Dear Students, Parents, Carers and Families,

Maramba in The Age: Celebrating Our Year 1 Numeracy Learning

As Principal, nothing gives me greater joy than celebrating the wonderful learning, growth and achievement happening across Maramba Primary School. This week, we were very proud to see our school featured in The Age newspaper, with our wonderful Year 1 students highlighted as part of a story about the Numeracy Check.

Maramba was among the first schools in Victoria to participate in the Numeracy Check, which supports schools to identify students’ strengths and areas for further growth in number knowledge. While assessments are only one part of the learning journey, the information they provide is valuable in helping teachers plan responsive, targeted and meaningful learning experiences for students.

Our Year 1 students approached the check with confidence and enthusiasm, and the beautiful photo in the article captured the spirit of Maramba so well. It showed joyful learners, engaged in their learning and supported by dedicated staff. We are always proud of our students!

I would also like to thank our Year 1 team for embracing this opportunity with such a positive and professional approach, and for continuing to use assessment information to strengthen teaching and learning. This is another example of Maramba living our motto: Nurture, Innovate and Celebrate. Well done and what a wonderful moment for our school community.

Spotlight on Years 5 and 6 - Camp Forest Edge

Last week, several of our Year 5 and 6 students attended Camp Forest Edge in Neerim for a wonderful outdoor learning experience. Students participated in a range of exciting activities, including archery, flying fox, team games, rock climbing and walking trails.

It was fantastic to see our students challenging themselves, working together, showing resilience and making the most of every opportunity. Staff and students had a marvellous time, and the camp provided many special memories for everyone involved.

A sincere thank you to all staff who attended and supported our students throughout the camp, as well as our parent helper, Jana, for generously giving her time.

Set amongst the beautiful natural surroundings of Neerim, the campsite provided a wonderful backdrop for students to connect, explore and enjoy the outdoors.

Student Reflections on Camp:

Maramba’s 5/6 camp was the best thing I ever went to! There was a different variety of things to do like rock climbing, low ropes, flying fox, Archery, bushwalk, making damper and also 9-square volleyball. Every single day we get at least 6 eating times: breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and lastly supper.

I had the best experience when doing the flying fox because we had 2 turns and I also got to touch a very tall tree. Afterwards when doing Archery, my goal was to get a bull's eye but sadly my aim was off. Bushwalk was also one of my favourite things to do at Forest Edge because I got to touch a leech and go on a wobbly bridge which was amazingly fun. When I went to Forest Edge I saw so many animals such as kangaroos, wombats and many more.

Forest Edge is highly recommended for other people and families to go if you haven't gone yet you’re missing out!

By Tenzin

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Our Camp Journey:

Dear parents, carers and special friends,

This year's 5/6 camp at Forest Edge was amazing! We had a variety of fun activities to choose from including this massive 8 metre high zipline. If you're scared of heights that's completely fine and I, Winston, am terrified of heights but still I pushed myself past my comfort zone and went on it. If you want the best time at your 1st or 2nd camp, I recommend you to try your best because you don't want to go home after camp and regret not doing the fun activities.

The activities were super fun. They had a giant zipline, damper, 9 square, scavenger hunt and rock climbing. They were all amazing activities and I hope you try your best when trying new activities.

In my opinion, the low ropes course and the 9 square were fun but the giant zipline and the bushwalk were one of my favourites. We also have a really fun game called music bingo which is like bingo except if the song that plays and you have it on our sheet you cross it off. Forest Edge has these really cool cabins which if you're lucky enough you will have all your friends in it .

Just remember camp isn't all about leaving for a few days, it's about making new friends and having the best time while it lasts. I have made lots of achievements since last year and I think camp is the best opportunity to do new things and learning new stuff.

Your sincerely, Winston Ashmore

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When we first arrived, we collected our suitcases and went into the gym to play. After that, the teachers got a demonstration about what we would be doing during camp. Then we did our first activity before heading to our cabins.

During camp, we did lots of fun activities like gaga ball, low ropes, a really big zip line, a treasure hunt, 9 square, and more. My favourite activity was low ropes because it was really fun! The zip line was also fun and exciting.

The cabins were small, but they were loud and fun. I spent most of my time with my friends Zain, Lucas, Winston, and Tenzin. One of the best parts of camp was staying up at night talking with my friends.

The food was good, and the chicken wraps on the second day were the best meal. Overall, camp was a really fun experience and I enjoyed it a lot.

By Mackai

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At Forest Edge CYC camp, we had so much fun and I definitely want to go back. We stayed in cabins with our own bathrooms, which was amazing. There were roughly 2–5 people in each cabin.

The activities were fantastic! We did rock climbing, camp cooking, 9-square and team challenges, low ropes, a scavenger hunt, archery, a bush walk, and a zip line. My favourite activities were archery and the zip line because they were exciting and fun.

We also had night activities. On the first night, we were supposed to go on a night walk, but it was too slippery, so we did trivia instead, which was just as fun. On the second night, we had music bingo. My friend Steffy and I were dancing and having so much fun that it became my favourite part of the entire camp. There may or may not be some embarrassing videos of us dancing on Class Dojo!

Overall, camp was an amazing experience, and I would love to go back again.

By Farleigh

Building Strong Readers and Writers at Maramba Primary School

In Victoria, the Department of Education requires all schools to implement a Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP) program to support early literacy development. At Maramba Primary School, our Foundation to Year 2 students participate in Little Learners Love Literacy every day, building the essential skills they need to become confident readers, writers, and spellers.

Little Learners Love Literacy is an explicit, sequential, and evidence-based literacy program that provides students with a strong foundation in reading and writing. Through engaging and purposeful learning experiences, students develop the skills needed to decode, read, spell, and write with increasing confidence.

The program includes:

Synthetic phonics instruction
Phonemic awareness development
Decodable readers to support reading success
Hands-on learning through songs, puppets, games, and interactive activities

Alongside our Little Learners Love Literacy program, students also use Cued Articulation. This approach uses hand movements to represent individual sounds within words, helping students make strong connections between what they hear, see, and say.

Cued Articulation supports students to:

Decode unfamiliar words
Distinguish between similar sounds
Blend sounds together to read words
Segment sounds to improve spelling and writing

By combining evidence-based teaching practices with engaging, hands-on learning experiences, we are helping our youngest learners develop the literacy skills they need for lifelong success.

Check out Cued Articulation in action at Maramba.

School Maintenance Works

We are pleased to share that School Council has approved the commencement of fencing works to help secure the immediate perimeter of our school.

These works are an important step in strengthening the safety and wellbeing of our students, staff and wider school community. The fencing will provide a much needed layer of security around key areas of the school and will support our ongoing commitment to maintaining a safe, welcoming and well supervised learning environment.

As part of our ongoing school maintenance works, we will also be installing new drinking fountains. The existing drinking taps have experienced a number of issues over time and are no longer meeting the needs of our school community, particularly as students bring their own water bottles each day.

We thank School Council for their support and will keep families updated as the works progress.

Kind regards,

Moniba Ehsan and Stephanie Sharp

Principal and Assistant Principal

Birthdays

Happy Birthday to the Students and Staff celebrating their birthdays in Term 2: Weeks 8 & 9