Curriculum

Reading

In Term One, we will delve into the qualities that make a mindful reader by looking at behaviours and strategies they exhibit, in order to support students to build literacy and develop a passion for reading. Students will learn to apply the strategies of ‘IPICK’ and the ‘Five Finger Rule’ to assist in selecting ‘Just Right ‘texts appropriate for their level of reading. In turn, this also develops their independence by allowing them the choice by selecting their own books.

Reading is not just about ‘reading words’. It is about understanding what the text is inferring. Therefore, we will explore numerous reading strategies that students can apply to deepen their reading comprehension. The texts used to support the children's’ learning will be sourced from the library, digitally via Reading Eggs, as well as classroom libraries. Each student has their own personalised book box which contains their ‘Just Right’ texts.

‘Just Right’ texts will be used during Independent Reading to support the students’ learning focus. CAFÉ represents a myriad of reading strategies, including:

• Comprehension – Check for understanding, back-up and reread, retelling the story in sequence, summarising.
• Accuracy – Cross checking, matching pictures to the words in the text.
• Fluency – Independent and partner reading, reading texts that are appropriate for our learning.
• Expanding Vocabulary – Finding and applying new and interesting vocabulary discovered during reading.

Students will undertake various learning experiences that involve explicit teaching instruction, modelling, collaborative and individual conferences to create personalised goals. Once personalised goals are established, students will work towards achieving successes in line with these.

To support your child's Literacy skills, here are some suggested strategies you can implement at home to consolidate their knowledge and skills:

- Listen to your child read aloud for at least 15 minutes every night.

- Discuss the reading with your child. This can build their retelling skills and demonstrate their comprehension of the text.

-Utilise the Reading eggs program for targeted learning for your child

Some prompts you could use to develop your child's understanding of text include:

· “What happened in the story?”

· “Tell me about what you just read?”

·  "Who are the characters involved?"

• “How do you know?”

Writing

VOICES is our whole school approach to teaching and learning Writing. It is an acronym that stands for: Voice, Organisation, Ideas, Conventions, Excellent Word Choice and Sentence Fluency. Students will be supported through a variety of learning experiences that fall under each of these six strands, applying them in their daily writing. They will each select a focus strategy to form their personalised writing goal, which will support them as they grow to become proficient writers. Furthermore, students will practise ‘Sustained Writing’ to build their writing stamina and a love of writing. They will also utilise a ‘Writing Seeds’ to store vivid ideas and a help develop their passion for writing, which encourages them to express themselves.

Additionally, students will have many opportunities to consolidate their application of the writing process: Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, Editing and Publishing. In Term One, students will explore the skills outlined within the context of narrative and recount writing.

To support your child's writing skills at home you can encourage your child to write: 

-Shopping lists

-Keep a reflective diary

-Send emails to friends and family (with parental supervision)

-Practise correct posture and pencil grip whilst writing

-Encourage your child to read and write about anything they are passionate about (we want them to love what they do)

Spelling Inquiry

In Spelling Inquiry, Classroom learning will incorporate an inquiry approach, where students investigate different elements that contribute to how words are spelt. In turn, this will deepen their understanding of their personalised words to apply in different contexts. This includes its meaning, root word, synonyms and syllables. This involves targeted instruction on a range of strategies that enhance spelling accuracy. Additionally, students will practise their personal spelling list using the “Look, Say, Name, Cover, Write, Check” approach, with the goal of spelling each word accurately by itself and within the context of their writing. Finally, students will collaboratively assess their learning at the end of each week to monitor their growth.

Speaking and Listening

An important component of our English learning at GWPS is Speaking and Listening. This area of the curriculum encompasses not only communication skills, but also the development and demonstration of knowledge and appropriate ways to communicate both formally and informally, including body language, eye contact and voice. It also involves the development of active-listening strategies and an understanding of the conventions of different spoken texts.

This term, Level One will focus on showing respectful and active listening by discussing ways in which we show others that we are listening with our heart, mind and body. We will discuss ways in which to ask for help, how to structure questions and how to find out more information when speaking to a peer or teacher.

As speaking and listening is part of the English curriculum, there is also a strong emphasis on students engaging with and taking about a variety of texts for enjoyment. They will listen to, read, view and interpret a range of texts designed to entertain and inform. 

Mathematics

In Term One, students will continue to build upon their understanding of the Mathematics curriculum strands of: Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability. Our learning and teaching will be underpinned by our Whole School Approach to Mathematics, ‘SURF’ (Problem Solving, Understanding, Reasoning and Fluency). This proficiency-based model emphasises depth and rigour in learning, where students will be encouraged to take risks, set personalised learning goals and continually build strong connections between concepts and effective strategies.

The year has already commenced with an introduction into Statistics and Probability, of which the primary focus was data collection and representation. Through the lens of building connections and friendships within the classroom, students generated and investigated questions related to their interests and summer holiday experiences. They surveyed each other, recorded results with tally marks and created graph displays for analysis.

Looking ahead, students will consolidate their understanding of the “Big Ideas” in mathematics, namely “Trust the Count.” The aim of this Number and Algebra focused unit, is to develop students’ flexibility and confidence with various counting strategies. We will be utilising a combination of concrete resources and pictorial/abstract representations, to support the development of students’ understanding of numbers and what they mean.

Finally, with P-3 swimming in close sight, learners will be investigating time and duration, as part of a Measurement and Geometry focus. This unit has been timed with the swimming event, as an authentic and purposeful context, through which students can exploring duration (days, weeks, months) and the features of an analogue clock.

To support your child in Mathematics, here are some suggested strategies you can implement at home to consolidate their knowledge and skills:

· Explore flexible ways to make and represent the numbers from 1-10. For example, 8 is ‘double 4’, ‘four groups of 2’ etc.

· Counting collections of common items, such as stationary, pieces of fruit in a bowl or books on a shelf. Encourage your child to describe how they counted the collection. For example, skip counting by 2s or recognising that three and two make a total of five.

• Find ways to connect mathematics to everyday activities – multiplication to determine food selection when shopping, addition and money when distributing pocket money or geometry when identifying shapes in buildings or pathways.

· Read the calendar daily and discuss the date (day, month and year).

· Begin to familiarise your child with an analogue clock and its features, such as the purpose of the hour and minute hands.

Inquiry

In Term One, our Inquiry Unit is focused on personal strengths and the impact they have on those around us. We will reflect on situations where students have demonstrated their strengths and discuss the emotions that others may feel when our strengths are shared. This will be made visible through an ‘Experts (leader) board’, where each student will be able to display their individual strengths and seek the strengths of others when for their expertise, so please come in to share and celebrate each other’s strengths. Students will also explore areas for growth with support from their teacher, in conjunction with their Personal Learning Goals. We will develop a repertoire of strategies for achieving our personal goals in ways that are effective in the classroom and playground. This will include a range of independent and collaborative learning experiences in the classroom, as well as opportunities for application of learning outside of the classroom.

‘The Learning Pit’, a visual metaphor for learning, will be a focus for our learners throughout our topics. ‘The Learning Pit’ gives students the ability to see where they are in their learning and how to move forward when faced with challenge, while remaining positive. Throughout our topic, we will continue to focus on building resilience and confidence with the students, so that in challenging moments, we can persevere and overcome.

To support your child's Inquiry learning at school, here are some suggested strategies you can implement at home:

-Find opportunities to highlight your child’s personal strengths, this will support them when sharing their strengths at school and identifying growth.

                - Consider saying, “Wow, you really used your personal strength of ______ then, have you shared that with your class?”

- Have conversations with your child about how personal strengths can entail academic, emotional and physical aspects.

- If your child is experiencing a personal challenge to overcome, support them with building strategies they can apply to deal with these.

- Ask your child where they were in ‘The Learning Pit’ during their day at school and ask them to justify their thinking.

You Can Do It

The ‘You Can Do It’ (YCDI) Curriculum aligns to the Personal and Social Capabilities leaning framework of the Victorian Curriculum. The curriculum aims to develop successful students who are Resilient, Organised, Confident, Persistent and who Get Along with others. The YCDI Curriculum focuses on developing positive attitudes and social-emotional skills that assist in creating students who make and maintain healthy relationships, who achieve success and who can self-regulate. This Term, the emphasis in on creating personalised goals for each student based on their individual social or emotional need. Students will develop their understanding of the importance of having social-emotional learning goals, which assists them to be the best learner they can be. Students will develop strategies and self-talk stems that they can then apply to maintain focus within the classroom and use to reduce conflict with their peers. We will also explore the ‘Five Keys to Success’, as well as develop a bank of strategies to make and maintain positive relationships with both peers and teachers. Our learning in YCDI will draw solid connections to Inquiry, where opportunities to celebrate and apply the students’ strengths will be highlighted.

Diary

All the students in Level One were issued with a school diary at the start of the year.  This diary is used to track home reading and for communication between the teacher and parents.  Parents are strongly encouraged to communicate via the diary, which is checked by the teacher for important correspondence.  Please sign the diary each day indicating that you have listened to your child read.  To complement the CAFE reading program, each child will have a ‘take home book’ and will also borrow library books to practise their independent and shared reading skills at home.

Brain Food

Each day at 10.00am, the students are encouraged to have a healthy snack, such as fresh fruits or vegetables to assist with sustaining concentration. It would be wonderful if the children could bring their brain food in a separate container to eliminate the need for them to bring their lunchboxes into the classroom during this time.  This will ensure there is minimal

disruption to their learning time. Thankyou!

Additional Information

Please ensure all students have a reader bag for their take home book and diary. 

Please encourage your child to become independent.  You can help them by reminding them in the morning, then allowing them to be responsible for bringing in their own school bags, water bottles, take home books, notices and library books. 

We are all looking forward to a rigorous, productive and enjoyable first term with your wonderful children. 

Thank you for your support!

Manuela Pertile, Anna Meng, Robert Lou, Gordon