PREP

What a wonderful term we have had in Prep! Our little learners have worked so hard and have made amazing progress in their learning. It has been wonderful to see how much they have grown in confidence, independence and resilience throughout the term.

We have also enjoyed so many special events and experiences, creating wonderful memories together. From Book Week and Wellbeing Week to our school production and many exciting classroom activities, there has never been a dull moment!

We are so proud of everything our Preps have achieved this term and look forward to finishing the year with even more learning, laughter and fun in Term 4.

Here are some dates for Term 4 to pop in your diary -

Friday 23rd October - Mission Day

Monday 26th October - Pet Ownership Session - 11.45-1:15

Monday 2nd November- Pupil Free Day

Tuesday 3rd November - Public Holiday

Wednesday 4th November - Pupil Free Day

Thursday 5th November- Excursion to The Messy Patch, Mount Duneed

Friday 13th November - Prep Prayer Gathering

Elissa Rodger erodger@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Emma Roberts eroberts@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Liza Alexander lalexander@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 1

Week 10!

We truly can’t believe we have reached the final week of Term 3! It has been such an action-packed, exciting term, and we could not be prouder of our Year 1 students. They have put in incredible effort over the past ten weeks and achieved so much. From their stellar performances in the school production and thoughtful participation in prayer gatherings to reaching personal growth milestones in their everyday learning, they have truly shone.

Footy Fever Day – This Friday!

To celebrate all their hard work and wrap up the term on a fun note, we are holding our annual Footy Fever Day on Friday. Students are invited to come to school wearing their favourite footy or sports team colours!

Learning Highlights

Mathematics: We are wrapping up our unit on Shapes. The students have done a wonderful job exploring the properties of 2D shapes and are becoming real-world detectives as they spot and name 3D shapes all around our school environment.
Literacy: In our phonics and reading groups, we have been focusing on the long /i/ sounds. The children have been practicing reading, writing, and spelling words using the 'i-e' split digraph (as in hide) and the open 'i' spelling pattern (as in find). Ask them to share a few of their focus words with you at home!

Holiday Readers & Reminders

Please ensure your child returns their reader folder this Friday. We will be packing them with extra holiday readers so your child can keep up their fantastic reading momentum over the break.

Thank you for all your support throughout this busy term. We hope you all enjoy a safe, restful, and wonderful holiday break with your families, and we look forward to seeing everyone refreshed for Term 4!

The Year 1 Team

Leah Martin lmartin@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Abbey Hayes ahayes@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 2

We would like to congratulate our Grade 2 students on completing another successful term! We are so proud of the effort, growth and enthusiasm they have shown throughout the term, and it has been wonderful to see them continue to develop as learners and grow in confidence.

In Religion, we have begun learning about prayer. We are exploring the Our Father and thinking about the meaning behind this important prayer. Students are also learning about the different ways we can pray, recognising that prayer can be a quiet, personal experience or something we share together as a community.

In Inquiry, we are finishing off our learning about Special Places. We have enjoyed investigating what makes places special and why they are important to people and communities. Students have developed a greater understanding of why special places should be respected, cared for and protected.

In Literacy, we have been focusing on the suffixes -ment, -less and -ful. Students have been exploring how adding these suffixes can change the meaning and word class of a base word. We have been practising identifying these suffixes in words and using our new vocabulary in our reading and writing.

In Numeracy, we have begun learning about halves. Students are developing their understanding of finding half of an object as well as finding half of a group. We have been using practical activities and visual representations to help us understand that a whole can be divided into two equal parts.

As this goes to press we will be on our exciting excursion to Flagstaff Hill In Warrnambool. We can't wait to tell everyone about all our learning and fun we have had.

Reminders

Friday is footy colours dress and Fun Food we will finish at 2:15pm.

We hope our students have a wonderful and well-deserved break!

Matt O'Dowd modowd@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Deb Holland dholland@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 3

What a fantastic Term 3 we have had in Year 3! It is hard to believe we have reached the end of another busy term filled with lots of learning, exciting experiences and plenty of fun along the way.

Tomorrow is our final day of Term 3, with school finishing at 2:15pm. It is also Footy Colours Day, so students are encouraged to come dressed in their favourite team colours (Richmond colours might earn you a few extra points)!

Our whole school Production last week was a massive success! It was a wonderful opportunity for our students to explore the Arts, build their confidence and experience performing in front of an audience. We were incredibly proud of all of their efforts and hope everyone who came along enjoyed the show as much as we did.

In Literacy, students have been putting their learning about the story spiral into action by planning and writing their own narratives. It has been fantastic to see them apply the different elements of storytelling to their own writing.

In Numeracy, we are continuing to explore proper fractions and build on our understanding of how fractions can represent different parts of a whole.

A reminder that hats are now non-negotiable at school. Any students without a hat will be required to remain undercover during break times.

Looking ahead to Term 4, the first two days of term will be pupil-free days while staff participate in professional learning. We look forward to welcoming all students back to school on Wednesday 7th October, refreshed and ready for our final term of Year 3!

Our final Year 3 Prayer Gathering for the year will be held on the Friday of Week 2. Students with reading parts will receive these on their first day back at school, ready to begin practising.

Thank you for another wonderful term. We wish all of our Year 3 students and families a happy, safe and relaxing spring break.

See you in Term 4!

Matt Absalom mabsalom@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 4

What a sensational and action-packed Term 3 we’ve had in Grade 4! The students have put in an incredible effort across so many memorable events, from shining on stage at the whole school concert to showcasing their creativity during Book Week, reflecting in Wellbeing Week, and potion making on our Roald Dahl Witches day. Our excursion to One Movement was another highlight that brought plenty of energy and big smiles. Looking ahead, we can’t wait to dive into our final term of Grade 4! We have so many exciting activities lined up, starting right away with our big excursion to Warra Gnan on 12th October, with more details to follow.

As we head into the warmer weather, please remember that sun-smart hats must be worn outdoors every day starting now.

To wrap up this term, students are encouraged to wear their favourite footy colours or sports clothes on the last day of Term 3.

Mandy and Meg's class will also share our hospitality learning from throughout the term at Prayer Gathering on Friday.

We hope all of our Grade 4 families enjoy a wonderful, fun, and relaxing holiday break—you've earned it!

Thanks from the Grade 4 team.

Rebecca Gallagher rgallagher@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Amanda Delorenzo mdelorenzo@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Meg Knight mknight@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 5

It is hard to believe that we have reached the final week of Term 3! The last few months have absolutely flown by, and what a busy and exciting term it has been for our Year 5 students.

We are currently having the best time at camp in Anglesea! Yesterday, we arrived, settled into our cabins and jumped straight into our first activities, including the Giant Swing, skateboarding and archery. Today has been another action-packed day with archery, the Giant Swing, skateboarding, radio rogaine, mountain biking and initiatives. It has been wonderful to see students encouraging one another, challenging themselves and having a go at new experiences. Tomorrow, we are looking forward to heading to the beach for another exciting day of activities.

Back at school, we have also been very busy. In Religious Education, students have completed their assessments on integrity and have been preparing for Rachel Downard's Prayer Gathering on the first Friday back next term, 9 October 2026.

In Geography, students have been completing their European country brochures, researching geographical features, climate, flora and fauna, cuisine, tourist attractions and interesting facts about their chosen country.

In Numeracy, we finished our unit on transformations with a creative fish tank assessment. Students designed their own fish tanks and used mathematical language to describe translations (slides), rotations (turns) and reflections (flips).

In Literacy, students have finished typing and publishing their narratives, and we are very excited to share them. The Story Spiral planner helped students develop their characters, settings, problems and events in greater detail, resulting in some fantastic finished stories.

A huge well done to all of our students for their efforts in our school production. We were so proud of the confidence, enthusiasm and teamwork they demonstrated. A special congratulations to our lead performers and dance captains for all of the hard work and leadership they showed throughout the term.

Last Friday, we also completed our final Winter Sports session at Elliminyt Primary School. We were extremely proud of the way our Year 5 students represented our school, demonstrating respect, sportsmanship, teamwork and positive encouragement throughout the day.

It has been an incredibly busy and rewarding term, and we are so proud of everything our Year 5 students have achieved. We hope all of our students and families have a wonderful, safe and well-deserved Term 3 break!

Rachel Downard rdownard@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Rachael Cahill rcahill@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 6

What a jam-packed Term 3 we’ve had! We have been so impressed with our Grade 6 students and the way they have conducted themselves, particularly during Winter Sports and the school production. Their enthusiasm and maturity have really shone through!

We have finished our information report websites, and the students are extremely proud of their hard work. They are very excited to share them with you at Learning Conversations in Term 4! We have also continued exploring poetry through Jabberwocky, experimenting with imaginative language, nonsense words and descriptive techniques.

In Numeracy, we have begun Unit 2 on decimals, applying our prior knowledge to adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals. The students have done a fantastic job tackling these challenging concepts.

In Religion, we have been working hard on our RE assessments, with students choosing an important issue relating to caring for creation or others. They have explored the meaning of integrity and how we can demonstrate it when responding to important issues, as well as continuing to explore Laudato Si’ and Catholic Social Teaching, including Pope Francis’ teachings about caring for our common home.

Finally, a huge congratulations to our Social Justice team, who raised just over $280 for the ILF Book Swap earlier this week. They did a wonderful job presenting lessons to each year level about the importance of the initiative and had a great time helping students choose books to purchase.

We hope everyone has a wonderful and restful break. Just one term of primary school left for our wonderful Grade 6 students - how exciting!

Jess Downard jdownard@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Jodie Hassett jhassett@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Maegen Potter mpotter@smcolac.catholic.edu.au

Birthday Wishes