Senior School News
Mr Tom Brophy (5/6B), Miss Carrie Kudelka (5/6K) & Miss Chelsea Perrin (5/6P)
Welcome to 2024 and another school year at OLGC! We are thrilled to begin this exciting journey with your child in the Senior School. Our new and eager team of teachers are enthusiastic and committed to creating a positive and engaging learning environment. Together, we make up 3 classes: 5/6B with Mr Tom Brophy, 5/6K with Ms Carrie Kudelka and 5/6P with Miss Chelsea Perrin.
Below you will find an overview of the term's curriculum and schedule, outlining the exciting topics and activities planned for the remainder of Term 1:
SCHEDULE TOPICS | |
| Reading | In our Term 1 Reading lessons, students are engaged in a novel study of their choice, exploring the themes of inclusion, diversity, acceptance, and kindness through the books "Wonder," "Fish in a Tree," or "Out of My Mind." The students have the freedom to delve into one of these books this term, fostering a sense of autonomy in their learning journey. Additionally, students have set their individual CAFE goals, which stands for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expand Vocabulary, indicating their personalised objectives for the term. As a class, we are currently focusing on the skill of prediction, honing our ability to anticipate and infer while reading. Emphasising the importance of stamina reading, we encourage students to transfer these skills by dedicating a minimum of 20 minutes to nightly reading, fostering a habit that extends beyond the classroom. |
| Writing | In our Term 1 persuasive writing studies, we've delved into the OREO structure, which emphasises Opinion, Reason, Evidence/Example, and Opinion restated as a framework for constructing compelling arguments. Exploring persuasive devices, we've employed the 'A FOREST' acronym, covering techniques such as Alliteration, Facts, Opinions, Rhetorical questions, Emotive language, Statistics, and Three-part lists. As we transition into the 7 Steps program, we've initiated a focus on captivating introductions, introducing the concept of "sizzling starts" to grab the reader's attention and set the tone for persuasive pieces. |
| Maths | Number and Place Value form the basis for our Term 1 numeracy lessons. Students will look specifically at mental and written strategies for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. As well as this, later in the term we will further our knowledge in factors, multiples, prime, composite, square and triangular numbers, as well as the importance of estimation and rounding. |
| InquiRE | InquiRE is our clever name for Inquiry and RE together. Throughout our first topic in InquiRE, we will be focusing on Community and Democracy. Students will be learning about the wider community, key values of Australian Democracy, and the key features in the electoral process. They will explore the three levels of government, the Stolen Generations and the fight for equal rights in Australia. In addition, what are laws and what goes into making new ones. They will set personal and social goals and work towards a common goal as a class. |
| SEL | In Social and Emotional Learning, we will be exploring the topics of Personal Strengths, and Emotional Literacy. During our topic of Personal Strengths, students will explore what personal strengths are, what they believe are their own strengths and qualities they possess. In addition, they will assess the value of working independently and directing their own learning. Emotional Literacy sees students learning about how emotional responses can influence our behaviour. We will also analyse the different factors that play a part in our ability to regulate our emotions. Students will explore why we feel certain emotions and what we can do to demonstrate positive behaviour. |
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.
STEM
In STEM, we will explore what is required of us as content and digital creatives. We will learn about how we can be safe online while creating things that we can share with others to solve problems and build connections. Students will consider digital threats like scammers and hackers, cyber bullies and anti-social online figures. They will develop strategies to protect themselves from these threats and to ensure they are kept safe online. From there, the students will consider the difference between a digital creator and an influencer. They will analyse prominent online role models and influencers, investigate what makes them successful as well as why they may be worthy of emulation. The students will grapple with the question of whether one can be an influencer for good, while earning a living by promoting products online. From there, the students will learn about the different ways that they can create responsible digital content while at school. They will be introduced to how brands conduct marketing campaigns and the way colours, fonts and logos are used to identify brands and influence opinions. Students will finish the unit through designing a social media content for the school to be put on display in the main office.
TERM 1 IMPORTANT DATES | |
FEBRUARY | MARCH |
Wednesday 21st: Parent Class Information Night (7pm) | Thursday 7th & Friday 8th: School Closed - NO STUDENTS (Teachers at conference) |
Tuesday 27th: Parent/Teacher Interviews (2:30 - 5pm) | Monday 11th: Labour Day - NO STUDENTS |
Wednesday 28th: Parent Camp Meeting (3:30-4pm in 5/6 classroom) | Tuesday 12th - Friday 15th: Grade 5/6 Camp (Alexandra Adventure Resort) |
Thursday 29th: Parent Helpers Course (9:15am) Parent/Teacher Interviews (2:30 - 5pm) | Tuesday 12th - Friday 23rd: NAPLAN Testing |
| Friday 15th: St Patrick’s Day Mass | |
| Thursday 21st:Harmony Day | |
Wednesday 27th: End of Term Mass (9:15am) | |
Thursday 28th: End of Term 1 (Dismissal 1pm) | |
Friday 29th - Sunday 14th: School Holidays! 🎉 | |
HOUSEKEEPING | |
| Homework | As we start to introduce the Science of Learning into our school, we believe homework is an important way to reinforce what students are learning in the classroom. Every Friday, students will receive their homework Grid which will be accessed digitally on Google Classroom. Students will have a small amount of homework in each study area: Writing, Inquiry, Maths, Reading and RE. They will have the week to complete it and return it to school the following Friday. Every student has a diary where they will keep track of their nightly readings. We kindly ask parents to sign off a student’s diary on Thursday night. |
| Camp | Year 5/6 students will be attending a 4 day/3 night camp at Alexandra Adventure Resort in Week 7 (Tuesday 12th of March - Friday 15th of March). Medical forms were due THIS WEEK. Cabin and activity groups are currently being organised and will be distributed to the students on the bus. More details will be provided closer to the date. |
| Assembly | Monday morning assemblies are at 8.50am. Fortnightly assemblies will be held at 9am Term 1 |
| Parent/Teacher Communication | We kindly request that you schedule any meetings with us by reaching out via email at the addresses below. Please note that we are committed to staff meetings on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. We are unable to read or respond to emails during school hours, from 8:30 AM to 3:45 PM. However, we will make every effort to reply to you within 24 hours. In case of an emergency requiring immediate attention, we ask that you contact the OLGC office directly on 8808 840 |
We are very excited to be a part of this Senior School journey with your child and look forward to a fantastic year of learning, growth, and collaboration. Please contact us on the email addresses below if you have any questions, queries or concerns.
Warm regards,
Tom, Carrie and Chelsea
Mr Tom Brophy: tbrophy@olgcdeepdene.catholic.edu.au
Ms Carrie Kudelka: ckudelka@olgcdeepdene.catholic.edu.au
Miss Chelsea Perrin: cperrin@olgcdeepdene.catholic.edu.au