Learning and Teaching

Teaching & Learning

Respice Stellam

Our school motto is Respice Stellam, which when translated into English is 'look to the star'. At St Mary's we have adapted this to 'reach for the stars'. The slight adjustment enables our students to use our school motto as a real opportunity to strive for excellence.

Our first unit this term is in fact called, Respice Stellam. The classes are working through a series of school routines and expectations to set the students up for a successful 2026. 

Some of these include, but are not limited to:

• unpacking the PBL Values of Respect, Responsibility and Resilience
• setting up their workbooks, tubs and locker spaces
• understanding the need for working safely online and using technology such as iPads and Chromebooks appropriately
• following the behavioural flowchart of remind, restate, reset, refer, reteach

I encourage parents to enage with their children and ask about all the learning that has taken place over Week 1. Students will commence the curriculum and specialist subjects commencing on Monday. 

Mathematics

Joel Magnobosco

This year, St Mary's is beginning maths learning with a focus on place value, one of the most important building blocks in mathematics.

Place value helps students understand that numbers have structure and meaning, not just digits to memorise. Knowing that the value of a digit depends on where it is located in a number is essential for reading, writing, comparing and calculating with numbers. From counting collections in the early years to working with large numbers, decimals and beyond, place value underpins all future maths learning.

Across the school, students will be reading and writing numbers accurately, understanding the value of digits in different positions, representing numbers using materials, diagrams or words, and explaining their thinking using mathematical language. By starting the year with place value, we are setting students up for success in all areas of maths, particularly when solving problems involving any of the four operations.

Feel free to play this place value game at home with your children:

You will need: A dice (or dice app), paper and pencil

How to play:

1. Draw 2 boxes next to each other (increase the number of digits depending your child's year level, decimal numbers for year 5 of 6 children)

2. Roll the dice twice to generate 2 digits (match number of boxes with amount of digits)

3. Each play decides where to place each digit as it is rolled, to build a number.

4. Once all digits are placed, discuss the value of each digit within the number (ones, tens, hundreds, etc)

5. Make the largest number possible out of the digits that were rolled6. Make the smallest number possible out of the digits that were rolled.

We are looking forward to a year of strong mathematical thinking, curiosity and growth across the school.

English

Laura Cardillo

WELCOME BACK 

I hope everyone has had a wonderful start of Term and are looking forward to all the learning that will take place in 2026. 

ENGLISH UPDATES: Foundation to Year Two

The Foundation to Year Two students will be working through the Little Learners Love Literacy full Scope and Sequence. This includes Decodable Readers, Spelling, Fluency, Vocabulary and Morphology.  

All students will have access to an Online Library where you can acces the books and quizzes for each of the Decodable texts in each stage. 

 Watch out for the access codes which will be sent home in the coming weeks.  

ENGLISH UPDATES: Years Three to Six

This year we will be doing a lot of Professional Learning about Morphology and how that assists students with their spelling, reading and writing.  We begin the year with lots of exploration of research and resources to incorporate a thorough and consistent approach to teaching our students.  

We will be using a new program called Word Origins which is an evidence-informed program designed to provide the next step in spelling, reading and vocabulary instruction for students in middle to upper primary school and beyond.

It is an exciting time for us at St Mary's in the English space and we look forward to sharing our journey with you as we learn and grow with our students.