Year 5/6 Term 4 Overview
Welcome back to Term 4!
We hope your families enjoyed a restful break and felt renewed by the warmer weather and Melbourne coming back to life after the Winter.
As we step into our final term for the year, we are full of anticipation and excitement. Term 4 is always packed with opportunities for growth and achievement, but there is also a bittersweet element. We begin to help our grade 6’s collate their memories of their time at primary school in preparation to say goodbye as they get ready to take their next steps into secondary school. We also help our grade 5’s step into the big shoes left behind and prepare for their 2027 leadership roles. Term 4 definitely is a term of growth and change for everyone.
5/6A - Allison Bayliss, Tracey Farrar (Thursday) and Kim Wilson (LSO)
5/6B - Marisa Box, (Tues-Fri) Tracey Farrar (Monday), Lane Chan (LSO)
Religious Education
This term in Religious Education, Year 5/6 students will engage in learning sequences exploring foundational Catholic beliefs about God, creation, and the Church through three key areas: Maker of Heaven and Earth, One Lord Jesus Christ, and The Holy Spirit and the Church.
Students will begin by examining the concepts of belief, faith, and the structure of the Nicene Creed. They will explore different perspectives on creation—reflecting on both scientific understanding (the Big Bang) and the biblical creation account in Genesis to consider how faith and science offer complementary ways of understanding our world. Additionally, students will investigate scriptural and traditional imagery of God, reflecting on parental metaphors that express God's complete care, tenderness, and guiding strength.
As part of our approach to our annual Christmas Market (Mini Missions), students will focus on the Catholic Social Teachings. They will put their faith into action by combining these core principles—such as dignity, solidarity, and care for the poor and vulnerable—with their newly acquired business and economic knowledge to plan, create, and run stalls that support those in need. Throughout the unit, students will be invited to appreciate creation as a gift of God's love and demonstrate kindness and stewardship within our school and broader community.
STEM
This term in STEM, students will explore Chemical Science through our unit, Communicating Matters. Throughout the unit, students will investigate the states of matter—solids, liquids, and gases—and learn how the microscopic arrangement and movement of particles determine their observable properties.
Through practical, hands-on investigations, students will examine how different liquids behave and test "tricky" solids, such as playdough, sponges, and pourable powders. They will also plan and conduct fair tests to observe how gas volume and pressure change with temperature. To deepen their understanding, students will participate in physical role-play to model particle behaviour in different states of matter.
To conclude the unit, students will take on the role of science communicators. They will draw on their learning to design and create clear, informative products—such as digital presentations, infographics, or interactive models—to explain particle theory to an audience.
Economics and Business
This term in Inquiry, Year 5/6 students will explore the world of Economics and Business, centred around our Big Question: How do we balance our needs and wants when we make financial decisions in a world where resources are becoming scarce?
Students will investigate the core concept of economic scarcity, learning how limited resources force individuals, families, and businesses to make informed choices. Through practical activities, students will distinguish between needs and wants, compare product value using unit pricing, and learn how to track household expenses. They will also explore economic resources (natural, human, and capital), discover how businesses operate to satisfy community needs, and examine the purpose of taxation and public services.
To bring these concepts to life, students will manage their own digital bank accounts through the interactive Banqer Primary platform—earning income through classroom jobs, paying weekly expenses like desk rent, saving, and learning secure online banking habits. They will also take inspiration from the ABC program, Teenage Boss, and learn about budgeting for their household.
Towards the end of the term, students will apply their knowledge to a community resource inquiry and reflect on their personal financial decision-making. Their final project will lead them into our annual Christmas market (Mini Missions) where their products will help raise funds for St Vincents de Paul.
English
This term in English, Year 5/6 students will engage in an in-depth literature study centred around our class novel, Restart by Gordon Korman. Through the lens of this captivating story—which follows a middle-school boy navigating memory loss and the chance to redefine who he is—students will examine core themes of identity, redemption, personal growth, and the impact of our choices on others.
Throughout the unit, students will analyse how the author employs multiple first-person perspectives to build dynamic characters, convey internal conflict, and establish narrative voice. At the sentence level, students will refine their writing craftsmanship by experimenting with fronted adverbials, vivid verbs and adjectives, participle openers, compound-complex sentence structures, and precise dialogue punctuation.
Students will also explore poetry to deepen their expressive writing and vocabulary choices.
Towards the end of the term, students will apply these refined writing skills to a personal response unit tailored to their year level: Grade 6 students will write memorable reflections and personal pieces to publish in their Graduation Memory Books, while Grade 5 students will craft and present persuasive leadership applications and speeches in preparation for their final year of primary school.
Finally, we will continue our weekly spelling focuses this term, examining different types of plurals, suffix patterns, contractions, singular and plural possession.
Mathematics
This term in Mathematics, students will begin by investigating length, mass, capacity and time and converting between units of measurement
This will be followed by Data, including representing data using various types of graphs. Following on from Term 3, we will again learn about fractions, decimals and percentages. This will include converting, ordering and calculating using multiplication and division.
Our final topic this term will be Operations. Students explore how visual patterns grow, discovering the underlying rules behind them. Using digital tools, they design algorithms to extend complex number sequences.
Students will continue to make use of our program IXL for both in class activities as well as assigned homework tasks. We encourage students to regularly use IXL both at school and home to work through their recommendations to continually improve their knowledge of maths topics. This will be used in addition to Essential Assessment which provides targeted maths learning opportunities.
Social Emotional Learning
As we enter our final term of the year, our Year 5/6 students will continue to strengthen their social and emotional skills, with a focus on resilience, positive relationships, self-awareness and preparing for change. Through our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) framework, students will continue to explore what it means to be safe, respectful and responsible, making positive choices that contribute to a supportive and connected school community.
Through The Resilience Project, we will continue to reinforce the importance of Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness (GEM), encouraging students to apply these practices in their everyday lives. We will also build on the strategies explored through the BRAVE program, helping students recognise and manage feelings of worry, approach challenges with confidence and develop healthy coping strategies. As our Year 6 students prepare for their exciting transition to secondary school and our Year 5 students look towards becoming school leaders, we will focus on embracing change, developing independence and recognising personal strengths.
To conclude The Resilience Project for the
year, students will participate in the Embrace Kids unit, which explores body image, self-acceptance and the importance of appreciating ourselves and others for who we are. Through age-appropriate discussions and activities, students will be encouraged to challenge unhelpful messages about appearance, celebrate diversity and recognise that their value extends far beyond how they look. This learning will support the development of positive self-esteem, confidence and a healthy sense of identity as students continue to grow and navigate the challenges of adolescence. We look forward to a wonderful final term filled with growth, connection, courage and opportunities for every student to shine!
Homework
This term, the Year 5/6 homework program will continue to follow our classroom focus on mastery and retrieval. In order to continue this support, we will once again use a weekly structure, focusing on spelling and mathematical skill development.
Our primary focus continues to be on literacy and numeracy:
Numeracy (IXL Maths): Students will engage with the IXL platform to target specific number skills. This move allows for immediate feedback and personalised practice, helping students build the fluency and confidence necessary for more complex problem-solving.
Numeracy (Times Tables Practice): Knowledge of the times tables is essential to all areas of mathematics. Students have been building this knowledge since their junior years and should continue rehearsing their tables to solidify their instant recall of these facts. Focusing on a different table each week and practising it each day (this can be a verbal recall or written in homework books) will help consolidate this knowledge.
Literacy (plurals, suffix patterns, contractions): Building on our classroom inquiry into the history and structure of language, students will receive weekly spelling lists.
Literacy (Daily Reading): We expect students to engage in independent reading for approximately 15–20 minutes each day to foster a love of literature and improve comprehension.
By continuing our weekly frequency, we aim to help students develop consistent study habits in preparation for secondary school and ensure that home learning directly supports the concepts being introduced in the classroom.
Weekly Specialist Timetable
5/6 A
Wednesday - Chinese, Performing Arts
Thursday - Visual Arts
Friday - P.E.
5/6 B
Wednesday - Performing Arts, Chinese
Thursday - P.E.
Friday - Visual Arts
Please note in your calendars:
First Day of Term 3 - Monday 5 Oct
Division Athletics - Tues 13 Oct
Art Show - Thurs 22 Oct
Athletics Regionals- Thurs 22 Oct
Whitehorse walk to school - 19-30 Oct
Surf lifesaving- swimming program - Thurs 29 Oct
TIL day - Mon 2 Nov
Melbourne Cup Day - 3 Nov
5/6 STEM incursion - Tues 10 Nov
School Closure Day - Fri 20 Nov
St John’s Fete - Sat 21 Nov
Kids Disco - Fri 27 Nov
Social Justice Christmas market - Tues 8 Dec
Year 6 Funfields Day - Wed 9 Dec
Christmas Carols - Thurs 10 Dec
2027 Transition- Meet new teachers - Mon 14 Dec
Halliday Park BBQ- Mon 14 Dec
Whole school end of year Mass- Mon 14 Dec
Year 6 Graduation- Mon 14 Dec
Last day of the school year - Tues 15 Dec
All other school dates will be on the school online calendar and
in fortnightly newsletters
Communication
Effective communication between family and school is an important factor in a student’s learning. Please make contact with us if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
We will endeavour to respond to emails within 24 hours, during weekdays.
abayliss@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au