Year 5/6 Team News

Hello Year 5/6 families, 

What a lovely fortnight we have had in 5/6. During Week 5, The Stand-Up Project was introduced. This is something special for 5/6 students and a first for WPS. We have enjoyed exploring this week's Reconciliation Week theme by looking at two important speeches in history: Redfern and the National Apology.  Let’s hear more from Lexi and Alice:

Student Voice:

On the 21st of May, 2025, the grade 5/6s did The Stand Up Project, and learnt about what it means to be an upstander. This was a very moving experience, and we decided we wanted to do something about this terrible act called bullying. We learnt about the difference between mean on purpose, friendship fire and bullying. Mean on purpose is being mean to someone, but just once. A friendship fire is when more than one friend have an argument. It starts with a small flame to cause a forest fire. Lastly, bullying is when you bully someone, but then you do it again, and again, and again. This leads to more than 100,000 kids staying home from school, because they don't want to be bullied.

Over 80 year 5/6s wanted to be part of this project because they wanted to do something about this problem. Unfortunately, only 40 of us could be chosen for the role. It was so great to see so many people wanting to be a stand up leader!  As the year goes on, we are excited to help out younger year levels and teach them about bullying. We want to make the school a better place! We are all super excited to be helping out and talking at the school fair and assemblies!!

Big thanks to Liam, our stand up teacher, for telling us that we can achieve big things! He is a great person, and he makes everyone happy! 

By Alice B and Lexi G (5/6M)

Reconciliation Week:

This week students explored two powerful speeches from our shared history: The Redfern Speech from Paul Keating and the National Apology from Kevin Rudd. We learnt about the powerful and meaningful messages these speeches had for Indigenous Australians as well as their importance towards reconciliation. We engaged in discussions about what steps we can take, as Willy Kids who problem solve, to help our community contribute to reconciliation. Let’s keep the conversation going, not just this week but all year long, learning about truth telling and the small acts that can help us ‘Bridge from Now to Next.’  A big thank you to our senior JSC members who will visit the Hobson’s Bay City Council this Friday and share this information. 

What's Coming up in the Classroom in the Next Fortnight:

Maths: Now that we have conducted our mid-year assessments, we will be setting new learning goals and begin our new unit on Transformation. This will include using coordinates and 4 quadrants on a cartesian plane. 

Reading: Students will continue to explore the class novel 'We Are Wolves' by analysing author's use of the protagonist and pivotal moments. They will also have a strong focus on inferencing during independent reading and small group instruction. We will also integrate our inquiry learning into reading by reading a variety of biographies. 

Writing: We will continue working on our narrative publications and targeting key publishing elements. The next genre we will be working on is biographies. We will look at what organisational elements make up a biography and how to plan for our next publication piece- a biography of someone who has migrated to Australia. Keep an eye out on the homework for the next fortnight as this will include key information for our biography work. 

Inquiry: Students will continue to undertake lessons and investigations into different aspects of Australian history, embedded throughout our reading lessons. During Weeks 7 & 8, we will learn about technological advancements and Federation. 

Willy Kids & Respectful Relationships: This fortnight, Willy Kids have a Growth Mindset. We look at ways to think positively and the power of the word 'Yet'. We will focus on the importance of a growth mindset when problem solving. 

Interschool Sports:

Week 6- Home V Seaholme

Week 7- Home V Newport Lakes

Week 8- Finals @ Newport Gardens PS

Divisional Cross Country- Well done to the students went along to compete at the Divisional Cross Country for Hobson's Bay. We congratulate Tom M, Otis L, Curtis R, Banjo K, Jarvis S, Addi N and Chloe B, who progress onto the Regional event next month.  

Important things to note:

- Please charge your ipads PRIOR to coming to school!

- We encourage all families to check in with their child regarding their multiplication knowledge. “Do you know all of your times tables up to 10x10?” This knowledge will be pivotal for our unit on decimal, fractions and percentages next term.

Warm regards,

The Grade 5/6 Team - Christina Crosland (5/6C), Emma Chang (5/6E), Molly Hedditch (5/6H), Bianca Italiano & Bianca Russo (5/6I), Matt Eason-Jones (5/6M) & Brittlee Salvo (5/6S)