Learning & Teaching 

INQUIRY & LITERACY - Vira Pirrotta

Inquiry Learning 

Our Inquiry learning at St. Fidelis aims to activate thinking on many levels and in many forms. We plan inquiries for students to seek and make sense of the world around them.  At its very heart, an inquiry is all about thinking and making meaning about the world around us. When planning, our teachers ensure that as students move through the process of inquiry, they can draw on several ways of investigating, creating, wondering, questioning and expressing their growing understanding of their inquiry.  This term the students have been involved in the following inquiries.

Foundation to Year 2: What makes it move? The students will inquire into forces that create movement. They will also learn about the role of movement in our lives, environment and community.

Year 3 and 4: Who decides and how? The students will inquire about how democracy and communities make decisions in different ways and for different reasons. They will explore how decisions can be made to benefit a community and how as active citizens, we have a responsibility to contribute to rule-making. 

Year 5 and 6: How does science contribute to a healthy and active community? An Inquiry into the role of science in keeping us healthy and active. 

As part of their Inquiry learning the students have been involved in many learning opportunities in their learning spaces, excursions and incursions. We also celebrated Science week as part of this term’s Inquiry.

Have a look at the Incursions, Excursions and Learning completed throughout the term. 

Foundation to Year 2 

The Foundation to Year 2 students attended the Essendon Traffic School and Science Works. They have also been involved in working with Mr Frazzetto to create a moving object that will make a difference in someone’s life. 

Years 3 and 4 

The students had a visit from Liz Blanthorn to talk about how decisions are made at the government level. She was amazed at the very thoughtful questions asked by our students. They also had the opportunity to be involved in a decision-making incursion which allowed them to be involved in the voting process. 

Foundation to Year 6

The students have investigated different ways to stay healthy and active. As part of this investigation, they have created products and services for students at St. Fidelis. They have conducted fair testing for these products and services and will promote them at their Science Expo showcase. We are excited about their expo.  

Family Engagement - Leanne Wenckowski

Thank you to the parents, carers and grandparents who have brought their children/grandchildren to Story Time each Monday afternoon at 2:30 pm during Term 3. It has been so successful with the number of children and adults participating each week. Existing families and new Foundation families for 2023 have joined together to connect through play, a story and a craft activity. Even on rainy Monday afternoons, we have gathered together. 

Each week the children have an opportunity to borrow a book or two and take the books home in a decorated calico library bag.

This term we have created rockets, bear puppets, a pop-up clown, colourful monsters, dinosaurs, lion puppets, decorated hands, completed a portrait of our dads, and decorated flowers for Spring. This week we finished off the term by creating our own “Magic Hat”.

Wishing everyone a lovely holiday break and I look forward to seeing everyone back for Story Time on Monday 3rd October at 2:30 pm.

Leanne Wenckowski

Family Engagement Leader

NUMERACY - Colleen Monaghan

We have had students doing very well on the Matific Olympiad. I hope they have enjoyed being part of the Matific Olympiad. Congratulations to Maya Woodhouse 5/6VC, Christian Pappas 5/6VC, Eliana Kachi 3/4KD,  Genevieve Mmadike 5/6OS, Jessica Tonna 5/6CG, Joe Hamwi 5/6VC, Jacob Pasceri 3/4KD, Savannah Alves, Alana Kraljevski 5/6CG & Simon Kachi 5/6VC for achieving the ruby level of 300 stars. Our school came 63rd and in the top 10% so amazing results. Here are a few photos of students engaged in it at school and at home.

If you are looking for ideas to help your child with Maths over the holidays here are a few ideas: While many of us don’t own an analogue watch or have analogue clocks displayed in our homes, our children are expected to be able to tell the time on these. It would be worth your while purchasing one from KMART if your child can’t tell the time. Referring to the clock can be a regular part of your day. 

Time: point out the time on an analogue clock when you are out and about or getting ready to head out. The curriculum expectations for students are as follows:

Foundation:  Compare and order the duration of events using the everyday language of the time. Tell time to the hour ( oçlock)

Year 1: Tell the time to the half-hour

Year 2: Tell time to the quarter-hour, using the language of 'past' and 'to'

Year 3: Tell time to the minute and investigate the relationship between units of time

Year 4: Use am and pm notation and solve simple time problems convert between units of time

Year 5:  Compare 12- and 24-hour time systems and convert between them

Year 6:  Interpret and use timetablesMeasure, calculate and compare the elapsed time

SPORT & PE - Michael Jennings

SSV INNER NORTH/MORELAND DIVISION ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2022

The SSV Inner North/Moreland Athletics Championships was held on Wednesday 7 September 2022 at Meadowglen Athletics Track, Epping.

Congratulations to the following St Fidelis' Athletics Team representatives on their wonderful performances throughout the day. Our St Fidelis competitors should feel very proud of their efforts at this high level of competition.

Thank you to the parents, relatives and friends who were able to transport the competitors and support the students in their endeavours. Thank you to Selena Triulcio and Catherine Francione for being available as emergencies for our relay teams. A special mention to Hunter Fitzgerald on winning the 11-Year Girls Shot Put event and advancing to compete at the Northern Metropolitan Athletics Championships next Term (4).

ST FIDELIS COMPETITORS

Raf Santilli 12/13 Boys Long Jump Finalist

Mia Nightingale 10 Year Girls 4 x 100m Relay 3rd

Hunter Fitzgerald 10 Year Girls 4 x 100m Relay 3rd

Scarlett Falsetta-Spina 10 Year Girls 4 x 100m Relay 3rd

Zara Azzopardi 10 Year Girls 4 x 100m Relay 3rd

Kiara Louca 11 Year Girls 4 x 100m Relay 3rd

Eva Arounsavat 11 Year Girls 4 x 100m Relay 3rd

Nakita Gertos 11 Year Girls 4 x 100m Relay 3rd

Olivia Fontana 11 Year Girls 4 x 100m Relay 3rd

Hunter Fitzgerald 10 Year Girls Shot Put 1st

Mia Nightingale 10 Year Girls 100m 5th

Kiara Louca 11 Year Girls 100m 3rd

Winter Sport Uniforms

We require all winter sports uniforms to be returned to school by the end of this week.

Could all Year 5/6 students who played football, soccer or netball please return the following items:

Football or soccer boots

Football or soccer socks

Football jumpers

Soccer shirts

Netball singlets

Netball dresses

SPORTS DAY

Sports Day Teams are attached for your reference. Sports Day will be held in Term 4.

CONGRATULATIONS

 Congratulations to Carlo, Orlando, Rafael, Hudson & Tommy who received trophies at the Under 7 Brunswick Juventus FC presentation night.

SSV Codes of Conduct For Students, Parents, Spectators, Teachers & Coaches

School Sport Vic follows and enforces codes of conduct for all participants in SSV events whether they are students, teachers, coaches, sporting officials, parents, spectators or administrators.  

Parent Code of Conduct

STEM - Joe Frazzetto

At St Fidelis, our students are Scientists, Technicians, Engineers and Mathematicians. Students from Foundation to Year 6 are coding, designing, creating and reflecting on their learning. 

This term, the Foundation students used LEGO Coding Express and BeeBots to create beautiful artwork. By coding the BeeBots they draw perfect circles and vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines. 

The Year 1/2 students were introduced to the LEGO BricQ kits to construct and understand the forces of gravity, friction, pull, push and motion. 

The Year 3/4 students worked collaboratively to explore the new LEGO Spike Essential kits. They coded and built cars, a helicopter, a boat and a tight rope and they also programmed them to do a specific task using motors, sound and light sensors. 

The Year 5/6 students worked in pairs to build the Practice Driving Base, arm, marker and cube. They were asked to try the two programming stacks to see which one will make their Driving Base stop at the marker. They also had to modify their programming blocks to their Driving Base to make the arm lower, collect and return the object from a distance of at least 30 cm away from the marker.

National STEM MAD Showcase

On Tuesday, 6th of September 2022, Catherine Francione, Connor Portelli, Scarlett Falsetta Spina and Ethan Mercadante attended the STEM MAD Student National showcase at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre to promote and pitch their prototype CLEO The Cleaning Whale. Their Prototype was awarded the Victorian Sustainability award. They also won the National award in the Inspired by Nature category. 

The STEM MAD National Showcase is a celebration of student learning. It acknowledges and promotes STEM learning initiatives that address real-world problems and demonstrate the particularity of Catholic Schools. It encourages students to make a difference (MAD) in the world by acting for justice and the common good. It aligns with the papal call for action in Laudato Si': On Care for our Common Home and with dioceses from around Australia participating.

STEM MAD National is a celebration of excellence in Catholic Education. The nation's best Primary, Secondary and 'Future is STEM' student teams, nominated by their dioceses, showcase their projects to conference participants, diocesan representatives, sponsors and affiliated organisations, school communities and fellow students.

Here are our Victorian and National winners’ recounts of their experience at the National STEM MAD Showcase.

Connor Portelli

My experience going to STEM MAD National was fun and exciting because I collaborated and worked with new people while making CLEO - The Cleaning Whale. At the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, we pitched our idea and met people that have helped revolutionise the world such as Dr Jordan Nguyen. He has helped disabled people that can’t move their bodies, by letting them use their eyes to drive a car. He also has made a wheelchair so people can move around more easily. We also have had the opportunity to go on the radio twice. The first time was at the STEM MAD Regional and now again at the STEM MAD Nationals. We presented our project and talked about winning the “Inspired by Nature” award.

Catherine Francione

The STEM MAD National Showcase was a great experience. I got to see all the different unique ideas that people from all across Australia entered into the competition, and it was fascinating to look at and learn about them. The best part was probably when Dr Jordan Nguyen came to our stall and looked at our project. He loved it! He even recorded a video of our model to send to his friends! We put a lot of time and effort into the project, and it was great to see that effort paid off, as many people remarked on how great our project was and how it will make a big difference. Overall, even though we didn’t win a major award, it felt so rewarding to go to Nationals and represent our school.

Scarlett Falsetta Spina

My experience at STEM MAD was AMAZING. I loved working with my group. I loved it all. My group and I got to go on the radio and the TV. We talked about our experience and how CLEO works. A lot of people came to our booth, including Dr Jordan Nguyen. He is trying to change the world by making a difference for disabled people.  We explained to him how CLEO works and he took a video of CLEO working so he could share our idea with his friends. We also went to the light and shadow puppetry. It all looked STUNNING. There were lots of other schools from other places around Australia. I had the best time there.

Ethan Mercadante

“Never stop Imagining,” said Dr Jordan Nguyen during his presentation that involved robotically controlled AI, a mind-controlled wheelchair and lots and lots of robotics. Then afterwards, people came to our table. We got interviewed, Catherine and I went to look at some other projects and then Scarlett and I went to look at the light and shadow production. Then… Dr Jordan Nguyen himself came to our table. It was amazing to see people’s reactions to what we made. Then it was our time to go on the radio! We spoke about CLEO the Cleaning Whale and Mrs Watson spoke about St Fidelis STEM Program. Before we knew it, they were announcing the winners. It was not us but hey we did our best and won the National Award for Inspired by Nature. We were excited and proud of our prototype - “CLEO The Cleaning Whale”.

“Never stop asking questions”

Luca Sortino

After going to the STEM MAD regional showcase with my past group (the Super Health Scanner) and not making it to the nationals, I helped Ethan, Catherine, Scarlett and Connor with their project CLEO the Cleaning Whale, by creating animation for their video entry. After weeks of contributing to the project, it was finally time to watch the online award session. We gathered and won the ‘Inspired by Nature’ award. We also came second in the sponsored award from SEAM that the group initially won in the regional competition. Then on Tuesday, the group went to the second part of the competition at the Melbourne Convention Centre unfortunately, only the core group could attend.  But at the end of all this, it was an experience of a lifetime.

Here is a YouTube clip about CLEO The Cleaning Whale Collaborative Team’s Journey to the National STEM MAD Showcase.

ITALIAN - Rosa Fokianos

Buongiorno a tutti!

It certainly has been a busy term this term, with lots of learning and fun going on. I hope that your children have been practising their Italian at home. 

Here is a quick snapshot of what they have learnt this term in class:

Foundation: 

Introduction to Le parti del Corpo (body parts), including being introduced to the much loved character Pinocchio, through the Ecco Pinocchio text. As well as being introduced to shape names. Perhaps they could sing you a song about body parts that your child has learnt this term?

Grade 1/2: 

Che cosa fai a scuola? - What do you do at school? An introduction to verbs, by asking what actions the children do at school. I wonder if they can tell you some of the verbs in italiano?

Grade 3/4: 

Che ore sono? - What is the time? Here the children learnt to tell the time by asking and learning how to say o’clock, half past, a quarter past and a quarter to, using analogue clocks as well as briefly discussing the digital times. Perhaps you could ask them to tell you the time at home? 

Grade 5/6:

The Roman Empire - A cultural unit, whereby the children explored various aspects of the Roman Empire, including researching collaboratively a chosen Roman Empire topic which will be presented to their peers first thing next term. Perhaps your child/ren could tell you a fact or two that they have learnt or researched?

I would now like to take this opportunity to wish all the St Fidelis families and community a happy and well earned rest.

Until next term…Buona settimana e buone vacanze a tutti! (Have a good week and happy holidays to all).

Signora Rosa 🌹