Literacy and Numeracy
A Focus on Fluency
As Semester Two reports are released in less than two weeks, we would like to highlight our strong focus on building mathematical fluency across the school. This semester, students have been working to develop accuracy, efficiency and flexibility when solving mathematical problems. Teachers have carefully assessed how confidently students recall number facts, choose appropriate strategies, and apply their understanding in a range of situations. Reports reflect each child’s growth in these essential fluency skills, which form the foundation for deeper mathematical reasoning and problem-solving. We are proud of the progress students have made and encourage families to celebrate their achievements and continue supporting quick, confident number thinking at home through everyday conversations, games and real-life maths opportunities.
Ochre Education
Throughout this year teachers have begun using Ochre Education teaching and learning resources when teaching English. These resources are knowledge-rich and use high quality literature as a basis for teaching reading and comprehension with a big focus on enabling students to broaden and deepen their vocabulary knowledge. You may have heard your children discussing some of the texts they have been reading in class.
Teachers directly teach Tier 2vocabulary—words that are common in sophisticated language across different subjects but are not everyday conversational words, for example, catastrophic, dismay, blissful, determined, flexible. Students are taught short, simple definitions to support comprehension and engage in a variety of activities to build deep word knowledge including:
- Providing word associations
- Generating their own situations, contexts, and examples.
Incidental Instruction covers other words in the text, that are critical to understanding the plot or passage. This usually involves a quick definition and pronunciation during reading. Vocabulary taught explicitly is reviewed throughout the week and ongoing across the year to ensure long-term retention.
