Learning & Teaching

Mathematics

Intervention and Extension

As our term 2 nears an end we can look back on a most wonderful term of all things Mathematics. Across our junior, middle and senior classes Emma Barker, Steph Briggs and Petrina O’Grady have supported the development of student growth in areas of intervention and extension. Student enthusiasm, even as the term finishes up, is still high, with students wanting to learn more, complete extra tasks and lead their own learning. Take a look at Khloe from Grade 2 as a shining example of student motivation, wanting to showcase her own understanding of doubles! The middle students absolutely loved working with protractors this week, exploring acute, obtuse, straight and reflex angles.

Learning Investigations

Young Designers and Creative Thinkers in Action 

Our Middle and Senior students have worked for a number of weeks to innovate on familiar board games in order to create their own. Students were inspired by the classics, new technology and arcade games. Students wrote their rules to the game, designed and created their board game and came together with parents and peers to test them out, provide feedback to one another and critique their own creations! 

Explicit Instruction

By 2030, Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) aims to become ‘the benchmark for excellence in teaching and learning, through a coherently integrated, academically competitive and distinctively Catholic educational offering’ (MACS 2030: Forming Lives to Enrich the World). At St Brigid’s we have been on this journey with MACS since the start of this year. We have invested in teacher professional development across P-6 in Mathematics. Teachers have been involved with the “Teaching for Impact in Mathematic series” with great success. Explicit Instruction in Mathematics has been the driving force in all our lessons in the classroom, in intervention and extension. Daily reviews have been a key principle of instruction strategy that teachers have focused on to ensure children are retrieving their learning. In Literacy teachers across Prep-Two the Initial Lit programme has been met with great success. Student data is tracked and analyzed periodically, and from there, teachers post to Seesaw work samples. Families are encouraged to access Seesaw to view student learning and progress. Students and teachers welcome parent comments on these posts. 

Literacy

New Literacy Pilot Program

Starting in Term 3, a comprehensive educational literacy program will be introduced in Years 3-6. This is a pilot program being implemented by Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) in partnership with Ochre Education. It will focus on explicitly teaching grammar, reading fluency, text-level reading, vocabulary, spelling, handwriting, typing, and both sentence and text-level writing skills. We will have exclusive access to a rigorous set of teaching and learning materials designed to support this initiative. A key feature of the program includes a fully resourced novel study guide, offering a structured and engaging approach to literature study. During this time, there will be a strong expectation that students commit to reading the set class novel as a part of their weekly homework. 

Phonics and Phonemic awareness in schools

Phonics and phonemic awareness are essential building blocks for your child's reading and writing skills. Together, they help children understand how letters and sounds form words, making it easier for them to read and spell. Practicing these skills can boost your child's confidence, improve their reading fluency, and foster a lifelong love of reading. Our InitiaLit Literacy program is explicitly targeting these skills.

The following article explains the importance of these skills and some ideas for families to do at home.

https://fivefromfive.com.au/parent-resources/phonological-and-phonemic-awareness/  

Seniors

Senior students recently participated in a unique exercise of mutual appreciation. Drawing names from a hat, each student was tasked with reflecting on their peer's virtues akin to fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit. This thoughtful exchange allowed them to delve into qualities like kindness, patience, and wisdom, illustrating how these virtues manifest in daily life. Beyond its immediate impact, this exercise fostered deep bonds and left an enduring impression, ensuring cherished memories for years to come.

The Resilience Project

Snapshot 4: Mindfulness

Working on mindfulness gives us opportunities to develop our ability to pay attention to the present moment and our thoughts. Practising mindfulness daily can help us stay focused on set tasks and reduce stress and anxiety.

Whole Family Activity: Mindful Walk

• As a family, go on a walk outside in nature. This might be around your local walking track, at your local park, or just around your streets.
• While walking, tune into your senses and observe what you can see, hear, and feel. Or you might choose to focus on one of the senses. Eg: Hear: what are all the noises you can hear on your walk?
• On your way home or when you return home, share what each person saw, heard, or felt.

Family Habit Builder:

Each night at dinner, ask everyone to take one mouthful of food more mindfully than the rest and think about the flavours they can taste and how it makes them feel. (They can also thank the chef!).

Physical Education

Netball

Positions on this year's Interschool Netball teams were hotly contested with St Brigids entering three teams in the Macedon Ranges District competition day on the 14th of June.  Each of our teams performed well on the day, the boys' team had a nail-biting draw with Braemar the overall winners of the boys' draw, the Girls B team improved throughout the day with every match, with their last match being a comprehensive win over Macedon Primary School.  The Girls A performed exceptionally well, finishing 2nd overall after losing by 2 goals to Holy Cross in the Grand final. A big thank you to Lauren O'Grady for coaching the Girls A  team and to the other parents who helped score and cheer our teams on throughout the day.

Cross Country

A big congratulations to Piper Van de Velde who has progressed to the State Cross Country Championships after she placed 6th at the recent Western Metropolitan Regional race.  What an amazing effort!