Learning & Teaching

Welcome Back! 

Start of the School Year                                                                    

The students from all year levels are currently undertaking many forms of different assessments. This assists the teachers in creating an understanding and a profile of your child’s individual strengths and weaknesses. Even the Prep children over the next six weeks will be conducting a Numeracy Online Interview that is mandatory for all students in Prep and Year 1. We also conduct reading assessments according to the different year levels. Every year level participates in Dibels testing. This provide us with feedback in regards to how the students perform against peers of their own year level. The Prep - Year 3 testing is longer than the Year 4 - Year 6 and students need to read passages, circle appropriate words within a sentence, etc. These assessments are short and generally one minute long. More formal assessments are provided with the students in Year 2 - Year 6. This involves the PAT Assessments that are set in Numeracy and Reading. This information is kept for internal use as the teachers use the data to help with their future planning. Further, the questions are allocated to outcomes from the Victorian Curriculum that we use for our reporting. Other formal assessments, include : Essential Assessments General All that provide us with an insight into what the students already know. We wish to see steady improvements instead of up and down spikes that can sometimes occur. Such feedback is used by the teachers and leadership team to keep evolving our planning and become more knowledgeable with what the students need to explicitly learn. Further, NAPLAN occurs this term for the students in Year 3 and Year 5.

Science of Learning                                                                                   

The Science of Learning shares that learning becomes more effective when concepts are consistently revised. This assists the student to transfer their knowledge to their long term memory so that it can be easily retrieved, therefore using a minimum of brain energy. We address this through our daily Sound Waves Program. This program covers the four key areas of instruction required for reading and spelling success : phonemic awareness, synthetic phonics, morphology and etymology. Further, during Mathematics we do Daily Maths Reviews, and use a resource called New Wave Mental Maths that touches on different concepts. 

Mathletics

Congratulations to Josh Rodrigo 5/6 EF who was a worthy recipient of the Student of the Week Award for Mathletics.  The students who receive Mathletics certificates are recognised at every assembly. The Student of the Week Award is given to the student who received the most Mathletics points between assemblies. Well done Josh!