Last week we commenced our fortnightly Homework Grid.

The teachers were so impressed with how many students completed the tasks and returned their homework books by the due date 👏🏻

Please refer to the Homework section in our Beginning of Year presentation for full details about the SEPS homework process.

The grid has been designed to promote student agency. Selections and completion of tasks should be made in consultation with your child. Students will be allocated a Homework exercise book on Friday.

Parents are asked to:

Print the Homework Grid
Glue or stick it into the Homework book
Support students to highlight the activities they are nominating to complete

All written and drawn responses should be completed in the Homework book.

As tasks are completed, parents are asked to sign each box to acknowledge completion.

A reminder that this is home work. The teacher’s role is to support and monitor what is happening at home rather than directly supervise the completion of tasks.

If families decide that their child will not complete certain aspects of the Homework Grid in a particular cycle, please include a signed note in the Homework book.

With this communication in place, teachers can respectfully support each family’s approach.

Please ensure you have read the Homework policy linked above.

The Home Reading Program & Reading Log

Why Daily Reading at Home Matters (Especially in Year 6)

By Year 6, reading isn’t just about learning to read — it’s about "reading to learn". Every subject your child studies now depends on strong reading skills: Maths worded problems, Science explanations, Humanities research, even Health and Civics discussions.

Regular reading at home is one of the most powerful things families can do to support academic success and overall development.

What the Research Says

Recent large-scale studies consistently show:

Students who read daily perform significantly better across all curriculum areas, not just English. The OECD PISA 2018 report found that students who read for enjoyment regularly scored substantially higher in reading, mathematics and science (OECD, 2019).

[https://www.oecd.org/pisa/publications/PISA2018_CN_AUS.pdf]

Just 20–30 minutes of reading per day can expose children to over 1.8 million words per year, dramatically increasing vocabulary, comprehension and writing ability (Anderson, Wilson & Fielding, 1988; cited widely in literacy research).

[https://www.readingrockets.org/article/exposure-words-and-vocabulary-development]

Home reading habits are one of the strongest predictors of long-term academic success, more influential than many other background factors (Sullivan & Brown, 2013).

[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0003122412455684]

Regular reading also improves:

Concentration and stamina
Empathy and emotional understanding
Critical thinking
Stress regulation and wellbeing

In short: reading builds brains.

At the Year 6 level, students are preparing for secondary school expectations. Reading stamina and independence now make a significant difference next year.

The Role of Home

At school:

We provide weekly Library time to support book selection.
We explicitly teach comprehension strategies.
We have established a structured
Reading Log Form to track consistency - see QR code.

At home:

Reading should occur for 30 minutes or more each night. The environment should support focus (minimal screens, quiet space).
Parents should monitor the routine and ensure the Reading Log is completed nightly.
The Reading Log can be accessed by:
- Scanning the QR code here.
- The QR code will appear on every Homework Grid
- The Homework Log link will be sent to all parents as an email as it is simple to complete from the parent's phone.
- The Reading Log will be posted to Google Classroom.

This is a partnership. We work hard at school to build skill and provide structure — but home reading time is home time, and families play the leading role in maintaining the routine.

How Parents Can Take the Lead

Simple actions make a big difference:

Set a consistent reading time each evening.
Keep devices out of reach during reading time.
Ask one or two questions about what was read.````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Ensure the Reading Log form is completed before bedtime.
Model reading — children who see adults reading are more likely to value it.

Structure creates habit. Habit builds skill. Skill builds confidence.

Working Together

Our goal is simple: strong, independent readers entering secondary school ready for complex texts and sustained thinking.

With consistent home reading — 30 minutes nightly — students gain:

Academic advantage
Improved writing quality
Greater confidence
Stronger wellbeing
Broader general knowledge

We look forward to working in partnership with you in building this routine. When school structure and home consistency align, the results are powerful.

If you would like to explore the research further, the links above provide accessible summaries and reports.

Thank you for taking the lead in supporting your child’s reading journey.

Year 6 Camp

Thank you to the parents who indicated that their children will attending camp this year. This information has now been sent to the camp organisers who will make necessary bookings for accomodations and educational centers that we will be visiting. Further information will be sent home and gathered from you as the camp nears.

Transition to Year 7 2027

While it doesn't seem long ago that 2026 commenced, preparations are already in place for the Transition process to Year 7 in 2027. Our school operates on the Education Departments timeline. This is in places for all students no matter if they will enrol at a Department school in 2027 or a Catholic or Independent school. Some important dates to come include:

Thursday 2 April - School Zones go live online at www.findmyschool.vic.gov.au
Wednesday 22 April - Year 7 Applications open
Friday 8 May - Year 7 Placement Applications due

For those students enrolling at non-government schools, you will receive a confirmation of enrolment letter/email. We will seek a copy of this at a later stage as confirmation that all SEPS students have been placed into a secondary school.

Further information regarding the Transition Program will come in Term 2

School Sport

Continuing this week we had our second double header sports day. These are busy weeks and we can really see development in the students skill levels with practice on the Thursday afternoons and then the games on Friday. Next week we have a bye but we still have an in-school practice session for our allocated sports.

Literacy

Our work in literacy continues to develop around our mentor text of Boy Overboard by Morris Gleitzman. We have been studying how Gleitzman develops tension by slow builds and how he develops emotions of the character by using metaphors to show strong emotion and then what this motivates his characters to do. The students have produced some powerful responses and the teachers (and students) will look forward to the end of the term when we complete another cold write and compare it to the one they completed in week 2 of the term.

Emotion - Metaphor - Motivation - Future Action

Maths

In Level 6, students have been continuing exploring algebraic thinking through the investigation of number patterns and rules. Students practised identifying patterns, creating tables of values, and describing how patterns change using mathematical language. We have been focusing on recognising how numbers grow or change and learning how to write rules that allow us to predict future values. This work helps students develop strong reasoning skills and lays the foundation for more formal algebra in later years.

Over the next couple of lessons, students will bring their learning together in a Mini Maths Project where they investigate a real-world financial situation that creates a number pattern. For example, students might explore how savings grow over time, how the cost of a regular purchase adds up, or how different spending choices compare. Students will create a table of values, describe the rule behind their pattern, and use their rule to predict future values, before presenting their findings in a format of their choice such as a poster, slideshow, report or booklet.

Inquiry

The students have continued their study about Australia in lead up to our fast appraoching Year 6 camp to Canberra. We have already looked at why the colonies wanted to become one nation and some of the difficulties they faced being separate colonies. This week we began looking at how the Constitution framed and guided the way Australia's political system works. Currently students are working on a presentation about one of:

Constitution
Levels of Government
The Westminster System
Parliament

Have you completed the schools Media Permissions and sharing Parent Details forms. Each is liked to the related form. We need these to use student images in this Newsletter and to share your details with other parents in the level.

Important Dates

Week 7:

Monday 9 March - Public Holiday: Labour Day
Tuesday 10th March - 6A & 6B Cooking with Mr Marco
Friday 13th March - NO Interschool sport - bye week
Friday 13th March - Kinect2dance

Week 8:

Wed 18 March - Moonraker 'I sea, I care'
Wed 18 March - Youth Leaders Conference MCEC (Super 6 and Sports Captains)
Fri 20 March - 5/6 Interschool Sport versus Brighton Beach
Fri 20 March - Kinect2dance

SEPS Community - Art Festival 27th March