School News
Prep
What a wonderful two weeks it has been! Students have been working hard and we worked through a number of learning tasks where it has been a joy to see their growth and understanding!
In reading, we have been practising our ‘synthesising’ skills by considering what we already know before learning new facts and building our knowledge. It has been great to see all of our students excited about learning new things as they read. We’ve also enjoyed reading with our partners, which is always a lot of fun!
This fortnight spelling has seen us learning the words ‘teacher’ and ‘feather’. It’s exciting to see the students progressing into words which have multiple digraphs! Our common words have been ‘which’, ‘them’, ‘other’ and ‘there’.
For writing, we have been busy creating non-fiction information reports about an animal of our choice. We have looked at their diet, location / habitat / appearance and even interesting facts about them. Working in groups has been a great deal of fun and we have learned a lot about animals from each other. Students have impressed us with both their writing, illustrating and editing skills!
For maths, we have had a lot of fun working on division or sharing problems. We have shared scoops of ice-cream onto two cones and shared teddies onto two bikes. Students have once again enjoyed the fun of hands on activities and have worked hard to refine their recording skills.
In Wellbeing, we have begun looking at the catastrophe scale and discussed whether problems are small, medium or big problems. We’ve looked at ways that we can solve small problems ourselves (for example, getting a pencil from the spare pencil bucket if we can’t find our own). We’ve also talked about who we can seek help from if problems are too big for us to solve ourselves.
Investigations have been such a hit, with students really enjoying all of the dress up and role playing opportunities. The Sewing Circle has also been popular and we are working hard to ensure that all of the students get to have a go!
Kindest regards,
The Prep Team
Laina Brebner, Kayla Hartrick and Emma Wright
Grade 1
Dear families,
The past fortnight has been a wonderful blend of creativity, curiosity, and connection in Grade 1. From persuasive writing to robot design, our students have been stretching their thinking and expressing themselves with growing confidence.
In Reading, we’ve explored the work of two beloved Australian authors. Week 3 focused on summarising stories by Mem Fox, using strategies like the Big 5 to retell key events in our own words. In Week 4, we shifted to critiquing texts by Margaret Wild, asking: What makes a book great? Students analysed character traits, author choices, and story structure, forming opinions and backing them up with evidence.
In Writing, we’ve been crafting persuasive texts about our favourite seasons. Students brainstormed reasons, planned their arguments, and drafted sizzling starts to hook their readers. This week, we’ve focused on editing. We worked on improving punctuation, vocabulary, and clarity. We even had a sweet twist with a mini writing challenge: convincing others that our favourite dessert is the best in the world!
We’ve explored the split digraph i-e (as in “bike”) and the ze sound (as in “amaze”), helping students decode and spell with greater accuracy.
Our Maths focus has been place value. In Week 3, we practised subitizing with our “super-hero eyes” and revisited number patterns. This week, we’ve tackled rounding numbers to the nearest 10 — a great way to build number sense and estimation skills.
Our Inquiry unit has sparked serious imagination! In Week 3, students brainstormed names for our Level 1 robots and voted on their favourites. In Week 4, they designed their own robots — thinking about purpose, problem-solving, and materials. The creativity and collaboration have been inspiring.
Kind regards,
The Grade 1 Team
Mel Layton, Sally Newton and Ashleigh Wilson and Tim Huntington
Grade 2
It’s been another exciting week in Grade 2!
In Reading, we have been learning how to form our own opinions about the books we read. The students are using evidence from the text to explain their ideas and are doing a wonderful job sharing their thoughts with the class.
In Writing, we have started exploring persuasive texts. The children are learning how to express their opinions clearly and give reasons to convince their readers. We’ve had some lively discussions about favourite foods, pets, and playground equipment!
In Maths, we are learning about division and how to share items equally among a group. The students are also discovering what happens when there’s something left over — introducing the idea of a remainder.
For Inquiry, we are investigating technology from the past and comparing it to modern times. The students have been fascinated by how much everyday items have changed — from telephones and cameras to games and household gadgets!
We were also lucky to have a visit from some Year 9 students, who taught us a range of fun sporting games. Everyone enjoyed learning new skills, practising teamwork, and spending time with our older student mentors.
It’s been a busy and engaging week of learning and discovery in Grade 2!
Grade 2 Team
Allie Harrison, Sarah Jones and Brendan Van Haaster
Grade 3 & 4
We would like to congratulate the students in 3/4 for the wonderful way they have started Term 4. They have shown excellent behaviour and attitudes in class and completed lots of fantastic learning so far!
In Reading, the 3/4 students continued learning about fiction and non-fiction texts, including the features of each. They explored two texts on floods (one fiction and one non-fiction). Students analysed and critiqued them by stating which text they preferred and justifying it with a valid reason.
In Writing, students continued working on their persuasive pieces. They finished writing their arguments for their pieces on whether school should start later in the morning or not and concluded them with an ending that had impact. Once completed, the students revised and edited them before publishing them.
In Maths, the students began a week long unit on chance. They learned about the language of chance and ordered chance outcomes. Students also conducted their own chance experiments, made predictions and compared them to the actual results. We learned about the difference between dependent and independent variables and had fun creating and playing our own versions of ‘rock, paper, scissors.’
In Inquiry, the students completed the Term 4 Inquiry learning task, comparing Australia to a neighbouring country of their choice. They researched about the similarities and differences in natural vegetation, climate, water sources, natural features and constructed features.
In our Wellbeing lessons, students learned about problem solving skills by using games to talk about and practise them. They identified different actions someone could take to solve a problem and discussed possible consequences of actions used to solve a problem.
Kind regards,
The 3/4 Team
Damien Smith, Daena Hailey, Brent Smith, Claire Cripps and Nick Pagliaro
Grade 5 & 6
It’s been a busy and engaging fortnight for our 5/6 students, with plenty of opportunities to learn, collaborate and think creatively.
This week, our Grade 5 students began the Active Schools program, a three-part initiative organised and run by the local council. The program focusses on encouraging healthy, sustainable travel to and from school. In this first session, students met with council representatives to learn about the project’s goals and begin thinking of ways to promote walking and riding to school. Over the coming weeks, they’ll work in teams to design and present their own ideas for the ‘look’ and ‘feel’ of future drop-off zones around our school. It’s a wonderful opportunity for our students to have a voice in shaping their community.
As well as this, students have been participating in the Life Education program, focussing on understanding puberty and the changes that come with it. Through age-appropriate discussions and activities, students have been learning about the physical, social and emotional aspects of growing up. The sessions also explore strategies to manage these changes with confidence, kindness and self-awareness.
Both programs have sparked thoughtful conversations and genuine engagement from students. It’s fantastic to see their curiosity, maturity and enthusiasm shine through.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Kind regards,
The 5/6 Team
Llinos Poole, Erin Rennick, Alarna Creed, Hayley Peirce & Kylie Morrissey.