Year 1 Term 4 Newsletter

Welcome to Term 4 

Welcome back to all our students and families! We hope everyone enjoyed a lovely and refreshing holiday break. We are excited to begin our final term together in Year 1.

Term 4 promises to be a busy and exciting time as students continue to build their skills, confidence and independence across all areas of learning.

There are many special events to look forward to this term, including our school swimming program, our 70th Anniversary Carnival, our excursion to Melbourne Zoo and a range of wonderful end-of-year activities, including our Meet the Teacher sessions.

We look forward to another fantastic term filled with learning, growth and fun. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to sharing all the exciting moments of Term 4 with you!

Yvonne, Tegan, Sonia and Chelsea

General Reminders

Please remember to wait outside the building at drop-off and pick-up times – no parents in the corridors. Your support helps us create a calm and orderly environment for our students.

We also kindly ask that parents and family members please avoid standing directly in front of the 1A and 1B classroom windows after school drop-off and before dismissal, as this can be distracting for our students and can interrupt classroom routines and learning time. 

Given the warmer weather, please ensure students are dressed appropriately, including a school hat. Please ensure all uniform items are labelled, as we are still finding many unnamed items. Please apply sunscreen before arriving at school. 

Please pack a recess snack, a fruit break snack and lunch for your child each day. We continue Nude Food again this term with the aim of bringing less rubbish into lunchboxes. Fruit break must be a piece of fruit, yoghurt or cheese, as we only have 10 minutes to eat.  Please avoid including products with nuts in lunchboxes in support of those students with allergies. Water bottles are kept in the classroom for easy access and to encourage your child to hydrate regularly. 

Finally, thank you to the families who have already done so, but please ensure that you let your class teacher know well in advance if you have a family holiday planned during the school term, in addition to putting it on to Compass.

 Specialist Timetable 

Important Dates 

02/11: Curriculum Day

03/11: Melbourne Cup Day

12/11: 70th Anniversary Carnival

16-20/11: School swimming program

4/12: Zoo excursion

11/12: Class parties

14/12: Curriculum Day

18/12: Last Day of Term - 1:30 dismissal

Parent Helpers 

At CEPS, we highly value working together as a whole community and actively encourage family participation and involvement. We greatly appreciate the support of parent helpers who assist students with reading. Parents are warmly invited to help during Session 6 (2:40–3:20 pm) on designated days for each class. Please contact your child’s teacher if you are available to help.

When helping with the children at CEPS, it is required that you wear a Working With Children’s Check (WWCC) displayed on a lanyard at all times. 

If you have not got a WWCC and wish to volunteer, application forms can be found online at: www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au

Remember to sign in each day you volunteer at CEPS via the computer at the office. This is a mandatory requirement. You will also be required to sign out. 

Attendance

Our rolls are legal documents, therefore we must be accountable for any absences. Please assist with this by informing the school through Compass, email or phone call to record the absence. Late students need to be signed in at the office by a parent/caregiver and collect an orange pass to present to their teacher on arrival at their classroom. 

Teaching and Learning

English

Reading

This term, students will continue to participate in daily phonics sessions. During reading sessions, teachers will work closely with each child to develop their fluency, accuracy and comprehension. We will explore a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts, engaging in discussions to deepen students’ understanding and make connections to their own experiences. In preparation for our zoo excursion at the end of the term, we will also read and explore texts about different animals.

Writing

This term, we will continue to focus on sentence structure and grammar. Students will explore the conjunctions because, but and so and learn about different sentence types. We will explore the structure of information reports and continue developing our recount writing. Students will also continue to develop their handwriting, with a focus on correct letter formation, spacing and size.

Speaking and Listening

This term, we will continue to develop students’ speaking and listening skills. Students will be encouraged to actively participate in class discussions and share their thoughts and experiences respectfully during group activities and yarning circles.

Mathematics 

This term in Maths, students will focus on the units of sharing (division),  data, shape, location, addition/subtraction and length. Learning will follow a clear daily structure using the gradual release model, starting with a daily review and moving through I do, we do, you do to build confidence and independence.

Humanities 

This term, our Humanities unit will focus on how places and spaces are organised and used. Students will investigate how different spaces serve different purposes and explore why certain activities take place in specific areas. We will look closely at how spaces are used in parks and zoos, before bringing our learning together by designing our own zoos.

We are looking forward to our excursion to Melbourne Zoo, where students will observe the animals and explore how the space is organised to meet the needs of both animals and visitors.

Well Being 

Students will continue their learning through the Respectful Relationships program. This term, they will explore important topics such as how to respond when someone doesn’t want to play, ways to manage worries, and how different emotions—like happiness, sadness, and excitement—feel in our bodies. We will also be learning about personal space: what it means, how to recognise when someone is in our personal space, and how to respond respectfully.

CEPS VALUES

COURTESY    RESPECT    CO-OPERATION    RESPONSIBILITY 

Each week, all classes will continue to engage in Respectful Relationships lessons, discuss our CEPS Skill of the Week and have regular yarning circles. These lessons will encourage the development of skills that promote our school values and the positive and personal growth of all students. 

In Year 1, we continue to give out weekly awards on a Friday afternoon assembly for students who have displayed the CEPS values. We will contact you if your child is receiving an award. 

Your child may receive a CEPS raffle ticket for displaying the expected positive behaviours! Award winners will be drawn and announced during assembly on Friday afternoons. 

Supporting learning from home

Please ensure you listen to your child read for at least ten minutes each night, and take time to read to them as well. Students will bring home one decodable reader (or a chapter book if they have successfully made their way through the decodable levels) and two free-choice books (please ignore any numbers assigned to the free-choice books).

We also encourage students to practise the high-frequency words sent home each 

fortnight.

We hope you enjoy reading and sharing the library books your child borrows at home. Please ensure these are returned in your child’s library bag on their scheduled library day.

Mathletics tasks will be assigned across the term.  These tasks provide helpful insight into the learning taking place in class. Your child’s login details and password have been provided.

Please also practise skip counting forwards and backwards in 2s, 5s, and 10s from any starting point up to 120. 

Communication

You are welcome to contact your classroom teacher via email through Compass. Whilst families are navigating the transition to Compass, we are also still using Dojo for messages between parents and teachers at this stage. We are also still currently using Dojo to share learning updates from our classrooms. 

Whilst we endeavour to get back to you promptly, please understand that we are often unable to check our messages until after 3:30pm. If you need an important message to be passed on to your child, we ask that you communicate this via the office (e.g. to advise that your child will be collected early or by another family member). The office will then pass the message on to your child's classroom teacher.

Compass: Compass is the formal tool for communication regarding attendance, payments, excursions, camps, permission forms, school reports, etc.

Please use Compass to advise the school in a timely manner of all student absences.

Early Pick Up: If you need to pick up your child early, please collect them from the office area and be sure to sign them out. You will require an Early Leaver's Pass, provided by the office staff, before we are able to dismiss students. 

You can also keep up to date by using the school website and weekly newsletters:  http://www.cheltenhameast.vic.edu.au