Governing Council
Parliament House visit
On August 9, members of the Governing Council were invited for a tour of Parliament House. It was a great opportunity to visit with the local MP for King, Rhiannon Pearce, and discuss some of the concerns that our community are facing. We look forward to seeing what can be done, working together with those who work for the community.
Tammy Lamey
Governing Council member
Teachers report presented at Governing Council meeting; week 4, term 3
Early Years
F-1 This term we have been developing our confidence to transfer our phonics learning to our reading and writing. We have been including adjectives in our sentences to give more details. In maths, students have explored time duration through various activities. It has been great to see students participating in Footsteps and IBL (Inquiry-Based Learning) this term.
Year 1 & 2 students have been delving into twisted tales and analysing different writing genres. We have become more familiar with the structure of narratives & procedures and are looking deeper at vocabulary and using interesting descriptive language choices.
In maths, we have been focussing on place value and being able to partition larger numbers as well as working on our understanding of fractions and also how fractions can help us tell the time on an analogue clock.
Primary Years
The return to school for term 3 has seen all students excited and ready for learning. We have begun the term by focusing on procedure writing within a narrative in year 3. In maths, we have been working with numbers up to 10,000 in place value and have just begun fractions.
Middle Years
The Middle Years students have settled back into routine for term 3 and have been hard at work. In Maths, students have been focusing on using the four operations with decimal numbers, and improving their understanding and skills with percentages and fractions.
In English, the Year 5 students have been examining characters and features of comics and animation, whereas the Year 6’s are focusing on news reports in the Media. The focus in HaSS this term is on Civics and Citizenship, with the Year 5’s focusing on what it means to be an active and informed citizen, while the Year 6’s are learning about Australia’s democratic system of government.
Through the Bike Ed program, the year 5 students have been practising their bike riding skills, as well as learning about the safety related to bike riding, and how to appropriately use the gears. Footsteps is back for another year, and the Middle Years students have been showing off their best dancing skills!
Performing Arts
In Music this term students will develop listening skills and skills for creating elements of music when singing and playing instruments.
F-2 The students will be learning Music: “Play it again.” What is a musical instrument? They will use chants to explore the elements of music focusing on beat and rhythm, tempo and form as they compose, rehearse and perform a rhythmic ostinato using their voices and instruments. Students will be learning Music: “A Trip to the Stars”. Students will learn how speech and voices are used to communicate and will explore how music communicates meanings and emotions.
3-4 The students will be learning Music: “Play it again.” What is a musical instrument? They will use chants to explore the elements of music focusing on beat and rhythm, tempo and form as they compose, rehearse and perform a rhythmic ostinato using their voices and instruments. Students will be learning Music: “A Trip to the Stars”. Students will learn how speech and voices are used to communicate and will explore how music communicates meanings and emotions. Experimenting with movement and voice, students will deepen their knowledge of elements of music to create music expression.
5-6 The students will be learning Music: ”What’s in the Box”? In music, students will explore the concepts of beat, rhythm, tempo and dynamics. Using a scaffolded structure, students will compose, rehearse and perform music in small groups. They will collaborate and arrange ideas to compose, rehearse and perform music to engage an audience.
Japanese
This term the students are focussing on learning hiragana which is the Japanese alphabet. Students in all year levels are doing this to some degree. Some students know all of the hiragana so are working on reading proficiency and fluency.
We are also in preparation for the hiragana competition which is in week 9 and Keithcot Farm Primary School. Some students are practising at home or in a lunchtime session in the hope of making the team. This will be a very small team of just 4 students in either year 5 or 6 so it is very hard to get selected.
Science
This term’s area of focus is Biological Science where students will be focusing on understanding, identifying and observing plants and animals.
Foundations and year 1 students have begun learning about their 5 senses and how we can use our senses to identify different animals, by looking at their external features.
Year 2 students have started the term understanding the basic needs of humans and how these are the same needs for ALL animals, as we fall under the animal kingdom when looking at living things.
Year 3 students have been participating in a variety of investigations to develop an understanding of the 7 characteristics of ALL living things.
Year 4 students have begun the term developing their science inquiry skills through scientific drawings of specimens. They will continue the term focusing on food chains and feeding relationships (producers, consumers and decomposers).
Year 5 and 6 students have begun fieldwork in the school environment, making observations and collecting data on the local bird, insect and plant species, and how these are thriving or impacted by a variety of factors.
Physical Education (PE)
The focus for the junior primary students has been striking. Students practised their hitting skills using cricket bats, t-ball bats and paddle bats. The focus for the primary students has been long rope skipping and elastics. Students practised movement sequences and performed their own.
IBL
13 block students are exploring digital systems and how they work. Thinking skills are introduced through programming the cubetto and bee bot robots to develop an understanding that algorithms are a sequence of steps or procedures for carrying out instructions to solve problems or achieve certain things.
Year 3/4 classes are identifying and describing the features of different types of bees in Australia. They will sequence the stages of development of a bee and explain the division of labour within a bee colony. They will discuss our reliance on bees for food and describe the interaction between bees and flowering plants.