Teaching and Learning

Big Write and VCOP Talk Homework

This week, the students are participating in a Cold Write. As a Cold Write aims to see what students can write without pre-exposure to the prompt, there will be no talk homework.

Excursions

Excursions are an important learning tool to enhance the curriculum by allowing students to better grasp and retain concepts. LEARNING BY DOING. This promotes engagement levels, builds confidence, teamwork and creates connections. All excursions and off-site learning experiences are an important part of the curriculum.

As part of the students' Cross Curriculum, STEAM and Religion studies, all students are to attend the Legoland and MacKillop Heritage Centre Whole School Excursion on Friday 24th May, 2024. Through this excursion students will also participate in incidental learning experiences as we travel to a larger city, full of many different environments, artistic landscapes and cultural experiences. 

Thank you to all the parents who have already consented via the PAM permission form, it is greatly appreciated.

Assessments

During the two weeks of May, all students will be completing the Progressive Achievement Test (PAT) in Mathematics and Reading. PAT is completed twice a year (May and October/November) as an adaptive version of the test which will adjust the questions while they are working through the assessment based upon their answers on previous questions. Younger students will be participating in the Early Years version of the test, which is not adaptive but does provide more support with the program reading the questions to them.

PAT will be used to inform the teachers of each student's individual skills and knowledge in the areas of Maths and Reading. This will give the teachers valuable data to inform classroom teaching and ensure that we are extending and supporting each student. 

PAT is a low stress assessment and we encourage students to do the best that they can. The Foundation students will be completing the PAT Early Years versions of the assessment.

The Grade 1 and 2 students will be completing either the PAT Early Years or PAT Adaptive versions of the assessment.

The Grade 3-6 students will be completing the PAT Adaptive versions of the assessment.

On top of completing the PAT-M and PAT-R assessments in early May, the students will also be engaging in a variety of other assessments for the remainder of the term. These assessments will be used to monitor reading, writing, and maths progression. 

The students will also be completing the Social and Emotional Wellbeing Survey (2nd edition). This will give the school valuable confidential data about the social and emotional state of the students as a cohort.