Foundation 

Communicating with the Foundation Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2021, and welcome your input: 

Holly Peters  Holly.Peters@education.vic.gov.au

Lisa Dam  Lisa.Dam@education.vic.gov.au

Welcome to foundation 2021! 

Welcome to all of our 2021 Foundation students and families! What a wonderful beginning we have made to the school year. The students have settled in very well to school life, and have been very busy getting to know each other, their teachers and their school. 

We are looking forward to an exciting first term of learning! If you have any questions please contact us via email or in person. 

An Overview of Our Learning For Term One

ENGLISH 

At Upwey South Primary School we follow the InitiaLit Literacy Program which encompasses all of the literacy strands. InitiaLit is an evidence based whole class program which provides students with the essential core knowledge and strong foundations to become successful readers and writers. InitiaLit addresses the five key components of effective reading instruction – phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension strategies as well as spelling and handwriting. For further information regarding this program you can visit the following website:

https://multilit.com/parents/. 

Over the past week, the students have settled into the structures and routines of school beautifully. In English, InitiaLit Foundation is going well, and we are developing the skills of recognising rhyming words, clapping syllables in words as well as orally segmenting and blending phonemes. We have been learning the difference between a word, letter and a sentence and are developing our phonemic awareness through learning letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make. In Writing, we are concentrating on developing the correct pencil grip and writing posture. With each new letter learnt, the students will practise writing it with the correct starting point and formation. 

We have sent home the Term One Reading Diaries with students this week. The purpose behind these diaries is to encourage students to read each day - stories can be read by adults, with students joining in if they can. 

‘There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island’ 

Walt Disney

MATHEMATICS

In Numeracy, most of Term One will be focused on developing number sense. We will be consolidating the skills of connecting number names, numerals and quantities of numbers from 0 to 10 through a variety of hands on activities and games. We will be explicitly teaching the formation of the numerals 0 to 10 to ensure the students are writing them correctly. Every day we have been recording the number of days we have been at school in preparation for our ‘100 days of school’ celebration. In Measurement and Geometry, we will be learning the days of the week and describing and sorting 2 dimensional shapes. 

INQUIRY

In Inquiry, students are introduced to the idea of the classroom being a community and they will learn about classroom rules. They will increase their knowledge of ways to keep themselves safe and healthy in different situations and activities. They will also learn to interact and play together in a range of contexts and begin to recognise personal preferences, likes, dislikes and strengths of themselves and others. We will be exploring and learning the meaning of our three school values Respect, Responsibility and Resilience. The class will then brainstorm ways that they can demonstrate these values in and out of the classroom. We will then develop a classroom matrix based on these values, which will outline expectations of positive behaviours for our learning community.

FOUNDATION EARLY YEARS INTERVIEWS

We are currently conducting the Early Years Assessment with students every Wednesday. Assessment interview times are located on the double doors where the students enter in the morning. These assessment interviews will take around 45 minutes, followed by a 10-15 minute chat with parents/guardians afterwards. Please ensure that you and your child arrive on time. 

SPECIALIST TIMETABLE

Please note the following information regarding the days that each grade has specialist classes.  * These times are subject to change during school-wide events (eg: swimming timetables) *