Learning News

Learning News Weeks 7-8, Term 3 2024

With the end of the term drawing near, the students have been doing a range of assessments that are being completed not only in every class at St Michael’s, but across the Diocese.  

Last week, our Year 1 team were fortunate enough to work with Helen Rowsell, one of the Subject Matter Experts in Mathematics from the CSO, to learn how to implement the Year 1 Number Check.  This is a new assessment that has been rolled out across the Diocese to test the foundational number skills of the students in Year 1, such as number recognition, subitising (instantly recognising dot patterns), numbers before and after, ordering numbers, counting forwards and backwards and organising groups.The information gathered is then analysed by the learning team in order to identify areas of strength and concepts that need revision before our students move into Year 2.  Our Year 1 students have now all been tested on this assessment, learning goals have been identified and we look forward to helping the students achieve these goals.

Yours in learning,

Cathy Shepherd

Kindergarten

This week in Kindergarten, students have been working on Geography. For our first lesson, students were taught that in Geography we learn about places. The children were asked to create one special place to them using blocks, playdough and drawings. The children had many great ideas including both natural and man-made places. 

Great investigating Kinder.

Miss Fraser. 

Year 1

This term in English, Year 1 has been learning about different forms of communication including oral language, written communication, Sign Language and Braille. Our focus text for the last 2 weeks is a book called “The Black Book of Colours” and is written in English and Braille. The book has no pictures and is black and white. The author used their five senses to describe what each colour looks, feels, tastes, sounds and smells like. The Year 1 students then chose their own colour to describe and learnt how to write that colour in Braille. Outstanding work Year 1! 

We are so impressed with your descriptions this week! 

Miss Myers and Mrs G

Year 2

Year 2 have been working hard on sharing and grouping to solve division problems. Students have been learning to use the solving problems process to assist with answering questions. This week, students were given a variety of worded questions and used whiteboards to figure out the answer. They then used Padlet to record themselves explaining their answers. This is to help further develop their reasoning skills. 

Well done Year 2! 

Miss Rasche 

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Year 3/4

This Week in Mathematics, Year 3/4 have been estimating, measuring and comparing the masses of objects using grams and kilograms. Students identified which unit of measurement is most appropriate using a variety of familiar objects, used scales to measure and record masses and have been exploring why we use fractions to measure certain masses. Outstanding participation this week in Mathematics Year 3/4!  

Miss Maunder 

Year 5

In Writing this week, Year 5 have continued to analyse our class novel “August and Jones" by Pip Harry and its use of perspective and context. As part of our learning the students have been writing a “Getting the Gist” statement, which is a brief summary of the main ideas and themes presented in a chapter. To achieve this the students had to record key information about the chapter based on Who? What? Where? When? and Why? questions and turn these ideas into a paragraph of roughly forty words. What fantastic work by Year 5! We look forward to finishing August and Jones by the end of the Term.

Mr Beaumont

William Fleming

Chapter 20

It is the grand final for the under 12’s. August’s teammate Rafferty is crying in the change rooms because he is feeling the pressure. August helps him to calm down and they go on to win the Final on the buzzer!

Beau Fleming

Chapters 21 & 22

August is coming back from the Grand Final and is telling his mum to go quicker. Meanwhile, Jones is waiting at the zoo and she is feeling nervous, because August is late and may miss out. August makes it in time to the zoo and they eventually find the Francois Langur Monkey. 

Year 6

In Mathematics, Year 6 has been learning about the CPA model, which involves demonstrating problem solving using concrete materials, pictorial representations and abstract methods. Students practised this model, solving multiplicative problems and demonstrated a deep understanding of the process. Students then began learning how to find missing numbers within number sentences and worded problems, using a variety of strategies, such as equivalent number sentences (where when both sides are solved, they have equal the same total) and backtracking the problem (working backwards from the answer, to find the missing number). Year 6 have been working super hard in this unit and have many new strategies they can use in the future. Superb work Year 6 Mathematicians! Miss Summerell