Learning & Teaching 

LEARNING AND TEACHING NEWS- Vira Pirrotta

 BOOK WEEK @ St. Fidelis 25th to 29th August 

Book Week Parade – Friday, 29th August

We are excited to invite you to join us for our Book Week Parade on Friday, 29th August at 9:00 am. This is always a highlight of the school year, as students have the chance to celebrate their love of reading by dressing up as their favourite book character or in a costume inspired by this year’s Book Week theme. We can’t wait to see the creativity and joy on parade!

Book Week is a special celebration held each year across Australia, organised by the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA). Since 1945, the CBCA has been promoting high-quality Australian children’s literature and inspiring a love of reading in young people. Each year, the CBCA selects a list of outstanding books for children and young adults, and schools around the country engage with these stories in exciting ways.

To celebrate this year’s Book Week, students will be taking part in a range of book-related activities within their classrooms. Teachers have planned lessons inspired by the shortlisted CBCA titles for 2024, offering rich opportunities for students to think deeply about characters, themes, and storytelling. All of these titles will also be available from our school library after Book Week for students to borrow and enjoy.

We look forward to celebrating Book Week together and seeing our students’ imaginations come to life during the parade!

Staying Safe in Our Community and Online

Recently, our school welcomed members of the Victorian Police who visited to talk with students about the importance of staying safe in our community. They highlighted a range of practical strategies for personal safety and making good choices in everyday life. A key part of their message also focused on cyber safety, reminding students that the online world is an extension of our community where the same principles of respect, responsibility, and safety apply.

As technology continues to play a significant role in our lives, it's essential to equip our children with the skills to navigate the online world responsibly and safely. As a school, we prioritise the safety and well-being of our children online. By fostering open communication, setting boundaries, and imparting essential digital literacy skills, we can empower them to navigate the digital world responsibly and confidently.

Recently, we have noticed that more students are communicating on social media platforms. Parents need to understand the importance of promoting online safety. To support parents, the eSafety Commission has some excellent resources, tips and webinars to help parents navigate the online world with their children. They use research, evidence and experience to lead and advise parents and educators on online safety issues. The eSafety Commission educates Australians about online safety risks. It helps to remove harmful content such as cyberbullying of children, adult cyber abuse and intimate images or videos shared without consent.

Below are some more helpful tips and links to support parents in keeping their children safe:

Find out more here: eSafety for parents – issues and advice

Remember, a safe online experience begins with a foundation of knowledge, communication, and shared values. Stay safe, stay connected!

SPS Evidence Bites 

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB

Issue 6 is out now, and orders are due in by Wednesday, August 27.

NUMERACY NEWS - Colleen Monaghan

Our Foundation students worked collaboratively to complete these puzzles. Well done, guys, you persevered and worked out the missing pieces.

Helping Your Child at Home with Multiplication 

Multiplication and Division are key building blocks for many areas of mathematics. In the Victorian Curriculum, students work towards developing both fluency (accuracy and speed) and understanding (knowing why and how a strategy works). The more confident they become, the easier it is for them to tackle problem-solving in upper years.

• Years 1-4 are teaching multiplication, and here are a few ideas to help your child at home become more confident and successful with the skills needed. 
• Year 1- need an understanding of equal groups and being able to understand the meaning of the numbers on a multiplication and division story. So 3 groups with 5 in each make 15. They would be able to draw, make 3 groups and put 5 in each group and count how many altogether, skip counting rather than count by ones. 
• Year 2s need to understand the concept of equal groups as well as the structure of arrays and the meaning of the numbers in a number sentence like 3 x 5- 15. They are expected to be able to draw 3 groups and  place 5 in each group as well as represent this in an array, where the 3 represents the number of rows and the 5 is how many are in each row. They should be able to skip count to find the total as well as use repeated addition, or for some the doubling facts. They may use a number line to keep their skip counts.
• Year 3’s need to know their multiplication facts for 10, 5, 2 and 3. They should understand the properties of commutativity and use partitioning (splitting) numbers to help solve multiplication problems. They are solving multiplication problems with single digits by single digits, using arrays and facts.
• Year 4’s need to use a variety of efficient strategies to solve multiplication problems. They need to understand the relationship between multiplication and division as well the distributive property and doubling and halving. They need to have fluency with their table facts up to the 10 times tables, as well as related division facts.

Strategies for learning the times tables are listed below.

Here are some simple ways you can support at home:

1. Practise Times Tables in Fun Ways
   • Use songs, chants, or rhythm clapping to help memorise facts.
   • Play quick-fire games like “How many can you answer in 1 minute?”
   • Mix up the order — being able to recall facts out of sequence is important.
2. Connect Multiplication to Everyday Life
   • Cooking: “If each muffin tray holds 6 muffins, how many will 3 trays hold?”
   • Shopping: “If apples are $2 each, how much for 5 apples?”
   • Sport: “If your team plays 4 games and scores 3 goals each game, how many in total?”
3. Use Arrays and Groups
   • Draw or build arrays with objects (e.g., LEGO, buttons, pasta) to show multiplication as rows and columns or division as sharing equally.
4. Talk About Related Facts
   • If your child knows 4 × 5 = 20, then they also know 20 ÷ 5 = 4.
   • This builds fact families and reinforces the connection between multiplication and division.
5. Encourage Strategy Use
   • For larger numbers, show your child strategies such as doubling and halving, skip counting, breaking apart numbers (e.g., 7 × 6 = (5 × 6) + (2 × 6)).
6. Make it Playful
   • Board games, online maths games, and card games (like “Multiplication War”) help build speed and accuracy without feeling like extra homework. (Google Dr. Paul Swan board games- lots of fun free ones )

Remember: It’s not just about speed - understanding why multiplication and division work makes a huge difference to your child’s confidence and problem-solving skills. A few minutes of playful practice each day goes a long way.

Here are some ideas listed from a recent presentation I did with our staff, they may be helpful for you at home.

PE & SPORT NEWS - Michael Jennings

NEWSLETTER

SSV COBURG DISTRICT ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

The following students have qualified to represent St Fidelis Primary School at the forthcoming SSV Coburg District Athletics Carnival  to be held at the Coburg Athletics Track on Thursday, 21 August 2025:

INTERSCHOOL SPORT FINALS

By winning the SSV Coburg District Division Premiership, the St Fidelis Girls Bat Tennis will play a Coburg District Final against Pascoe Vale on Monday 8 September 2025 at Pascoe Vale PS. The St Fidelis Girls Basketball Team also won the SSV Coburg District Division premiership, and they will play a Coburg District Final against St Olivers on Monday, 8 September 2025, at St Olivers Primary School.

Good luck to the teams!

STEM NEWS - Joe Frazzetto

STEM MAD Showcase at St Fidelis

Last Thursday, St Fidelis proudly hosted a STEM MAD Showcase, celebrating student innovation and action to make a difference in the world.

STEM MAD (Make A Difference) is an initiative that recognises and promotes STEM learning that addresses real-world problems. It gives students in Catholic schools the opportunity to design a product, service, or innovation that aims to make a positive impact on others or the environment.

Since the beginning of Term 2, our Year 5/6 students have been working incredibly hard, collaborating in teams to develop creative and meaningful prototypes. Their projects were designed not just to solve problems, but to truly make a difference in the world.

The showcase was a fantastic event, with four other schools joining us on the day: Caulfield Grammar, Our Lady of the Christians, Good Shepherd, and St Oliver’s.

We were also honoured to welcome a panel of special guests, including judges and guest speakers. The judges had a very tough job – they were blown away by the high quality of the prototypes and the professionalism of each presentation. They were particularly impressed with how well the students explained the real-world impact of their ideas.

Watching our students confidently present their work to the judges, parents, teachers, and visitors was an incredibly proud moment. Their creativity, teamwork, and commitment to making a difference truly shone through.

Well done to all our Year 5/6 students – you’ve shown what it means to use STEM to better our world!