Literacy

Literacy and the Holidays

It's always a tricky thing - taking a break as well as not letting go of fundamental skills that have been learnt throughout the term. Here are some top tips for parents to help your child keep up with literacy skills whilst still taking the much needed break to refresh so that the term ahead can be as successful as possible. 

Top Tip #1

Read

Set aside 10 minutes everyday and read with your child. It might be a book from the local library, a school reader, a newspaper article or favourite fairy tale. It doesn't really matter what your child chooses to read as long as they are practising their reading. Don't forget that reading to your child is just as important as them reading to you. 

Top Tip #2

Keep a journal

We all love to head out and enjoy fun activities over the school holidays so why not document these? Use a scrap book to stick in movie tickets, photos or found artifacts that represent a fun activity and then ask your child to write about their experiences. This creates a great souvenir that can be shared with friends and family. 

Top Tip #3

Conversations

Conversation plays such an important role in a child's literacy. Speak to your child about their day and what they have done. Ask them questions to stimulate dialogue and practise turn taking whilst speaking. 

Most of all, enjoy the well earned break!

What Matters? 2019 

Inspired by Gough Whitlam's commitment to involving young people in the shaping of Australia's future, the What Matters? competition was open to school students in years 5 to 12 from NSW, VIC, WA, the ACT and Tasmania. Responding to the simple question 'what matters?', entrants were free to express their views on any matter they care about.

Well done and great work to the year 6 students at St. Raphael's for their entries in the competition.

Lilyana Talarico

Aaliyah Fernandez

Eva Green

Special mention to Eva on achieving a credit for her writing piece.