Learning 

Learning and Teaching - Literacy and Numeracy

Term 4 will see our children being welcomed back onsite after this extended lockdown period. As you may be aware, children in Year Prep, One and Two will begin a hybrid learning and teaching model of mixed online and remote starting in Week 3. Children in Years Three/Four and Five/Six will begin a hybrid learning and teaching model of mixed onsite and online starting in Week 4.

Over the next couple of weeks, educators will be preparing our learning spaces and making necessary adjustments for children to have a seamless transition back to school. We encourage you to reach out to your child’s Hub educators if this can be further supported. Our focus will be on JOY and LOVE, as well as supporting children to be adaptive, self-directed and curious. Learning spaces will be designed to foster this, as well as our Literacy and Numeracy focuses.

Children will be continuing or re-sparking their investigations into the concepts of progress and perspectives at the beginning of this term. Using a Science lens, educators and children will explore how these concepts are lived out, following the Scientific Inquiry Process. 

Updated curriculum overviews will be sent out this Friday that include Community Project, Faith, and Specialists focuses for Term 4.

Lauren Davis, Jarryd Bradford & Chevon Adamidis

Learning and Teaching Leaders

ldavis@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au 

jbradford@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au 

cadamidis@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au 

Literacy

Welcome back to Term 4!

In the upcoming Newsletters, I’ll be sharing with you some tips and tricks for how you can support your child’s writing in the Primary Year’s, as written by a former school Principal of the Turner school (ACT), Jo Padgham:

Time

• Every child loves special time with the significant adults in their lives, so make a regular time in your family routine to talk, read and write with your child.

• Children get better at writing by writing. They need sustained periods of time to engage in the writing process. This is true for inside the classroom and at home. Having time to revisit a piece of writing is important so encouraging them to write and revisit their writing, sharing it with you will support their development in writing.

Purpose, Audience and Response

• When children have a real purpose to write and an audience to write for, their engagement and motivation to write increases. Talk to your child about who they are writing this piece for and once they know that, it supports them to know what needs to be written.

• Consider relatives and friends for whom a regular email can be exchanged.

• Have your child write invitations, letters or perhaps a family collection of jokes to share at family gatherings.

• All writers need a response to their writing so encourage family members to write back to your child or thank them for their message or list.

Choice

• Choice promotes engagement. Let your child follow their interests and passions through books, magazines, comics, websites and what they want to write and how they want to write.

• Encourage your young child to write lists, messages, cards, signs, letters and emails.

• It is helpful to expose children to different text genres, authors and fiction and non-fiction as these can provide the models for writing when they need to write in that genre.

Vocabulary

• Building your child’s oral language and vocabulary is a cornerstone to their success as a literate young person equipped to manage the complex language landscape operating in their world today and

tomorrow.

• Read books with rich literary language and talk about the words, have fun with the language and linger over the wonderful words, phrases or sentences writers have chosen. These are an ‘author’s gift’ and worth collecting with your child.

• Perhaps your child could have a Writer’s Notebook at home where they collect these ‘author’s gifts’.

Stay tuned for more tips in the coming newsletters!

If you have any specific questions about how you can support your child’s writing, please feel free to send me an email!

Daniela De Luca

Pedagogical Leader, Literacy

ddeluca@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au 

Numeracy

Years 3-6 Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC) update -

The AMC has communicated that the results process is taking longer than usual with postal delays and various restrictions around Australia. This has meant that results are expected to be released in the next week or two. Fingers crossed we have received some information to share in next fortnight’s newsletter!

Lauren Davis

Numeracy Leader

ldavis@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au

Learning Diversity

October is Learning Difficulties/Learning Disabilities awareness month!

In Australia, up to 1 in 10 people has a learning disability, or thinks differently when it comes to learning. Awareness month offers us an opportunity to reflect on how learning difficulties and disabilities may impact students and their families. It reminds us to celebrate the significant achievements that these students have made! It also reminds us to renew our commitment to ensuring that they are valued, supported and empowered in their learning!

Some of the ways we’ve been supporting our diverse learners during Remote Learning include:

• Additional target groups (known as reinforcement groups) with our co-educators
• Instructions for tasks and target groups are broken down and simplified, with educators providing these in multiple ways: written, step by step, aided with visual prompts, additional links and videos modeling the skill/strategy.
• Educators pre-planning time for independent task modeling and instructions.
• Target groups lead with visual stimuli including images, video clips, interactive online games.
• Providing Reading Discovery sessions
• Provides Maths Intervention sessions
• Virtual sessions with our Speech Therapists and Occupational Therapist through Deewardrop.

Chevon Adamidis & Mitch Hayes

Learning Diversity Leaders

cadamidis@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au 

mitch.hayes@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au

Wellbeing

This week and next, our educators will be busy planning and preparing for our children to return onsite. We are taking many things into consideration; first and foremost including the health and safety of our students. In addition to this, educators will be busy refreshing their Hubs, so that students are returning to beautiful and inspiring learning spaces. Educators are also preparing days of JOY, FUN and RECONNECTION for our students. We recognise how important it is that we support students to reconnect with their peers and educators quickly, to help them in feeling safe and comfortable at school again. While returning to school will be absolutely joyus for some, for others, there may be feelings of worry around reconnecting with peers and being away from home and family. If you have any concerns regarding your child’s transition back to school, please get in touch with their hub educators or Ashlee, our Wellbeing Leader. (aowen@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au)

This term, during our morning Ready to Learn time, students will focus on Collaboration from the Personal and Social Capability Curriculum.

• Our Prep Hub will name and practise basic skills for working with peers, such as listening, turn taking and sharing. They will also describe how positive and negative experiences (such as conflict) might make them feel.
• Our One and Two Hubs will practise using skills for working in groups and reflect on their contribution to the group. Students will also explore conflict and possible solutions to familiar conflict situations, such as a disagreement over playground equipment.
• Our 3/4 hub will practise skills for working effectively in a team and use criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of their team. They will also explore peer conflict and suggest possible causes and solutions.
• Our 5/6 Hub will identify characteristics of an effective team, develop role descriptions for members of the team and describe their own and others’ effectiveness in undertaking these roles. Students will also describe various causes of conflict and evaluate possible strategies to resolve conflict.

Ashlee Owen

Wellbeing Leader

aowen@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au 

Faith

We will keep families posted as to the arrangements for the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation and of Eucharist. We do not have any dates to share as yet, however we will write to families as soon as we have any further information. 

This term each Hub will be exploring faith celebrations such as the Mass, we will also be preparing to enter into the Advent season and reflecting in hope, love, joy and peace. We will share online prayer gatherings during time, which will be shared with families on our Gathering Places. 

Aoife Mc Carthy

Faith Leader

amccarthy@sjfootscray.catholic.edu.au

Spring - a poem by Jason

Woiwurrung Word of the Week

St Johns has purchased the Woiwurrung Language Resource for the Early Years.

Woiwurrung language was traditionally spoken and is being reclaimed today by the Wurundjeri people, who inhabited the land along the Yarra and Maribyrnong rivers.

The Woiwurrung Language Cards have been produced by the Wurun Child and Family Place and Yarra Ranges Council with permission from key Wurundjeri Elders.

Acknowledging and celebrating Aboriginal culture and its connection to spirituality and language, family and kinship, land, country and community is important in protecting and developing inclusion and equity. Language in particular is recognised as a precious part of cultural strength and pride.

Each newsletter we will share with you a new Woiwurrung word of the week, we hope that this will provide you with a chance to read, speak, and talk about it with your family.