Teaching and Learning News

Learning Together in Prep/One

Here's some details of the workshops that will take place at the Prep/One information evening.

Mathematics Workshop

Join us, together with your child, to learn how we teach Mathematics at SMDP.

Mathematics is taught and learnt very differently from how you were most likely taught.

Number talks, problem solving, reasoning, open ended and challenging tasks, are all features of today's Maths lessons.

This workshop will provide you with a demonstration of how a Maths lesson is taught in Prep/One and provide you with some ideas about how you can support your child in developing their mathematical skills at home.

Literacy Workshop

Literacy involves all the following;  speaking and listening, reading and viewing and writing. 

The beginning years of Primary school are all about students having positive and successful experiences to become confident readers, writers, listeners and speakers.

During this workshop you will learn with your child about how we teach Literacy at SMDP and some key but simple ways  you can support your child at home to develop their literacy skills.

Wellbeing Workshop

The families of Prep/One students will participate in a Circle Time session led by teachers. Circle time is a process we use in our classes at SMDP to help build students' social and emotional skills. During our circle time workshop, we will demonstrate how we  develop emotional awareness and build student vocabulary to name different feelings. It is a great strategy to know and understand others, develop positive relationships and build on our emotional intelligence. 

STEM Workshop

You will participate in a practical activity using a range of materials and technology as you and your child follow a design brief to solve a problem. The SMDP Learning Powers will be highlighted throughout this workshop and you will leave with a greater understanding of resilience, creativity, curiosity, collaboration, motivation and reflection. 

We look forward to sharing learning with you! 

NAPLAN

Students in Year 3 and Year 5 have experienced a practice test and learning around test types to become familiar with the on-line testing platform, style and question types for the National testing period in mid May.

At St Martin's we have allocated three days for the four tests (Reading, Numeracy, Writing, Language Conventions). They are Tuesday May 11th, Wednesday May 12th and Thursday May 14th.

Naplan is like a photograph of a student's performance.   

Teacher assessment is like a movie. Together they provide individual and school data which we use to drive our improvement in learning and teaching.

Denise Kelly

Deputy Principal/learning & Teaching leader