Learning and Teaching

Big Write and VCOP

Big Write and VCOP is designed to bring the fun back into writing, to make the children want to write and to be continuously challenged throughout the writing journey. Through games, activities, writing tasks, conversations and discussions, students will learn not only where their abilities lie in a fun and engaging way, but also the steps they need to take, in order to continue to improve.

What is Big Write?

Big Write is just one, of the many, writing sessions in the week- ideally at the end of the week. It’s a special start/stop piece of writing, where the students ‘show off’ and celebrate all the skills they have been learning from the English and STEM Curriculum that week. It has a special atmosphere to promote calm and creative writers and encourages students to reflect on their learning and how they can improve.

What is VCOP?

VCOP stands for vocabulary, connectives, openers and punctuation. These four elements quickly and easily enhance writing by creating the writer’s voice. Together with GHaSP (grammar, handwriting, spelling and punctuation)- the building blocks to correct and clear writing, VCOP adds the icing on the cake- excitement, pizzazz and flow to keep the audience engaged throughout the piece.

Athletics Day 2020

On Thursday, Grades Prep to Six had the annual Galilee athletics day.  When the school arrived by bus at Lakeside Stadium, Mr Hill gave a rundown of the day and a few housekeeping rules. Then we were told what event we were starting at. The events were shot put, dicus, triple jump, long jump, high jump, 100 metre sprint, 200 metre run, hurdles and the 800 metre run which was not compulsory, unlike the other events.

This year was a bit different from last year because we did overall winners for each event. There was 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place for every event. Every age group participated and competed in all the events.

The Preps to Two's events were, the chicken throw, mini hurdles, a running race, hula hoops, tunnel ball, egg and spoon race and foam rocket javelin which I am sure were all very fun.

We received regular score updates from Mr Hill on the main microphone.  Everybody had a lot of fun running, jumping and throwing all day long and a really good job for the people who managed to do the 800m race at the end of the day.

After the day I know for a fact that everyone was exhausted and sore. Then we all left on our buses and headed back to school. We arrived back at school around 3:30 ready for pickup. Everyone who participated was in desperate need of some sleep. We would like to thank all the parents, teachers and students who helped out on the day to make athletics possible for everybody.

By Patrick (House Captain Joeys) and Bonnie 6B (House Captain Hearts)