Classroom News

Foundation

Decoding

Students are continuing to expand their phonics knowledge with our Set 2 phonemes. These new sounds are helping them decode and encode a wider range of words with growing confidence.

Over the past fortnight, students have explored the letters Ee and Rr, and they are now working with Ff and Uu. During our sessions, students learn the cued articulation for each sound, practise the verbal pathways for correct letter formation, and rehearse writing both uppercase and lowercase letters on their whiteboards.

Our Heart Word focus also continues to strengthen. During Fluency Pairs and Buddy Reading, students practise recognising, reading and writing these high‑frequency words.

Content Knowledge

We are continuing our new topic of, “My Place, My Country, My World.” Students have explored Australia, learning about well‑known landmarks, states and territories, and the unique environments that make up our country. We then deepened our learning by focusing on Indigenous Australia, discussing the importance of Country, culture, and connection to place.Now that students have built a strong understanding of Australia, we are expanding our focus to explore other places in the world. This week, our learning is about Antarctica. Students will investigate what makes this icy continent so unique, its climate, wildlife, and landscapes — and will take part in activities to compare Antarctica with the places we have already studied.

Text Construction

During Text Construction, students have continued strengthening their understanding of conjunctions. After working confidently with because, they have now been focusing on their second conjunction — but. We have explored how but joins two ideas and signals a change in direction within a sentence. Using decodable texts as prompts, students have practised completing sentence starters, co‑constructed examples as a class, and then written their own independent sentences using this conjunction. We will continue building sentence ‑ writing confidence with but, and in the coming weeks we will discuss both conjunctions together.

Mathematics

Our Maths learning has been centred around exploring how numbers up to 10 can be taken apart and put back together in different ways. Students have been using counters, tens frames, and other hands‑on materials to investigate the many combinations that make each number. This has helped them talk confidently about part–part–whole relationships, such as “6 can be made from 1 and 5” or “3 and 3 also make 6.”

Junior School

Phonics

In the daily phonics block, students have been focusing on the r-controlled vowel sounds /ar/ and /or/. They have been learning how the letter “r” changes the sound of a vowel and will continue practising and recognising the other phonemes from this section of the sound chart in coming weeks. This is helping to build their decoding skills and confidence when encountering unfamiliar words.

Content Knowledge

Our students have been exploring the topic of Countries, Continents and Maps. So far, they have learnt about:

• North America, with a focus on The United States
• Canada, Mexico and Central America
• South America
• Europe

Students have been developing their understanding of the world by locating these regions on maps and learning key facts about each place. We are looking forward to continuing this learning with upcoming units on Africa, Asia, Australia and Antarctica.

Text Construction

In Text Construction, students have been learning about the four sentence types: statements, questions, exclamations and commands. They are beginning to use these different sentence types in their persuasive writing to make their ideas more engaging and effective. It has been wonderful to see students experimenting with different ways to express their opinion.

Maths

In Maths, students have been working on place value by ordering 2-, 3- and 4-digit numbers. They are also using their knowledge of patterns to continue number sequences, including finding 1 more, 1 less, 10 more and 10 less.Additionally, students have been exploring regrouping by trading ones for tens and tens for hundreds using MAB blocks and play money. Using concrete materials is helping to strengthen their understanding of how our number system works.

Personal Learning

In Personal Learning, students have been engaging with stories from the We Thinkers! social learning series. Through these stories, they are learning about the importance of hidden rules and expectations in different settings. Students are also practising how to make “smart guesses” by using the strategy: look, listen, think, make a smart guess. These skills support students in navigating social situations both in the classroom and beyond. Have a look at the family letter below that gives a bit more information about hidden rules. 

Middle School

Literacy

Students are continuing their work with The Wild Robot, focusing on building their comprehension skills and developing a deeper understanding of texts. They are learning to identify key ideas, make connections to their own experiences, and explore how authors use language to create meaning. A strong focus has been placed on recognising literary devices such as similes, personification and repetition, as well as discussing how illustrations support and add to the story.

In Writing, students are developing their persuasive writing skills. They are practising short daily writing tasks to build fluency and confidence, while also learning how to structure a persuasive piece. Students are writing an introduction, developing arguments supported by reasons and evidence, and finishing with a clear conclusion. They are also revising, editing and publishing their work to create a final piece they can be proud of.

Numeracy

In Numeracy, students have finished practising their skills on fractions. They are now focusing on measurement, in particular length and area. They are exploring how to use metric units such as millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres, and are learning when it is appropriate to use each unit. Students are practising measuring objects accurately using rulers and are developing their understanding of why consistent units are important.

They are also engaging in hands-on activities to explore area, including creating shapes and investigating how space can be measured using square units. Through these tasks, students are encouraged to explain their thinking and reasoning, helping to build both their confidence and problem-solving skills.

Discoveries

In Discoveries students are engaging in a range of collaborative and 

creative learning experiences. In House Sports, they are developing teamwork skills by participating in cooperative games, learning how to work together, follow rules and support one another. In Performing Arts, students are exploring soundscapes, where they learn about the elements of music and respond to different sounds. They are also creating their own soundscapes using shapes, colours and size to represent what they hear.

In Digital Technologies, students are being introduced to coding by learning how to give clear and specific instructions to a robot. Using a block-based coding program, they are exploring how sequences of instructions can control movement and actions, helping them understand the importance of precision when programming.

In Indigenous Studies, students are learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ANZACs and their contributions during World War I. They are exploring who the ANZACs were, the roles Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples played, and the challenges they faced. Through discussions and activities, students are developing an understanding and appreciation of their contributions to history.

Science

The Junior school students have been learning how daily and seasonal changes can affect everyday life. This week they had a great time exploring how and why it rains on our Earth. Using food colouring, shaving cream and water, the students made it rain inside a jar.

The Middle School students have started to explore how food chains can be used to describe feeding relationships on Earth. They are currently learning to identify how animals can be categorised as primary, secondary or tertiary consumers in a food chain.

The Senior students are learning how geological activity and extreme weather events can change the Earth’s surface. This week th,e students enjoyed using biscuits to simulate the different ways that tectonic plates move along boundaries.

We Are a SunSmart School

Our Sun Protection Policy has recently been updated to ensure it connects with our accreditation as a Sun Smart School. As part of this update, we will be monitoring the UV levels to determine when hats need to be worn. Hats will continue to be required from mid-August to the end of April, and whenever UV levels reach 3 and above. We have begun to share this improvement with students through our Morning Message and recommend students have access to their hat each day at school.