Around The Rooms

Senior Team 

The senior team have enjoyed a busy fortnight as we eagerly count down the days to our camp at Campaspe Downs. Packing lists have been sent home and staff and students are both very excited to depart next Wednesday morning. 

 The three of us were pleased to get to catch up with so many of our families at parent teacher interviews this week and to share some of the successes your children are experiencing at school. Across the year we will continue to prioritise goal setting with all students and encourage them to continue to challenge themselves to achieve their best. 

We are beginning to acknowledge reading night achievements at assembly each week and it has been wonderful to see so many students keeping up the great start to the year with high quality entries in their daily reading diary. We are keen to continue to monitor student reading habits and are encouraging children to broaden their choices by selecting a variety of reading materials across the year. We often get asked by families how they can be supporting their child's reading skills at home and encouraging students to read different authors, genres and materials is a very effective way to do this.  The Forge Bookbarn in Bacchus Marsh is open on Saturdays and has a great selection of books starting from just 50c if you are looking to obtain some new choices. 

Thanks,

Kellie Leehane, Taylor Muir and Liam Petersen

Middle Years

Middle Years Team have been very busy over these first few weeks of the year; with new classmates getting to grips with how learning looks at this level, as well as our team beginning their swimming sessions.  

We have been focused on preparing our Grade 3s to sit NAPLAN in Weeks 7 & 8; making sure they are comfortable and familiar with the kinds of questions and the expectations they will encounter through this process. For Grade 3s, it is the first time they will sit the NAPLAN tests while for Grade 4s it is a reminder for what they need to do again in Grade 5. 

In Writing, our Big Write/Cold Write processes mirror the NAPLAN writing test; with use of a picture prompt and similar timings for planning, writing and editing. The goal setting work, that our students do, encourages them to analyse/critique their work along similar criteria to which the writing task is marked. Our explicit instruction in punctuation conventions and sentence construction aids them in their writing task also, and especially in the Language Conventions test.  NAPLAN Writing – Wednesday, 13th March & Language Conventions – Monday, 18th March.

In Reading, we have been exposing students to a range of text types, through fluency activities and Reader's Notebook tasks, aiming to familiarise them with several genres' structure and language features.  NAPLAN Reading – Friday, 15th March.                   

In Maths, we have briefly revisited all domains (Number & Algebra, Measurement & Geometry, and Statistics & Probability) activating prior learning, through the revision component of our sessions, and we have taught efficient/accurate problem solving and computation strategies (for all 4 processes). NAPLAN Numeracy - Wednesday, 19th March.

We know our students will do themselves, and us, proud throughout this process but offer reassurance to families that teachers are here to support you and our students, as much as we can. Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

Junior Team

It has been wonderful to see the enthusiasm and independence of our littlest learners as the term progresses. We are officially past the halfway point and next week we welcome our Prep student’s full time. A reminder for our Prep families that Term 1 can be a very emotional term for the Preps, it is a huge change that they are experiencing. New faces, surroundings, routines, and expectations. It can all become a bit overwhelming and there may come a point, usually after their first full five-day week in March, where they decide that they no longer like going to school. The novelty of school has worn off, and they are just a bit done. Please know that this is completely normal and to be expected. Just be ready for tired and emotional little people next Friday afternoon.

Our 1/2s have had their second session out in the garden and are having a wonderful time getting their hands dirty. The weather has been kind to us so far so we are making the most of our time out in the garden. As the year progresses and as the weather changes, children will be encouraged to bring along gumboots and a rain coat as we will still head outside if we can. We are in need of some volunteers for each class though, so if you are available on a Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon from 2.15pm – 3.15pm and have a Working With Children Check, we would love to have your help. If you think you could help out, please get in touch with your child’s teacher. 

Specialist Classes

Physical Education

We have continued to focus on athletics in preparation for our School Sports on Friday 22nd March. Juniors have been practising sack races, bean bag toss, vortex throw, sprints, hurdles and relays. Students have been adjusting really well to these new events and having great fun at the same time. Middle and Seniors have been practising discus, shot put, long jump, sprints and hurdles. Skills are developing and the encouragement shown to each other has been fantastic to see! If you can assist on Sports Day, even for a brief time, please see your child’s teacher or myself.

Marcus Murrell 

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden

We are very excited to announce that this year in the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program, we will be conducting garden classes for our Grades 1 & 2 and Kitchen classes for our Grades 3 & 4.

Our kitchen has had a small facelift, with new appliances and stainless steel benches and our garden area is having new garden beds and a seating / deck area added. This will be a big help to conducting our lessons.

To date, the Grades 1 & 2 have had a garden tour, learnt about the tools they will be using and had some practice. They have also, very importantly, had lots of tasting of fresh produce straight from the garden. It was very heartening to see them embrace the concept of eating some cucumber, zucchini and string beans, all raw and super fresh. They have been extremely enthusiastic.

In our kitchen sessions, we have had revision of skills learnt by last year’s students and also introduced the equipment, utensils and knife skills to new students to the program. They too have had lots of taste testing of fresh raw produce and this week have begun their cooking sessions. Fetta & Zucchini slice is on the menu and it is very rewarding to see the children cooperating in a busy kitchen environment and then sit and share a small meal together.

Our program is all about pleasurable food education and teaching of life skills. The children learn why it is important to eat fresh fruit and vegetables and the aim is to show them how these can be delicious and easy to prepare.

We have had some interest from parents coming to volunteer and I think they are having fun watching their children embrace new learning in the garden or kitchen environment. We’d love to see more volunteers, it can even be grandparents, or interested neighbours. Please contact the office if interested in joining us. I look forward to meeting new members to our growing kitchen and garden crew.

Kind regards

Mary Giannakopoulos Kitchen Garden Specialist