A Message from the Principal

Thank you

I trust all our mums and nans had a wonderful Mother’s Day and enjoyed spending time with your children. Special thanks to Kate Thompson for coordinating the Mother’s Day gifts once again this year. Your children had fun selecting a gift for you!

Our Writing Journey

The four key strategies to up-level students’ speaking or writing are known as VCOP which stand for: Vocab, Connectives, Openers & Punctuation. Special characters and specific colours help the students remember these elements of writing.

     Vinny Vocab            Connie Connectives            Ollie Openers            Penny Punctuation

Vocabulary – words and phrases that make us go WOW

Wow words are words and phrases that we don’t usually write or say. When we do, it sounds more sophisticated. Start listening to what words your children use regularly, and then help them build on them by modelling higher-level language.

• Talk about and write down interesting (wow) words you hear on T.V, the radio or in the stories you are reading at home.
• Try using the words in your own sentences.
• Have a family 30-second challenge: You have 30 seconds to think of as many different words instead of: good, bad, happy, sad, mad, said. Put each one in a sentence.
• Give your child a Wow word to put in a sentence. How many different sentences can you make?

Connectives- words that we use to join thoughts, paragraphs, and ideas together.

Connectives are used to join one part of a text to another. They can join thoughts, ideas, and paragraphs together to create flow within the text and add more detail. Connectives can be conjunctions, prepositions or adverbs. The simplest connectives to use are: and, because and then. More complex ones are: after, so, or, while and however.

• Try searching for connectives in the stories you are reading at home. See if you can use them in different sentences.
• Listen to the connectives your children use in their speech and prompt with higher-level ones to extend their sentences.
• See if you can rearrange sentences to start with the conjunction.
• Give your child a connective to use in a sentence.

Openers – words or phrases used to start sentences.

Openers are the words and phrases used at the start of sentences. When children start on their writing journey, most sentences begin with 'I' or incorrectly 'Me'. To develop this, first of all, correct the grammar, then build on it by using varied openers.

• Search for openers in stories and use them to start your own sentences.
• Give your child an opener and ask them to complete the sentence. Some good openers are: Next, Although, Eventually, Finally, If.
• Search for power openers to borrow - they end in 'ly' and 'ing' or are connectives.

Punctuation - carefully selected to create an effect (but we will link it closely with punctuation to ensure we are grammatically correct as well).

Punctuation helps us to create fluency in the piece. It tells us where to start and stop and how to say the words.

• Look at the different types of punctuation in your home readers.
• Ask your child to name the different pieces of punctuation.
• Ask them to use their Kung-Fu Punctuation to act the punctuation in the air.
• See if they can use different punctuation in sentences.
• Can they use their voice to act out the punctuation?

Most of all, have fun reading your children's writing and encourage their effort. 

This week, along with all the Principals in our diocese, I will be in Wollongong attending the Association of Catholic School Principals Conference. A special welcome and thank you to Darryl Martin who will be acting Principal this week.

Have a happy and safe week

Pauline Long

Principal