Junior School

Congratulations to our parents on a wonderful Term 1. After such a long time away from the school routine, making lunches, packing bags, washing uniforms, finding lost socks and getting out the door on time - you have all picked up and as all parents do, got on with the job at hand.

Please know that I saw you, and I admire your ability to work within change whilst showing support through your actions for your child, their teachers and Oakleigh Grammar.

Term 2 will be a busy one, our fingers and toes are crossed with hope that some of the current regulations lift, allowing for greater opportunities to share our Junior School successes and celebrations.

As we all use the Easter break to refuel and rest, I take this moment to acknowledge Ms Sarah Boardman for her leadership across the Junior School, in particular the Early Learning Centre.

Her expertise within the early years is admirable, her passion for early childhood development has led to great accomplishments within our Early Learning Centre. She is most definitely the quiet achiever.

Change is good, change is great, and change shakes us up and shows us what our true ability is. On behalf of the Oakleigh Grammar community, I take this moment to say thank you to Ms Sarah Boardman. You will be missed, you will be remembered and we will continue to build on your legacy that is ‘every student and family matters’. This change is yours – this success is yours to achieve.

Shelley Parkes

Head of Junior School

It has been an incredible term in the Junior School. The stamina of our students always impresses me. Even during this last week of term, we are still enjoying the big smiles, the enthusiasm and witnessing the commitment to learning. I wanted to finish the term by sharing with you an insight into our literacy rotations. Ask your child to share with you something they enjoy about our literacy learning during this time. If these sessions are ever missed, for any reason (incursions, special assemblies, public holidays etc.), the children always express their eagerness to catch up on these rotations.

Twice a week our students work in small groups and rotate through focussed and intentional literacy tasks. Each of these provides opportunities to apply learned skills and integrates a variety of literacy learning outcomes.

Within the rotations students revise and apply their weekly spelling patterns, they build on grammar skills and they develop writing either as a handwriting task or by working on a specific writing feature. In our guided reading groups, students are supported to develop greater control over the reading process through the development of reading strategies that assist in decoding and constructing meaning. These sessions allow teachers to support, scaffold and build on both reading fluency and comprehension.  Reading out loud is one of the most effective ways to strengthen reading skills, and research shows that it can significantly improve word recognition, fluency, and comprehension in students at all levels.

Our guided reading texts are chosen specific to the group and specific to individual readers. They are selected to be at a level so that reading fluency can be accessed but still contain some complexities that require deep thought.

Our reading comprehension strategies have an intentional focus for a period of 3 – 4 weeks and are applied during this guided session and built on in independent tasks.

I hope you enjoy some holiday reading with your children and the joy it brings to read to your child or have them read to you.

Happy Holidays,  

Sarah Caffrey

Head of Curriculum Junior School

Our Junior School is a thriving space.  

This year we will be intentionally highlighting The Quartet and its phases. 

We anticipate bringing back our Snap Chat sessions on some platform  -  be that in person or via TEAMs.  We know that as families you have missed out on hearing and seeing so much of your child’s learning over the past couple of years.

Success Is Ours To Achieve is our 2023.  I encourage you to work with your homeroom and specialist teachers in assisting your child achieve their success over the year.