Year 1 Term 2 Newsletter

Meet the teaching team

1A - Yvonne Kerr

1B - Tegan Boucher

1C - Sonia Uhe and Chelsea Kubic

Welcome to Term 2 

Welcome back to all our wonderful Year 1 students and their families! It has been lovely to see the children reconnect with each other and share their holiday adventures. They have settled back into classroom routines quickly and responsibly, showing great enthusiasm for the term ahead.

We have an exciting and busy term planned, a visit from our grandparents to share stories of the past, and a dress-up day in Week 9 to conclude our Past and Present unit (more information to follow in Compass). 

General Reminders

Please remember to wait outside the building at drop-off and pick-up times – no parents in the corridors. Your support helps us create a calm and orderly environment for our students.

We also kindly ask that parents and family members please avoid standing directly in front of the 1A and 1B classroom windows after school drop-off and before dismissal, as this can be distracting for our students and can interrupt classroom routines and learning time. 

With the cooler weather coming, please ensure students are dressed appropriately with school jumpers, long pants and beanies if required. Please ensure all uniform items are labelled, as we are still finding many unnamed items.

Please pack a recess snack, a fruit break snack and lunch for your child each day. We are beginning Nude Food again this term with the aim of bringing less rubbish into lunchboxes. Fruit break must be a piece of fruit, yoghurt or cheese, as we only have 10 minutes to eat.  Please avoid including products with nuts in lunchboxes in support of those students with allergies. Water bottles are kept in the classroom for easy access and to encourage your child to hydrate regularly. 

Finally, thank you to the families who have already done so, but please ensure that you let your class teacher know well in advance if you have a family holiday planned during the school term, in addition to putting it on to Compass.

 Specialist Timetable 

Important Dates 

08/05: Mother's Day,Open Classrooms 2.15pm

13/05: Kingston Library visit (incursion)

18/05: Curriculum Day 

18/05: Learning Progress meetings 

21/05: Learning Progress meetings 

03/06: Grandparents visit for Past and Present 2.50-3.20pm

08/06: King's Birthday Public Holiday

19/06: Past and Present Dress up Day

19/06: Semester 1 Reports published on Compass

26/06: Last Day of Term- 2:30 dismissal

Parent Helpers 

At CEPS, we highly value working together as a whole community and actively encourage family participation and involvement. Throughout the year, we will be seeking helpers for excursions and incursions, please keep an eye on Compass for opportunities to assist.

We also greatly appreciate parent helpers who can support students with reading. Parents are warmly invited to assist during Session 6 (2:40–3:20 pm). A Compass note will be sent out shortly outlining the days your child’s teacher is seeking help.

When helping with the children at CEPS, it is required that you wear a Working With Children’s Check (WWCC) displayed on a lanyard at all times. 

If you have not got a WWCC and wish to volunteer, application forms can be found online at: www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au

Remember to sign in each day you volunteer at CEPS via the computer at the office. This is a mandatory requirement. You will also be required to sign out. 

Attendance

Our rolls are legal documents, therefore we must be accountable for any absences. Please assist with this by informing the school through Compass, email or phone call to record the absence. Late students need to be signed in at the office by a parent/caregiver and collect an orange pass to present to their teacher on arrival at their classroom. 

Teaching and Learning

English

Reading 

This term, students will continue to participate in daily phonics sessions. Our phonics program is designed to reinforce and build upon students’ existing knowledge, introducing them to new sound (code) representations such as /oi/ and /oy/.  These sessions aim to enhance their decoding skills and support reading development.

During reading sessions, teachers will work closely with each child to develop proficiency in fluency, accuracy, and comprehension. We will explore a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts, engaging in discussions to deepen their understanding and make connections to their own experiences.

Additionally, your child will be read to daily, with high-quality picture books used to model comprehension strategies such as sequencing and retelling. These activities support the development of critical thinking and help students articulate their thoughts about the texts they encounter.

Writing

As part of their writing development, your child will be guided to write words and sentences with correct letter formation, sizing, and punctuation. They will also be encouraged to expand their vocabulary and practice correct grammar. Our main focus will continue to be on sentence structure and writing a complete sentence correctly.  We will also explore recounts and narratives. 

Speaking and Listening

This term, we will continue to focus on enhancing your child’s speaking and listening skills. Students will be encouraged to actively participate in class discussions, sharing their thoughts and experiences respectfully during group activities and yarning circles.

We will continue to listen to each student share what they did with our class bear upon its return. 

Mathematics 

This term in Maths, students will focus on the units of counting and place value, addition and subtraction, measurement and time duration. Learning will follow a clear daily structure using the gradual release model, starting with a daily review and moving through I do, we do, you do to build confidence and independence.

Through hands-on and practical activities, students will explore number and strengthen their number knowledge by ordering numbers to at least 120, partitioning numbers into tens and ones and connecting numerals with quantities. Students will also solve addition and subtraction problems using a range of strategies. In our measurement unit, we will explore length, mass, and capacity through a range of engaging activities, including estimating, hefting and pouring.

Humanities 

This term, our Humanities unit will explore how technology has transformed our lives over time. As part of our learning, we visited Rippon Lea Estate to experience what life was like before modern technology. What a great day we had! Thank you to the parents who came along as volunteers. 

We would love for students to bring in any old items from home—such as cassette tapes, VHS videos or older mobile phones—to share and discuss with the class. Please contact your teacher via Dojo to organise this. 

Later in the term, we will also invite grandparents to visit and share an item from the past. To celebrate our learning, we will finish with a “Past and Present” dress-up day. 

For this event, we are focusing on the past, with students invited to come dressed as someone from approximately 50 to 150 years ago. This could include people from different historical time periods, such as the Victorian era or the early 1900s.

Examples might include an old-fashioned school student, an old- fashioned teacher, a farmer, an explorer, an inventor, or clothing styles from those earlier decades.

We encourage families to create their child's costume using clothing and accessories you may already have at home. Items such as vests, pearls, hats or wigs can be great for helping to bring a “past” outfit to life. 

Well Being 

Students will continue their learning through the Respectful Relationships program. This term, they will explore important topics such as how to respond when someone doesn’t want to play, ways to manage worries, and how different emotions—like happiness, sadness, and excitement—feel in our bodies. We will also be learning about personal space: what it means, how to recognise when someone is in our personal space, and how to respond respectfully.

CEPS VALUES

COURTESY    RESPECT    CO-OPERATION    RESPONSIBILITY 

Each week, all classes will continue to engage in Respectful Relationships lessons, discuss our CEPS Skill of the Week and have regular yarning circles. These lessons will encourage the development of skills that promote our school values and the positive and personal growth of all students. 

In Year 1, we continue to give out weekly awards on a Friday afternoon assembly for students who have displayed the CEPS values. We will contact you through Compass if your child is receiving an award. 

Your child may receive a CEPS raffle ticket for displaying the expected positive behaviours! Award winners will be drawn and announced during assembly on Friday afternoons. 

Supporting learning from home

Please ensure you listen to your child read for at least ten minutes each night, and take time to read to them as well. Students will bring home one decodable reader and two free-choice books (please ignore any numbers assigned to the free-choice books).

We also encourage students to practise the high-frequency words sent home each fortnight. 

We hope you enjoy reading and sharing the library books your child borrows at home. Please ensure these are returned in your child’s library bag on their scheduled library day.

Mathletics tasks will be assigned across the term.  These tasks provide helpful insight into the learning taking place in class and are completely optional. Your child’s login details and password have been provided.

Weekly Routines

Before School

At 8:57 am, students will hear the music signalling it's time to line up. We kindly ask that children have their school bags ready and wait at their class's designated spot.  We understand mornings can be busy, but please do your best to ensure your child arrives on time, as learning begins promptly at 9.00am. 

After School

At the end of the day, children will be collected from the eating area. Children attending Team Kids will be sent there at 3.30pm.  If you’re running late or unable to pick up your child by 3:30 pm, please call the office. 

Friday Assembly

Students will attend assembly every second Friday at 3.00pm.  After assembly, children will return to their classroom for collection to go home.

Communication

You are welcome to contact your classroom teacher via email through Compass. Whilst families are navigating the transition to Compass, we are also still using Dojo for messages between parents and teachers at this stage. This is likely to be phased out at some stage this year. We are also still currently using Dojo to share learning updates from our classrooms.

With that said, you are always more than welcome to pop into the classroom before or after school if you have any queries or concerns. 

Whilst we endeavour to get back to you promptly, please understand that we are often unable to check these messages until after 3:30pm. If you need an important message to be passed on to your child, we ask that you communicate this via the office (e.g. to advise that your child will be collected early or by another family member). The office will then pass the message on to your child's classroom teacher.

Compass: Compass is the formal tool for communication regarding attendance, payments, excursions, camps, permission forms, school reports, etc.

Please use Compass to advise the school in a timely manner of all student absences.

Early Pick Up: If you need to pick up your child early, please collect them from the office area and be sure to sign them out. You will require an Early Leaver's Pass, provided by the office staff, before we are able to dismiss students. 

You can also keep up-to-date by using the school website and weekly newsletters:  http://www.cheltenhameast.vic.edu.au