Senior School News
Welcome Back!
A belated welcome back to a new school term and a big welcome to Tiffany Levy, who has taken over Dara Blake’s two days in Grade 5. Tiffany was with us at Sacred Heart two years ago, teaching Grade 3/4 before taking maternity leave after the birth of her beautiful daughter. We are very excited to have her back on the team!
English
In our literacy block, both Grade 5 and Grade 6 students have been working hard to finish their novel studies from Term 2. The Grade 5s have been exploring War Horse, while the Grade 6s have delved into Rivet Boy. These novels have provided rich learning experiences.
Our writing activities have also been driven by these novel studies. The Grade 5s have been mastering the ins and outs of narrative writing, and the Grade 6s are nearing completion of their persuasive writing unit.
Maths
In Maths, the students have continued to thrive under our new structure. We have added in some regular times table practice to help create a little more fluency when recalling our times table facts. The student are using a program called times table rockstars which is both an online and hardcopy program where the students can get in regular quick practice in daily. Each lesson then continues with a daily review where students spend 10 minutes revising various concepts and topics. This leads into our explicit teaching stage, focusing on the current unit, and finishes with independent work to practice the skills and strategies covered. So far this term, the Grade 6s have been exploring addition and subtraction strategies and have just moved on to multiplication and division. Our Grade 5s have been exploring fractions and decimals.
Topic
Our topic for this term is based around 'Matter.' In this science unit, students will explore reversible and irreversible changes to matter using common, everyday substances and observations. They will examine reversible changes of state and irreversible chemical changes through practical investigations and experiments. Students will create mixtures and learn how to separate them, and they will consider the significant environmental challenge of separating mixtures, such as e-waste, into valuable components for re-use. It's a very hands-on unit with lots of experiments!
Extra-Curricular Activities
Lightning Premierships
We have had great success in sport this year. Last term, we competed in the Lightning Premiership competitions in Football, Netball, and Soccer. We won the Mixed and Girls' Football, and the Boys' Soccer, advancing to the next rounds this term. So far, we have again been victorious in the Mixed Football and Soccer and will progress to the next round. We gave it our all in Girls Footy and had a pioneer group of Year 5's participate in School State Qualifiers for Netball, with each team showcasing great sportsmanship on the day however we won’t be progressing further in these categories.
Star of the Sea - Footloose Performance
Thank you to all Grade 5 and 6 families who have completed the Operoo form for Footloose. We are very fortunate to have been invited to watch Star of the Sea perform Footloose on Wednesday, 7th August. For more information, please refer to the Operoo sent out earlier this week.
Fernhill Visits
Our Grade 5 students visited Fernhill Nursing Home this week. They engaged in games and conversations with the residents. Our intergenerational program is great for building empathy, communication skills, and compassion towards the elderly within our community.
Important Dates for This Term:
- South Metro Regional Mixed Football - 6th August
- Star of the Sea Footloose Performance - 7th August
- Dendy Athletics - 23rd August
- Father's Day Assembly - 30th August
- Father's Day - 1st September
- Year 6 Sleepout - 19th September (only for students who applied, this is not a compulsory event)
For any queries, please feel free to reach out to your child's classroom teacher:
- Darcy Bull: dbull@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
- Tiffany Levy: tlevy@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
- Bec Maddocks: bmaddocks@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
- Jayne McKay: jmckay@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
- Trent Thiessens: tthiessens@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
Here's to a term filled with learning and growth!
Warm regards,
Jayne McKay
Senior Leader