numeracy

These opportunities reflect our school’s commitment to high expectations, inclusion, and excellence in mathematics, ensuring every learner is supported to grow, succeed, and be challenged appropriately.

If you have any questions about these programs, please feel free to contact the school.

Kind regards,

Olivia Villani

Numeracy Specialist

Westbreen Primary School

Literacy at Westbreen

Numeracy at Westbreen

At Westbreen Primary School, we are excited to be introducing Positive Maths Norms across all classrooms to support students in developing confidence, resilience, and a love of learning in mathematics.

These norms are based on research that shows all students can succeed in mathematics when they are encouraged to think deeply, take risks, and learn from mistakes. In our classrooms, students are learning that:

Everyone can learn maths and grow their brain
Mistakes are valuable and help us learn
We learn by thinking, discussing, and trying different strategies
It’s important to explain our thinking and listen to others

By building these positive habits, we aim to strengthen not only students’ mathematical skills, but also their confidence and willingness to engage in challenging learning.

How you can support your child at home:

Encourage your child to have a go, even when work feels challenging
Ask questions like “How did you work that out?” or “Can you show me another way?”
Praise effort and persistence, rather than speed or getting the answer quickly
Remind your child that mistakes help their brain grow

Together, we can help all students at Westbreen develop positive attitudes towards mathematics and see themselves as capable learners.

Kind regards,

Olivia Villani

Numeracy Specialist

Westbreen Primary School

Premiers Reading Challenge

We are back and ready for the Premiers Reading Challenge to start now. This year's theme is Stories to discover, Stories to tell.

You should have received your login details via an email with your child's login and password.

If you have any issues please let Miss Jill from the office know and she will be able to assist you with logging in or getting your books verified. Happy reading!

Book Club

The latest Book Club issue has now been distributed. Families wishing to place an order are reminded that orders must be submitted by Friday 12th June. All orders are to be made online. Thank you for your support and happy reading!

Wellbeing and Inclusion Update