Teaching & Learning

Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge

There are only 53 days left to complete the Victorian Premiers Reading Challenge. We have quite a few students who have completed part of the challenge and 1 student who has completed it. Congratulations to MacKenzie G.

Below you can see the snapshot of how Mackenzie has been able to complete the challenge and some of the books she has read along the way.

As a reminder you can join the challenge by following the steps below.

Your teacher will give you a Challenge username and password. Keep them in a safe place. If you lose or forget your Challenge password, ask your Challenge coordinator or class teacher to generate a new one for you.

1. Go to the Challenge application.
2. Select the School/Student button.
3. Select the VPRC login option.
4. Enter your username and password.
5. Select Login.

Raising Funds for Mphatso

On the last day of Term 2 the Buninyong campus held a fundraiser for the Mphatso Children’s Foundation. Led by our student fundraising team, we were able to raise over $700 for the children of Malawi. What an amazing effort given our current situation. We really are lucky to live in a community that is so willing to give so that others can survive.

Our fundraising team share some thoughts about why this donation will make such a difference.

Kindness is a gift everyone can afford to give and together as a school community we have given a wonderful gift to the children of Malawi. This money will help buy meals for the children and help give them the energy to learn and complete day to day activities.

At the moment Malawi is also going through the COVID-19 pandemic but the families don’t have the financial support from the government that we have here in Australia. 

At the moment the Mphatso Children’s Foundation is currently supporting 100 babies whose mothers have either died or are currently sick. 

We will pass this money to Mrs Bomatali who will be able to get it to Mphatso. We would like to thank everyone who donated for their wonderful support.

Macie, Ivy, Shylynn and Marli 

Student Fundraising Team 

Spelling Mastery to Words Their Way 

Due to COVID -19 physical distancing restrictions, we can no longer conduct our Spelling Mastery program. The current setup of the program requires students to participate in mixed groups from across multiple classes, something we are trying to avoid. The nature of the Spelling Mastery program makes it very difficult to run in a single classroom while doing justice to the learning of all students.

In order to maintain a focus on the development of spelling strategies we will be implementing a new model that is more aligned to our new normal of limiting contact of students to those in the same class.

The new model is called Words Their Way and is based on a word study approach to learning phonics, spelling and vocabulary by comparing and contrasting word features. This new model allows for students to work at their point of need receiving the support required without leaving the classroom.

Over the coming few weeks this program will be implemented throughout the school.

Camps

Department of Education advice has suggested that camps can go ahead with extra vigilance given to health and hygiene procedures, a focus on maintaining physical distancing strategies and ensuring camps are not held in the Melbourne or Mitchell Shires.

Currently, the Year 3, 5 and 6 teams are working with our camp providers to modify the programs so as we can provide an experience for our students in a safe and supportive environment.

Obviously, we will be monitoring advice from DET and the Chief Health Officer and adhering to any advice provided.

At present the Year 5 camp will be going ahead to Halls Gap on 27 – 29 July and I am sure all students are looking forward to this experience. We have been very lucky to secure alternative dates for this camp and are thankful for the support of parents who are working to a very tight turn-around on all the paperwork and payments. Should any families require financial support to help with the costs of camp, please contact the school office.

Stay tuned for more details regarding our Year 3 and 6 camps.

Homework is Back

During the last few weeks of Term 2 as students returned to face-to-face teaching we gave homework a rest. This term sees homework return in the usual format. As a reminder:

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

• Expectations for homework will be set early in the year and communicated with parents in Term 1’s year level newsletter.
• Homework will be personalised by classroom teachers to suit student needs.
• The date Homework starts and is due will be consistent across the whole school for all grade levels. Homework will be given out on Friday and due the following Thursday.
• Homework tasks should be attainable by students, with minimal assistance/supervision.
• Time spent on homework should gradually increase as the child moves up through the school.
• Homework will receive a response from the teacher upon completion appropriate to the homework task.
• Set homework should be completed with parent signature by the due date.  If this is not possible the teacher should be informed.
• Homework will be recorded in an agreed format which will be consistent at each year level.
• Teachers will record homework completion on Compass which parents can access at anytime.
• Student homework habits will be reflected in reports.

IMPLEMENTATION

It is expected that all students complete a minimum of 15 mins reading every school night and record this in a reading log.

Below is a table with guidelines for homework, beyond the nightly reading, that you could expect at each year level across the school. 

These times are weekly. Ie Your child in Year 3 could expect 40 minutes of homework activities each week. 

If you are finding homework is taking longer than the guidelines indicate, please encourage your child to see their classroom teacher.

Morning Announcements

The Morning Announcement team has been busy modifying their communication skills to present a daily news video for all students and staff across the school. The students are responsible for meeting with Mr Conlan to collate important announcements, practise their presentation, record and share a video with every class across the school.

This format allows teachers to present the message prior to sending students out to morning break. Teachers are using the videos in a variety of ways to ensure the important announcements are heard and understood by all. 

Action from the Tinker Box

Here is a challenge for you. Attempt to make a plane that can make a return flight to the point of origin. A task that has probably been tackled by some of the worlds most advanced aeronautical engineers, but also by our Year 3 engineers in the Tinker Box late last term. 

The students used the engineering process to help them think of a solution, plan it, build it and test it. By the looks of it, we have some budding young engineers in the making. This is a simple task that you can have a go at in your lounge room.  Lots of fun and challenge for all the family. Who can make the most accurate plane in your family?

I enjoyed making an aeroplane. Mine didn’t really come back but I tried my hardest to change the model with Rosie. We managed to get it to fly and turn around in the air…,. It just didn't come back.

Aubree

It was really tricky to get the plane to come back. We had to keep trying and changing our design. After we added some straws on the wings, it flew and came back to me.

Flynn

We had to try and make the plane come back to us. We had to try things that we wouldn’t have normally thought of. We had to make many different types of planes to see which worked the best. Our plane came back but not to my hands.

Sophie