From the classroom

Col Pearse

Today we had a special visit from Olympian Col Pearse. We are so grateful that he gave up his time to talk to our whole school about his journey as an Olympian!

Numeracy at Rochester Primary School

The focus for maths this term across the school is covering any areas from the curriculum that have not been covered yet and revising areas of need. 

In Foundation, students will be developing their understanding of fractions and sharing. They will look at how much things can hold and the size of things. They will also look at money and complete practical problems around this. Students will continue to develop their fluency when counting backwards and forwards and counting collections of objects.

Grade 1&2 students are focusing on collecting data and looking at different ways they can represent this data. They are also working on how to read data from a graph. They will also look at 2D and 3D shapes.

Grade 3&4 students are looking at decimals and revising fractions. Students have been working on their unit of financial maths, which looks at budgeting and discounts.

Grade 5/6 students have been revising their understanding of the 4 operations and looking at using the operations with fractions and decimals. They will be working on financial maths as well as reviewing units of measurement. 

At this time of the year, students will be completing assessment tasks to inform teachers and the students of the progress that they have made this year. This will also provide ideas for future direction and give teachers feedback on how students understood the maths sessions.

A focus for the school next year will be to better align our maths units across the school. We aim to have students across the school working on the same maths topic, but just at different levels. This will enable teachers to talk and discuss and give ideas about how we can best cater for all students in our school. It will also make talking about learning at home easier, children may come home talking about time (for example) and then help each other tell the time or talk about how long it takes to get somewhere and work out what time they need to leave. It will be easier for children to apply and increase their learning through sharing with their siblings.

Literacy at Rochester Primary School

We are very excited to share some fantastic updates about our school's literacy program and the learning our students are achieving in their reading and writing skills.

Where possible, each room has a dedicated literacy time from 9:00am to 11:00 am. This ensures our students have minimal interruptions and develops consistent morning routines. If you walk through our school in the mornings  you will experience a quiet and calm working atmosphere. It is always the first thing people comment on when they tour our school. Our Prep-1 class begins their day with a Heggerty phonemic awareness session where our youngest learners demonstrate their growing understanding of letters and their corresponding sounds.

This year our school has worked hard to embed a consistent workshop model throughout the school. This has included teachers being observed and participating in learning walks to learn from one another and to build consistency. The structured lessons in both the reading and writing workshop provide students with a familiar routine and an understanding of what to expect during the lesson. The workshops offer an opportunity for students to experience direct instruction, guided practice, and independent work, allowing students to develop their skills at their own level.

Throughout the year Mrs Collins and Sandra have been working hard to get our school library up and running. Students have an opportunity to borrow books of their own interest for enjoyment or to support their learning in the classroom. The 'Reading Stars' initiative  has also encouraged students to read regularly at home, this has increased the consistency of at home reading and helped some students really develop a love of reading.

Our aligned curriculum has allowed students to experience different genres of writing, suitable for each grade level, at regular intervals throughout the year. We look forward to helping our students thrive and grow over the coming years!