Buninyong PS Newsletter

Teaching & Learning

Spelling Mastery

Spelling Mastery has begun this week with students grouped into Spelling teams across the school. The nature of these groupings often mean that students are in multi-aged groups. This is often a great learning opportunity for students as they form relationships with peers of different ages while taking on similar learning challenges.

The Spelling sessions are based on a mastery learning model which introduces strategies with associated learning tasks to help create a deep understanding. Sometimes this takes longer than expected which may see students repeat a level. This is ok! At Level C and D the understandings increase in number and complexity which provides a big challenge for students to deal with. Through encouragement, self motivation and reflection, students usually experience success fairly quickly.

Students who progress through to beyond Level F are involved in extended spelling, grammar and vocabulary sessions.

Spelling Mastery runs from 9am – 9.25am on Monday – Thursday every week. This week there may be swapping around of groups to ensure we get the right mix.

Should you require some assistance with booking a Meet and Greet time please feel free to contact the office or your child’s classroom teacher.

Learning to Become Valuable Members of the Community

As part of our planning for the 2020 school year, all teaching teams spent significant time mapping the curriculum around 8 through lines. All students will be engaged in thinking and learning around these 8 through lines at least 3 times throughout their primary school life. Through lines are big picture themes based on skills and attitudes that will assist students in being valuable members of the community. Where possible the specialist classes will align their thinking with the through lines being studied in each class.

The Through lines are:

 

These through lines are used as the basis for year level Learning Inquiries that are planned each term. During Term 1 you can expect to see:

Meet and Greet

Thanks to all those who have booked in for a Meet and Greet today. These sessions are really important for us to gather as much information as possible to help guide how we plan learning opportunities.

 

The purpose of the Meet and Greet is to provide an opportunity for:

  • Teachers and parents to meet
  • Teachers to explain routines and what to expect for their children
  • Parents to ask questions
  • Teachers to get to know more about the student

What to do following a Meet and Greet:

  • Discuss with your child the processes and structures of their classroom or specialist class.
  • Discuss with your child how they can best meet homework requirements.
  • Help your child set some goals for first term… making these goals based on process are going to be more successful than outcomes. Ie make a focus around reading every night or talking about their book every night rather than getting an A in English.
  • Commit to building a love of learning with your child. Show interest in their learning and ask open questions about their schooling. Have discussions that promote organisation, grit, self motivation and reflection.
  • Keep in touch with your child’s teachers to discuss progress.

Homework

During the past few years, the Homework policy was altered to reflect feedback gathered from students, parents, teachers and what current research says.

The following points summarise the homework policy:

  • At Buninyong Primary School our Homework Program aims to provide students with the opportunity to:
    • Develop effective study habits and organisational skills.
    • Practise and revise skills learnt in class
    • Tune-in to future learning opportunities.
  • The parental role is essentially to foster the love of learning with their child.
  • Homework will be consistently applied across the school. It will be sent out on a Friday and will be required back at school on the following Thursday.
  • Teachers will provide a dedicated Homework session to share student work, discuss strategies to assist in completing homework and provide feedback to students. A focus will be put on positive discussion to promote what effective homework practices look like.
  • Homework will be recorded as a Learning Task on your Compass portal. Parents will be able to track completion of homework throughout the year.
  • Feedback will be provided to students each week appropriate to the task set. This could include correction, stickers, stamps, signature, comment or a rubric score. If your child requires more feedback on their homework please encourage them to ask their teacher.
  • The table below is a guide as to what may be required to spend on homework on top of the expected 15 minutes nightly reading.