Early Years News

The Early Years

A warm welcome back to all our Salvado Catholic College Early Years families for the 2024 school year! I hope everyone had a relaxing break and enjoyed time with family and friends.

The dedicated Early Years staff have been working diligently to prepare for a fantastic school year, and we can’t wait to see the smiling faces of our returning students and extend a warm welcome to those joining us for the first time. I would especially like to welcome our new Pre-Kindy students, who this week will spend their first day onsite at the College campus.

Please see below some photographs of the beautifully prepared Learning Spaces that your child will be engaging in this school year.

English Learning Area

Throughout Term Four of 2023, all Early Years teaching staff have been upskilled, through Professional Development, in the suite of MulitLit programs. This year we will be embarking on delivering these programs from Kindergarten through to Year 2. The programs include PreLit and InitiaLit. Learning Space teachers will be sharing more information through Parent Information sheets and a special presentation during Parent Information evenings.

‘MultiLit has, as its core belief, the conviction that effective instruction is the key to growth in any area of the curriculum. Our aim is to bring about learning by whatever means scientific research has shown to be most effective. We subscribe to a continually evolving approach to literacy instruction, changing as more scientific evidence becomes available from either within the MultiLit research team or from the international scientific reading research community.’ 

https://multilit.com/research-2/

Alongside these whole class instructional approaches, we will also be continuing with MiniLit and will be introducing LanguageLift to further assist students who need ongoing support and/or consolidation with specific focus areas in the English Learning Area.

Mandatory System Academic Testing

During Term 1, your child will be participating in various academic testing, please see below for further details:

Pre-Primary - On-entry Assessment Program

Year 1 and 2 - Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement and the Mathematics Assessment Interview.

While some assessment tasks can be included in the daily teaching program, some will be carried out one-to-one. The data gained through these tests will provide an insight into your child’s current level of knowledge across both the Mathematics and English Learnings Areas. You may notice throughout the Term that there will be relief staff covering classes. This allows the time for your child and their teacher to complete the assessments, whilst also getting to know each other. This is a valuable opportunity for building relationships, and we appreciate your understanding. We will endeavour to keep a familiar routine, so as to ensure a smooth transition for all of the students into the new school year.

Here's an interesting article about five-year-olds' valuable insights on their first year of school.

Mrs Lisa Ripley

Head of Early Years (Pre-Kindergarten to Year 2)