The HEPS 'Aim High' Newsletter

TLI and High Ability @HEPS

How you can help your child at home

Last week, we shared some tips/ways to engage with your child/ren in the area of reading. This week, we thought we would focus on writing. Similar to reading, writing is a skill that develops with practise, repetition and modelling. The ability to write well enables your child to communicate effectively, and will improve their chances of success at school and in their future careers. It is important to encourage your child to write as often as possible, on a range of topics and interests. We see the impact of nighly reading at home, therefore writing with your child should become an everyday activity at home. 

 

Here are some writing ideas you can try: 

 

• Write a shopping list or add items to a list. 

 

• Keep a board to write and read family messages. 

 

• Give your child a pad of sticky notes to write reminders for themselves. 

 

• Plan and write your weekly menu together. 

 

• Write captions for photographs in your family photo album. 

 

• Write labels for your child’s art works and creations. 

 

• Make words using magnetic letters and stick them on the fridge or magnetic display board 

 

• Make and write greeting cards, birthday cards, and thank you notes. 

 

• Write messages and greetings on the footpath in chalk for the neighbours to enjoy. 

 

• Keep a family calendar on display and write down family events.

 

To further support writing at home: 

 

• Offer your child useful resources, such as pens, pencils, chalk, whiteboards, paper or notebook, and a place to write such as a table, tray, bench or floor space. Creating a special ‘writing box’ to store your child’s pens and pencils helps them see writing as an important activity. 

 

• Experiment with different ways to write such as using a mini whiteboard, chalk on concrete, glass-writing pens, sticks in sand or fingers in paint or shaving cream. 

 

• Support your child to read their writing aloud. 

 

• Encourage your child to create a picture, drawing or collage that visually represents their ideas. 

 

• Always proudly display your child’s work in a prominent position in your house. This will give them confidence and demonstrates the importance of writing. 

 

• Create an ‘ideas bag’ or ‘ideas folder’ to use as a writing prompt. To inspire writing ideas, collect objects such as photographs, pictures cut from magazines, brochures, movie tickets, or any other found item.

 

Literacy can always be fun and engaging. Let your child choose books and activities matched to their interests, and always encourage a healthy dose of fun and play in all activities. This helps with engagement!

ICAS Assessments

For those who may have missed this information about ICAS, we have inlcuded this again for you. 

 

Please note - The last day for parents to register for their child’s ICAS participation via your school’s PPS is the 28th July. 

 

What is ICAS?  

ICAS is an online academic competition that gives students the opportunity to challenge their higher order thinking and problem-solving skills in English and Mathematics. ICAS will be offered to students in Levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 at HEPS. 

  

Every student who participates is celebrated and recognised with a printed certificate in each subject area, and an online results report to track development each year. Top performers are eligible for one of the highly coveted ICAS medals. 

  

To learn more about this year’s exciting ICAS competition, visit:  (icasassessments.com/products-icas/)

    

How to participate in ICAS  

If you wish for your child to participate in ICAS this year, please:  

  1. Read about ICAS subjects and prices here
  2. Read the Privacy Collection Statement below.
  3. Read the terms and conditions here
  4. Go to the Parent Portal to sign up to chosen subject areas here
  5. Enter our school’s access code – VJP382
  6. Enter your child’s details, select the subject areas your child would like to participate in, then proceed to payment.  

 

Please note that the ICAS subject areas shown for selection are at the school’s discretion. After payment is made via the Parent Payment System, you will receive an order confirmation email, please keep this for your records.  

 

The dates offered for the tests are the dates that will be followed. There will not be any follow up dates and/or plans to accommodate catch up tests. Please consider this as you sign up especially if you have travel plans etc. 

  

ICAS results and certificates

All assessments will be conducted online, at school. We will notify you of the date(s) that we will run ICAS assessments, and when your child’s ICAS results are ready. Your child’s ICAS certificates will be delivered to school. Once we have received them, we will present them to your child to bring home. The back of the certificate will show your child’s ICAS results and the login details, “TAP ID and Pin”. - Use these to enter the Results Portal (orti.icasassessments.com/ortiStudent). Privacy collection statement The following information is aprivacy notification about how your child’s data is kept private and secure.

 

ICAS Assessment is owned by Janison Solutions Pty Ltd (We, Us, Our).To deliver assessment products, Janison will require your child’s School to obtain your consent to provide Janison with certain personal information of students. Janison will collect, store, use, disclose and otherwise deal with such personal information in accordance with its privacy policy (below). We are aware of our responsibility to protect personal information related to children and students from being disclosed when we deliver an ICAS Assessments product. Unless you, as the child’s legal guardian consents, we will not:

  • collect any personal information or data of children other than the information we need for the successful completion of an assessment, test, or exam. 
  • transfer any personal information we obtain from a child in the delivery of assessments and tests to any jurisdiction outside of Australia. 
  • share any personal information relating to children with any third parties (except for those third parties necessary for us to carry out our Services or provide our Products e.g., medal engraving). 
  • use any personal information or data relating to children for marketing purposes. 

You can view our full privacy policy at https://www.janison.com/privacy-policy/. 

We may retain personal information and data relevant to a child for their future purposes or for research purposes by Janison for the duration of the school life cycle of the child. However, if you or your child at any time wish to have their personal information or data removed from our systems, they or you may opt out by simply contacting our Privacy Officer at privacy@janison.com or by contacting icasassessments@janison.com.

 

We are excited to be offering ICAS to our students this year and look forward to celebrating their achievements. 

 

Please do not hesitate to contact Mr Mulder, our High Ability Practice Leader, if you have any questions.