English
Mrs Gabrielle Devine| English Coordinator
Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Primary School
Congratulations to our Spelling Bee Champions!
We would like to congratulate all students who participated in this year's OLF Spelling Bee. Every participant demonstrated outstanding courage and perseverance as they challenged themselves in front of their peers during our stage finals. We are incredibly proud of the effort and enthusiasm shown by all students involved.
A special congratulations to our Spelling Bee winners, Madison, Raffaele and Alana, whose exceptional spelling knowledge and composure under pressure earned them top honours.
| Stage 1 Participants | Sebastian, Tom, Kiri and Madison |
| Stage 2 Participants | Raffaele, Sienna, Isabella and Ian |
| Stage 3 Participants | Kayla, Alana, Luca and Micah |
80 Days Reading Challenge
On Monday, June 8th, communication was shared about the ‘80 Days Reading Challenge’. This challenge runs from June 8th til Thursday, August 27th. It aims to foster a love of reading and encourage students to develop sustained, daily reading habits.
How it works:
- Students will be encouraged to read every day for 80 days and record on the tracking sheet that was sent home on Monday, 8th June.
- Reading can be done independently, shared with a family member or listened to as an audiobook.
As a fun and exciting way to celebrate their efforts, every child who returns a completed reading log will have the chance to draw a ‘Golden Ticket’ in front of the whole school after the Book Week Parade on Friday, 28th of August. Each Golden Ticket will reveal a special surprise. So far we have received some incredibly generous donations from surrounding Shire businesses and beyond!
- Taronga Zoo Family Pass - valued at $158!
- $100 Frango Portuguese Charcoal Chicken Voucher
- $50 Yochi Voucher
- Caringbah Flipout Vouchers
- And more prizes to come!
Thank you for your continued support in nurturing a strong reading culture in our school community!
FREE Parent Reading Course
On Wednesday 17th June, we held an ‘Early Reading Parent Session’ in our OLF school library. Thank you to all the wonderful parents and carers who attended the session.
At the end of the session, we shared a link to a FREE parent reading course created by SCS in partnership with SPELD NSW. We would highly recommend that all K-2 parents engage with this course.
The course will explore:
The Simple View of Reading: Understanding how word reading and language comprehension work together to build strong readers.
Phonics & Blending: How children connect letters to sounds and "blend" them together to read words, rather than guessing.
Using Decodable Readers: How to navigate these specially designed practice books and how to handle "Tricky Words" that don't follow standard phonics rules.
At-Home Strategies: Practical tips on finger-tracking, promoting fluency and how to gently guide your child through error correction without taking over.
Building Language: How everyday conversations, asking questions and reading aloud build vital vocabulary and world knowledge.
Mrs Gabrielle Devine | English Coordinator