Magnify
Term 1 Week 2
New to Magnify in 2026
All Sandhurst schools will introduce InitalWrite to help support student growth with their writing skills. Students in Foundation and Year 1 will include InitialWrite into the Literacy block. It is a scripted program to support students with learning how to write. Foundation students begin with oral sentence development and moves towards writing sentences. Year 1 students have a daily sentence to write that focusses on what they have been learning about for example combining simple sentences into complex sentences. Time is then allocated into the Writing time of the literacy block to complete lessons with slides and student tasks. Year 2s will implement this program next year.
This year our Foundation students will begin the year with a language screener. The OxEd Language Screener has 4 parts to administer one to one. Mrs Kym Cox and Miss Georgia Gattuso will administer this screener on the Wednesdays when Preps come in for testing in the coming weeks. The teachers will then receive a report for each student to show areas to focus on. This will be shared with parents during the term. Those children who need more support can access intervention called NELI, which stands for Nuffield Early Language Intervention. The NELI programme provides our school with a way of identifying early language difficulties and is proven to improve children's language skills and behaviour in schools.
New to Years 3/4 and Years 5/6 is Ochre Science. There is a scope and sequence of topics to be covered to ensure our students access a good foundation of science knowledge.
New to Year 3/4s is SpellEx. This is a whole class program which provides explicit instruction in spelling concepts, terminology, rules and conventions. This will also be included in the Literacy program alongside Ochre English
With the return of students into new learning spaces, teachers have reintroduced the entry and exit routines for their classes. It has been wonderful to see children line up and enter their rooms in a calm, safe manner.
For teachers to gain student attention, they use a cue to start the instructions which sounds like “5, 4, 3, 2 and…” with the students responding with “One”.
When teachers are checking for understanding by using questions, classrooms use icepole sticks with all students names recorded on them. The teacher poses a question and then calls on a student via the stick to respond with an answer. This encourages all students to be ready with an answer if called upon. This procedure ensures 100% engagement during the lesson. Calling on non-volunteers keeps everyone alert and engaged, as no one knows when their turn might come
In the coming weeks we will share with families the wonderful learning that has been happening around our school through “Magnify Around the Classrooms” in our newsletter.
Magnify Around the Classrooms
#magnifysandhurst
Here’s the latest update from the Junior Area regarding all things Magnify. Final testing has been completed and units of work finished off.
Foundation
The Preps have been introduced to the concept of a word. What is a word? They have been experimenting with writing on their mini-whiteboards to determine if their ‘writing’ is a word, a letter or just a string of letters. The children have been completing sentence stems such as “I see a ....” and choosing a word to write in the blank. They have also been matching words to pictures. An important part of their learning has been linking speech to print. Their story book is called “How to Catch a Star.” They are exploring story beginnings and identifying characters in the story. They will make some personal connections to the main character in the story.
Gr 1
Grade Ones have begun the year by revising all their sounds. They will move onto CCVC, CVCC and CCVCC words towards the end of the week. They are listening to the story, “Fang Fang’s Chinese New Year” and discussing this text in detail by answering questions about the text and relating the text to their own experiences. They have begun their Magnify MultiLit Writing Lessons. Each day begins with a Daily Sentence with a specific focus each day. Grade ones have also begun their MulitiLit Writing lessons this week.
Gr 2
Grade Twos have begun by revising some common digraphs such as ai/ay; ee/ea and oa/ow. They are learning the routines and expectations of our spelling lessons and are becoming familiar with the pace of these sessions. Grade twos are studying the story book, “Willy the Wimp.” They have participated in some good discussion about the text and have been introduced to new vocabulary: bulging, scrawny and respect. Their reading sessions are focusing on comprehension of Imaginative Texts. Grade twos are learning how to enrich their sentences by expanding simple sentences and including an adjective or and adverb.
Foundation
In Mathematics, Grade Prep children have been learning about patterns. They have been identifying, completing and creating patterns. The children are making their own two-part pattern using different coloured pom-poms.
Gr 1
Grade ones are learning about Data. They are learning that data can be collected and represented in different ways. So far, they have learnt about tally marks and how to use them and they’ve identified categories for gathering data from a given question (eg, What colour eyes do children in Gr One have? - brown, blue, grey, hazel, green). They will also learn how to interpret data (tally marks) by identifying the most and least popular responses and answer “How many questions?”
Gr 2
Gr twos have begun revising what they know about number and place value. They have looked at the Base-10 system for representing numbers and are making and recording numbers using Base-10 blocks. They are working with 2 and 3-digit numbers to find the largest and smallest number, they’re ordering numbers, comparing numbers and writing numbers.
Gr 3 and 4
In English, students will be reading Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. This engaging novel tells the story of a young boy named Michael who is washed up on a remote Pacific island after falling from his parents’ yacht. With the help of Kensuke, a Japanese former soldier who has lived on the island since World War II, Michael learns how to survive and forms a strong friendship. While studying the novel, students will develop their skills in writing both narrative and persuasive texts.
In Ochre Maths, students will be learning to read, order, and represent numbers beyond 10,000. They will also explore odd and even numbers and learn how to identify and use their properties.
The first topic in Ochre Science is Heat. Students will investigate different sources of heat energy and learn how heat is transferred through materials, helping them understand how heat affects everyday life.
In Humanities, the focus will be on Contributions to Community. Students will explore what a community is, the roles people play within communities, and how communities may change in the future.
Gr 5 and 6
In Maths, the Grade 5’s and Grade 6’ are starting the year with our first OCHRE maths unit about Data Representation. During this unit, the students will be gathering data, creating graphs and interpreting data.
In English, the Grade 5 students will be beginning their first OCHRE unit of the year that centres around the novel ‘War Horse’ by Michael Morpurgo. This story is told from the perspective of Joey, a farm horse sold to the British Army during World War 1.
During this unit, students will also be focusing on narrative writing.
Our Grade 6 students will begin the year with their first OCHRE unit that centres around the novel ‘Ghost in my Suitcase’ by Gabrielle Wang. This story is about a 12 year old girl, Celeste, who travels to China to spread her late Mother’s ashes, and discovers that her grandmother is a traditional ghost hunter.
During this unit, students will also be focusing on persuasive writing.
During spelling, both year levels will begin the year by reviewing short and long vowel sounds.
The Grade 5’s and Grade 6’s are excited to get started with OCHRE Science this year. Our first topics for the year are ‘Animal Survival’ (Grade 5) and ‘Reversible & Irreversible Changes’ (Grade 6).