Teaching and Learning
Hello families,
It’s amazing how quickly this term has gone, there have been lots of things happening here at Wimba. I hope that you have had a wonderful term as well.
Maths
In the last newsletter I explored the English block. Today I wanted to explore what our maths block looks like. We have five hours of maths a week. Our students generally start their maths block by doing some retrieval practice. Retrieval is, thinking about and engaging with learning that they may have done last week or the week before or at the start of the term or quite possibly even last term. This practice is designed to help student students continue to use their knowledge and skills leading to a deeper understanding of knowledge and skills. Once students have completed their retrieval practice, teachers then explicitly teach a new skill or concept, the learning, to students. They will model to students in a few different examples to ensure that the students can understand the new learning. Teachers may write things on the board or use concrete materials. This is important to ensure that students understand the new learning. Our maths curriculum focuses on the key learning as outlined in the Victorian Curriculum 2.0
English
In the last few weeks our students have completed some English testing. This testing has been designed to see how students are progressing with their reading skills. Nearly all of our students have participated in this testing and it was great to see the majority of students progressing in this fundamental skill. Teachers also use this information to really identify the areas that individual students need extending and support in to further enhance their learning. We are incredibly proud of the growth that our students have made in their English skills from the beginning of the year to now.
Semester reports
Our teachers have been diligently assessing student work, class participation and learning growth in preparation for semester reports. These reports will be available to families in week 10 via Compass. Our reports will continue to provide important details about student learning attainment, but full descriptive comments may not be included as a result of industrial action taken earlier this term by the Australian Education Union. We will of course be pleased to discuss with you your child’s progress at our next parent-teacher conversations scheduled for early term 3 or, as always, you can contact your child's teacher via Compass to arrange a conversation.
ICAS assessment
Wimba will again be offering our students the opportunity to participate in ICAS assessments in term 3. ICAS is an online academic competition that gives students the opportunity to challenge their higher order thinking and problem-solving skills.
Students from grade 2 to 6 will be able to participate in the following subjects:
Maths
English
Writing
Science
Digital technologies
Assessment testing starts on the 3rd of August.
Families need to enrol their child by the 27th of July.
If families and students would like to participate, you need to purchase and enrol in the assessment via the below link.
https://shop.icasassessments.com/pages/parent-payment/HNE874
Further information for families can be found
https://www.icasassessments.com/
I want to thank all of our families for partnering with us this term to help ensure that all our children are learning to their full potential. I wish you a safe and relaxing holiday with you families.
Kellie Allen
Assistant Principal
Teaching and Learning