What's Happening in the Senior School
Year 5
What’s Happening in Year 5 in Weeks 3 & 4
Welcome to Week 3 & 4 and Term 4, we hope everyone has had a fun and productive first two weeks.
In Week 6, we will be beginning our Year 5 Bike Ed program. We will need two parent volunteers to help with Bike Education for each group and session. If you are available to help, please fill out the volunteer sign up form. Your child will know their group number so if you want to ride with them, please sign up to the correct group number. You must have completed the BPS Volunteer Induction (details on the School News page of this newsletter) and have a current Working with Children Check that is available to the office to attend as a volunteer.
Please click on the following web link (or copy it into your web browser if clicking doesn't work) to go to the signup sheet: volunteersignup.org/4EX8J. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your child's classroom teacher.
Students will also continue their leadership workshops with the Year 1 students, and will engage with other year levels as well.
Over the next two weeks, we will be learning about...
Wellbeing
Students will learn how to recognise emotions and engage in positive self-talk through Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships lessons.
Literacy
Students will be continuing to read our new novel titled ‘Can You See Me’ and completing the associated sentence and text level activities. We will continue Word Origins spelling lessons. The students are enjoying finding out the meaning of new morphemes each week.
Maths
We have just completed our Fractions unit, with the students showing significant growth, well done. We have now begun out unit on Time, with the initial sessions focusing on converting between 12 and 24 hour time and reading and interpreting timetables and schedules.
Knowledge Unit
As part of our Health Knowledge Unit, students will be explaining how influential people may impact the way individuals see themselves and influence their developing identities, for example parents, friends, coaches, sporting role models and influencers. They will investigate how beliefs and cultural practices contribute to the development of positive self identities. Students will also be researching sources of health information and places where they can seek help at home, school and in the community. In Week 5 students will be exploring the Kids Helpline website. They will explore the Kids 5-12yrs page. If you would like to visit the site with your child prior to the session you can access it here: Kids 5-12 Years | How Can we Help? | Kids Helpline
Homework
Mathletics tasks
30minutes of reading each night
Reminders
- Open Afternoon Friday 31st October 3pm in classrooms
- The 2025 BPS Yearbook is able to be ordered on Qkr! Orders close 7th November.
Year 6
What’s Happening in Year 6 in Weeks 3 & 4
Year 6 students have started the term strong, showing great enthusiasm and focus in all areas of their learning. They recently participated in Elephant Ed sessions, engaging thoughtfully in discussions about respectful relationships and wellbeing. In English, students are finishing the inspiring novel The Grandest Bookshop in the World, exploring it's themes through rich discussion and creative responses. Meanwhile for Maths, students have been enjoying hands-on games that encourage critical thinking and problem solving as they immerse themselves in the fascinating world of angles.
Over the next two weeks, we will be learning about...
Wellbeing
Year 6 students are continuing to explore healthy, respectful relationships through the 4R’s Program, focusing on reflection, resilience, relationships, and respect. As they approach the end of their primary school journey, students will also be encouraged to connect with peers who will be joining them in high school, helping to build supportive and positive relationships for the next stage of their education. These sessions will foster confidence, empathy, and a strong sense of community within the cohort.
Literacy
Year 6 students have begun a new class novel, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which they will study alongside their Environmental Science unit to deepen their understanding of electricity and innovation. They are continuing their work on Word Origins, exploring the etymology of words to strengthen their vocabulary and language awareness. Students are also developing their vocabulary and comprehension skills — both literal and inferential — while practising figurative language and dialogue at a sentence level to ensure accurate text evidence citing. To showcase their creativity, students will independently write a narrative inspired by The Grandest Bookshop in the World, applying their growing knowledge of language and storytelling techniques.
Maths
Year 6 students are diving back into the world of fractions, decimals, and percentages as they continue to strengthen their number knowledge. They will use division and multiplication to calculate both unit and non-unit fractions and explore how these concepts connect to real-world situations. Students will also develop their skills in converting between fractions, decimals, and percentages to perform a range of calculations with accuracy and confidence. They will be consolidating these skills to apply them within their Knowledge Unit – Economics - where understanding value, cost, and comparison will be key.
Knowledge Unit
Year 6 students have begun their new Knowledge Unit, Economics, for which they are learning how people make choices about resources, goods, and services. They will explore key vocabulary such as supply, demand, needs, and wants to build a strong foundation for understanding how economies work. As part of their learning, students will start analysing businesses in our local community to see what makes them successful. To deepen their understanding, they will visit the South Melbourne Market to experience first-hand how businesses operate and gain inspiration for their upcoming major economics project.
Homework
Students are expected to read for a minimum of 15-30 minutes, five times a week, to improve their reading skills. We encourage students to bring in their diaries every Monday to show their teacher what they have read each week. Additionally, they will receive Mathletics tasks every fortnight to reinforce and build on their mathematical knowledge. Please check to see if there are any new tasks assigned on Mathletics.
Reminders
Thursday 23rd October – Talk Money Workshop
Friday 24th October – South Melbourne Market excursion
Friday 31st October – Open Afternoon @ 3:00pm
Prep and Year 6 Buddy Tea Towels can be ordered on Qkr! Orders close 3rd November.
The 2025 BPS Yearbook is able to be ordered on Qkr! Orders close 7th November.
Aladdin Jr images and video now available in your child's class team on Teams for personal viewing only.
