Level 4
Aim High
Welcome back! It has been great reconnecting with our students and the HEPS community in the first week of school. It is very pleasing to see our students burst into school with smiles, engaging in our Positive Start program for 2023 as well as our community coming together on Friday for a Positive Start BBQ snag and a visit to the classroom to see what our students have been working on in the first week of school.
Reading
Our reading program will again feature the Jolly Phonics Spelling and Grammar program alongside our HEPS Reading model.
In reading sessions this year, our students will engage in independent, small and large group tasks, one – to – one conferring, guided reading sessions and be exposed to a range of mentor texts. Sessions will be planned with differentiation as a focus. This refers to every student working at their area of need in order for them to achieve their individual levels of growth.
We ask students to read independently at home each night for 15 – 20 minutes.
Writing
Our writing will focus on students creating texts that’s demonstrate understanding of a variety of structures and genre, grammar, vocabulary and punctuation. At HEPS we use the 6+1 Traits writing model. The Six Traits of writing are Voice, Ideas, Presentation, Conventions, Organisation, Word Choice, and Sentence Fluency and the traits each allow for modelling, feedback and a common language.
Students will be given many opportunities to explore the writing process throughout the year.
Numeracy
Our maths sessions will be fluid and flexible and based on the HEPS Numeracy model. The model shares the language of maths, and the components of engaging, explaining, exploring and summarising.
Engage- fosters curiosity, stimulates interest and makes links to prior knowledge, strengthening numbers, vocabulary, counting skills or efficient mental strategies. This may involve games, number facts, number talks, prior learning and questioning.
Explain- Students are explicitly presented with new content in a variety of ways and provides opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding. We share a learning intention and success criteria, work in small groups and at an independent level, use concrete materials, introduce vocabulary, revise prior knowledge and make connections to the real world.
Explore- Students are exposed to rich numeracy tasks which challenge and support them to explore new concepts and investigate ideas. This involves differentiated tasks that have multiple entry and exit points, individual, partner, small group collaborative work, reasoning feedback and connections to prior knowledge.
Summarise- students are supported to refine and improve their work by summarising the learning, making links to the learning intention and success criteria, questioning, explaining and justifying.
Our first Inquiry unit is “Game of Life”. This unit will introduce our students to the need to understand ourselves and navigate challenging situations. Our students will study cultural and personal identities and health messages within the media.
Specialist Timetable
4BA
Monday- Sustainability
Tuesday- STEAM, Art
Wednesday- PE
Thursday (Mrs Hunting)- Music
4TO
Monday- Sustainability
Tuesday- Music, STEAM
Wednesday- PE
Friday- Art
4LS
Monday- STEAM
Tuesday- PE, Music
Thursday- Japanese
Friday- Art
4JE
Monday – STEAM
Tuesday- Art, PE
Thursday- Japanese, Music
Special Dates
CONNECT Group Session 1- Friday 24th February
Working Bee- Saturday 4th March
Labour Day Monday 13th March (No students at school)
Harmony Day Monday 20th of March
3 Way Learning Conferences Monday 27th of March, Thursday 30th of March
Term 1 Last Day Friday 6th of April 2:30pm Dismissal
Parent/Teacher Communication
Please use the @heathmonteastps.vic.edu.au email address to communicate with your child’s teacher.
If you need to speak with your child’s teacher, please call the school and teachers will return your call when they are not teaching students.
We all look forward to a big term.
Tahlia, Lisa, John and Belinda
