What's happening in our learning spaces? 

FOUNDATION

St Fidelis School community welcomes FLW students Hugo, Leo, Cristian, Sofia, Georgia, Jude, Zara, Edan, Ruby, Adam, Alessandra, Matthew, Isabel, Anthony, James, Gabriella, Violet, Arnold, Thomas, Mia, Eli, Xavier and FAP students Deniz, Henry, Harrison, Lincoln, Leo, Ella, Max, Lucy, Axil, Kaylee, Angelica, Sofia, Benjamin, Daniel, Madeline, Mia, Victor, Andrea, Mason, Yiannis, Evelyn and their families to our community for the 2023 school year. 

It has been a smooth transition to school for everyone over the past three half days of learning. Everyone is to be congratulated for their positive attitude.

As self-managers, we have been fantastic at engaging in the different daily routines, including the morning routine, brain food, recess and end of the day. We have also been introduced to the St Fidelis' Agreed Ways, and this week we will be introduced to the Photo Blocks as an extra organisational tool within the learning space and how to use them.

As Mathematicians, we have been identifying how many letters are in our names and how many people are in our families. We have also been counting different collections of teddies, counters and blocks and recording the numbers on whiteboards and on blank ten frames. We have been introduced to subitising cards and have enjoyed sharing with each other how many dots we could see when the cards were quickly shown to us. 

At home, students can practise counting from 0 to 20 and back, counting collections of items around the house and identifying different numbers that are visible at home eg on clocks, remote controls, house numbers or on appliances. 

This week it will be very exciting to participate in the specialist classes and for us to meet the different teachers who will share their knowledge and expertise with Italian, Visual Arts, STEM and Physical Education.

Each Tuesday, we will participate in Italian and Visual Arts learning and each Thursday we will participate in STEM and P.E. learning.  Just a reminder that the sports uniform is worn every Thursday.

This week we begin full days at school, but we still have Wednesday as a rest day. Some of us will come in on Wednesday at our scheduled time to engage in some literacy assessments. We also look forward to meeting the parents at the Parent/Teacher Meet and Greet on Wednesday. This will be a wonderful opportunity for us to find out a little bit more about our students.

Wishing everyone a great week!

Leanne Wenckowski and Alex Phillips, Foundation Team

YEAR 1 -2

Welcome back to the 2023 school year! We hope everyone had a lovely break and is ready for a wonderful term of learning. 

This year, we would like to extend a very big welcome to some new faces in 1/2. We welcome our two new teachers, Ms Karalis, who is just beginning her career as a teacher, and Miss Sparano, who recently got engaged. Congratulations to them both! We also welcome a new Grade Two student to our cohort, Zachariah, who is in 1/2VK. 

It's been such an exciting week in 1/2 getting to know our new teachers and classmates! It was wonderful to see everyone’s smiling faces as we walked into our new learning spaces on Tuesday morning. We unpacked our bags as if we had never left, and collaborated with one another as we engaged in puzzles, games, construction and book making, whilst catching up and sharing all of our stories from the break. We even engaged in tower building challenges, where we focused on how to be good communicators and collaborators. 

As self-managers, this week we focused on building positive relationships with one another and familiarising ourselves with the Agreed Ways, routines, transitions and expectations in our learning spaces and in the yard. We explored what we need to be and do to learn together and get along, and how to be respectful, responsible and safe members of our learning community.

We kindly ask that you take the time to read and listen to the Welcome Video that has been sent out. This will include all relevant information for the beginning of the school year and the different routines and timetables. Please note that we will begin sending home books to read this week. All students will bring home either five take-home texts at their level of instruction every Monday or books from the spinner for the week.  Please ensure they have their green folders at school. We will also begin going to the library this week, on a Tuesday (1/2AM and 1/2VS) or Wednesday (1/2VK). PE will be on a Thursday for 1/2VS and 8 students from 1/2VK and on Friday for 1/2AM and 9 students from 1/2VK. 

We look forward to getting to know you and your children and will see you all at the on-site Parent Teacher Meet and Greets this Wednesday, 8th February, from 1:30 pm onwards. 

1/2 Team, 

Alycia Marsico, Vania Sparano and Vicky Karalis 

YEAR 3/4

Welcome to Year 3/4 2023! We are very excited to begin a new learning year together!

This year, we would like to extend a very big welcome to two new faces in Year 3/4 - Poppy & Erica. We also welcome a new teacher, Miss Zorzut. 

We familiarised ourselves with the learning space and agreed ways of learning. We shared our holiday experiences with each other and discovered our interests and passions through thoughtful conversations. 

We kindly ask that you take the time to read and listen to the Welcome Video that has been sent out on SkoolBag. This will include all relevant information for the beginning of the school year and the different routines and timetables. 

Specialist Timetable

On Friday, we participated in Softball Clinics facilitated by Mel. We learnt how to put on a glove and how to throw and catch. We can’t wait to learn more skills in the next few weeks. 

We look forward to getting to know you and your children, and will see you all at the on-site Parent Teacher Meet and Greets this Wednesday, 8th February, from 1:30pm onwards. 

Year 3/4 Teachers

Belinda Panzarino & Bianka Zorzut 

YEAR 5/6

What a fantastic start of the school year it has been for the Year 5/6 students. We are so impressed at how settled they already are coming into the SLA building. We are looking forward to a great year of learning and fun!

Last week, each class formed their own set of class expectations and values based on the agreed ways. It has been wonderful observing the students put these ideas into practice. The common values throughout the SLA building were respect, kindness, honesty, empathy and fairness. We look forward to maintaining a learning environment that reflects these values.

Students also had the opportunity last week to explore their artistic talents through the creation of a self-portrait, snapshot images and personalised hoodies. This was a fantastic way to get to know each student in our learning space and hear about what everyone got up to over the Summer holidays.

The students in the Year 5/6 area have also been creating their own ‘Time Capsule’ which will be safely guarded and returned at the end of the year. This was a great way for students to discuss their hopes and goals for 2023. They also had a lot of fun measuring themselves and we are certain we will see some changes at the end of the year. When it came to making predictions about the year ahead, there were some fierce debates, particularly around the A.F.L. premiership. It will be interesting to see if anyone is correct in who they hope will win!

The students are very much looking forward to beginning specialist classes this week. Last Friday the students began preparing and practising for our inter-school sports program that will be beginning in the coming weeks. This was an opportunity for students to explore a sport they may not have tried before, and give it a go. We are very impressed with the students' enthusiasm so far and can't wait to start competing! 

We hope you have had an opportunity to listen to and enjoy our ‘Parent Welcome Video’ sent through the SkoolBag app as much as we enjoyed making it. If you haven’t already, we highly recommend that you watch it, as there is a lot of helpful information there.

We look forward to meeting/seeing you Wednesday and looking forward to a great year ahead!

5/6 Teachers, 

Olivia Sargent, Graham Troy and Aoife O’Flynn