Dear parents and guardians,

The countdown to Market Day is on! We have less than a week until our students put all their entrepreneurial learning and skills into action.

Important Dates:

Term 3

Thursday 5th September - Sustainability Festival - Sustainability Ambassadors

Goldstein Youth Forum at Victorian Parliament

Thursday 12th September - Market Day and SEPS Idol

Monday 16th September - AFL Roadshow TBC

Tuesday 17th September - District Athletics

Wednesday 18th September - Write A Book in a Day

Thursday 19th September - Footy Day

Friday 20th September - Final Day of Term 3 (2:30pm finish)

Term 4

Wednesday 23rd October - Art Show

Friday 29th November - Curriculum Day

Tuesday 10th December - State School Transition Day

Wednesday 11th December - Graduation Fun Morning, Graduation Night

Friday 13th December - Beach Swimming

Monday 16th December - Level 6 Final Assembly

Please remind your child to bring a charged laptop to school every day, ready for learning.

UPP Incursion

Last week our students participated in the UPP Aspire Leadership Incursion. The focus of the day was 'bringing our best self' to every moment, for personal growth and the good of our community. Students engaged in games that challenged their ability to work as a team. The class games of 'Keepy Uppy' with large exercise balls was a highlight. Towards the end of the allocated time, our students realised they needed to stand closer together to ensure the ball did not drop. We hope to see more of this ingenuity and collaboration as we prepare for Graduation, next term.

Market Day

All resources and items must now be in school with the small exception of perishables that have to be purchased nearer the day. Anything that is not in school by Monday will not be part of a stall. If missing items deem a stall inoperable, the teachers will communicate this on Monday, ahead of the Market on Thursday.

Early next week, we will focus on the process of setting up and role-playing transactions. We really want students using every opportunity to iron out operational issues to ensure their stalls are a success.

Literacy

We have continued to work with the mentor text The Tale of the Whale by Karen Swann. The students are currently planning a piece of writing modelled off this story. They have chosen an animal and an issue that threatens their livelihood. The teachers are modelling an example of an orangutan facing deforestation. The goal is to have a published story by the end of term that reflects the breadth and depth of their understanding of what makes a good piece of writing.

Our grammar focus has been sentence types. Students have been shown appositives, relative clauses, and subordinating clauses. We look forward to seeing examples of these sentence types in their writing.

There is a mounting pile of evidence that shows reading has a profound impact on future success. It is strongly recommended that students read a range of books, but ANY reading is preferred! Ideally, students should read for 20 minutes every night. We encourage families to find ways that work best for you. Your family might indulge in a shared novel after dinner or enjoy an audiobook over breakfast.

At school, students are continuing to work on fluency by reading aloud to a partner. We are also working in Book Clubs. It has been pleasing to see most students are dedicated to their book club, keeping up with the reading and supporting learning tasks.

Maths

Over the past fortnight students have tackled budgets and spreadsheets to support their economics work. We will continue to support this learning with reflections on profit and loss after Market Day.

We have also commenced work on proportional reasoning, looking at the relationship numbers have and how to express this as a ratio. It is important for students to recognise and understand how this is a multiplicative process, especially before facing algebraic equations in high school. You may wish to support this learning at home by asking your child to explain it to you - if they are able to explain their reasoning, it shows they genuinely understand. You could try asking them to show a ratio of rest to work time each hour or the ratio of milo to milk in a glass.

Buddies

Our Level 6 & Level 1 Buddy program will continue this term with lunch together each Monday and an activity each fortnight. This term our focus is wellbeing, with sharing and games as the focus.

Homework

If you would like your child to complete work at home, you can complete the following:

Reading - it is important that students read most nights. 20 minutes before bed is the ideal reading routine. Students can identify and record inferences they make during the chapters they read.

Maths - there are revision sheets available in the Homework folder on Teams - General/Term 3/Homework/Optional Work. Students are encouraged to complete the Problem of the Week in this newsletter or go to the Problem-Solving folder on Teams.

Many thanks,

Kristy, Kym, Richelle & Anthony

SEPS Market Day - Thursday 12th September