St Brendan's Primary School

Learning and Teaching

Literacy Update

 

Welcome back to the 2025 school year! I hope you all had a wonderful break with your loved ones. This year, we continue to embed Learning and Teaching the St Brendan’s Way across all curriculum areas. Grounded in the Science of Learning, we are committed to using research-based, evidence-driven practices that help us understand how the brain learns best. Our goal is to ensure that every student at St Brendan’s has access to an equitable and excellent learning experience.

The Science of Reading

In English, The Science of Reading refers to an extensive body of interdisciplinary research on reading and writing. Through thousands of studies, this research has provided valuable insights into how proficient reading and writing develop, why some students experience difficulties, and how we can best assess and teach literacy skills to improve outcomes for all learners.

At St Brendan’s, students from Foundation through to Year Grade 6 receive explicit and systematic instruction in all essential components of English, following a Structured Literacy approach. Each day, students participate in:

  • Spelling (through phonics, MSL, or Spelling Mastery)
  • Daily Review
  • Phonemic Awareness
  • Fluency Reading
  • Explicit Writing Instruction
  • Comprehension through rich texts
  • Handwriting (twice per week)

For students requiring additional support, we use a range of assessments to identify learning needs. These students may receive targeted intervention from a member of our Student Learning Team in addition to their daily two-hour literacy block.

 

Home Reading

At the start of each year, I like to remind parents of the many wonderful benefits of reading at home. Frequent reading practice is essential—just like any skill, the more we read, the better we become! Regular reading strengthens decoding skills, expands vocabulary, deepens understanding of grammar and syntax, introduces new ideas, and sparks imagination.

To support your child’s literacy development, we recommend the following daily reading guidelines:

  • Junior Years (Foundation Prep – Year 2): 10–15 minutes per night (reading with a parent, to a parent, or listening to a parent read)
  • Middle Years (Years 3 – 4): At least 15 minutes per night with a ‘Good Fit’ book
  • Senior Years (Years 5 – 6): At least 20 minutes per night with a ‘Good Fit’ book

Please see the attached Junior Home Reading Letter, which was sent out last week, for further details.

If you have any questions or need support regarding literacy, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m happy to help in any way I can.

I look forward to connecting with you soon!

 

Erica HudsonLiteracy Leader

Mathematics Update

Welcome back, parents! We hope your holidays were filled with joy, laughter, and special family moments. We plan on making this year  memorable by providing new experiences and celebrating learning! 

 

Science of Maths

This year, we are continuing to integrate different research-based, evidence proven practices across all curriculum areas or as we like to call it, ‘Learning and Teaching the St Brendan’s Way’. This Science of Maths approach to teaching Mathematics applies cognitive science principles to improve student learning. It focuses on how students think, process, and retain mathematical concepts effectively.

Some Key Principles are:

  • Explicit Instruction
    • Teachers provide clear, step-by-step explanations with guided practice.
    • Concepts are broken down into manageable parts, ensuring students grasp each step before moving forward.
  • Cognitive Load
    • Avoids overwhelming students by limiting new information at one time.
    • Uses scaffolding, chunking, and worked examples to enhance understanding.
  • Daily Review
    • Reinforces previously learned concepts to strengthen retention.
    • Helps students make connections between past and new learning.
  • Automaticity of Basic Facts
    • Focuses on fluency with basic maths facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division).
    • Reduces cognitive load so students can focus on problem-solving rather than calculations.
  • Check for Understanding
    • Teachers frequently assess comprehension through questioning and formative assessments.
    • Ensures misconceptions are addressed before moving to new content.
  • Active Participation
    • Teachers frequently assess comprehension through questioning and formative assessments.
    • Engages students through action responses (gestures, movement, using manipulatives).
    • Encourages written responses (solving problems on whiteboards, showing work, explaining reasoning in writing).
    • Promotes oral responses (answering questions, discussing with partners, explaining thinking aloud).
    • Ensures all students are actively thinking and involved in the learning process.

By implementing and embedding these approaches we aim to ensure that every student at St Brendan’s has access to an equitable and excellent learning experience.

Rocket Maths

Through our professional reading and research, it became clear that for students to be efficient and effective mathematicians, they must develop automaticity and accuracy with basic number facts. That’s why our school has implemented Rocket Math, a research-based program designed to help students master and retain essential math facts for proficiency.

 

This automaticity and accuracy in basic number facts free up cognitive resources, allowing students to focus on complex algorithms and problem-solving. This foundation reduces errors, enhances efficiency, and boosts confidence. Quick recall supports pattern recognition, logical reasoning, and fluency, enabling deeper understanding and success in higher-level math concepts.

To help your child develop accuracy and automaticity with basic number facts, we encourage them to complete four sessions of Rocket Math at home each week, in addition to the four sessions at school.

 

To motivate students, we have some exciting rewards:

  • Rocket Math Medal Draw: At each assembly, students who complete at least 14 sessions will again be entered into a draw for the Rocket Math Medal, recognising their effort and perseverance.

     

  • New Class Award – The Rocket Math Cup: This year, we’re introducing a class competition! The class with the most completed sessions each term will win the Rocket Math Cup, with their progress displayed at each assembly. The winning class will also receive a fun reward, such as extra playtime or a Zooper Dooper treat.

Thank you for supporting your child’s learning—we can’t wait to see their progress!

If you have any questions about any of the areas addressed above or any other Maths questions, please feel free to contact me. 

 

Justin Barry

Maths Leader

Learning Diversity @ St Brendan's

My name is  Daniela Ruberto and I am the Learning Diversity Leader here at St Brendan's. 

 

I work on a Wednesday/Thursday - alternate Friday's and my office is in the front admin area.

 

My role allows me to work with all the wonderful teachers, team of Learning Support Officers, our school based Speech Therapist, Amy Brook and Student Learning Team teachers at our school.  

 

We work together as a team to ensure that all students are learning and engaging in the St Brendan's way of learning & teaching.

 

Through my role I work very closely with our dedicated and hard working Learning Support Officers (LSO's),  I oversee the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) www.nccd.edu.au and work with classroom teachers and Student Learning Team to ensure that the appropriate learning adjustments are been made for all students. 

 

I feel very fortunate to work with such a great group of people!

Take care of each other :)

 

Daniela Ruberto

Learning Diversity Leader

Daniela Ruberto

Learning Diversity Leader

Introducing Amy Brook, Lead Speech Therapist, SPS

St Brendan’s Primary School has engaged with Speech Pathology for Schools (SPS) to provide holistic school-based speech pathology support. Amy is an engaging and dynamic speech pathologist who enjoys working alongside school-aged students to find their learning potential in the areas of language and literacy. She works collaboratively with students and staff to assess and target individual needs in the areas of Oral Language and Phonological Awareness. Amy’s sessions run on Thursday's and Friday’s and consist of either whole-class or small-group learning.  An LSO may be present during the session to further support students with follow-up activities during class time. Amy will begin by predominantly supporting our Year 3-6 students and will move across the school as necessary.

 

Please visit www.speech.edu.au/brand   Use code:  SPS185  for more information.