Language & Culture Program

Kii, Deadly TPS community, biladu-njan wat/how are you all? And in the words of my Yawuru language...Ngaji gurrjin/Hello everyone! 

Wominjeka/welcome to a new year, to all of our students and families, especially those of you who are just starting your journey at TPS!

All classes started with a focus on our school values: learning about respect for one another, working together, perseverance, integrity and trust. We read and unpacked a few Dreaming stories and their relevant lessons, to assist us with deepening our understanding of our TPS values and expected Deadly behaviours within the school. We have spent time in developing our relationships with one another through ‘getting to know you’ activities - students in Grade 1-6 have created personal profiles about themselves, using Woiwurrung in their work e.g. Narrinik = My name is…; Marrambik = I am…

For the remainder of the term, and depending on year level, all classes will focus on learning some aspects of Wurundjeri Woiwurrung – Country, People, Place, Stories - through the ‘Eight Wurundjeri Seasons in Melbourne’ Calendar, which will be our main driver for learning. We will also focus our attention on relevant and important events that occur throughout the term - Grades 1-6 have already reviewed and continued to grow knowledge and understanding of events and ideas grounded in National Apology Day. 

We are also going to learn a few songs that relate to the topics we are learning about.

The main language focus in Foundation will be about learning some basic classroom commands, toilet and drink requests, answering yes/no to simple questions, basic greeting and farewell, greeting song, birthday song. Foundation students will develop their awareness of the sounds in the Woiwurrung language through focused listening of the language being modelled.

Season Greeting Song

Students in year one to six are continuing to learn and practice greetings and introductions, basic conversation phrases and classroom commands. 

They will continue to grow and consolidate their vocabulary knowledge of family/people nouns, class totem animal names, and relevant topic words. Students will also continue to develop their knowledge of the different sounds in the Woiwurrung language, and depending on their grade level, the associated letter patterns used to write these sounds: Year 1/2 will focus on short vowels and single letter consonants; Year 3-6 will focus on short and long vowels, single and double letter consonants. Studentswill continue to develop their knowledge and understanding of basic Woiwurrung grammar, with a particular focus on the use of suffixes to determine subject (the do-er), object, and tense (time). 

It has been burndap-dhak/so good working with students in the Koorie Room again, and I look forward to a Deadly year of learning with them!

Twaganin!