Junior School News 

Prep - Yr 2

Specialist Timetable

Religious Education and Inquiry - In Our Community

In our Term 1 unit of InquiRE, the students will be focusing on their community. Students will learn about the various services within our community. They will consider who to go to when they are in need of assistance and which services each of these places offer. 

In Religious Education, the students will learn about the Church community and ways in which they can be a part of it. Prep students will also focus on community and what it means to belong to God's family and the Church. They will learn about the season of Lent, the events of Holy Week and the significance of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Students will be introduced to making the sign of the cross, participate in morning and afternoon prayer sessions and appropriate responses. They will also learn a simple class prayer, which will be recited each day.

Writing-

In Term 1 Writing, students will be exposed to a variety of techniques to assist them in their development of writing. We will be exploring both recounts and narratives and looking at some of the writing conventions to enhance our writing pieces. As well as this, the students will also do handwriting weekly to continue learning about letter formation. Prep students will focus on the early writing conventions, including letter formation, correct tripod pencil grip and finger spacing. When attempting to write a sentence, students will be encouraged to represent a word by using initial sounds and familiar words that can be included when possible.

Reading- 

In Reading, the students will be exposed to a variety of reading strategies. With the focus on the Science of Reading, the students will be focusing on phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension. 

In collaboration with Term 1’s writing, we will be exploring a variety of narratives and their features. The students will learn to make educated predictions about texts, ask questions as a reader, make connections, activate prior knowledge, visualise and identify character traits. Prep students will concentrate on learning the sounds and letters of the alphabet. This knowledge will support them when reading the M100 most frequently used words and beyond. Students will explore concepts about print, including reading left to right,  return sweep and punctuation. This will be transferred to and assist with independent writing.

Mathematics- 

In Mathematics, students will delve into concepts focusing on addition, subtraction, and place value. Students will also be taught the importance of data collection, including displaying graphs, which will develop valuable skills in probability and statistics for practical use. Throughout the Term, students will be exposed to a range of effective strategies, fostering a deep understanding of relevant mathematical principles. Our goal this Term is to challenge each student appropriately, ensuring they develop a passion for mathematical thinking. Prep students will learn to recognise, write and understand the value of numbers between 1 to 10 and beyond. They will also explore the concept of patterns and simple positional language. There will be a focus on counting by 1's in a forward sequence from different starting and ending points. Students will be introduced to a number rhyme that assists in the correct formation of numerals.

Physical Education- 

In Physical Education for Term 1, students will practice and perform fundamental motor skills. They will focus on object control in combination with a variety of movements to improve gross and fine motor skills. Students will develop specific skills including striking, throwing, and catching as we focus on minor games that will lead up to Tennis and Tee-Ball towards the end of the term. 

Students will reflect over the Term on participation, the importance of rules and safety, as well as being inclusive of others.

STEM-

In STEM this term students began the term exploring what it means to be digital creators and how we can be safe on and offline. Identifying how they can show respect, be responsible, trust their feelings and investigate to see if information is true. Following this, students will be exploring directional language and using block code to control Dot and Dash robots. Students will design lines of code that control the robots to complete simple commands and mazes.

Mandarin-

During Term One, the students will be encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Mandarin programme, teacher’s expectations and grand rules by participating in a range of class routines, structured conversations and activities. Students will celebrate Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dragon and explore interesting or different festival celebrations in Chinese culture. They will be aware that Chinese is a major community language in Australia as well as many other languages other than English being used around us. 

Foundation Year Level

Foundation students will exchange simple greetings including hello, goodbye and thank you in Mandarin. Students will practice Chinese songs and rhymes with hand gestures such as “Hello”, “How are you?”, “I’m very good, thank you” and ‘Please be quite, raise your hand’. 

Students will celebrate Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dragon by watching some highlights from the 2024 Chinese Spring Festival Gala and singing, dancing, and listening to Chinese legends including the Nian Beast. They will make Chinese red pockets, festival lanterns and draw or decorate Chinese dragons.

Year One and Two: 

The students will exchange simple greetings including hello, goodbye and thank you in Mandarin. Students will practice Chinese songs and rhymes with hand gestures such as “Hello”, “How are you?”, “I’m very good, thank you” and ‘Please be quiet, raise your hand’. They will use six Chinese action words including dance, prance, hop, turn around, wiggle tails and sleep to create a dragon dance. 

Students will celebrate Chinese New Year by exploring some interesting facts about the Lunar New Year which is also called Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dragon. They will learn how to read and write the words of ‘dragon’, ‘lantern festival’ and ‘happy new year’ in Chinese. They will sing a Chinese song of Wish You a Happy New Year and make Chinese Dragon Puppets and lanterns.

Assemblies

Monday morning assemblies are at 8.50am.

Assemblies will be held at 9am (Term 1 and 4) and 2:45pm (Term 2 and 3) every second Friday, commencing week 3.

Reading Expectations 

Every night the students are expected to read for a minimum of 10 minutes,  reading the book in their communication bag (blue pouch). This pouch needs to be brought to school every day please so that books can be changed, and diary logs checked and signed.

Parent - Teacher communication

If you would like to meet with us, please email to arrange a time.  Please keep in mind that we are in the classroom with students between the hours of 8:45 am and 3:30 pm, and are unable to read emails during this time. We will endeavour to get back to you promptly. Teachers are committed to staff meetings on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.  

We look forward to working with you throughout the term and encourage you to contact us if you have any questions, concerns or good news stories! 

Email Addresses:

Miss Belinda Jackson: bjackson@olgcdeepdene.catholic.edu.au

Miss Joyce Dunne: jdunne@olgcdeepdene.catholic.edu.au 

Mr Gianni Montalto:  gmontalto@olgcdeepdene.catholic.edu.au 

Miss Isabella Rachele:     irachele@olgcdeepdene.catholic.edu.au