Learning & Teaching 

LEARNING & TEACHING - Vira Pirrotta

DISCOVERY

“In F-2 classrooms, opportunities for learning through play provide an important context for the development of skills and understandings, for teacher assessment and of course for the broader social and emotional wellbeing of the child.” - Kath Murdoch. 

What is Discovery Time?

As part of our Inquiry learning at St. Fidelis in the F-2 learning spaces, the students learn through play during our Discovery Time Workshops. Play provides a context for students to develop skills and understandings about topics that interest them. 

At St Fidelis, students are communicators, collaborators, self-managers, thinkers and researchers.  As inquirers, the students have time and opportunity to engage in Discovery Time Workshops. 

Discovery Workshops include several provocations designed by teachers around the learner's interests to stimulate curiosity. The provocations invite the learner to explore, question, experiment, create, make, collaborate and problem-solve. The stations are carefully curated and designed with the students in mind to stimulate curiosity, and the teacher facilitates learning through questions and guidance. At the stations, teachers observe, listen, document, question, and carefully work with the learner’s interests to build conceptual understandings and support skill development. 

What is the purpose of Discovery Time?

Through Discovery, students continue to build on their understanding of  the learning assets and dispositions.  There is always a focus, which may last for one session or multiple sessions. In Term 1, the Foundation students are focusing on being Collaborators. This means that we are working on:

• Sharing materials
• Taking turns
• Working together
• Sharing their thinking with others 

They also learn how to be respectful and responsible with their use of materials by taking care of the resources and helping to set up and pack up for Discovery Time. 

Look at some exciting and engaging personal inquiries that have started in the Foundation.

NAPLAN

Dear Parents/Guardians,

A reminder that NAPLAN online begins on March 13th. 

All students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 in Australia will complete the NAPLAN tests this week and next week. Your teachers will inform you of the timetable for each assessment. 

For more information on NAPLAN please read the attached PDFs or visit nap.edu.au.

LITERACY - Bernadette Parnis

Following on from ‘Reading at Home’ Part 1 and Part 2, I thought it worthwhile to share the rationale behind readers and why we do what we do.

Reading a take home reader is part of the home learning routine at St Fidelis. A very important routine for various reasons. 

Students bring home a book each day. They are given the responsibility to choose the text they would like to read from boxes organised specifically for them by their classroom teacher. Sometimes your child may bring home the same book or one that they have had previously. This is perfectly fine as the intention is not to learn anything new at home rather to allow the students to practise and rehearse skills taught at school.

Texts are levelled. Levelled texts are designed to support reading growth. Teachers match texts to the students’ ability. Students choose their text from within the range provided. Allowing them to do this gives them the opportunity to select according to their interest. The teachers have sorted according to level, providing texts usually 2 levels lower than what they are reading instructionally in class. This is done to ensure that the students can read texts easily at home. 

Reading requires more than being able to decode words and read with 100% accuracy. A text may be perceived as easy by parents, however, this allows students to work on reading with fluency, phrasing and comprehension; it reduces the cognitive load and therefore supports success and builds confidence.

Some basic reading strategies your child may have been taught in the classroom include:

• Can they use the picture to help? 

• Stretch out the word. For example, for the word shouted – ‘sh-ou-ted’. 

• Can they see for chunks in the word, or smaller words in a larger word. For example, for shouted – they could see ‘shout’, or ‘out’.

 • Can they sound out the word? 

• Get them to read to the end of the sentence for further clues. What would make sense?

 • Get them to work out the first sound of the word and get their mouth ready for the word.

When your child has finished reading the book, ask a few questions to check for comprehension. Your child’s comprehension is a vital component to them learning to read. A lot of the time parents listen to the home reader and then mark it off as complete. Getting into the habit of asking some questions at the end will help your child with their comprehension skills.

They don’t have to be difficult questions. For example

 • What was your favourite part of the book and why? 

• How did you feel when you read that story? 

• What did you learn from this story?

• What was the problem in the story? 

• Which character did you like and why?

Make reading at home a routine. 

Find a quiet, comfortable spot that is the go-to reading spot with your child. Whether it be before dinner, just before they go to bed, or first thing in the morning. Do what works for you.

Make reading at home enjoyable. 

Reading is meant to be a fun enjoyable time with your child.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask me or your child’s teacher.

Bernadette Parnis 

SPORT NEWS - Michael Jennings

SSV Coburg District Sport

The Year 5/6 students participated in Round 4 of interschool sport on Friday 8 March. The students played games of softball, bat tennis and basketball against Merri-Bek Primary School. Congratulations to all our teams on their performances. Once again they displayed wonderful sporting behaviour and team effort.

Results 

Softball Boys

St Fidelis 22 runs defeated Merri-Bek 13 runs 

Softball Girls

St Fidelis 17 defeated Merri-bek 10 runs

Bat Tennis Boys

St Fidelis 22 games was defeated by Merri-Bek 38 games 

Bat Tennis Girls

St Fidelis 29 games defeated Merri-Bek 24 games

Basketball Boys

St Fidelis 29 points defeated Merri-Bek  26 points 

Basketball Girls 

St Fidelis 28 points defeated Merri-Bek 12 points

Round 5 Postponement

Due to 14 x Year 5 & 6 students attending the St Patrick’s Day Leadership Mass and the Arts Exhibition to celebrate Catholic Education Week, the matches against St Paul’s PS have been postponed until Term 3.

VISUAL ART - Joe Frazzetto

‘We are truly little Picassos!’ 

Last week at assembly, I announced that hundreds of students from Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne are exhibiting their artwork as part of the annual Creative Arts Exhibition.

This year, the theme for Catholic Education Week is ‘ln the light of Christ’ and I encouraged our students from 2023 Foundation to Year 6 to explore, design, create and submit artworks fitting with this theme. Archbishop Peter Comensoli hopes to see a larger selection of religious artworks in the 2024 show and I can say with great pride our students produced wonderful and beautiful art pieces and religious artworks expressing their understanding of ‘ln the light of Christ’. Each school could only submit five pieces of art. 

Usually the curators select one or two pieces of art from each Catholic School. Once again, the curators were so impressed with our students’ art pieces. They selected four out of the five artworks to be exhibited at the 2024 Catholic Education Week Creative Arts Exhibition.

Last Friday, I received unbelievable news that three out of the four entries have won an award which we are receiving on Sunday 17 March 2024 at the Catholic Leadership Centre in East Melbourne. 

St Fidelis Catholic Primary School taken the following awards… 

Photograph Media Award- 

The Hands of Creation 2023 Year 5/6

The following students need to be congratulated…

Day 1. Samara Di Bartolo

Day 2. Grace Quarrell

Day 3. Violet Arounsavat

Day 4. James Kowalyk

Day 5. Savannah Alves 

Day 6. Christian Calabro

Day 7. Olivia Scarnozzino

Encouragement Award by Zart Art - 3D Picasso - 2023 Year 3/4 Collaboration

All the 2023 Year 3/4 students need to be congratulated!

Highly Commended Australian Catholic University (ACU) 

Curator Award- Frida Kahlo's Inspiration 2023 Year 3/4

Artist 1- Samuel Louca

Artist 2- Makayla Mirabelle

Artist 3- Clara Perri

Artist 4- Ava Soares

‘We are truly little Picassos!’ This is a great achievement!

You are still welcome to visit the 2024 Catholic Education Week Creative Arts Exhibition. If your child’s work has been selected and their work has been exhibited at the Exhibition, this is an amazing achievement by your child. 

If you have the opportunity to visit the exhibition, please take a photo with your child and art piece and email me joef@sfmoreland.catholic.edu.au so I can share it with the St Fidelis' Community. This is a proud moment for your child, yourselves and the St Fidelis' community.

Below are details, dates and how to book to visit the 2024 Catholic Education Week Creative Arts Exhibition.

Art Exhibition Dates

Catholic Education Week Creative Arts Exhibition will be in

Celtic Hall, 

Catholic Leadership Centre, 

576 Victoria Parade, East Melbourne 3002

The exhibition will be open for public viewing on the following days and times:

Tue 12 March: 9am - 4pm

Wed 13 March: 9am - 7pm

Thu 14 March: 9am - 4pm

Fri 15 March: 12pm - 7pm

Sat 16 March: 11am- 4pm

Family groups welcome by booking via TryBooking. https://www.trybooking.com/1175290

Joe Frazzetto

Year 5/6 Visual Arts Specialist