Educational Achievement 

Reading

What reading strategies should we be using? 

We know it's super important for children to be reading every day. The more we practice, the more opportunities we have to use the skills taught and consolidate them, so words become 'automatic'. For example, a student who is in the very early stages of reading would see the word 'cat' and need to know each sound, say each sound, then blend them together. As we progress with reading, we know automatically that 'c, a and t' together says cat and we don't need to sound it out anymore. The goal is to build this 'bank' of automatic words, so reading becomes fluent. 

When we experience a new word in reading, even as adults, we need to use strategies to work it out. The strategy we use at school to support the Science of Reading is to sound it out. Start at the beginning of the word, sound out either individual sounds or 'chunks' of sounds (e.g. syllables), then blend them together. Once the word has been decoded and worked out, it is also really important for children to go back to the start of the sentence and re-read it fluently to help students understand what they have read. 

We no longer use strategies like looking at the pictures, guessing, or substituting with a word that makes sense. By using our phonological knowledge to decode new words, we are supporting the reading strategies used at school to be successful readers. 

Curriculum 

This term, all students in all grades are working on information texts. Students will be reading, writing and talking about facts about a range of different topics and the focus will be on non-fiction texts. 

This week teachers participated in moderation for year level meetings. Moderation involves teachers participating in collegial conversations about our Term One English units, to ensure fairness and consistency between classes in marking and conditions of assessments. It was great to be able to read some of the fantastic narratives and narrative adaptations that students have created and to be part of quality conversations about what we can do to ensure students are successful in their learning. 

Music

Thank you to both junior and senior choirs for their efforts in learning "I Am Australian" (ANZAC version) for this week's ANZAC Day assembly. The senior students had a lot of lyrics to learn, so well done on doing this over the holidays. We will also do a combined song for the school NAIDOC Day assembly towards the end of term.  We continue working hard on our pieces for the Goondiwindi Eisteddfod in August. 

World Voice Day 

On 16 April it was World Voice Day, a worldwide annual event devoted to the celebration of singing. Anyone who has ever sung in a choir, in a church, at the footy, in the bush or in a show has experienced the joy of singing. Our voice is so central to our humanity. Enjoy your voice today and the voices of those around you! Choose some of your favourite songs and sing them with your children. Think about a song that was meaningful to you at a certain time, maybe when in high school, when you got married, when your children were born and share that one. Perhaps there is a song from your family’s culture or tradition you can share with them, or maybe just a good old Aussie Rock Ballad!  Whatever you choose, crank it up and let your voices out together – you’ll feel great (that’s been proven by research!)

News from our Library

Our ANZAC Display in the library, with items provided from the Queensland Museum and Mrs Gail Clark has been very popular with our students. A large number of our students have been borrowing from our war books collection.

The Premier's Reading Challenge commences on the 7th of May, with our whole school participating. Students will be recording their reading on their record sheet and we will be having some exciting book draws on assembly once students start completing the challenge. The challenge runs until the 23rd of August.

Regional Readers Cup Challenge.

Our school has again selected a group of students to represent our school in Toowoomba this June. These 6 students meet weekly in the library to discuss the 5 books set by our region. Goodluck to the team with your reading!

Scholastic Bookfair Brochures have been sent home this week.

All orders need to be placed by Thursday 2nd May at 12pm, online at scholastic.com.au/LOOP or download the LOOP app.

All orders will then be dispatched to the school for distribution.