Teaching and Learning 

Learning Galore!

Since our last newsletter, there have been so many fantastic learning experiences across our school. Thank you to all of our staff and our amazing parents and carers who help out to allow our students to take part in these special activities.

Cyber Safety Project

The Cyber Safety Project incursions took place on Wednesday 4th May and Thursday 5th May. Students were provided with valuable information to assist them to make good choices online to keep them safe at all times. Parents and carers attended an online event to provide important information about popular online experiences children are exposed to today. Teachers also attended an informative session to assist them to support our students with online safety. Thank you to Mr Steve Atkinson for organising such valuable experiences for our school community.

Whole School Writing Moderation

In Week 2, a mysterious strange egg appeared on our school oval. All students pondered over how the egg got there and what might be in it. With this amazing visual prompt (thank you to Deirdree Geilings), all students were asked to write a narrative story titled 'The Strange Egg'. These fabulous stories were collected by teachers and moderated according to the Victorian Curriculum standards. Teachers will also be taking part in a whole school moderation of these writing pieces in the upcoming week. You will be able to view your child's story in the Learning Portfolio at the end of Term 2.

Whitehorse Council "Whitehorse Through Time'

Level 3 and level 4 were able to take part in the Whitehorse Council Incursion and walking activity. Educators from the Whitehorse Council talked to students about 'Whitehorse through time' which coincided with our whole school unit, learning about change over time. Students then walked to Heatherdale Reserve as part of the Park Wide Environmental Education Program for bushland fieldwork, followed by fabulous games.

Hands on Science

Hands on Science delivered a wonderful incursion for all Level 4 students titled 'States of Matter' on Thursday 12th and Friday 13th May. The incursion supported our students' learning about Chemical Sciences. In this engaging 90-minute incursion, students had great fun investigating solids, liquids and gases and explored how both heat and chemicals can create changes between these states. Melting points of various materials were also examined, to creating a lava lamp.

Myuna Farm Excursion

On Thursday 12th May our Foundation students went on the Myuna Farm excursion and took part in a variety of activities with the farm educators to learn about farms, their importance and of course, to get up close to the farm animals. The students had a wonderful day and have been sharing their experience of the day with their teachers and other students.

Level 1 and 2 Swimming

The Health and Physical Education Curriculum in the primary school years includes swimming and water safety in an aquatic setting. By the end of primary school, it is anticipated that students should be able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills identified in the Victorian Water Safety Certificate. The Certificate is awarded when a student can swim 50m continuously, answer water safety based questions and perform simple rescues.

Our 5 day Level 1 and 2 swimming and water safety unit is taking place this week from 16th May – 20th May. All Level 1 and 2 students are attending Aquanation in Ringwood daily to learn about water safety in an aquatic setting. Qualified swimming instructors are providing intensive swimming tuition in the pool. Children that are unable to take part in the pool are still attending to continue their learning with their teacher and observe the lessons. Participation in the program will be recorded in the student report.

NAPLAN

In Week 3, students in Levels 3 and 5 took part in the National Assessment - Literacy and Numeracy. Students completed a series of tests in Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language and Numeracy, aimed to provide information on how your child is progressing against national standards. Other than Level 3 Writing which was a paper-based test, for the first time this year, testing was completed online. A big congratulations to all of our students that took part in this assessment week.

Any students that were absent for the online NAPLAN testing will be given the opportunity to complete the tests up until Friday 20th May. Your child's teacher will let students know when this will take place. The paper-based Level 3 Writing test was required to be completed by Friday 13th of May. If your Level 3 child was absent during the week ending the 13th May, unfortunately they will be unable to make up this test.

Results

Schools generally receive their students’ NAPLAN reports from mid-August to mid-September. The school will notify you when the reports are being sent to your home.  

Kate McLeod

Assistant Principal