Learning & Teaching

Writing at St. John’s

This week we have continued to explore the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ of our approach to teaching handwriting at St. John’s. We gathered together a variety of resources, such as the Progression of Handwriting & Handwriting standards from the Victorian Curriculum, Victoria Curriculum Assessment Authority writing samples, Occupational Therapy advice and other recent, evidenced based material. Over the last two afternoons, educators worked in groups to read, analyse and understand this information to begin to put together an informed proposal for teaching handwriting. We will continue to update families via the newsletter of our progress as we move forward into this space of trialling, monitoring and evaluating our impact in this area.

Example of children’s Writing

To commemorate ANZAC Day tomorrow (Thursday 25th April), Elijah S and Spencer H from the Five/Six Hub have written some poems.

Community Project 6 - Nourishing Our Land

Our second Community Project for 2024 is called, “Nourishing Our Land” and we are focusing on the concept of community and relationship. This project has a Science and Critical and Creative Thinking focus from the Victorian Curriculum.

As with any Community Project, we will immerse children in a First Encounter and use their conversations, insights and perspectives to design an engaging project pathway unique to each group of children. During the first couple of weeks of term, children have visited Williamstown Botanical Gardens, Maribyrnong River, Pipemakers Park and Footscray Community Arts Centre. While on these excursions, children undertook a Field Study Inquiry Process, which helped develop their scientific inquiry skills. During these experiences, educators are able to uncover what children already know about the concepts and begin devising a project pathway to meet curriculum.

Discovery and Community Project Parent Session

We are excited to invite you to an upcoming parent session specifically around our Discovery and Community Project learning approaches in Years 3-6.

If you are intending to come along to learn more, please reply through this link - https://forms.gle/rJzg7soYSxNfzxyd7 

Thank you. We are looking forward to seeing you there!

Kind regards,

St. John's Learning and Teaching Team

Project Compassion

Last term, the social justice leaders Audrey, Winson, Wren and Ruby led our school in our yearly fundraiser for Project Compassion.

We are excited to announce that we raised $548.70. Thank you to everyone who donated! The money will go towards addressing the challenges of poverty today, and drive lasting change for a better tomorrow.