Grade 1

Welcome to 2025

The Grade 1 students have had a wonderful start to the school year. They have demonstrated independence in their morning routines, promptly putting their school bags away and entering the classroom in a calm and orderly manner. This has set the scene for a very positive learning environment in all classes and we would like to thank you for your support in making this happen.

Literacy

Our Literacy block is based on a structured literacy model. It is broken into seven parts, including a daily review, phonics and phonemic awareness (see below), reading fluency, handwriting, comprehension, vocabulary and writing.

For the first hour of the Literacy block, Grade 1 students will continue to use Sounds Write, as they did in Prep. Sounds Write provides a progression of learning of letters (graphemes) and their corresponding sounds (phonemes) to decode words and develop morphological knowledge. In Grade 1, students will focus on segmenting and blending words and understanding that sounds can be made up of more than one spelling; for example, the /ae/ sound can be made by the spellings /ay/ /ai/ /a/ /a-e/. During the first hour of the Literacy block, students will have opportunities to read, write and spell words, practice handwriting and develop fluency in their reading.

The second hour of the Literacy block will be teaching reading and writing through a Core Knowledge unit and 'Story Champs'. The students will work through a different core knowledge unit each term, and the focus of the unit will align with the Inquiry focus for the term.

In Term 1, the Grade 1 students will explore the Core Knowledge Unit, 'Continents, Countries and Maps.' In the first few weeks, the students will learn about navigation using maps and directions, with explicitly taught vocabulary including compass, symbols, north, south, east and west. The students will then move into an overview of the continents and world oceans, to create context for their next focus area, Australia.

This year our P-2 students will also be using an evidence-based program called Story Champs. The program allows students to engage with a variety of stories to develop their oral language and writing skills. They will also develop their understanding of simple and advanced story structure, vocabulary, complex linguistic features, and informational text structure.

We will be sending decodables or fluency passages home for students for additional fluency practice. Students will bring these home with a two unit lag (4 weeks) on what they are currently learning in the classroom, just as they did in Prep. 

Maths

Students in Prep-2 will be using Explicit Maths Program (EMP) to teach Maths. EMP is systematically sequenced according to evidence-based science of learning principles, includes regular (daily) review and is explicitly taught with dynamic instructional routines. The program has been designed to be highly responsive with regular opportunities for student interactions and low variance, which ensures that students in all classes receive the same instruction.

In the first few weeks, the students will be focusing on bundling sticks to make and say 2-digit numbers, along with 2D shape. Students will also continue to work on correct numeral formation.

Key Reminders and Dates

• Sunsmart: students need to be wearing hats when they are outside at school. They are also welcome to bring their own sunscreen and apply themselves during recess and lunch.

• Nude Food - Resource Smart School: 

  As part of our commitment to being a ‘resource smart school’, we encourage all students and staff to bring nude food to school as much as possible. 

  By practising Nude Food across the school, we reduce the amount of packaging and waste we bring to school that ends up in our bins to be sent to landfill.

  Nude Food is a fantastic opportunity to educate children about how their actions can impact the environment and their health. Focussing on the positive message of ‘nude food = a healthy body + a healthy planet’. As a school we pride ourselves on reducing our ‘footprint’ and caring about the beautiful environment that we are so lucky to live in. 

• Specialist timetable: Your child's teacher will send you a specialist timetable this week. Please note that this year our timetable has Week A (odd weeks - Week 3, 5 etc.) and Week B (even weeks - Week 4, 6 etc).