The Learning Zone

"Coming together is the beginning, staying together is progress,

and working together is success." - Henry Ford

Big Write and VCOP

At St Joseph's, teachers use the Big Write & VCOP methodology to help students develop their writing skills in an engaging and structured way. This approach encourages children to become confident, creative, and effective writers by focusing on four key aspects of writing: Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers, and Punctuation (VCOP).

What is Big Write?

Big Write is a dedicated writing session where students apply their skills in an extended, independent writing task. For Years 1-6, this occurs every Thursday, with Kindergarten starting Big Write in Term 3 after they have been explicitly taught each VCOP element. Before the Big Write session, students take part in class discussions, fun oral activities, and 'Home Talk' (a chance to discuss ideas with family at home). This helps them feel prepared and excited to write. During the Big Write, they write in a quiet, focused environment, aiming to improve their use of descriptive language, structure, and creativity.

What is VCOP?

VCOP stands for:

• Vocabulary – Expanding word choices to make writing more vivid and engaging. We call these 'wow words'
• Connectives – Using words like “however,” “because,” and “therefore” join ideas together, create flow and form complex sentences.
• Openers – Varying sentence starters to make writing more interesting. Words  that end in ‘ly’ and ‘ing’ are power openers!
• Punctuation – Using punctuation correctly to enhance meaning and make writing more effective.

When your child brings his/her writing  home you will notice that some words will be highlighted. This forms one aspect of the editing process.  Here, students identify the Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation in their written work and highlight each aspect in the appropriate colour.  Students are able to easily identify which of the four components they have done well, and those that need to be improved, or, ‘up-levelled’.

NAPLAN: Year 3 and Year 5

Last week, our Year 3 and Year 5 students successfully completed the first two NAPLAN assessments: Writing and Reading. Today, they tackled the Conventions of Language assessment, which covered Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation. The final assessment, Numeracy, will be completed tomorrow.

We are proud of the efforts the students have demonstrated throughout the testing period, approaching the assessments with focus and a positive attitude. Well done to all students for their hard work and commitment to learning!

Further information about NAPLAN for parents and carers is available on the NESA website and also by clicking the link below:

Armidale Diocesan Mathematics Initiative (MaST)

Maths At Home:

Kindergarten - Representing Whole Numbers

They are also learning to read numerals and represent whole numbers to at least 20. The poster below shows the many different ways numbers can be represented.

• Encourage your child to count the number of pegs used to hang out the washing.
• Count the number of eggs in a carton, and again after some have been removed.
• Count the number of times you and your child can throw a ball to each other without dropping it.
• Have your child count as far as they are able to go and then encourage them to join you while you continue counting.

Stage 1 - Representing Whole Numbers

How is your counting going Stage 1? Can you work out the missing numbers?

Using Place Value Houses and MAB's to represent the number 268.

Stage 2 - Angles

Last week Stage 2 completed some great work learning about Angles.

Stage 3 - Additive Relations

Stage 3 have been busy working on Addition!

Despite the busyness of school life, it’s wonderful to visit the classrooms and see every student continuing to fully engage in their learning each day. Keep up the great work! 

Have a great week of learning and fun.

Maree Holland & Greg O'Toole