Teaching and Learning

Big Write and VCOP

At St Mary’s we use the Big Write and VCOP program to support students' writing skills. This week the students will be completing a Baseline Big Write on a mystery topic. We complete the baseline with minimal to no support from adults to ensure that we get an accurate picture of their ability.

Next week, on Thursday 9th February, the students will be completing their first Big Write with a pre-known topic. We encourage students to participate in Home Talk in preparation for their Big Write. Please read the attached document about Home Talk. The topic for the 9th February will be:

Inform and Empower E-safety program

Assessments

We have begun our beginning of year assessments in all classrooms. All students will be participating in 1-on-1 Running Records, where their decoding and comprehension skills will be assessed. They are also undertaking the Mathematics Online Interview, which is a 1-on-1 assessment to check their verbal and reading skills in regards to counting, place value, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division. 

F-2 testing will also be conducted throughout February which will look at students’ phonemic awareness, listening comprehension, decoding, writing and spelling skills. Grade 1-6 students will also be participating in the SA spelling test to monitor their identification of spelling patterns.