English 

Our New Students 

We now have a total of six students who have joined our wonderful community having travelled from Ukraine. We keep in mind the challenge of starting at a new school, not only in a new country but being completely immersed in a new language! These beautiful new students are being given lots of support in the classroom, but we also admire their bravery in coming to school each day with a smile and striving to do their best. 

Speaking and Writing Ukrainian 

The official state language of the Ukraine shares many similar features with other languages such as Russian, Polish and Belarusian. When written down, words use a Cyrillic alphabet. Staff and students have noticed that this often means far more characters in translated words than when written in English! Please see some examples of phrases below. The blue writing is Ukrainian script, the way that words might be written on the whiteboard, while the black writing is roughly how the word is pronounced phonetically. The heavy Australian accent doesn't always lend itself to pronouncing these words properly either! haha. 

School in the Ukraine

We now have an understanding that school looks quite different in the Ukraine too. Generally speaking classes are a lot bigger, with up to thirty students working with one teacher. Academic standards are also very high. English is often taught as a second language subject starting in Secondary School, meaning for many of our new arrivals this is their first extended period learning English. 

Our  Support 

Support for our new families started from the very first time they visited our school. Big smiles and welcoming body language is a feature from all students, families and staff. 

Aside from this, students receive special support in the classroom. This also includes a dedicated teacher who comes to our school two days each week to work with the students, including giving them valuable time to work and enjoy their time with each other. 

Integrated: Design and Technology

After last terms focus on Dance, Music and Drama, all classes across the school will this term work on the concept of Design and Technology. Like all Integrated Topics each term, the concepts of this unit are further explored in English, both in Reading and Writing. Please find information about this content area below from the Victorian Curriculum in each of the three level groups (Prep to Year 2, Year 3 and Year 6 as well as Year 5 and Year 6). 

What this means is that our students will be completing lots of interesting reading, both individually and as a class! They will read about famous inventions and inventors, the ways that technology has solved problems and issues as well as how design processes such as recycling contribute to our modern world. 

So too with writing, where students across Year Levels will describe what they are learning about. They may also be given the opportunity to make designs of their own, crafting and inventing. We can't wait to see what their imaginations can provide! 

We look forward to another exciting term of learning. As always we will endeavour to keep our parent community in the loop with this, including in this newsletter. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions at any time. 

Take care, 

Tim O'Mahoney

English Leader

tomahoney@santglen.catholic.edu.au