Literacy and 

Numeracy Week

Numeracy Activities

Orienteering

Students completed an orienteering activity that required them to identify bearings to locate specific locations in the school. Each location, depending on difficulty, was allocated a point score. Students, in pairs, attempted to accumulate the highest score with minor prizes being awarded to the place getters. The activity was designed to help students understand True Bearings, utilise technology, expose students to the idea of Magnetic North versus True North and estimate distances. The activity also made students identify and locate places in the school that they walk past every day and may take for granted. Students appeared to enjoy the experience and honed their skills in these areas.

Balloon Toss and Egg And Spoon Races 

Year 7 students participated in fun activities that taught them the importance of basic numeracy skills such as reading from a tape measure, converting distances between centimeters and meters, calculating averages, determining the speed of an object, using a compass, estimating distances as well as many soft skills such as cooperating in teams, sharing ideas and working towards common goals. 

Lolly Guessing Competition

The student leaders organised and ran a lolly guessing competition. The aim of this was twofold with the first purpose being that of getting students to think about how objects, space, volume and capacity connect in the real world as well as for our leaders to be able to raise some money for charity. Well done to the winner Liam Curry and to the students and teachers who donated. We raised a total of $506. This money was given to the Vinnies Christmas Appeal.

Literacy Activities 

Homegroup was once again used as a way to remind our students about some of the fundamentals of literacy - with this year’s focus being on spelling. The rules we reminded students of included:

Literacy week also took on a new flavour in 2025, with students from multiple year levels also competed in the inaugural Mater Dei Spelling Bee. 

Congratulations to Kirsten Bation from Year 9 who was crowned winner. Her orthographic knowledge was repeatedly on display as she worked her way to victory. 

A big thank you to the support who assisted with organisation of the events, student leaders who ran the lolly guessing competition and to the dedicated Maths and English staff who went above and beyond to make this week a success.

Mr Michael Ryan | English KLA Leader

Mr Kurt McPherson | Mathematics