Woiwurrung Word of the Week

St Johns has purchased the Woiwurrung Language Resource for the Early Years.

Woiwurrung language was traditionally spoken and is being reclaimed today by the Wurundjeri people, who inhabited the land along the Yarra and Maribyrnong rivers.

The Woiwurrung Language Cards have been produced by the Wurun Child and Family Place and Yarra Ranges Council with permission from key Wurundjeri Elders.

Acknowledging and celebrating Aboriginal culture and its connection to spirituality and language, family and kinship, land, country and community is important in protecting and developing inclusion and equity. Language in particular is recognised as a precious part of cultural strength and pride.

Each newsletter we will share with you a new Woiwurrung word of the week, we hope that this will provide you with a chance to read, speak, and talk about it with your family.

Learning & Teaching

Data Chats

Thank you to the families that joined our educators this week for Data Chats. The purpose of these chats were to further engage our community in children’s learning and give a snapshot of how we use evidence and data to support our decisions when giving report marks. We have appreciated the feedback from you that will help us consider how they will evolve moving forward.

Community Project 3

We have been delighted to share many different moments with children while they have been exploring a variety of science based experiences. Some of these experiences have included mixing liquids, searching for mini beasts at the farm, biological illustrations and even a virtual trip to Mars!

These moments with children will continue for the next two weeks whilst educators ask themselves: “How can we help children find meaning in what they do, what they encounter, and what they experience?” Our focus concepts are progress and perspectives so our intention is to create conditions for children to make meaning and develop their own interpretive theories. Children will seek to for our educators at St John’s, this means listening. After 3 weeks of observing, documenting, and interpreting our children’s theories, we will use these traces to inform our next explicit learning experiences. This will include specific scientific understandings, as well as the Scientific Inquiry Process.

Jarryd, Lauren and Chevon

jbradford@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au ldavis@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au

Wellbeing

This term, during our morning Ready to Learn time, students will focus on Relationships and Diversity from the Personal and Social Capability Curriculum.

Our Prep Hub will explore groups that they and others belong to. They will also name and practise skills for including others and making friends.
Our One and Two Hubs will explore relationships within families, listen to the ideas of others and recognise that others may see things differently. They will also describe and practise ways to make and maintain friendships.
Our Three/Four Hub will examine similarities and differences between groups based on different factors such as age, race, religion and describe ways these similarities and differences can affect relationships. Students will also identify the importance of including others in activities, groups and games.
Our Five/Six Hub will describe the characteristics of respectful relationships and how these can be achieved. They will also explore and discuss behaviours that do and do not demonstrate sensitivity to individual, social and cultural differences (including prejudices, discrimination and stereotypes.)

Ashlee Owen

aowen@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au

Literacy

It’s been an exciting start to Term 3! Educators have engaged in Data chats with families. Alongside their school report, the data chats presented an opportunity for you to gain insight into where your child is at according to the Curriculum.

Perhaps one of your thoughts during the Data Chat, especially for those who were onsite, is “schools look and sound so different to when I was a child!”. I know this certainly rings true for me!

One such difference I have noted is in the way in which spelling is taught. I have very vivid memories of being in school and given a prescribed set of spelling words to learn (the same list as all my peers). We would practise spelling these through a process called ‘Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check’, then sit a spelling test at the end of the week to determine if we had learned to spell the words correctly (cue anxiety). Those that we did not learn got sent home for us to practice (cue anxiety for my parents).

Did this process work? In essence, and for a minority, yes. Though it very much relied on memorisation.

Last week I read an article about the Literacy Guru ‘Jane Considine’, who advocates for the abolition of such spelling tests and advises against sending words home for children to practice.

At St Johns we teach spelling in context (connected to our learning experiences); using words from books we have read, experiences we have had, our learning environments etc. We teach it in a way that develops a deep understanding of spelling patterns and ‘generalisations’ that can be transferred to other words. E.g. if I can spell ‘might’ because I understand that ‘ight’ rhyme, then I can spell ‘fight, tight’ etc

We explore word origins to help children understand why words have come to be spelt the way they are, using sites like ‘Etym online’ to drive spelling investigations.

So how can you foster your child(ren)’s learning of spelling at home?

In the article, Jane Considine states:

“...when asked what parents can do to help their children become better spellers, her answer is simple. “Make sure your child gets eight hours’ sleep a night,” she says. “Read to and with your child. Enjoy your child being a reader. Foster a love of reading through your own relationship with books and words.

The bottom line for both parents and teachers, she says, is to recognise the power of words. “We work so hard to let children be connected to books, but spelling misses out because it hasn’t got the razzle-dazzle of writing or the emotive spell of reading. And yet it’s so important, and that needs to be acknowledged. Spelling is the nuts and bolts of writing: once you can do it, you’re on track. You can soar.”

If you’d like to hear more about how you can support your child’s Literacy learning at home, please do not hesitate to contact me. Have another Literacy related question? Shoot me an email or call the school! I’d be happy to feature this in the newsletter or have a chat with you.

Daniela De Luca

Literacy Leader

ddeluca@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au

Faith News

Sacrament of Confirmation - Thurs 22nd July, 6pm at Our Lady's Church, Maidstone

We are looking forward to celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation with some of our Year Six children next week. A letter will be sent home on Monday with some final details. More importantly we send our children and their families our love and prayers as they prepare to celebrate this special Sacrament. May your gifts continue to shine a light for all of those around you.

Celebration of the Feast of Saint Mary MacKillop - Friday 6th August 2021

Our annual celebration of the Feast of Saint Mary MacKillop is all set to take place on Friday 6th August. We will celebrate with a Whole School Prayer Gathering in the morning, families very warmly welcomed (praying for fine weather so we can gather outside!). This will be followed by House activities for the children. Further details will be shared closer to the time.

Sunshine Mosque Visit - Thursday 29th July, 7am

We invite you to join us in a visit Sunshine Mosque, Sunshine on Thursday 29th July. Please email Aoife (amccarthy@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au) if your family will be joining us on the 29th July. We will meet outside the Mosque at 7am and be guided through by members of the community.

As part of our 'Our place, our community' discovery, we began the journey with Mass at Our Lady's in Term Two, this continues with our visit to Sunshine Mosque and will conclude with a visit to Quang Minh Buddhist Temple, Braybrook on the 24th August at 4pm.

Social Justice News

Our Social Justice Leaders have launched a number of projects throughout the year aimed at reducing the poverty gap and supporting the local community. Due to snap lock downs and other rescheduling of events they have had to put a number of their initiatives on the back burner so to speak. However St John's has traditionally collected items for Way of the West in the lead up to the Feast of Mary MacKillop as a visible action of our values at work. We will send a letter to all families next week inviting you donate items to help people in the local community. A heartfelt thank you to families who were able to support our last winter collection. Our Social Justice Leaders will meet next week to get this project launched and ready to go. Thank you for your support!

Aoife

amccarthy@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au

Waka Update:

Only 27 more sleeps!!!!!

Rehearsals are continuing and our ‘Ghost of Eureka’ story dance is coming together nicely. Our focus is now the middle section of the routine with our beginning and ending choreographed.

We are wanting to create some papier mache rocks for the stage so if you have any spare newspaper at home please bring it into the office or 5/6 hub.

School ticket orders have now closed and additional sales through The Clocktower are currently suspended due to the latest Covid outbreak, just keep an eye on their website for information of any changes.

This week we have sent out our costume information and permission slips to our 5/6 Hub families, including bus travel permission. Please return by Monday the 2nd August.

Some photo's of our rehearsals:-

Noticeboard