Learning & Teaching 

LEARNING AND TEACHING NEWS- Vira Pirrotta

NAPLAN Results 2025

We are proud to share our 2025 NAPLAN results with our school community. 

In early May, our school completed the NAPLAN online adaptive assessments for Reading, Writing, Mathematics and Language Conventions (Spelling/Grammar). The Online assessments were tailored to allow a broader range of students' abilities to be assessed and measured.  

In the last few weeks, the state mean was made available to Victorian schools. The mean scale score is the average performance of our group of students on the assessment. It is calculated by adding all individual student scores and dividing by the total number of scores. It can also be referred to as an average.  

Below is a table that shows how our school's results compare to the state mean. 

Our students have once again demonstrated their hard work and commitment to learning, with strong achievements across all areas. In particular, we are delighted with the outstanding results from our Year 3 students, who have shown excellent growth and skills in literacy and numeracy. These results reflect the dedication of our teachers, the support of our families, and the determination of our students to achieve their personal best.

Book Week 2025 

Book Week Parade – Friday, 29th August

Book Week is here! This week, students will be enjoying a variety of activities celebrating reading and storytelling. On Tuesday morning, all students will take part in a special online session with children’s author and illustrator Michael Salmon.

We are also excited to invite families to our Book Week Parade on Friday, 29th August at 9:00 am in our school hall. This is always a highlight of the year, as students dress up as their favourite book character or in a costume inspired by this year’s theme: “Book an Adventure!”. We can’t wait to see the creativity on parade and to share in the joy of celebrating reading together!

Scholastic Book Club

Issue 6 is out now, and orders are due in by THIS Wednesday, August 27. Thank you to the parents who have already placed their order for this Issue of Book Club! Remember, every purchase you make on Book Club earns our school 15% of the order value in Scholastic Rewards that we can use to purchase more books and educational resources for the school. It all helps!

NUMERACY NEWS - Colleen Monaghan

Congratulations to Alexander H for his maths award this week. His work, punctuality and leadership with morning maths is exceptional. Congrats Alex.

This week, I am providing ideas on how to help at home across the levels. Foundations are about to start their subtraction unit. They will need to represent simple subtraction situations.

In this unit, students are reminded how to show subtraction by crossing out and asked to practise subtraction by crossing out. They will be asked to write the subtraction stories for each number problem as well.  Once confident with this ,they will move to counting back using a number line to keep track of the counts, then move to counting back using their fingers.

Example of a story. There are 10 eggs. Two eggs rolled away. How many are left?

Children can draw or represent the 10 eggs. (Cross out two eggs.)

What tells you that this is a take-away/subtraction number problem? For example: ‘rolled away’, ‘how many left’? Ask students to draw and cross out the following subtraction number problems:

Six possums were in a tree, and one climbed down. How many possums were left?  Can you draw this or use materials to represent the possums? Can you record this as a number sentence?

Nine puppies were in the pet shop, and a boy took three home. How many puppies were left?

I had 10 counters. My sister took two away. How many counters do I have left?

Ask students to: identify what the whole is (10) and identify which part is being ‘taken away’ (2) them explain what they would do to work out the answer (for example: remove two counters and ‘use counting’, or count back, to solve the problem / know that 8 and 2 makes 10) say the number story, write or draw the number story (for example: 10 take away 2 is 8, 10 take away 2 leaves 8, 10 less 2 is 8, 10 minus 2 is 8, 10 subtract 2 is 8)

Repeat by taking away one counter.

Solve subtraction problems using a number line., students can ‘draw’ number problems on a number line.

There were seven crayons in a container but two were taken out. How many crayons were left in the container?   7-2=

Show students how to show the ‘part’ to be taken away (2) by drawing two ‘jumps’ backwards from 7.

 Remember that subtraction means taking away an amount from a total. 

Year 1/2 are about to start their Division unit. "In the pre-test, we noticed that our Year Ones were confident with sharing objects equally into groups. For example, they could share a collection of items fairly. However, writing this as a number sentence was more challenging. Some also found it tricky to tell a story that matched the number sentence. Understanding what each number represents in a problem is still developing - for instance, when sharing 8 lollies between 4 friends, the correct answer is 2 lollies each,

Grab  8 counters. Shared them between  4 teddy bears. How many does each teddy get?

_______ shared between _________ gives _____________ each

Being able to complete this was tricky for some.

Helping Your Child in 1/2 with Division at Home

Division is an important maths skill children begin exploring from Year 1onwards. In the Victorian Curriculum, students learn that division is about sharing and grouping equally. Here are some fun ways you can support your child at home:

• Year 1–2: Encourage your child to share everyday items (like grapes, toy cars, or pencils) equally between family members. Ask, “If we have 10 grapes and 2 people, how many grapes will each person get?”

• Year 3–4: Begin exploring how many groups can be made. For example, “We have 12 cupcakes. If each plate has 3 cupcakes, how many plates can we make?” This helps children see division as both sharing and grouping.

   

Tips for home: Use real-life situations like dividing slices of pizza, Lego blocks, or playing cards.Encourage your child to draw simple pictures to show their thinking. Link division to multiplication: “If 3 × 4 = 12, then 12 ÷ 3 = 4.” By practising in fun, everyday ways, children gain confidence and a deeper understanding of division.

Year 1 - The curriculum states that by the end of the year they can use mathematical modelling to solve practical problems involving equal sharing and grouping; represent the situations with diagrams, physical and virtual materials, and use calculation strategies to solve the problem  (VC2M1N06)

Year 2 - multiply and divide by one-digit numbers using repeated addition, equal grouping, arrays and partitioning to support a variety of calculation strategies (VC2M2N05)

• Use mathematical modelling to solve practical problems involving additive and multiplicative situations, including money transactions; represent situations and choose calculation strategies; interpret and communicate solutions in terms of the context (VC2M2N06)
• Recall and demonstrate proficiency with multiplication facts for twos; extend and apply facts to develop the related division facts using doubling and halving (VC2M2A03)
• Apply repetition in arithmetic operations, including multiplication as repeated addition and division as repeated subtraction 
• They will be representing division problems with materials and drawings. 
• They will work on recording the matching number sentence for each story and showing how they solved the division problems, such as skip counting, repeated subtraction or using known multiplication facts.

Year 3/4 they are learning about Multiplication & Division 

In Year 3, children are learning to multiply and divide one- and two-digit numbers. They are also exploring different ways to show their thinking. You can help at home by:

• Using objects to build arrays – e.g. 8 × 4 can be shown with 8 rows of 4 pasta pieces.
• Skip counting together – count forwards and backwards by 2s, 3s, 4s, etc. while walking, driving or cooking.
• Making up stories for number sentences – e.g. “If 5 friends each had 7 lollies, how many altogether?” (5 × 7).

• Exploring different strategies – ask your child to show the same fact on a number line, with repeated addition, and as a division.

   

In Year 4, children are developing strategies for multiplying and dividing by 10s, 100s and 1000s. This helps them understand how the place value of digits shifts. You can support at home by:

• Using a place value chart or slider – show how 356 becomes 3560 when multiplied by 10, and 35.6 when divided by 10.
• Looking for real-life examples – “If one packet costs $3, how much for 10 packets?” or “What is 240 ÷ 10?”.
• Quick mental maths challenges – “What’s 30 × 100?” or “If you had $50 and shared it between 10 people, how much each?”.

The Seniors are about to start a unit on measurement, this is what they are expected to be able to do by the end of it. 

In Year 5, students are learning to choose the most appropriate metric units (millimetres, centimetres, metres, grams, kilograms, millilitres, litres) when measuring length, mass and capacity. They also explore how using smaller units or a combination of units can give a more accurate measurement. At home you could:

• Compare different objects and discuss which unit is best (e.g. “Would you measure this table in centimetres or metres?”).
• Weigh food items in the kitchen, noticing when grams or kilograms are more useful.

• Measure liquids while cooking – sometimes millilitres are best, other times litres.

   

In Year 6, students are working on converting between metric units (for example: 1.25 m = 125 cm, 3.5 kg = 3500 g). They also practise using decimals to record measurements in real-life contexts. At home you could:

• Estimate and then measure objects, converting between units (e.g. “This bench is 1.2m – how many centimetres is that?”)
• Involve your child in cooking by adjusting recipes (“We need 0.5 L of milk. How many millilitres is that?”)
• Use real-world problems, like comparing travel distances on a map or weighing luggage before a trip.
•  By connecting measurement to everyday situations, children see the value of maths and build confidence in choosing the right unit and converting between them.

PE & SPORT NEWS - Michael Jennings

SSV COBURG DISTRICT ATHLETICS CARNIVAL 

The SSV Coburg District Athletics Carnival was held on Thursday, 21 August 2025, at the Coburg Athletics Track. Overall, using a handicapped points system, St Fidelis Primary School finished in 4th place out of 13 schools.

Congratulations to all members of the St Fidelis Athletics Team on great performances and wonderful sporting behaviour throughout the carnival. Thank you to the St Fidelis emergencies for their efforts during trials and for being prepared in case they were called upon for events. Thank you to Ms Comrie, Mr Tresize, Ms Zorzut and Mrs Tanya C for their supervision and guidance of the students throughout the day. Finally, thank you to the parents, relatives and friends who were able to come along and support the team.

SSV COBURG DISTRICT HANDICAPPED POINTS SYSTEM RESULTS 2025

1ST COBURG NORTH

2ND MERRI-BEK

3RD PASCOE VALE NORTH

4TH ST FIDELIS

5TH ST OLIVERS

6TH PASCOE VALE

6TH PASCOE VALE SOUTH

8TH ST BERNARDS

9TH NEWLANDS

10TH COBURG WEST

11TH ST PAULS

12TH COBURG

13TH ANTONINE

ST FIDELIS ATHLETICS TEAM

Congratulations to the following students who came 1st or 2nd in their respective events. These students will represent the Coburg District at the forthcoming Inner North/Merri-Bek Division Championships to be held at Meadowglen Athletics Track, Epping, on Friday 12 September 2025:

Michael Jennings

Sport Co-ordinator