Book Week

Book Week will be celebrated from the 20th - 24th of August. This annual event highlights the importance of reading and draws on the joy of stories and the creativity of Australian books.

The 2018 theme for the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book Week is Find Your Treasure.

The Shortlisted books that we will be focussing on at Galilee are:

How To Bee by Bren Macdibble

The Grand Genius Summer of Henry Hoobler by Lisa Shanahan

Boy by Phil Cummings

I’m Australian Too by Mem Fox

Florette by Anna Walker

A big thank you to Mrs Orr our Visual Art teacher, who has been working with all the students to create artworks relating to the Book Week theme and picture story books. These artworks will be displayed in the school hall in the next few weeks.

The Scholastic Book Fair will arrive on Friday August 17. The students will create a wishlist based on the books they see at the fair.

The Book Fair will be open on the following days and times:

Monday 20 August- 8:35-8:50am, 11-11:25am (for Grandparents Day) & 3:25-4pm

Tuesday 21 August- 8:35-8:50am & 3:25-4pm

Wednesday 22 August- 8:35-8:50am & 3:25-4pm

Thursday 23 August- 8:35-8:50am & 3:25-4pm

The week will begin with Grandparents Day Mass on Monday the 20th August at 9.30 am in Sts. Peter & Paul church. There will be a morning tea held in the hall for Grandparents after mass.

On Wednesday the 22nd, the children can come to school dressed up as a book character and there will be a parade for children to showcase their costumes at 9am on the day.

Our Book Week incursion performance, Treasure Hunt will take place on Monday the 27th August.

MATHEMATICS AT GALILEE

Jane Ferris

jferris@gsmelbournesth.catholic.edu.au

Professional Learning for Teachers in Mathematics

As you are aware, our staff are continually involved in professional learning and development.

On Wednesday this week, our Year 3-6 Teachers and Learning Support Officers were involved in a full day of Professional Learning about Multiplication and Division. Jo Pringle, our school’s Maths Advisor from Catholic Education Melbourne, facilitated the day. It was a most informative day, where we worked together to examine the curriculum and to establish some very useful strategies for teaching multiplication and division across the school. We all look forward to implementing some of our learning in the coming weeks. Thank you to the following teachers for your professionalism and enthusiasm in what was a very intensive day of learning: Charlotte Biggs, Joss Coaley, Tarren Otte, Anna Petrarca, Helen Rouchecouste, Bianca Wallis, Sharon Cameron and Maree Santamaria. Thanks also to our principal, Simon Millar, for your attendance and for encouraging and supporting the professional development of the staff. The dedication of each of you to improving outcomes in Maths for all of our children is much appreciated!

Mathletics

On Wednesday after school, all staff were involved in a Professional Learning session about Mathletics. Teachers have been keen to learn about updates and changes in Mathletics, as well as how best to personalise learning using this programme. Adriana from Mathletics was very helpful in assisting us to become more familiar with the new console and in assigning various lessons to individual students. We look forward to having Adriana back again in Term 4 to learn more about utilising Mathletics to its fullest.

Thank you to Miss Cox for ensuring that students all have a log-in for using this tool at home and at school. Please let your classroom teacher know if you are experiencing any difficulty with Mathletics at home. To get the best out of the programme, Flash must be enabled on your device. (iPads might not allow users to view all lessons.)

Financial Literacy

This week, each class has been (or will be) involved in an incursion about Financial Literacy. The sessions have been very enjoyable and most informative! Teachers are following up the sessions in class – The discussions resulting from the sessions have been varied and interesting. I thank all of our classroom teachers for your focus on this important aspect of our Maths curriculum, and the children for the respectful and attentive manner with which you’ve participated. The facilitator has been most impressed with our students!

LEARNING SUPPORT

jferris@gsmelbournesth.catholic.edu.au

As you are aware, we have a variety of programmes running in the school aimed at assisting students in specific areas of the Victorian Curriculum. Some students are supported by intervention specialist teachers, through Reading Recovery and Number Intervention. Others work with Learning Support Officers in Spelling, Reading, Number, Speech-Language Development, English as an Additional Language and Social Skills.

Through these programmes, children are supported in developing particular skills. Usually, a child will be involved in a particular programme for a given period of time, often a school term. His/her involvement in a programme is based on assessment data and referral by the classroom teacher. Ongoing assessment is implemented to monitor each child’s progress and to determine future intervention strategies, if required.

This week, letters were sent out on CareMonkey to parents of children in Years 1-3 to inform you if your child has been selected for our Spelling Skills programmes. The letters are to inform you of your child’s involvement; please respond on CareMonkey for our records. If you would like to discuss any of the support programmes for which your child has been selected, please contact me at my email address (above).

Galilee Newsletter

Issue 11 · 09 Aug 2018

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