Welcome to Term 1

WELCOME

We would like to welcome existing families back to our school and extend a warm welcome to the new families of the Glen Waverley Primary School community.  We have had a fantastic start to the year; our learners have settled in very well into our orderly learning spaces and are deeply engaged in their learning.  With our School Values of Integrity, Initiative, Respect and Global Empathy at the forefront of our mind, Year 4-6 swimming, our upcoming Beechworth camp, and Cultural Diversity Week, we are sure to have an exciting term ahead!

LEVEL 5 TEAM

• Yvette Gavalovic (Teaching and Learning and Leader)
• Bianca Liburti (Assistant Teaching and Learning and Leader)
• Trish Singh (Student Engagement Learning Specialist)
• Kim Stevenson (5D classroom teacher)
• David Joyce (5E classroom teacher)
• Lindy Tran (Targeted Student Learning)

You Can Do It

As a student-centered school, the wellbeing, thinking and resilience of our learners are of the essence. Students will have the opportunity to apply the ‘You Can Do It’ Keys to Success throughout our Beechworth Camp. There will be a focus on Organisation, as they are being held accountable for their own belongings, as well as a focus on Ressilience, as they experience new foods, participate in new learning and form new friendships.

Our beginning focus for 2022 stems from careful analysis of student voice data gathered towards the latter half of 2021. This term, students will look into: 

• Building lasting and respectful relationships within and beyond classrooms 
• Developing an understanding of your own voice in learning and; 
• Positive self-talk guided through the learning pit. 

MATHEMATICS

In Mathematics, Level 5 students will be addressing all three standards of the Victorian Curriculum this semester; focusing on Number and Algebra in Term One, and Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability in Term Two.

Our first focus this term is establishing students’ understanding of the place value system and number relationships. This involves connecting concepts of ‘base ten’, decimals, the language behind numbers, estimation and rounding. Students will also explore a variety of strategies around the four number operations, including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They will focus on answering and creating problem solving questions in verbal, written, pictorial and numerical form. Students will investigate the purpose and function of factors, multiples, primes and composite numbers in number sequences and real life problem solving contexts. To prime our learners up for camp in Week 6, we will also unpack and explore the concepts of time and location, particularly anlaysing timetables, itineraries and mapping.

The Mathematics Innovation Program provides 20-30 Level 5 students with the opportunity to participate in enriching, investigative tasks. The program aims to extend students’ creativity, reasoning skills and ability to solve open-ended problems. 

ENGLISH

In Reading, students will be analysing persuasive texts to identify how the author achieves intent and creates impact on the reader. They will be provided with the opportunity to view a variety of texts throughout the unit from both student and adult authors, and compare a variety of sources to form a viewpoint. There will be a close focus on language and how specific word choices help the author convince the reader. In Writing, students will explore how to write persuasive texts, transferring the skills learnt from reading to apply them to their writing. Students will also continue with sustained writing as they are provided with the opportunity to write about a topic of their choice and in a style they desire, with the aim of achieving their learning goal. In Spelling, students will identify personal words by finding incorrectly spelt words from their writing book and inquiring into them throughout the week. There will be a new focus each week, including double consonants and homophones. 

INQUIRY

During Inquiry in Term One, students will be exploring the big question, “How do we develop as a whole child in a global context?” This focus allows for a greater understanding of multiple perspectives throughout history, more importantly how children were nurtured and developed during multiple eras. Our global goal focus is “reduced inequities”. 

Our learning will be extended beyond the classroom during our camp to Beechworth, where students will be able to make connections to their prior learning through personal experiences and collaboration with their peers. Upon our return to school, they will learn about the historical inequalities in Australia, the cross-generational effect and the way our country is working on reducing these inequalities.