Principals Message

Dear Parents,

Your child may come home and tell you that they are using VCOP in their writing

at school or show you some 'Kung Fu Punctuation' moves?    

But what is VCOP?

VCOP  is part of our focus in raising writing standards.

Teachers have been developing their knowledge of VCOP strategies to implement

as part of our writing program. Each letter of VCOP stands for an aspect of writing

that will help them improve all writing in all areas of learning.

V = Vocabulary (the words they use in their writing)

We call them WOW words because when we are reading, these words make us say "WOW!" For example: instead of using the word ‘nice’, we could use other more interesting words such as beautiful, stunning, fantastic. As children become more confident writers they can use figurative language including onomatopoeia and similes: "My dog is as smelly as dirty socks."

C = Connectives (we may call them joining words)

These are words we use to make our sentences longer. For example: and, because, but, so, when, then. The words come in the middle of sentences:  'When I stared out of the window I felt angry because…’ As we become more confident writers we can use connectives such as despite, contrary to and although.

O = Openers (we use these words to open or begin our sentences)

For example: I…, My…, When…, First…, Suddenly…’There are many more openers. We encourage the children to use a different opener to start each sentence in their writing. As we become more confident writers we use power openers such as words ending in -ly: Quickly, Suddenly or even an adverbial phrase,  "Charlotte ate her breakfast as the sun came up."

P = Punctuation (the marks we use to help our writing make sense!)

The children use full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks, question marks, ellipsis, colon, semicolon. Ask your children to show you some of their Kung Fu punctuation moves that help them remember this important part of writing.

The whole school is very enthusiastic about VCOP and The Big Write. There will be more information and examples  in the following Newsletters.

Kind regards,

Jen Honner

James Hayne in Yr 5 is creating a bank of WOW words to use in his writing. James shows a good understanding of what is needed to capture the interest of the reader.

Ivy Avard in Kinder can clearly point out the vowels and consonants in her words. We write vowels in red and consonants in blue when we are learning about them. Ivy enjoys practising writing words she can see around the classroom. She is a “Spelling Star!”

A huge Shout Out

I am constantly amazed by the generosity of our parents who are willing to help out and lend a hand when needed. You are such an important part of our school community.

So, a huge thank you to:

• All the parents who supported us by helping at the Swimming Carnival.
• The amazing P&F parents and their helpers for yet another successful Fair. The energy and good spirit they display is just wonderful. Thank you to all our parents who turned up and joined in the fun. Our children will benefit from your generosity.
• All of our pancake chefs yesterday
• All the canteen volunteers