Teaching and Learning

Semester 1 student reports

Hello families,

Our Semester 1 student reports were published live on Wednesday afternoon via XUNO with two supporting documents that help parents/guardians in reading the report and understanding the expectations around work habits (see attachments below). Just a reminder that reports can be viewed on the full XUNO platform (not the app). If anything remains unclear, or if you have further questions, you will have the opportunity to follow up with your child’s teacher at Parent/Teacher 3-Way Interviews on Friday 26th July (Term 3, Week 2). Booking times via XUNO for the Parent/Teacher 3-Way Interviews will be available early next term. We look forward to celebrating your child’s progress and achievements with you at that time and setting goals for their future learning.

Our student reports start with a cover page and following this, academic results that demonstrate achievement against the Victorian Curriculum are displayed as well as classroom teachers assessing students against our work habits using a five point scale.

Each student will receive a personalised general comment from their classroom teacher with a generic description of the English and Mathematics content covered in class this semester. Specialist teachers have provided individualised student comments at this time, along with your child’s classroom teachers’ general comment. Specialist subjects include work habits for student effort and class behaviour.

If your child has been involved in the tutoring and extension programs with Mr. Reynolds throughout the school this semester, a general comment has been provided, on their progress and participation, at the end of the report.

Time

For the past few weeks, I have noticed that TIME has been on everyone's minds! Teachers have been administering TIMED assessments and students have been working hard to ensure they complete set tasks on TIME. In the Office, we have been TIMETABLING activities, events and planning for Term 3, working towards deadlines so that we don’t run out of TIME. 

TIME indeed is our most precious commodity and we don’t seem to have enough of it …

Students across the school have been or will be learning about TIME in Mathematics and for some of our students it is a huge challenge. With our advancing technologies, reading an analogue clock and calendar, measuring elapsed time and reading timetables are new skills to be mastered.

As teachers we understand the complexities of teaching TIME. It is the only area of mathematics that does not use the base ten system and this is hard for children to get their heads around. Suddenly we are talking in terms of 60 and counting by 5s, using fractions to make sense of ‘quarter past’ and ‘quarter to’ and thinking about how many star jumps we can do in 1 minute.

The 1234 Numeracy Guide has suggestions for what you can do at home to support your children and I have included the link. The Guide gives parents practical solutions to supporting your children at home and I encourage you to take the TIME to observe the changing landscapes, counting down to special occasions on the calendar and practice reading the analogue clock together (I changed my smart watch to show analogue time for this)!

Another great website for telling the time - https://toytheater.com/telling-time/

Most importantly, enjoy the slower pace of the Winter school holidays and spending precious TIME with your families.

Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge

The Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge (PRC) is now well and truly open with 71 days left to finish. The purpose of this year's challenge is to explore, learn and enjoy - promoting a love for reading. At Ballan PS, we are ready for the challenge!

Students and teachers have made an excellent start with reading books in class to work towards meeting and exceeding the challenge targets. If you’d like to participate in the challenge at home during the school holidays and log books via the website, please request your child’s login from your classroom teacher.

Children from Prep to Year 2 are encouraged to read or ‘experience’ 30 books with their parents and teachers. Children from Year 3 to Year 10 are challenged to read 15 books.

All children who meet the Challenge will receive a certificate of achievement signed by the Victorian Premier and former Premiers.

Maths challenge of the week

Cards in a Square Puzzle

Using only the Aces, Kings, Queens and Jacks from a pack of cards.

Arrange them in a 4 × 4 square so that every row, column and diagonal contains one card of each value (Ace, Jack, Queen, King) and one card of each suit (Heart, Spade, Diamond, Club).

If you can solve the puzzle, take a photo and please share with Mr Baker. Solution to be provided in the next newsletter.

Book Club

We've enjoyed another successful term of Book Club. The Issue 5 catalogue will be sent home in the first week of Term 3.

Scholastic Book Club is a service offered to students, parents and teachers. Brochures advertising a variety of books and computer software are sent home with each student, approximately twice a term.

Purchase of the books is not compulsory and there is no obligation. If you do wish to purchase any goods simply log into the Book Club site www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP and follow the prompts. All Book Club orders must be ordered and paid for via LOOP. Do not send order forms and cash to school. When the order arrives at school, books are sent home with students.

The School earns “Bonus Points” for each order which can be used to purchase new resources for classroom libraries and the school library.

Click here for the Scholastic Book Club Parent Log in page or to register for new users.

How to order 

Click on ORDER in the top menu or REGISTER first to save your details for the first time.  Select Ballan PS and your child’s class.  Add your child’s name and last initial. Enter the item number from the brochure.

You can order for multiple children at once. All orders are linked directly to the school.  

Our school receives bonus points, which are redeemed for a variety of books for the children therefore we thank you for your continued support.

If parents wish to collect orders personally from the office, please let the school know.

Please go to www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP and find Ballan Primary School to order or alternatively you can download the LOOP app via the App Store or Google Play.

Happy learning!

Mr Baker