Learning
Learning & Teaching/Wellbeing/Faith & Farm
Seesaw Schedule
Hi families, Over the coming weeks, you will notice that our Seesaw Learning Posts have been created in collaboration with our children. The posts will feature a reflection of a piece of work that they believe shows their current achievement and “next steps” in their learning. As always, each post will be based on our learning progressions, which have been adapted from the Victorian F-10 Curriculum. We believe that this process will strengthen your child’s voice and agency in talking about their learning and progress. This is a trial process that we will evaluate and refine its effectiveness at the end of the year. We look forward to sharing the children’s reflections and goals for their learning! St. John’s team. |
Literacy
Please keep your eyes out for a survey that will be distributed via email and our socials, inviting you to share the type of experience you would like to engage in that will enable you to engage with the school, through a Literacy lens.
If you have any further questions about how you can support your child’s reading, speaking and listening or writing at home, or any other Literacy-related questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Daniela De Luca
Literacy Coach
ddeluca@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au
Numeracy
3-6s
So far this term, the Five/Six Hub have been utilising the problem solving process for maths. Children are given a worded problem that doesn’t explicitly indicate what strategies will help to solve them. This turns the focus away from simply finding a solution, and more towards the investigation and evaluation of strategies.
Children are also exposed to a variety of different materials that help to build their understanding of concepts. Below, Ellana and Nikola investigate the properties of square numbers within the following worded problem:
Ellana and Nikola formed the generalisation that square numbers are the product of a number being multiplied by itself, however used counters to prove their theory.
Australian Maths Competition
Our Maths Competition will be held on Friday the 5th of August. St John’s is proud to announce we have 42 eager participants this year - 25 in the 3/4 hub, and 17 from the 5/6 hub. The Australian Maths Competition provides children with problems that require resourcefulness and creativity to solve them. We wish all our participants the best!
Mitch Hayes
3-6 Numeracy
mitch.hayes@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au
Wellbeing
In Ready to Learn this term, the Hubs are focusing on Relationships and Diversity as part of the Personal and Social Capability Curriculum (Victorian Curriculum). The junior and senior hubs are exploring what makes a positive relationship and how our words and actions can contribute to maintaining healthy connections with one another. As the children explore concepts such as inclusivity and ways to manage conflict, an exploration of empathy, what it means and how it impacts our relationships is the springboard for deep thinking and discussion. Together with learning to recognise and express feelings of gratitude, being an empathic friend supports children to begin to notice and consider other perspectives.
Sharing stories about relationships and talking about the ways that the characters interact with one another is a very effective way of having meaningful discussions with your child about the features of positive relationships and helps them to develop social awareness. Exploring the concept of empathy through story is a powerful way to support our children to think with their hearts.
Karen Dodemaide
Co-Deputy Principal and Wellbeing Leader
kdodemaide@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au
Learning Diversity
We would like to welcome Nikayla Todd to our Allied Health team at St. John’s!
Nikalya is an OT and will work alongside Emily Cheeseman (OT). Over the last couple of weeks, Nikalya has been building rapport with students, liaising with educators and finding out about our children.
Nikayla and Emily also work alongside Christina Vo and Kay Fung - our Speech Therapists at St. John’s.
In Week 6, Christina and Kay will be running Professional Learning after school for our educators, where they will share their knowledge and strategies for supporting speech development. We are looking forward to this!
Ashlee Owen
Learning Diversity Leader
aowen@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au
Community Projects
This Term, our children have been
investigating the concepts of influence and progress through the lens of the Design and Technology curriculum.
As our children have embarked on the Community Project, ‘As The World Turns’, they have learnt about the vital role designers and makers play in providing solutions to problems faced by the community.
Our educators have invited the children to consider what the needs of their future communities may be and how they would respond to these needs as designers and makers. Some of the ethical considerations the children have been prompted to reflect on include sustainability, human rights, privacy laws and much more.
This exhibition will feature a collection of representations of what influence and progress means to the children, and their responses to the future needs of their community.
Our exhibition will be held from Monday the 5th of September until Friday the 9th of September, between the times of: 8:15 am to 8:45 am and 3:10pm to 3:45 pm.
We hope to see you there!
The Kalbarr Project
Last Friday our book drive for the Kalbarr Project was officially closed. The St John’s community generously donated over 800 books for the project, and Books’n’Boots!
We are so grateful for your donations! The books will be sent to a remote school in Cherbourg, Queensland in the next few weeks.
This week, the children who lead this project had the exciting opportunity to attend the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day celebration at the Braybrook Community Centre. They participated in experiences such as storytelling, a cleansing (smoking) ceremony, damper making and painting, as they learnt about the importance of this day.
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre Food Drive
On behalf of the St John’s Community Leaders, we would like to thank our families for the enormous contributions being made over the last few weeks for our food drive. Our drive will officially end next Friday,
12th August 2022.
Faith
Mary Mackillop Feast Day Mass
A reminder that we are extending an invitation to families to come along and attend our Mass at Our Lady’s in Maidstone, at 10:00am.
Snapshot of learning in hubs:
The Prep Hub are bringing Saint Mary Mackillop alive within their space, using the language of collage to recreate stained glass windows they’ve seen during Mass.
In preparation for their prayer gathering this Friday, and Mary Mackillop Feast Day, the one hub has been exploring the Sisters of St Joseph and their commitment to helping others. The children have learned of Saint Mary Mackillop’s first school - a re-purposed stable converted into a school for the disadvantaged.
The Two Hub have been exploring Mary Mackillops’ quote “never see a need without doing something about it” and thinking about what this means within their own context.
Our Three/Four hub have begun their preparations for the Sacrament of Eucharist, exploring how sacraments are ways of welcoming others into the faith community through celebration. The three/fours are investigating how sacramentality comes when we pause, reflect and celebrate.
The Five/Six Hub have been diving deep into the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, and looking into various individuals and companies who have exhibited these qualities, in light of Mary Mackillop Feast Day and Catholic Social Teaching of preferential options for the poor.
Prayer Gatherings:
Our prayer gatherings this term will centre the faith history of St John’s, through the life of Mary Mackillop, and those who have been inspired by her leadership and commitment to faith and education.
Our prayer gatherings will run as follows:
- Friday 5th August, Who Was Irene Mackormack?: One Hub
- Friday 19th August: Who Was Malachi O’Dowd?: Two Hub
- Friday 2nd September: Who Was Alex Mackillop?: Three/Four Hub
- Friday 16th September (morning): Who Was Flora Mackillip?: Prep Hub
Mitch Hayes
(Faith/REL Leader)
mitch.hayes@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au
Sport
YMCA - skateboarding incursion
Today our grade one and two students participated in a skateboarding incursion run by the YMCA. The “All abroad” incursion was a great opportunity for the children to develop their dispositions of bravery and persistence, whilst also learning basic skateboarding skills. The children really enjoyed working with facilitators Mel and Phoebe!
AFL in schools
Our senior students (Hubs 3/ 4, and 5 / 6) have been enjoying developing their skill set in the sport of AFL. Yesterday they had a great session with Coach Jack and coach Lily, practicing their new skills whilst participating in a variety of competitive games.
Kelly Edgar
Physical Education