Curriculum News
English
Year 3
This term, Year 3 students will take part in an OCHRE novel study of Matilda by Roald Dahl, aligned with the Victorian Curriculum: English. Students will explore how authors create engaging narratives through character, setting, and plot, while developing comprehension skills such as making inferences and supporting ideas with evidence from the text. A key focus will be on narrative and persuasive writing, with students creating imaginative texts and persuasive pieces inspired by the novel. Speaking and listening skills will be strengthened through structured discussions and oral activities that support confident sharing of ideas.
Year 4
This term, Year 4 students will also engage in an OCHRE novel study of Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo, aligned with the Victorian Curriculum: English. Students will analyse how authors use setting, character perspective, and events to convey themes such as resilience, friendship, and responsibility. The unit will include a strong focus on persuasive writing, with students planning and creating texts that present clear viewpoints supported by evidence. Learning will be supported through collaborative discussions, and structured responses that develop effective speaking and listening skills. Later in the term, students will move on to Leo and Ralph, exploring narrative writing through imaginative and creative tasks inspired by the text.
Mathematics
Year 3
In Term 1, Year 3 students will continue to develop their understanding of counting and place value, focusing on odd and even numbers and reading and writing numbers up to six digits. They will explore addition and subtraction using a variety of strategies, including number lines, partitioning, and fact families.
During a two-week unit on time, students will investigate durations in seconds, minutes, hours, days, and practice setting reading these on digital devices. The term concludes with a three-week unit on multiplication and division, where students will learn formal symbols and explore multiplication facts for 3, 4, 5, and 10, along with their related division facts.
Throughout the term, students will develop problem-solving, reasoning, and communication skills, applying their learning through practical and collaborative activities.
Year 4
In Term 1, Year 4 students will begin with Addition and Subtraction, exploring strategies such as compensation and the formal algorithm, and applying their understanding to problem-solving tasks.
Next, students will participate in a two-week Fractions unit, identifying halves, quarters, thirds, fifths, and tenths of shapes and collections. They will also explore counting in fractions, converting improper and mixed fractions, and placing fractions on number lines. Students will then explore time, including am, pm, elapsed time, and apply their skills to solve practical problems.
The term concludes with a three-week Multiplication and Division unit, where students will investigate multiplication facts for 6, 7, 8, and 9, explore powers and multiples of 10, practise 4-digit by 1-digit multiplication, and develop strategies for doubling and halving. Throughout the term, students will develop problem-solving, reasoning, and communication skills, applying their learning through practical, hands-on, and collaborative activities.
Humanities
Unit: Contributions to Community.
In Term One, the students will explore what a community entails, identifying local communities we belong to and the symbols that represent them. They will investigate diverse national communities of significance, related symbols and the key features of our First Nations People. They will discuss the factors and community roles that contribute to change describing how they have grown and evolved over time. Students will consider rules, their importance to us as a functioning society and how as members of the community we are all responsible. They will be provided with opportunities to draw conclusions and make suggestions on predictions, improvements and ways our community may evolve in the future.
Science
Unit: Heat
In Term One, the students will learn about heat including sources and how it can be measured accurately using a thermometer as an instrument. They will describe how heat can be transferred from one object to another through conduction, convection and radiation. Students will conduct simple experiments explaining how heat is maintained. Students will learn to explore and describe how aspects of our environment remain cool in summer and warm in winter and how certain materials stop the transfer of heat from us. They will investigate, design and construct containers that test the ability to reduce the transfer of heat, providing a simple explanation and evaluation of their experiment.
Religion
Topic: Church and Community
In Term One, the students will discuss and investigate the connections between the family, local parish and our wider church community. They will explore and investigate cultural events in our community, their significance and importance in our community. They will identify key figures in our church and celebrations that are integral to our Catholic faith. They will reflect on their part in belonging to a Catholic community as a school and parish. Students will investigate ways they can engage in our faith celebrations in particular the Mass, the Eucharist and our Liturgical season of Lent through avenues such as St Vincent De Paul and Caritas. The discussion, commemoration and celebration of Holy Week will be a feature of this unit.
Wellbeing
TOPIC : Personal & Cultural Strengths
In Term One, students will explore and describe their personal and cultural strengths, identifying how these strengths can help them respond to challenges and create opportunities. They will investigate factors that contribute to positive relationships at school, at home, and within the wider community. Students will explore what respect looks like, feels like, and sounds like in their everyday lives. Through role-play activities, they will practise and describe ways to demonstrate respect in different situations. They will identify communication skills that strengthen relationships and describe the characteristics of cooperative and respectful behaviour, providing evidence of these through group activities. Students will consider ways they can encourage their peers to treat others with respect, regardless of differences in gender, ethnicity, abilities, or family background. They will share examples of how people and families can be different and discuss ways to show respect for diversity. Students will also learn about First Nations perspectives, including the importance of Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country. As a group, they will construct a respectful acknowledgement that recognises and values First Nations cultures.