Important Dates

Week 6

Thursday 6th March - PEAL Information Night

Friday 7th March - School Photo Day

Week 7

Monday 10th March - Labour Day Public Holiday

Week 8

Thursday 20th March – Harmony Day

Friday 21st March - Colour Run

Week 9

Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th March - Parent / Teacher Interviews

Week 10

Friday 4th April (2:30pm Dismissal) - Last Day of Term 1

Dear Year 1 Families,

We have been busy learning about additive thinking in Numeracy and generating ideas with our writing this week. We have included some photos of our work to show you.

We hope to see everyone after school today at our ‘Big Playdate’ from 3.30-4.30 in the F-2 playground! It’s always a great chance to catch up with or meet your child’s friends and their families.

School Photos

Our school photo day is next Friday 7th March. Please ensure your child arrives at school on time, as our class photos will be taken shortly after 9am.

Buddies

All of the Year 1 students met their Year 5 Buddies last week and a great time was had by all! The students made friendship chains and talked about all of the similarities and differences between them. The teachers noticed how kind and caring the Year 5 students were towards the younger students. There were some great conversations happening! We are looking forward to more activities later in the term.

Colour Run

See the Principal's Page for more information.

Harmony Day

This year’s theme for Harmony Day is:

‘Everyone Belongs’

Did you know, that over 60% of students at Vermont Primary School speak more than one language? In honour of this, we will be holding a special assembly on Thursday 20th March at 9:10am in the stadium to celebrate the many diverse cultures we have at Vermont Primary School. This assembly will commemorate Harmony Day by showcasing a number of exciting performances, such as music, dance and a variety of demonstrations.

On this day, we invite students to dress up in clothes from either their own, or another culture, or they might choose to wear ORANGE, which is the colour chosen to represent Harmony Week. Traditionally, orange signifies communication and meaningful conversations. It also relates to the freedom of ideas and encouragement of mutual respect.

PEAL (Parents with English as an Additional Language)

Each year at Vermont Primary School, we offer a special information night for parents who have English as an additional language. This session is always highly engaging and provides important information to help families navigate school life. Topics covered will include:

How you can support your child’s English language development
Methods of communication with the school (e.g. whole school newsletter, emails, school office, meetings with teachers)
Opportunities to get involved in school life (e.g. Community Network)

There will also be time to ask questions about school events, terminology, or programs at VPS. This is a great opportunity to clarify anything you are unsure about. This session is open to all families and will be held in the Vermont Primary School Staff Room on Thursday 6th March from 6:30pm to 8:00pm. To help us plan for the evening, please fill in the digital form below.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=N7Ns2Ycaz0S2mzzsM0pMH6LALu7qwDtOoIth3C4RCERUMUZSOUdLV0ExQzZIUUdFQ1ZYUUlMNldQMy4u

If you have any questions, please contact Dianna Fuller, John Hoskin or Jacci Strachan at Vermont Primary School. We look forward to seeing you there!

Hats

As with government policies, it is a requirement for students to wear a hat when playing outside at recess and big play during Terms 1 and 4. Hats can be purchased at PSW if you do not have one. It is always helpful to have a spare hat in your child's bag at all times in case they need it, as we know some children do not enjoy having to stay in the Shelter Shed for all of their play times.

We also highly encourage parents to clearly label everything (including lunch boxes, drink bottles, hats, jumpers etc) with your child’s name, so that we can return it to the correct person if it is misplaced.

Gastro Guidelines

If your child has vomited and/or experienced diarrhoea at home, it is extremely important that they stay home for 48 hours to recover and avoid sharing an infectious illness with classmates, teachers and the wider school community.

Children who return to school within 48 hours often feel very unwell or they are physically ill in the classroom. Please help us to reduce the impact on your child's class by keeping your child at home for the full 48 hours until they have fully recovered and are no longer infectious.

Absences, Late Arrivals and Early Pick Ups

Please email your child’s teacher if you know of any days that your child will be away, arriving late or leaving early so we can notify the Office of their arrival or early departure. Your child must be signed in by an adult at the Office if arriving after 9am or leaving prior to 3.30pm. Please let any grandparents or carers know that your child must be signed in if arriving late.

Tissues

As a level, we are promoting healthy hygiene habits and would appreciate all students bringing along a box of tissues to donate to their classroom. Your help to keep our classroom healthy and clean is greatly appreciated. A big thank you to all of the students who have already brought in a box.

Library Bags

Library bags are essential in order for students to borrow books from the library. These are separate from the blue reader cover folder and are required weekly on their scheduled library day. Please encourage your child to be responsible for their own library bag/book, by packing it on the day of their Library session occurs. Grade 1 children will borrow a new book after returning their old book.

The Library days for the Grade 1 classes are:

1CQ - Monday

1NL – Wednesday

1MF – Friday

1NF – Friday

Art Smocks

Please check with your child if they currently have their art smock at school. The smock will protect your little artist's clothes from paint and other stains.

If your child has grown over the holidays and a new one is needed, the Art teachers recommend buying one with a thicker plastic front and not cloth smocks as they often use water in Art classes and it will go through onto their uniform.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent teacher interviews will be open for booking in Compass in the next few weeks. Please keep an eye out for an update from the Principals.

Learning in the Classroom

This week we have been exploring length. We compared and measured our hand sizes and measured our heights using informal units (unifix blocks). We also practised the part-part-whole concept by pulling numbers apart (e.g.. the number 12 is made up of 10 and 2).

Week 6

Literacy:

Phonics (letter sounds)
Sentence conventions
Generating story ideas
Starting a story to hook the reader

Maths:

Additive thinking
Subitising
Mental strategies
Measuring length

Inquiry: Bucket Filling

Wellbeing: Understanding what Fair Play is

Week 7

Literacy:

Phonics (letter sounds)
Sentence conventions
Writing organisation - Using sequence words and including a beginning, middle and end to a story.

Maths:

Additive thinking
Subitising
Mental strategies
Measuring length

Science: The 5 Senses

Show and Tell

Children practise their speaking skills to their class at least once a fortnight through programs such as Show and Tell. We encourage parents to ensure that their child is prepared for their Show and Tell day.

Termly topics will be communicated by the classroom teacher in the newsletter, and a timetable of your child's scheduled day will be emailed. It is important to encourage students to participate in Show and Tell as Speaking and Listening focuses on general communication skills such as turn taking, listening, questioning, eye contact, fluency, expression, body language and changing the way we speak depending on who we are speaking to.

	Show and Tell Topic / What to bring
Week 6	Free Choice
Week 7	Explain a time you filled someone else's bucket, or someone filled yours
Week 8	Bring in your favourite book and tell the class what the big problem in the story is
Week 9	Draw and design a character for a narrative story
Week 10	Free Choice

OSHC News