Year Five/ Six

Communicating with the Year Five/Six Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2022, and welcome your input:

Llewela Humphries (Class 56A) Llewela.Humphries@education.vic.gov.au

Melissa Woollard (Class 56B) Melissa.Woollard@education.vic.gov.au

Zoe Overdyk (Class 56C) Zoe.Overdyk@education.vic.gov.au

WELCOME TO 2022

Welcome to the new school year in 2022. We cannot wait to get started into the term and for our students to have continued positive experiences at Upwey South. We would like to welcome Mrs Zoe Overdyk to our teaching team. Zoe comes to us with teaching experience and a love of education. We look forward to working with Mrs Overdyk and in building on all the positive things we do.

School Wide Positive Behaviour for Learning  - SWPBL

During the first two weeks at school, it is an important process for all classes to set clear behaviour expectations within the classroom. Developing our classes SWPBL Behaviour Matrix is an important part for every student, giving them the opportunity to contribute their personal thoughts on how as a class member they / we should be behaving. Our behaviour matrix are on display within the Senior Gallery as well as in our rooms and will be revisited regularly. 

Developing these took time, patience and a planned procedure. In class cohorts we have been discussing our three school values of Respect, Responsibility and Resilience. Students discussed and recorded what these look like, feel like and sound like both inside and outside of the classroom. The students participated in brainstorming sessions discussing and deciding as classes, what they feel best fits their classrooms and the expected behaviours and values. Each class has agreed upon a set of values and drawn up a matrix that outlines the 3 R’s that they feel they can “live by” each and every school day.

Here is a photo of the 3R's wall in the senior gallery. Within each area is a copy of the behaviour matrix.

Have a read through the classes behaviour matrix below:

INQUIRY

During Term One we will be focusing our Inquiry unit on the Learning Area of Civics & Citizenship. The title of our Unit is Social Justice - Rights and Responsibilities. Below are the key understandings that all students will be given the opportunity to learn about, as well as the Focus questions that we will cover.

Key Understandings:

Changes have causes and effects on society and we can learn from these.

Important people and events, which led to the development of Australia as a nation.

The values, principles and institutions that underpin Australia’s democratic forms of government.

The roles and responsibilities of the three levels of government

The key features of the Australian electoral process.

The rights, responsibilities and shared values of Australian citizenship.

Questions:

Why and how did Australia become a nation? 

What contribution have significant individuals and groups made to the development of Australian society?

What is democracy? 

What is the purpose of government?

What are the roles and responsibilities of the three levels of government?

What are the key features of the Australian electoral process?

What is citizenship?

What is the role of the United Nations?

How do global rights get addressed in modern societies?

MATHS

During Term One it is essential that all students have a mathematical focus on the Number and Algebra strand. Week one saw the math focus on Place Value to ensure students understand the basic number platform and that each digit within a number has a particular value. 

Over the coming weeks we are continuing to have a number focus with time spent investigating, reminding, and extending our students knowledge on the four operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

ENGLISH

The English curriculum is divided into 3 areas: Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening. Over the coming newsletters these will be discussed in more detail with student work samples being shared. During Term One, all students will have plenty of opportunities to grow their confidence in all the English Areas. 

During Reading we are concentrating on developing confident and positive independent readers who are able to sustain their reading for a period of time. During these sessions students are focusing on the Thinking Tracks by thinking 'About' the text being read. Our class novel for the term is the Book Wonder. The curriculum connections to this text are linked to our school well-being and the values we have - Respect, Responsibility and Resilience. 

We have given students the opportunity to write Recounts of holidays events, introducing the Writer's Workshop models of brainstorming, planning, drafting, editing and publishing. Through the term we will be focusing on Narrative and Persuasive texts, allowing students to use their own voice in the subject and content being written about. 

We are building students ability to speak confidently in front of a range of audiences and through the 'Socratic circle' approach we will be teaching students techniques to listen clearly, take appropriate notes, ask relevant questions and  share ideas and thoughts productively. 

TERM ONE TIMETABLE:

5/6 A

Visual Arts: Tuesday 10:30am

Performing Arts: Thursday 9:00am

Health & Physical Education: Tuesday 11:30am

Japanese: Thursday 1:00pm (odd weeks)

5/6B

Visual Arts: Tuesday 11:30am

Performing Arts: Tuesday 10:30am

Health & Physical Education: Wednesday 9:00am

Japanese: Thursday 11:50am (odd weeks)

5/6C

Visual Arts:Thursday 9:00am

Performing Arts: Tuesday 11:30am

Health & Physical Education: Tuesday 10:30am

Japanese: Thursday 11:10am (odd weeks)