Infants and Primary
INFANTS
The Infants building has been a hive of activity over the last couple of weeks, and it will be looking pretty schmick pretty soon. There has been painting and carpeting happening, giving the rooms a great freshen up. It has been business as usual on the learning front, with some classes making a temporary move to the Primary building while their classroom is out of action. Students have shown great resilience in handling this change, still focusing on lessons despite not necessarily having all the resources in their usual places, the furniture being not quite the right size and other minor changes that can be unsettling. Thank you to all students for understanding and handling the changes well.
We have also had other significant changes in our Infants building. Ms Wood has commenced teaching the Year 1/2 class as Miss Friend commenced maternity leave. We have also welcomed Ms Laura Ewan to our school and K-6 staff and she will be working across our classes doing intervention with small groups and teaching classes during release time. We are all excited to have Ms Wood and Ms Ewan working in their new roles!
As we head toward the halfway mark of the school year, staff are busy finalising reports ready to be sent out via Compass at the end of term. We will be holding parent-teacher interviews early next term and each parent and carer is strongly encouraged to book a time with their child’s teacher/s to discuss their progress and learning goals. These interviews are a great chance to touch base, address any concerns and help set the scene for the second semester of learning. Please keep an eye out for more information about this as it gets closer.
K/1
Kindergarten and Year 1 students have spent this last week revising all the clever things they have been learning during the first half of the year, and this has included learning what ‘revision’ means. This consolidation of knowledge is very important in making sure that base skills are developed before progressing on to new and harder concepts. Any opportunities for our K/1 students to practice counting and number recognition over the upcoming holidays, as well as reading and being read to are great ways to help with this at home. Card games, board games and stories in a cosy spot in front of the fire are great ways to spend some time together these holidays!
Year 1/2
What a big fortnight it has been for 1/2!
We began our fortnight with some big emotions as we said goodbye to Miss Friend, who has now started her maternity leave. While we miss her very much and are doing our best to patiently wait for baby news, the class has shown incredible resilience and flexibility as they’ve welcomed me, Ms Wood, as their new teacher. I have been so impressed with the kindness, patience, and helpfulness students have shown, from helping me learn their routines to enthusiastically taking on classroom responsibilities.
In English, we’ve been diving into the world of narratives by exploring inventions and how they can help the environment. Using the wonderful picture books Our Little Inventor by Sher Rill Ng and The Incredible Freedom Machines by Kirli Saunders as inspiration, students have been planning their own imaginative stories about characters who invent something to solve a real-world problem. Our students have been creatively thinking about the challenges that they may face in the settings they've chosen, from deforestation in jungles to poisonous sharks in the Boorowa River! We’re now moving into the drafting, editing, and publishing phase, and can’t wait to share our exciting stories soon.
We’ve also started using the online reading program EPIC, which students are really enjoying during independent reading time. Our class goal is to read 16,000 books, and we’re tracking our progress each week.
As a special read-aloud, we’ve begun The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton. Students are already enchanted by the magical world of the Faraway Tree and are eager to learn more about the characters and their adventures.
In Maths, we’ve just launched into a new unit exploring how we see, represent, and work flexibly with numbers in many different ways. Across the unit, students are learning how to:
- represent numbers using groups of tens and ones,
- skip count in patterns and rhythms,
- use multiplication strategies such as equal groups and arrays, and
- solve addition and subtraction problems using flexible strategies and number lines.
It’s been a very hands-on and engaging start!
A real highlight this fortnight has been our Tuesday sessions with the awesome Geoff and Mona from Gecko Sports, where we’ve been learning the basics of touch football, including passing, teamwork, how to score a try, and the rules of the game. The students have loved developing new skills and playing games that build both fitness and confidence. Thank you Matt Rowley for organising such a fantastic opportunity for our students!
We’re also getting mighty close to filling our feather tub, which means a class celebration is on the horizon! Students have been brainstorming some exciting and creative ideas for how we might celebrate all the positive behaviour and teamwork that have earned us so many feathers.
Ms Phoebe Wood
Year 2/3
Year 2/3 have been working hard in English to understand and use figurative language in their writing tasks. We have been exploring new vocabulary and we are using this in our writing. Creative Arts has been lots of fun this term, we have performed plays for each other in the classroom and we have been playing lots of different songs with the boom whackers. In Maths we have been learning about position and direction. We know compass directions of north, south, east and west and we are able to find positions on a grid map using coordinates. In PDHPE we have been talking about peer pressure and how important it is to be yourself and not let your behaviour and choices be influenced by others. We have loved our Gecko sport sessions and learning the skills to play Lacrosse and we have just started learning how to play Ultimate Frisbee.
Miss Natalie Downey
Year 4/5
The last few weeks have been very productive and engaging for students in 4/5. Students have worked hard across all key learning areas and should be very proud of their efforts and progress!
In English, students studied the novel "Leila and the Blue Fox" by Kiran Millwood Hargrave and Tom de Freston, which sparked thoughtful discussion on topics such as climate change, conservation, world politics, and life in the North Pole. It was fabulous to see students engage so thoughtfully with this text, which focusses on the story of Leila, a Syrian girl living in London, whose mother works as a researcher in Norway. Students demonstrated their understanding through creative responses including PowerPoint presentations, fake tourism campaigns, and independent research projects.
In Mathematics, our focus has been on Fractions and Decimals, as well as a unit Data and Chance. Students particularly enjoyed designing and conducting a class survey on popular fidget toys, which led to some interesting data analysis and class discussions.
In PE, students have been participating in Lacrosse coaching sessions, developing coordination and teamwork skills. Students have loved having the opportunity to learn a new sport, which includes learning new skills and rules. A big thank you to Jeff and Mona from Gecko Sports for running these enjoyable and energetic sessions for students!
Overall, it has been a strong term for Year 4/5. Students are to be commended for their positive behaviour, consistent effort, and willingness to engage in all areas of learning. I hope that the students have a great holidays in a couple of weeks, and I can't wait to see them all again next term!
Ms Charlotte Groves
Primary
As we near the end of Term 2, we would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation for your support throughout this busy term. It has been a wonderful time filled with exciting events and valuable learning experiences for our students.
With just five days remaining in the term, we hope that you and your children enjoy a well-deserved break. We encourage everyone to take this time to recharge and come back ready for an engaging Term 3!
We also want to inform you that this semester, we will be sending out student reports via Compass for the first time. These reports will be available on your Compass app towards the end of Week 10. If you have any questions about this new process or need assistance, please feel free to contact the school office.
Ms Meg McIntosh