Specialists Programs
Specialist Programs Term 1
Visual Arts Term 1 Overview
Prep
Students will be introduced to the Visual Arts space, where they will learn practises to help keep them safe and able to learn in a new environment. They will be taught that there is an emphasis on positive self talk, encouraging language and celebration of self and others. They will begin with identity, what they love drawing, self portraits and thinking about how art makes them feel. Students will learn how to paint. They will be shown how to take care of brushes and other equipment that they use. There will be a focus on understanding colours and how to mix them to make new colours. Students will learn the basics of colour theory and look at primary and secondary colours. They will use this knowledge to create a variety of art pieces.
Year 1/2
Students will explore the question ‘What is Visual Arts?’, they will reflect on the activities they do, the skills they learn and the way it makes them feel. They will think about their interests and strengths and create goals in areas they would like to further develop. In the visual arts room they will learn there is an emphasis on positive self talk, encouraging language and celebration of self and others. They will be invited to show their individuality and self expression through art. Students will be shown how to be responsible with painting and taking care of the equipment and resources. They will be introduced to colour theory and enjoy mixing colours to create their own colour wheel. They will show an understanding of both primary and secondary colours.
Year 3/4
Students will explore the question ‘What is Visual Arts?’, taking into consideration the skills they learn, mediums they use and the way it makes them feel. Emphasis will be given on using positive self talk, encouraging language and celebration of self and others during lessons. Students will acknowledge their strengths and talents in visual arts and create goals for areas they would like to improve. Students will learn how to correctly use paint and brushes and take responsibility for the proper care of cleaning their space and equipment. Students will gain a greater understanding of colour theory and the colour wheel. They will have an opportunity to play with colours and explore how primary colours can be used to create the other colours. Students will use their understanding of primary, secondary and tertiary colours to create work that also showcases their understanding and ability to show creativity.
Year 5/6
Students will explore the question ‘What is Visual Arts?’, taking into consideration the skills they learn, mediums they use and the way it makes them feel. Emphasis will be given on using positive self talk, encouraging language and celebration of self and others during lessons. Students will acknowledge their strengths and talents in visual arts and create goals for areas they would like to improve. Students will learn how to correctly use paint and brushes and take responsibility for the proper care of cleaning their space and equipment. They will learn different techniques for mixing colours and how to use care and precision while painting. Students will gain a greater understanding of colour theory and the colour wheel. Students will use their understanding of primary, secondary and tertiary colours to create work that also showcases their understanding and ability to show creativity.
Deirdre Cosgrave - Visual Arts Teacher
dcosgrave@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au
Performing Arts Term 1 Overview, 2025
Welcome back to another fun filled year in Performing Arts! As the term begins, we will create expectations together so that the Performing Arts space is one where we all feel safe, respected and valued.
We are so excited for our upcoming school concert, Cinderella and Rockerfella, which the students will be performing at ‘The Round’ on Wednesday, 2nd July, 2025. Please save the date for one of the most loved events in our school calendar!
Choir will also begin again, rehearsals are every Friday at lunch time. We are looking for lots of new members to join our crew, all students from Years 3-6 are welcome. Some events where our Choir sings are: Beginning of Year Mass, ANZAC Day Dawn Service, School Production and School Fete. More information regarding these events and our school production will be provided as the year progresses.
If you have any questions or queries throughout the year, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Amanda Hill ahill@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au
Prep
This term, Prep students will be learning to work together and grow in confidence to participate and have a go. We will explore using our imaginations, bodies and movement to roleplay different living and non-living things. Students will learn what it is to be part of an audience and begin to create simple performances independently and collaboratively. By participating in games, listening to stories and singing songs, students will recognise that emotions can be shown through movement, facial expressions and body language. They will practise using their own bodies and facial expressions to portray different feelings in real life scenarios and imaginary characters. Students will begin to explore safe dance practises as they rehearse their class song in preparation for our school production in Term 2.
Year 1/2
Students will work together to create a supportive environment where they feel comfortable and willing to take part in activities and experiences. By participating in games, listening to stories and singing songs, students will recognise that emotions can be shown through movement, facial expressions and body language. They will be exposed to the basic elements of drama: movement, mime and facial expression as they practise identifying and portraying various emotions in real life scenarios and imaginary characters. Students will listen to different types of music and discuss how music can be used to make us feel and move in a particular way. They will use movement to portray ideas as they practise dance sequences as part of their class song performance in our school production.
Year 3/4
This term, students will explore the importance of working collaboratively and identify key skills needed for members to successfully participate in group situations. They will explore pantomimes to compare how drama can vary depending on culture, times and style. Students will discuss the intended purpose of a story and how they relate with different characters. Students will use scripts to support them in experimenting with their voice and language to sustain a character role, focusing particularly on volume, pace, pitch, expression and tone. They will begin to rehearse their class song for the school production, using a combination of singing, dance and dramatic technique to express the ideas in their performance.
Year 5/6
This term is very exciting for the 5/6 students as many will take the opportunity to audition for main cast roles in our school Production, Cinderella and Rockerfella. In Performing Arts, all students will focus on developing character through voice and movement, performing monologues to reflect their interpretation and persona of a chosen role and create a feeling towards their character from the audience. Students will work collaboratively to rehearse and perform dialogue using scripts to support them in building a stage presence and creating atmosphere, dramatic action and mood. We will also begin to explore the elements of dance, movement and choreographic devices to create dance sequences that are expressive and communicate ideas to an audience.
Amanda Hill ahill@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au
Chinese - Term 1 Overview
Prep Overview:
In Term One, students will be exploring the basic concepts of Chinese by learning greetings and instructions in Chinese. They will learn frequently used words and phrases to use in everyday conversations, such as classroom instructions and greetings. The practice of structured and repeated sentences will enable the students to practice basic communication with their peers and adults. Moreover, students will be provided with opportunities to use Chinese knowledge and skills in real-life contexts such as greeting and responding in Chinese when marking class rolls, singing and dancing along to Chinese songs, and taking part in various games by using Chinese. This will greatly increase the students’ interests towards learning the language.
Year 1/2 Overview:
In Chinese this term, Year 1/2 students are discovering countries in the world. We are learning to say and write various country names in Chinese. We are also exploring cultural diversity in our school and how it affects communication. We are learning to use simple sentence structures to introduce our national identity. We will be engaged with the Chinese language primarily through speaking and listening. Students will be provided with various opportunities to practise using Chinese through action-related talk, and completing tasks while relying on teacher modelling, prompts and repetition.
Year 3/4 Overview:
In Chinese this term, Year 3/4 students are discovering countries in the world. We are learning to say and write various country names in Chinese. We are also exploring cultural diversity in our school and how it affects communication. We are learning to use appropriate pronunciation, tone, gesture and movement and some formulaic expressions. We will follow the basic subject–verb–object structure with occasional use of adjective predicates. By exploring cultural diversity, we are noticing how cultural and language differences may affect understanding and interactions between people.
Year 5/6 Overview:
In Term One, Year 5/6 students are discovering colours in Chinese. We are learning to use Pinyin to sound out new words and follow strokes to write Chinese characters. We are also exploring cultural meanings behind various colours and how colours can influence our emotions. We are learning to describe and give information about our colour preferences with some details. We are learning to access information from a range of print and digital resources and use the information to produce short informative and imaginative texts in Chinese pinyin and characters.
Elina Li
Physical Education
Prep
Term four will begin with OZ Tag, as students will become more confident in their catching, running, and spatial awareness. A 4 week tennis program will be provided to the students with the assistance of Tennis Australia and the Mitcham Tennis Club. Following this, the term will end teaching the students new games, where they will continue to develop their catching and overarm throwing skills, developing their understanding of following rules in games and working cooperatively with others when participating in physical activities. Term four will also include the 2 week swimming program.
Year 1/2
Our Grade 1/2 students will start the term learning OZ Tag, as students will become more confident in their catching, passing, and spatial awareness. A 4 week tennis program will be provided to the students with the assistance of Tennis Australia where the students will be learning from the expert coaches at Mitcham Tennis Club. Following this, the games will focus on students identifying the rules and how they make the activities fair, as well as working on their ability to work in groups to complete physical activities. Term four will also include the 2 week swimming program.
Year 3/4
The grade 3/4 students will begin the term playing OZ Tag, where students will use their catching, passing, and evasive skills to plan strategies for team success in modified games. A number of incursions allows for a number of expert coaching opportunities; with Hockey Australia, Downball Australia, and Mitcham Tennis Club all coming to the school to deliver programs for the 3/4 classes. The remainder of the term will focus on fairplay and inclusive actions within the games. Term four will also include the 2 week swimming program. We wish all the athletes still competing at the division athletics the best of luck!
Year 5/6
The grade 5/6 students begin the term playing OZ Tag, where students will use their catching, passing, and evasive skills to plan attacking and defensive strategies for team success in modified games. Hockey Australia, Downball Australia, and Mitcham Tennis Club are all coming to the school in term 4 to have their expert coaches deliver programs for the 5/6 classes. The remainder of the term will focus on fairplay and inclusive play. An opportunity arises for our cricketers with the district cricket tournament available for the students to showcase their talents. And the teachers will be defeating the grade 6 students in the annual “Teachers vs Students” netball match. We wish all the athletes still competing at the division athletics the best of luck!
Michael Van Rooy
mvanrooy@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au