Prep

Hello Prep families – welcome to Term 3!

Important dates / notes:

Thursday 30th July: Prep 100 Days of School (Please keep an eye out for Compass posts)

Week 3: Parent helper program to commence (Mondays and Fridays)

Week 7, Monday 24th August: Book Parade

Week 7, 25th – 27th: Conferences

Week 7, Friday 28th August: Curriculum Day

Week 8: Book Fair

*Please note that due to a change of specialist days, we have recently sent home a new schedule for each class. Please check your child’s communication pocket.

We’ve had a fabulous start to the term with the student enjoying an exciting swimming week last week. The students once again impressed us with their independence and their abilities to take on new challenges.

It was lovely also to end our week with a buddies session, during which we enjoyed a picnic and watched a variety of funny, well-being based Pixar clips together. All of the preps enjoyed catching up with their buddies following the holidays.

We have also enjoyed a number of investigation sessions this term with out new topic of ‘Bridge and Beyond: Discovery’ with a subtopic of Fairy Tales. The students are enjoying many opportunities to investigate materials in the world around them as well as let their imaginations go wild.

In reading and phonics, we are continuing to introduce the sounds and sight words from level 3 of the Decodable Readers Australia program. We are proud of the way students are engaging in these activities and thriving during reading sessions.

In writing we’ve enjoyed looking at some fairytales and making predictions. Students are becoming experts at looking for clues in the illustrations and texts and making strong, purposeful guesses about what is going to happen next!

We have also enjoyed learning about ‘greater’ and ‘more’ in maths and being introduced to the ‘greater gator’ who eats the bigger number. Once again, this has involved participating in a lot of ‘hands-on’ learning activities.

We’re looking forward to a wonderful Term 3!

Kind regards,

The Prep Team

Laina Brebner, Kayla Hartrick and Emma Wright

Grade 1

What a fabulous and busy start to the term! We had a fantastic first week at the pool, where students focused on water safety while developing their swimming skills and techniques. Everyone showed great effort, responsibility and resilience throughout the week—we are so proud of them! A big thank you to Miss Twentyman for all her hard work in organising our swimming program!

In Literacy, we have been reading a variety of stories and identifying the characters and settings. We have also practised retelling the beginning, middle and end of each story, as well as making personal connections to the texts we read.

In Maths, we have been practising making equal groups through a range of fun, hands-on activities. We grouped dogs onto surfboards, animals onto planes, trains and bikes, and even added eyes to some very crazy fish! We also traced our hands and used them to help us practise counting by 5s.

Investigations has been a blast! Students have loved exploring the new learning spaces and beginning to discover different types of machines and how they help make our everyday lives easier. Some of the most popular spaces so far have been the Aquarium, Pokémon Arena and coding the robots.

The highlight of our fortnight was our excursion to Quantum! Students investigated the role that forces play in our everyday lives through a range of exciting, hands-on activities. We explored Newton’s Laws of Motion, measured and compared the distances objects travelled on different surfaces, created and tested electrical circuits, and finished the day by launching rockets to discover how chemical reactions create forces.

Congratulations to our Shining Stars as we wrapped up Term 3 and kicked off Term 4. We are so proud of the wonderful effort, kindness and enthusiasm you have shown. Keep shining!

Kind regards,

The Grade 1 Team

Mel Layton, Sally Newton, Tim Huntington and Rowena Blake

Grade 2

What an exciting and productive few weeks we have had in our classroom! It has been wonderful to see students embracing new learning opportunities, challenging themselves, and celebrating their achievements across all areas of the curriculum. From an action-packed Swimming Week to developing important literacy, numeracy, and digital citizenship skills, there has certainly been plenty happening.

One of the highlights of the fortnight was our Swimming Week. Students demonstrated fantastic enthusiasm, resilience, and confidence as they participated in a range of swimming activities designed to develop both water safety and swimming skills. Thursday's Survival Day was particularly valuable, with students learning essential water safety techniques and practising skills that could one day help keep them safe in and around water. They approached every challenge with determination and maturity, showing excellent listening skills and teamwork throughout the day.

Friday wrapped up Swimming Week with a well-deserved Fun Day, filled with games, water play, and plenty of laughter. Students thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate everything they had learned while participating in exciting activities with their classmates. It was wonderful to see everyone encouraging one another and demonstrating outstanding sportsmanship. Thank you to all families for ensuring students came prepared each day, helping make the week such a success.

In Mathematics, we are continuing to strengthen our understanding of multiplication by exploring it as repeated addition. Students have been using a variety of hands-on materials, visual models, arrays, and number sentences to build a strong foundation for multiplication concepts. We are focusing on recognising patterns, making equal groups, and explaining our mathematical thinking. These important skills will continue to be a major focus over the next few weeks as students develop confidence and fluency with multiplication.

Our Reading lessons have begun exploring how authors reveal information through a character's voice and actions. Students are learning to make inferences by thinking beyond the words on the page and using clues from the text alongside their own background knowledge. This deeper level of thinking helps readers better understand characters' feelings, motivations, and relationships. It has been wonderful to hear students sharing thoughtful ideas and supporting their inferences with evidence from the text.

In Writing, our focus has been on developing engaging narratives. Students have been learning how authors capture a reader's attention by creating sizzling starts that immediately draw the audience into the story. We have also explored how to make our writing more entertaining and expressive by including humour, beginning at the point of action, using onomatopoeia, and crafting dynamic dialogue between characters. It has been exciting to watch students experiment with these techniques and grow in confidence as creative writers.

Alongside our writing, we continue to build our spelling knowledge through our DRA program. Students are developing a range of spelling strategies while learning about patterns, rules, and word structures. Rather than simply memorising words, they are learning to think carefully about how words are constructed and to apply these strategies across all areas of their writing. Regular practice and discussion are helping students become more accurate and independent spellers.

We have also begun our important unit on Cyber Safety as we prepare for students to begin using new devices later in the year. Throughout these lessons, we are discussing how technology can be a powerful tool for learning, creativity, and communication, while also recognising that there are challenges and responsibilities that come with using digital devices. Students are learning about respectful online behaviour, protecting personal information, making safe choices, and knowing what to do if they encounter something that makes them feel uncomfortable. Building these skills now will help ensure students become safe, responsible, and confident digital citizens.

Thank you for your continued support of your child's learning. We are proud of the enthusiasm, effort, and positive attitudes our students bring to school each day, and we look forward to another exciting few weeks of learning together.

Kind regards,

The Grade 2 Team

Allie Harrison, Sarah Margetts and Brendan Van Haaster

Grade 3/4

The Grade 3/4s have enjoyed a huge swimming week and are to be commended on their effort. All students showed bravery by navigating the new venue and showed pride when trying new things.

Despite a busy week at the pool, students have been learning strategies for the 10, 9 and 5 times tables. Applying their place value thinking, students found patterns when multiplying numbers by ten, such as 4x10=40, 40x10=400, 400x10=4,000. To solve 9x tables, students used the 10x strategy then took away a group. Students also used the tens strategy and halving to solve the 5x tables. They initially used blocks to model the problems and develop their understanding before moving on to higher numbers.

Students have been reading lots of procedures to investigate different parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs and adverbs. Reading lots of “how to” texts has been highly engaging and will inspire their own pieces next week.

Kind regards,

The 3/4 Team

Nick Pagliaro, Daena Hailey, Brent Smith, Claire Cripps, Ashleigh Wilson and Mykaela Oakley

Grades 5/6

Two weeks into Term 3 and the 5/6 students have already packed in a lot! It has been a fantastic start to the term, with students embracing new learning opportunities, representing our school with pride and celebrating some wonderful achievements.

This week, our students have been participating in the Swimming Program, heading to the pool each morning to develop important swimming and water safety skills. Across the week, students have taken part in swimming lessons, focussed on their survival skills and will finish the program with a well-earned fun day on Friday. It has been wonderful to see students giving their best effort, encouraging one another and representing our school so positively with their mature behaviour and excellent attitude throughout the program.

A huge congratulations goes to our 5/6 girls' netball team, who were crowned Yarra Division Netball Champions this week! The girls played with determination, teamwork and resilience, overcoming strong opposition to claim the title. We are incredibly proud of their efforts and wish them all the best as they progress to the Region finals in August.

Back in the classroom, students have continued to work hard across all learning areas. In Writing, they have been developing their understanding of explanation texts. Students have been exploring the novel Boy Overboard in Reading, analysing characters and identifying their traits. In Maths, students have been developing their confidence with multiplication by learning and applying both the lattice and vertical multiplication methods to solve increasingly complex problems.

It has been an excellent start to the term, and we look forward to seeing what our 5/6 students achieve over the coming weeks.

Kind regards,

The 5/6 Team

Llinos Poole, Erin Rennick, Hayley Peirce and Kylie Morrissey

Notices & Reminders

Beleza Uniform Shop (at the Canteen window)

Rolling Hills Policies