Learning & Teaching 

NAPLAN

Dear Parents/Guardians,

A reminder that NAPLAN online begins on May 13th. 

All students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in Australia will complete the NAPLAN tests this March. The NAPLAN test the student's skills in reading, writing and maths. The students will comple four assessments: Writing. Reading, Conventions of language and Numeracy.

The Year 3 and 5 teachers will continue to prepare students for NAPLAN tests and sit a practice test on the NAPLAN platform to ensure they are familiar with how to complete the test. 

Please talk to your teacher or Vira Pirrotta if you have questions about your child doing the test.

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

LITERACY - Bernadette Parnis

Reading at Home - Part 2

Make a regular time for reading every day. This time should be free of interruptions.

Before reading, discuss… 

This talk is all about the meaning of the story!

Before reading and during reading, ask your child to stop and make a prediction. For example, what a character may do, how a character might react, how a situation will turn out.

After talking about the book you can…

• read the book to your child.

Or

Read the book

• together page by page aloud,
• take turns,
• leave out key words or repetitive words/phrases for your child to read.

Or

Your child can read the book to you!

When your child makes a mistake and it makes sense, let your child continue.

For example, your child may read “Tom kicked the football over the fence” instead of "Tom kicked the ball over the fence.”

This error makes sense! You don’t always have to correct!

When your child makes a mistake and it does not make sense... 

let your child read to the end of the sentence. Do not interrupt your child mid-sentence! They may correct the error by themselves. 

If not…          WAIT                 

Ask your child, “Does that make sense?”  Encourage your child to re-read the sentence.          

If your child is unable to self-correct, tell them the word so that meaning and the flow of the story are not lost.

If your child gets stuck on a word                    

• ask your child to look at the picture;
• encourage your child to look at the initial (first) sound and then to re-read the sentence;
• encourage reading on to see what might make sense;
• encourage your child to think about the story and ask “Does that make sense?”

Reading is about meaning. When your child gets stuck on a word you can re-read the sentence to your child and they still do not know the word then it is alright to tell them the word.

After reading, discuss some of these questions with your child. 

This is a time to share your reflections on the book as well. 

• Did you enjoy the story? Why? Why not?
• Was the story like you thought it would be?
• Did anything in the story surprise you?
• Who was your favourite character? Why?
• Do you know anyone like this character?
• What was your favourite part of the story? Tell me why you liked this part.
• Was there any part of the story you did not like? Why?

Scholastic Book club

Issue 2 is out now and orders due this Friday March 8.

NUMERACY - Colleen Monaghan

Congratulations to Eponine  3/4BP, for her Maths Award this week. She has worked very hard and persisted in class with her place value lessons. Well Done.

I am adding a great link that parents in the 3-6 years may find helpful. This link has short clips showing how to help your child read, write large numbers and then also how to round numbers,  rename numbers and look for patterns with the  counting aspect associated with place value.

I have shown them to the teachers and have encouraged them to show the kids, discuss them and then practise some of the examples shown on the clip.

All levels across the school are teaching Place Value and counting this term, so this may be useful for helping your child with their maths this term.

The big tip I give parents is “Little often!“   We want to help them gain confidence with their maths and so following up and consolidating the learning happening at school is one way to do this.

Have a great week,

Colleen Monaghan 

Maths Leader 

SPORT & PE - Michael Jennings

SSV Coburg District Sport

The Year 5/6 students participated in Round 3 of interschool sport on Friday 1 March. The students played games of softball, bat tennis and basketball against Newlands Primary School. Congratulations to all our teams on their performances. They displayed wonderful sporting behaviour and team effort.

Results 

Softball Boys

St Fidelis 9 runs defeated Newlands 3 runs 

Softball Girls

St Fidelis defeated Newlands on a forfeit

Bat Tennis Boys

St Fidelis  39 games defeated Newlands 8 games 

Bat Tennis Girls

St Fidelis 42 games defeated Newlands 0 games

Basketball Boys

Newlands  51 points defeated St Fidelis 19 points 

Basketball Girls 

St Fidelis  64 points defeated Newlands 17 points

SSV Coburg District Swimming Trials

The Coburg District conducted its annual swimming trials for 14 schools in our local area on Tuesday 27 February at Elite Swimming Pool in Brunswick. 

Students were able to swim freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle & medley relays in 10, 11 and 12 year age groups.

Congratulations to the following St Fidelis students who represented our school at this event: Xena Tsangaris, Hazel Munafo, Violet Arounsavat, Maddie Currie, Clara Perri & Darius Mazzarella

Wheelchair Talk Incursion

The Year 3/4 classes attended a ‘Wheelchair Talk’ incursion on Friday 1 March in the hall.

This was an excellent incursion for our Year 3/4 students to engage in an interactive program that promotes diversity, acceptance, and disability, placing a primary focus on inclusion.The incursion was presented by Peter, who is wheelchair bound.  He was infected with the polio virus, which led to irreversible paralysis. 

He is actively involved in sport and recreation, and his WheelTalk combined his unique story of living with a disability and the opportunity for the students to play Wheelchair Basketball.

Photos in Year 3/4 News.

VISUAL ART - Joe Frazzetto

Great News!

Hundreds of students from Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne are exhibiting their artwork as part of the annual Creative Arts Exhibition. The exhibition, part of Catholic Education Week is a chance for young artists to share their creativity with the world. The Creative Arts Exhibition 2024 includes a live gallery held at the Catholic Leadership Centre in East Melbourne, and a digital gallery where schools, students, families and the Catholic community can join in celebration and witness the incredible talents of our young artists. 

This year, the theme for Catholic Education Week is ‘ln the light of Christ’ and I encouraged our students from 2023, 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 that they selected four out of the five artworks to be exhibited at the 2024 Catholic Education Week Creative Arts Exhibition!

You are 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 email to joef@sfmoreland.catholic.edu.au I will like to share it with the St Fidelis Community. This is 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

School Groups and family groups welcome.

Bookings via TryBooking. https://www.trybooking.com/1175290

Below are the amazing Artworks from our St Fidelis' students to be exhibited at the Catholic Education Week Art Expo. The following students need to be congratulated for this achievement and it is a wonderful opportunity to share this news with the St Fidelis community.

• The Hands of Creation 2023 Year 5/6 

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

• Frida Kahlo's Inspiration 2023 Year 3/4

Artist 1- Samuel Louca

Artist 2- Makayla Mirabelle

Artist 3- Clara Perri

Artist 4- Ava Soares

• 3D Picasso 

2023 Year 3/4 Collaboration

• The School Sleepover- Film 2023 Year 5/6

Produced & Filmed by …

Hunter Fitzgerald

Isabella Joson

Daniel Gaffney

Mia Nightingale

Fernando Hazouri

Joe Frazzetto

Year 5/6 Visual Arts Specialist

(Click on the link below to see our students' artworks that have been selected to be exhibited at the expo.)