Grade 5/6 Term  Newsletter

Dear Families,

A warm welcome to you all. We look forward to an exciting and smooth year ahead; one with great connections being made and so much to celebrate!

This year will be our Grade 6 cohort’s final year of primary school and we’re excited to be working together with you to guide them as they move forward. Our Grade 5 cohort has now joined the senior school and will be taking part in many exciting opportunities, such as interschool sports!

This term, our Unit of Work is ‘Making Moments of Mindfulness’. Students will focus on health & wellbeing and personal & social capabilities. It also links beautifully to our serial read Can You See Me? by Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott.

Together, we will explore who we are as Readers, Writers and Mathematicians and embrace that we are now the senior students of Sunshine Heights. Through this exploration of who we are and the strengths we all bring to create a thriving learning space, we will celebrate and embrace our unique identities.

It’s a term of reflection, setting expectations, building relationships, and establishing routines that will empower our students to be active partners in their learning. 

In Social & Emotional Learning this term, we will:

• Explore Respectful Relationships
• Learn about Zones of Regulation
• Use Open Parachute to find out about others experiences. 

In Reading, we will: 

• Reflect on ourselves as readers
• Enjoy a shared reading experience of Can You See Me? by Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott and reflect on the text to discuss themes and share our thinking
• Expand our vocabulary with targeted word study which covers the meaning, history, and use of words, empowering students to employ a variety of language for various purposes
• Engage in shared reading experiences through paired fluency
• Share with others to build a deeper understanding of texts.

In Writing, we will: 

• Reflect on ourselves as writers
• Explore the language, structure, and features of persuasive texts and use this knowledge to present our own points of view
• Use our Writer’s Notebook to capture ideas, events and moments important to us Use a variety of strategies to identify writing intentions and rehearse/plan writing
• Apply what is known about conventional spelling, grammar, punctuation, and structure.

In Maths, we will:

• Analyse various data sets and representations
• Interpret data and ask questions to make conclusions
• Review and expand our knowledge of factors and multiples
• Apply our understanding to solve increasingly complex multiplication and division problems
• Apply number knowledge to measure perimeter and area
• Measure, calculate, and compare elapsed time
• Interpret and use timetables and itineraries.

OTHER INFORMATION

Interschool sports will take place on Friday mornings in Terms 1 & 2, 2025 and will only involve the Year 5/6 students. Can we please ask that your child wear their hat and bring a water bottle for every Interschool Sports session.

Camp will take place in Term 3.

More information will follow in the coming weeks. 

Important Dates:

Friday mornings for Term 1:       Interschool sports          

Tuesday 25th of February:                        Parent Teacher Meetings (1pm finish) 

Monday 10th March:       Labour Day Public Holiday (no school)

Wednesday 12th March:                           NAPLAN begins

Monday 17th March:                                  Harmony Week Begins

Friday 21st March:                   Harmony Week Block Party (commences at 4:30)

Thursday 4th April:                                 Last day of Term 1 (2:30pm pick up)

REMINDERS

Practise good hygiene

All staff, students and visitors to schools should undertake regular hand hygiene, particularly on arrival to school, before and after eating, after blowing their nose, coughing, sneezing or using the toilet.

Absences

If your child is going to be absent from school, please mark the absence on Compass prior to school starting. If you have any questions on how to join Compass, please speak to the friendly staff at the front office. 

SunSmart

We encourage our students to demonstrate SunSmart behaviours. These include: 

• Ensuring that they wear hats throughout Term 1
• Encouraging students to apply their own sunscreen at home before coming to school
• Encouraging students to bring along a 30+ roll-on sunscreen that they can apply throughout the day. 

Tissue Boxes

Please bring in two tissue boxes for classroom use. Thank you to those who have already done so!

Feel free to contact your child’s teacher if you have any queries.

Kind regards and looking forward to our continued partnership in 2025!

Grade 5/6 Teachers

Chau, Britta, Jake, Sam & Seher