Teaching and Learning

Sounds-Write

What is Sounds-Write?

At Ballan Primary School in our prep, grade 1 and 2 classrooms, we teach phonics using a linguistic phonics programme called Sounds-Write – a proven Systematic Synthetic Phonics program. All of our P-2 classroom teachers are Sounds-Write trained and we currently have three more staff undertaking the training this term. It is based on the science of reading and provides a structured, cumulative, and code-oriented approach to teaching reading and spelling. It starts with what children learn naturally, the sounds of their own language, and teaches them to represent those sounds in writing. Sounds-Write is a complete phonics curriculum that teaches the skills, concepts, and code knowledge necessary for children to read and spell.

Students are taught four key concepts:

1. Letters are symbols that represent sounds.

2. Sounds can be spelled using 1, 2, 3 or 4 letters (dog, street, night, dough).

3. The same sound can be spelled in different ways (rain, break, stay, gate).

4. The same spelling can represent different sounds (head, seat, break).

Students are taught to master three key skills:

1. Segmenting – the ability to pull apart the individual sounds in words.
2. Blending – the ability to push sounds together to build words.
3. Phoneme manipulation – the ability to insert sounds into and delete sounds out of words. This skill is necessary to test out alternatives for spellings that represent more than one sound.

We encourage all of our parents/carers to access the free Sounds-Write online course and podcast so that they are well-informed about how best to support their children with reading and spelling at home.

Another great resource for use at home is the Sound Waves Chants and Actions video which allows students to learn about the 43 sounds (phonemes) that make up Australian English link.

In next week's newsletter I'll be talking about our new Literacy program in the Grade 2/3-6s called Spelling Mastery.

NAPLAN

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a literacy and numeracy assessment that our students in Years 3 and 5 will sit this year.  Students will complete the 2025 NAPLAN tests between the 12th and 24th March. All testing will be completed online except for Year 3 students who will continue to complete the writing assessment on paper. 

The dates for testing at our school are as follows:

Wednesday 12th March - Year 3 Writing at 9.15am (40 minutes on paper)

                                                  - Year 5 Writing at 11.45am (42 minutes on laptops)

Thursday 13th March - Year 3 Reading at 9.15am (45 minutes on iPads)

                                             - Year 5 Reading at 11.45am (50 minutes on iPads)

Friday 14th March - Year 5 Conventions of Language at 9.15am (45 minutes on iPads)

                                      - Year 3 Conventions of Language at 11.45am (45 minutes on iPads)

Monday 17th March - Year 5 Numeracy at 9.15am (50 minutes on iPads)

                                          - Year 3 Numeracy at 11.45am (45 minutes on iPads)

Tuesday 18th March - Catch up testing day

Wednesday 19th March - Catch up testing day

Thursday 20th March - Catch up testing day

Friday 21st March - Catch up testing day

Monday 24th March - Catch up testing day

Please view the NAPLAN Information for Parents & Carers brochures attached. For more information on NAPLAN, visit www.nap.edu.au.

If you have any questions or would like more information about NAPLAN, please get in contact with your child's classroom teacher or myself, as the school's NAPLAN co-ordinator.

Maths student progress reports

Our second student progress report with a focus on 'Maths' will be made available to families to read via XUNO this Thursday afternoon (March 13th).  If you have any questions about the reporting comments, please get in touch with your child's classroom teacher.

Book Club - Issue 2

Scholastic Book Club is a service offered to students, parents and teachers. Brochures advertising a variety of books and computer software are sent home with each student, approximately twice a term.

Purchase of the books is not compulsory and there is no obligation. If you do wish to purchase any goods simply log into the Book Club site www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP and follow the prompts. All Book Club orders must be ordered and paid for via LOOP. Do not send order forms and cash to school. When the order arrives at school, books are sent home with students.

The School earns “Bonus Points” for each order which can be used to purchase new resources for classroom libraries and the school library.

Issue 2 is now available for ordering via the LOOP system and you can view the catalogue online. Paper versions of the Issue 2 catalogue have been sent home. 

Issue 2 orders are due by Thursday 20th March, 2025.

https://scholastic.com.au/book-club/book-club-parents/issue-preview/

Click here for the Scholastic Book Club Parent Log in page or to register for new users.

How to order 

Click on ORDER in the top menu or REGISTER first to save your details for the first time.  Select Ballan PS and your child’s class.  Add your child’s name and last initial. Enter the item number from the brochure.

You can order for multiple children at once. All orders are linked directly to the school.  

Our school receives bonus points, which are redeemed for a variety of books for the children therefore we thank you for your continued support.

If parents wish to collect orders personally from the office, please let the school know.

Please go to www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP and find Ballan Primary School to order or alternatively you can download the LOOP app via the App Store or Google Play.

Happy learning!

Mr Baker