Infants and Primary

Infants News

The highlight of the past fortnight for Infants students was definitely participating in our first whole school Wellbeing Day last Friday. All students have spent time learning the meaning of ‘resilience’ and took part in many activities to help them build this increasingly important strength of character throughout the day – more about this elsewhere in the newsletter. 

We only have two weeks left of Term 1 – it sure is speeding by – and it will be a great two weeks to round off the term and lead into the Easter holidays. We hope many families and friends will be able to join us for our Easter Hat Parade at the Recreation Oval with our friends from The BEE Centre and St Joseph’s on Monday 3 April 2023, at our Athletics Carnival on Wednesday 5 April 2023, and at the Year 12 fundraising Colour Run on Thursday 6 April 2023. Wonderful things to look forward to!

Kindergarten

Kindergarten students are blowing the socks off their teachers and school staff with how well they are learning their sounds, writing their names using capital letters and lower case letters in the right places and listening to and responding to lots of stories. It is amazing to see how many skills each and every student has improved on in the few short weeks since starting school, and the personal goals they are kicking. What busy learners they have been.

In mathematics, we have been learning about different types of measurement and have had a great time exploring the concepts of longer and shorter, heavier and lighter and volume and capacity. We have made worms out of playdough and wool and are becoming experts at lining them up in order of size. Students have also been using hefting to determine if their lunchbox or drink bottle is heavier and there was lots of clever discussion about why this might be so.

We have made some very cool and crazy ‘Grass Heads’ with Ms Armour and they are giving everyone lots of smiles each day as we see them grow and change! 

Kindergarten is very lucky to have Mrs Julia Corcoran joining us on Mondays for part of Term 1 and Term 2 as she undertakes her placement as part of her teaching degree. We are all loving having her in our class and our school.

Ms Mem Brougham

Kindergarten Teacher

Assistant Principal Infants (relieving)

1/2 Class

Over the last two weeks, 1/ 2 have been looking at informative texts during literacy. We have learnt several tier three words that have been added to our vocabulary wall and students have had the opportunity to explore the use of these words in sentence writing and conversation. 

In cooking this fortnight, students engaged in making a healthy and delicious muffin with zucchini and banana being the main ingredients. This experience exposed them to the skills of mashing and grating. 

Last week, we began a new unit of measurement during our mathematics’ sessions. This has been a lot of fun as students began this learning by measuring their heights in comparison to one another and the length and area of the bottom of their shoes. 

In PDHPE sessions, we have begun developing our skills and knowledge around the athletics carnival that is fast approaching. So far, we have practised the egg and spoon and sack races, resulting in lots of laughter. To end this fortnight, we engaged in a highly successful Wellbeing Day. Students in 1/ 2 had incredibly positive reactions. I think it is safe to say the ‘Wellbeing Show’ was a big favourite of the day. 

Emily Friend - 1/2 Class Teacher

2/3 Class

Year 2/3 have been remarkably busy this term, forming friendships and creating a class bond. We have been reading lots of interesting books together and this has inspired our writing tasks. We are currently reading ‘Sophie Scott goes South’. It’s an interesting book that is based on real experiences from when the author, Alison Lester, travelled to Antarctica, but it has a fictional character in the story named Sophie Scott and the story is told from Sophie’s perspective. Reading this text has created some great discussion and writing ideas in the classroom.

In mathematics, we have been working on numbers and being able to manipulate larger numbers when we are adding or subtracting them, to make the operation easier. We have also been studying patterns and measurement in mathematics and in the real world. This has been fun to do outside while the weather is still nice. 

In STEM, we have enjoyed creating pictures using the dot painting technique with Mrs Bridge. Gardening has been fun this term, we did a nature scavenger hunt and we have made grass heads with Ms Armour. We have loved learning to measure, grate and chop in cooking to create some delicious treats to eat at recess. Earlier this term we were lucky to have a visit from the NRL development team and we had lots of fun playing games and learning some rugby league skills. So far in sport, we have loved our swimming sessions and have now started doing shot put, discus, long jump and running races in readiness for the athletics carnival at the end of this term.

Natalie Downey - Class Teacher

Primary News

The primary classrooms have been a hive of activity over the past few weeks. We had a sensational Student Wellbeing Day on Friday 17 March 2023, where the students stepped away from regular classroom lessons for the day and engaged in games, activities and workshops based around understanding their own wellbeing, building resilience and showing leadership and teamwork. A whole range of Boorowa Central School staff worked tirelessly to pull the day together – it was a resounding success and the students got a lot out of it.

We had three students attend the Western Region PSSA Swimming Carnival on Friday 10 March 2023 in Dubbo. Digby swam a fantastic time in the junior backstroke to finish inside the top 20. Zac did a personal best in the 200m Individual Medley by over thirty seconds, and Peter set new Western PSSA Records for the 50m butterfly and breaststroke multi-class events. Peter now heads off to Sydney for the NSW State Championships. Well done to our swimmers!

NAPLAN 2023 is upon us, with the Year 3 and Year 5 students sitting their tests over the past two weeks in writing, reading, spelling, grammar and numeracy. Whilst there are challenges with these tests, namely the use of computers to complete all of these tests, the students worked extremely hard and maintained their focus throughout all sessions. All of our staff are proud of the students and we hope they get the results that they deserve through all of their hard work.

As a teacher and Assistant Principal of primary, I am quite concerned with a few aspects of behaviour and attitude I am seeing both inside and outside the classroom this term. I am continuing to have to contact parents regularly because students are making poor choices either in their classroom or in the playground. To make it even more disappointing, a lot of these poor choices are being made by our oldest and most mature members of the school – Years 5 and 6. I can’t stress enough that leadership and modelling good behaviour is the single most impactful action that peers can interact with – and our younger students copy and emulate the older students. I am seeing a lack of respect for our school values and expectations from our leaders – and I am hoping there is a significant change in their choices ahead. Together, we can make this school the best it can be.

If you require any additional information, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email: Jason.stuart3@det.nsw.edu.au 

Jason Stuart

Assistant Principal Primary (Relieving) 

4/5 Class

Wow, we have almost finished Term 1. The 4/5 classroom has been filled will learning, laughs, and resilience. I am extremely happy with the progress academically, socially, and emotionally from all the Year 4 and 5 students. Congratulations to our Year 5 students who have just finished NAPLAN assessments. I am proud of the effort they displayed during the testing period. 

In literacy, the students have finished a unit of work on informative texts and created their very own pet monsters. Our reading stamina continues to grow, and we are focusing on 4H comprehension strategies. The 4H strategy is used when reading to help identify what a question is asking. There are in 4 different categories: here, head, hidden and heart.

• Here - is the answer literal, right here in the text?
• Hidden and Head - is the answer hidden, do I need to think and search? Is the answer my own opinion or based on my past experiences, if so, is it in my head? 
• Heart - is the answer how I feel and therefore in my heart?

We have continued with our literacy focus groups which have been highly successful. The SLSO team, intervention teachers and students have all been working hard on achieving our personalised literacy learning goals. There are 5 different groups with different focus areas. Our group names are Fish, Dogs, Giraffes, Pelicans, and Chickens. The Fish group are focusing on identifying spelling mistakes in their writing and editing them in writing. The Dog group are focusing on using phonemic and morphemic strategies to fix spelling mistakes. The Giraffe group are working on writing complete sentences that include a noun, adjective, verb, and adverb. The Pelican group is focusing on using full sentence answers when answering comprehension questions. The Chicken group are working on using Newman analysis prompts to help identify exactly what a question is asking them to do. 

In mathematics, we have continued to focus on our number skills and different content strands. I look forward to seeing the progress the students have made when analysing our end of term assessments. 

This term Year 4 students have focused on these mathematics content areas so far:

Week 2 statistics

Week 3 place value

Week 4 operations

Week 5 fractions 

Week 6 money 

Week 7 time

Week 8 patterns and algebra

Week 9 chance

This term Year 5 students have focused on these mathematics content areas so far: 

Week 2 statistics

Week 3 place value and decimals

Week 4 operations

Week 5 measurement

Week 6 perimeter and area

Week 7 transformation and symmetry

Week 8 fractions

Week 9 worded problems and money

To work on our number skills, we have 5 different focus groups: Anteaters, Snakes, Monkeys, Dinosaurs, and Elephants. The Anteater group are focusing on addition. We are looking at basic addition facts, missing number problems, and addition algorithms. The Snake group are focusing on subtraction. We are looking at basic subtraction, missing number problems, and multi-digit subtraction algorithms. The Monkey group are focusing on multiplication. We are looking at times tables, missing number problems, and multi-digit multiplication. The Dinosaur group are focusing on division. We are looking at inverse operations, drawing division, missing number problems, and single digit division. The Elephant group are focusing on worded problems and order of operations. We are looking at exponents, BODMAS, and using Newman’s analysis to help solve worded problems. 

Another exciting thing happening in our 4/5 classroom is times table champions. To become a times table champion, you need to recite your times tables as fast as you can without making a mistake. The students don’t just say the multiples of a number like 2,4,6,8, they have to say the whole sum for example 2 x 1 = 2, 2 x 2 = 4, all the way to 2 x 12 = 24. If they can say if faster than the current champion, they will be the new champion. I have been amazed by how quickly the students are saying their times tables. Practicing times tables in this way builds neuropathways in the students’ brain and helps them to retain the information to recall times table facts consistently and quickly. In other words, it’s a fun way to learn your times tables. Our current champions are:

Wellbeing Day was a success and the students enjoyed learning about wellbeing and resilience. Boorowa Central School students are lucky to learn about these themes with Mrs Riles during our stronger smarter lessons each week. Cooking, gardening, and STEM programs continue to be a highlight in our week. 

The students have created outstanding artworks this term that have focused on the use of colour, lines, and depth perception. We are also busy finalising our Genius Hour projects and will be ready to present them to parents early in Term 2. It has been an extremely busy term and it takes a quality team of people to have the outstanding academic and social progress that we have seen from the students this term.

Thank you to all the teachers, SLSO’s, administration staff, executive staff, parents, and carers that make the 4/5 classroom and Boorowa Central School a great place to learn and teach. 

Mr Rowley - 4/5 Class Teacher

5/6 Class

The Year 5/6 class has been busily working through reviewing the basic aspects of English and mathematics. Each day, we start roll call with a times tables revision activity, we also complete three ‘one-minute trials’ for a particular times table and have at least one game of ‘Maths Masters’. This is all building our students’ capacity and fluency in times tables. It is essential that this is continued at home, as we are aware there is a lot of development needed in this area by all students in preparation for high school. In English, we have published our first writing assessment, a non-chronological report on the ‘Lego’ company and its history. What is clear is that editing and improving our work is essential to achieve our best. A focus for our class has been on ‘giving 100% effort’ – I am seeing that some students are just ‘doing what has to be done’, where they are not achieving the level that they are capable of. We will continue to work on this and minimising distractions within the classroom. We are a ‘team’, and as with any team, we all must work together to achieve our best.

In pleasing news, I have seen a record amount of homework being handed in on time each Friday morning. This is great to see – as this is showing that the students are valuing the home/school connection, and parents are supporting this. Well done and thankyou to families of the 5/6 class.

As always, please get in touch if you require any further information. 

Jason Stuart

5/6 Class Teacher

Assistant Principal Primary (Relieving)

Library News

The 5/6 class have been learning how to write reviews for books using the library's management system; Orbit. 

Students have had fun writing and reading one another's reviews and emailing recommendations to one another. 

See below some of their reviews of books for all ages.

Good book for adventurous people.

Title: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 

Reviewer: Roarke Franklin

Rating: 5

Review: I think this book is AMAZING! I love the characters so much. 

Learn about bugs.

Title: On Beyond Bugs - All About Insects

Reviewer: Blayde Trotter 

Rating: 5

Review: In this fiction book full of facts, I learned about many bugs with the Cat in the Hat.  I recommend this book for students in years K to 1. 

I love this book.

Title: The Lost Heir: The Graphic Novel

Reviewer: Leilani Hardefeldt 

Rating: 5 

Review: I love this book! My favourite character is Tsumi. I recommend this graphic novel for students in Year 4 and up. 

Lauren Crokett - Teacher Librarian