Primary Campus Report

I must admit, I get excited when I see the improvement and growth in our students as readers. During my visits to classrooms over the past couple of weeks, it has been very pleasing to see such high levels of engagement and focus on a variety of reading topics. As you know, at The Lakes we greatly value reading as it forms the essential part of your child’s education. The great news is that you can join in and encourage your child to complete their reading by spending some time reading aloud with them at home.

The benefits of reading to children are well researched and documented. Reading out aloud to children not only strengthens family bonds and provides positive interactions, but it also stimulates imagination and expands children’s understanding of the world. It helps them to develop oral language and listening skills.

When children are young, we know the value of bedtime stories and listening to our children read their school books aloud. What is important to remember however, is how beneficial it is to maintain this practice even once your child is old enough to read independently. Recent studies into this indicate that the majority of students no longer read with their parents once they reach the age of nine or ten.

Benefits of reading aloud (and with) older children include:

Letting them experience the joy of a story – particularly important for those who find reading difficult;
Modelling of fluent, expressive reading;
Exposure to a range of new authors, books and genres.

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of shared reading though is the opportunity to build and develop comprehension skills. Understanding is the key to being a successful reader and as children’s reading proficiency increases, the complexity of the books that they choose also increases. By discussing books with children we can help them to connect the book to their own experiences and to other books that they have read. So please continue to hear your child read. Model a love of books and reading as it is something they will keep with them forever.

Throughout the week it has been my great pleasure to spend some time in our Year Two cohort who have been immersed in their CAFÉ reading program (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Expand Vocabulary).

The students are learning how to ensure they are understanding what they are reading by using the strategy of ‘Checking for Understanding’. For this strategy they stop regularly while reading to ask ‘who’ and ‘what’ questions. They also try to remember to listen to their brains while they read! Keep up the great work!

Believe it or not, we are now starting to forward plan for 2021! It will be important for you to indicate to the school if you have a child starting next year.

We also have regular school tours for current and perspective parents. If you know of any families that are interested in coming to our school or would like to have an individual tour of our school, please let them know to ring the school to organise an individual tour.

Some important dates to remember on the Primary Campus:

Next week is Cultural Diversity Week. Children on the Primary Campus will be involved in a range of activities to celebrate our different cultures within our school community. Students are asked to dress up in their cultural dress/colours on Friday 20th March and will be involved in a special assembly starting at 2.20pm where they will perform cultural dances and performances. What a wonderful way to celebrate our many cultures within our school.
A reminder that our Mobile Dentist Van will be on site from Monday 16th March until Friday 27th March 2020.
End of term awards will be on Friday 27th March starting at 12.15pm on the Primary Campus. All parents are welcome to attend to celebrate the many wonderful achievements by our students this term. Students will be dismissed at 1.15pm on this day.

Have a great weekend.

Marcus