What's Happening in the Senior School

Year 5

What’s Happening in Year 5 in August

Hi Year 5 community, we hope everyone has settled in nicely to the beginning of term 3.

The athletics Carnival was held on the Monday of week 4, the 3rd of August. All students competed hard and represented their houses proudly! Well done on your efforts and also a big thank you to all the parent volunteers who came to lend a hand. Good luck to those going onto the district carnival!

This term we have begun our Science unit. We will be exploring Particles and how matter is formed. This will also lead into our excursion to Scienceworks, something we are all looking forward too.

All year 5’s will be continuing their leadership workshops starting with the Grade 4’s. The leadership workshops include Art, Sport, Digital technology, sustainability and our Upstanders Program.

Wellbeing

Explore the links between their emotions and their behaviour
Reflect on how personal strengths have assisted in achieving success at home, at school or in the community

Literacy

Understand how noun groups/phrases and adjective groups/phrases can be expanded in a variety of ways to provide a fuller description of the person, place, thing or idea
Understand the use of vocabulary to express greater precision of meaning, and know that words can have different meanings in different contexts
Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing text structures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience
Reread and edit own and others’ work using agreed criteria for text structures and language features
Develop a handwriting style that is becoming legible, fluent and automatic
Understand how to use banks of known words, syllabification, spelling patterns, word origins, base words, prefixes and suffixes, to spell new words, including some uncommon plurals
Read and complete associated activities with our class novel The Grandest Bookshop.

Maths

Students are completing Location and Transformation. This will include:

understanding and explaining that translations, rotations and reflections can change the position and orientation of a shape but not its shape or size
using pattern blocks and paper, tracing around a shape and then conducting a series of one-step transformations and tracing each resulting image, and then finally copying the original position and end position on a new sheet of paper
demonstrating how different combinations of transformations can produce the same resulting image
challenging classmates to select a combination of transformations to move from an original image to the final image, noting the different combinations by using different colours to trace images
investigating how animal tracks can be interpreted by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples using the transformation of their shapes, to help determine and understand animal behaviour
understanding that the Cartesian plane provides a graphical or visual way of describing location with respect to a fixed origin
understanding that the axes are number lines that can have different scales, including fractions and decimals, depending on purpose
understanding that the horizontal coordinate is written first and is changed if there is a move to the left or right, whereas a move up or down will change the vertical coordinate
using the Cartesian plane to draw lines and polygons, listing coordinates in the correct order to complete a polygon

Knowledge Unit

Students will be beginning our science unit with focuses on:

Understand the tier 3 vocabulary: matter, solid, liquid and gas
Identify the properties of solids, liquids and gases to classify matter.
Model the arrangement and motion of matter particles in solids, liquids and gases
Identify the observable properties of solid matter.
Explain the observable properties of solids, liquids and gases by modelling the arrangement and motion of their particles.

Year 6

What’s Happening in Year 6 in August

Literacy

Over the coming weeks, our students will be reading and exploring The Lost Thing by acclaimed Australian author and illustrator Shaun Tan. Through this thought-provoking picture book, students will examine important themes such as belonging, identity, empathy, acceptance, conformity and the value of noticing those who may be overlooked. They will explore how authors and illustrators use language and visual techniques to communicate deeper messages and encourage readers to think critically about the world around them. As part of this unit, students will also compare the picture book with Shaun Tan's Academy Award-winning short film adaptation, analysing how meaning is conveyed through different mediums by examining visual imagery, sound, symbolism and storytelling techniques. In addition to diving into this powerful story, students will also continue to strengthen their grammar skills through targeted lessons that support their writing and communication.

Mathematics

Over the next few weeks, students will be learning about decimals and measurement. Our focus areas will include:

Multiplying and dividing decimal numbers by powers of 10
Converting between units of length, mass and capacity
Identifying equivalent measurements (for example, metres and centimetres)
Solving real-world problems involving measurement

Students will be exploring:

Length: millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres
Mass: grams and kilograms
Capacity: millilitres and litres

Through hands-on activities and problem-solving tasks, students will develop their understanding of how decimals and measurement are used in everyday life.

Knowledge Unit

This term in Science, our Year 6 students will be investigating the fascinating concept of biomimicry- the practice of drawing inspiration from nature to solve real-world problems. Throughout the unit, students will explore how light behaves, investigate electrical circuits and energy transformations, and examine how the structural and behavioural adaptations of living things help them survive in different environments. They will use this knowledge to consider how the natural world has inspired innovations in science, engineering and design. As a culmination of their learning, students will complete a Biomimicry Design Project, where they will apply scientific understanding and creative thinking to design a product or system inspired by nature that addresses a real-world challenge.

Wellbeing

On Thursday, 21st August, our Grade 6 students will participate in a Courage to Care workshop. This interactive session will encourage students to become "Upstanders"- people who choose to act when they see discrimination or injustice, rather than remaining silent.

During the workshop, students will hear powerful personal stories and take part in activities designed to build empathy, understanding and respect for others.

Students will develop:

A deeper understanding of prejudice, racism and antisemitism
Greater confidence to respond safely and respectfully in difficult situations
Practical strategies for standing up against discrimination and injustice

This age-appropriate program aligns closely with our wellbeing curriculum and aims to empower students to make positive choices within our school and wider community.

Homework

Students are expected to read for a minimum of 15-30 minutes, five times a week, to improve their reading skills. We would love to see students bring in their diary to share this reading with us. Additionally, for those who have purchased a subscription, Mathletics tasks are set to reinforce and build on their mathematical knowledge.