Level 5: Connect

Welcome back to Term 4!

We hope all families of our Level 5 students had an amazing break! Students have returned to learning swiftly and eager to get started, on their final stretch before Grade 6 next year.

Coastal Custodians Incurions

On Monday (13th of October), our Year 5 students participated in an engaging online museum-led incursion focused on environmental leadership and coastal care. Through interactive activities, they explored issues affecting Australia’s coastlines and discussed the role of media in informing and persuading public opinion. Students collaborated to create a shared cartoon before designing their own leadership-themed artwork inspired by environmental messages. Using a simulated beach scene, they reflected on practical actions they can take to protect our coastal environments and lead positive change in their community.

UPP ASPIRE Incursion

On Wednesday (15th of October), our Year 5 students took part in the Aspire Higher leadership incursion, a full-day experience designed to inspire and empower future leaders. Through a series of engaging activities, team challenges, and reflective discussions, students explored what it truly means to lead with or without a badge. They worked collaboratively during The EPIC Race, developing communication and teamwork skills, and gained deeper self-awareness in Knowing Me, Growing Me. It was a fantastic day of growth, connection, and leadership in action!

Inquiry

This Term, the Level 5 students are beginning by deepening their understanding of historical significance by exploring defining moments from the 19th Century. Using resources from the National Museum of Australia, they investigated key world events and examined how their impact varied depending on location and perspective. Through collaborative discussions, including a “sticky-note storm” activity, students compared differing points of view and identified important developments within the Australian Colonies. To extend their learning, they also reflected on what makes a recent event significant in Australia’s history and began creating their own historical quizzes to test their peers’ knowledge. This is in preperation for our Camp to Sovereign Hill in Week 6!

Maths

This Semester the teacher's learning focus has been embedding Retrieval Practice into our learning routines. At 11.30 each day (aside from Thursday when the students are in Specialists) the entire school is participating in Fluency and Retrieval practice.

Fluency practice involves practising place value, times tables and operations facts.

Retrieval involves a mixture of activities designed to practice concepts that the students have learned during the year. The practice is interleaved, with concepts being practiced in the week following learning, the fortnight after learning and in later months. It is designed to enable students to recall information and to practice it, so that it moves from working memory into long term memory.

During this first fortnight of Term 4 Level 5 have been extending their knowledge of the 4 operations, working with decimals and regrouping.

Literacy

In Reading this cycle, students have been exploring the powerful picture book One Minute’s Silence by David Metzenthen and Michael Camilleri. Through guided discussions and close reading, they unpacked the symbolism and emotions behind the story to deepen their understanding of what the one minute’s silence represents. This learning has helped students build empathy and respect as they reflect on the experiences of those involved in war. With this understanding, our Level 5 students are thoughtfully preparing to lead our school’s annual Remembrance Day Assembly.

Writing - Poetry 

Over the past two weeks, our Grade 5 students have re-immersed themselves in the world of poetry. They have studied the mentor text 'I wander lonely as a cloud' by William Wordsworth, learning to identify key elements such as plot, character, and setting, and examining how poets use language to paint vivid pictures of the world around them. In addition, students have been working on writing compound sentences using conjunctions such as because, but, and so. This has helped them build stronger, more complex responses that demonstrate their comprehension of texts. It has been wonderful to see their confidence grow as they read, discuss, and respond to poetry with increasing insight and enthusiasm.

SEPS SAIL WINS AWARD! See the Specialist Happenings for our exciting news!