From the Acting Assistant Principal's Desk
TRASH FREE TUESDAY Week 7 AND Week 8 Winners
We have had another successful Trash Free Tuesday with a new winner. Our SRC members counted the number of 'trash free' lunchboxes in each class and our SRC Chairperson Natalia calculated the percentage for each class. Here is a report from our SRC Chair person Natalia:
'Good afternoon teachers and students. keep up your efforts of making sure your lunch is trash free to help your class win next Tuesday.
Last weeks winners were Year 4
This week:
Kindergarten = 30%
Year 1 = 54%
Year 2 = 76%
Year 3 = 71%
Year 4 = 78%
Year 5 = 39%
Year 6 = 71%
So this means that Year 4 are the winners again, CONGRATULATIONS!
Thank you to all the families who are supporting this wonderful initiative to reduce plastic waste and therefore care for our common home.
St Brigid's Peace Lily happily living in the beautiful customised Year 5 pot
NAPLAN 2021 Important Information
The NAPLAN 2021 assessment will be completed by Year 3 and Year 5 in an online format on Tuesday 11 May- 13 May 2021. All students will partcipate in the Coordinated NAPLAN Practice Test next Thursday 25 March. The purpose of this is to check the technical capacity to complete the test. Year 3 will sit a 45 minute test of both literacy and numeracy questions and Year 5 will complete a 45 minute writing test and a 45 minute literacy and numeracy test. No results will be given. Could you please ensure the following:
- All Year 3 and Year 5 students have the NAP Locked Down Browser App downloaded from the app store and installed on their ipads. Year 5 students who have previously downloaded the app need to ensure that it has been updated.
- All students have a working set of headphones.
- All students bring a fully charged device to school on Thursday 25 March.
IMPORTANT: Please do not open the NAP app as this will lockdown your iPad for a period of time. We will go through the app and how it is used with the students at school.
How can you support you child with NAPLAN?
Teachers will provide opportunities for the students to practice NAPLAN style questions in the online format at school. If you would like to work with your child at home then you can access NAPLAN style questions using the public demonstration site by clicking on this link.
NAPLAN Public Demonstration Site
TIPS and TRICKS to support your child with Literacy
Literacy involves students listening to, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating oral, print, visual and digital texts, and using language for different purposes in a range of contexts. Each newsletter edition, I will aim to provide some handy tips and tricks to add to your toolkit so that you can best support your child's literacy and numeracy development. This week I will outline how you can support your child with SPELLING.
Spelling is a tool for writing. Reading, writing and spelling are interconnected. Readers and writers are constantly building up images of how words look. They take notice of words in the books they read and the words they see in their environment. Effective spellers are resourceful. When they notice that a word does not look right, they experiment and substitute other letters, find the word in a book, a magazine, the environment, the dictionary, use the spell checker, or ask someone.
Children who lack confidence with spelling or are fearful of getting a word wrong, often restrict their expression to words they know and can as a consequence, become reluctant writers.
It is desirable that children become independent spellers rather than rely on others to spell words they don’t know. The first step is to encourage them to identify words they think they have spelled incorrectly. When children want to write a word, encourage them to ‘have a go’ at spelling it and then look again to see if they think it is spelled correctly. Initially, focus on what they have right rather than what is wrong. Show them where they have made an error and see if they can correct the word by trying other letters; draw the shape of the word; ask where they saw the word last; or suggest they find the book where the word appears. Some tips to support your child with spelling are:
- Draw attention to words in the environment and in the books you read together, for example: ‘Look at those two words … they are almost identical except for the last letter’; ‘That word is really long’; ‘That word is French’; ‘That word has three syllables in it’; ‘Those two words rhyme’.
- Play games with spelling. Play games like Scrabble, crosswords, making words from number plates, letters in your names, words that can be spelled the same forward and backwards. Look for spelling apps that you can play together, for example, Boggle.
- Play word games like thinking of rhyming words, opposites, or words that sound like their meanings. The Internet has many fun and free spelling activities.
- Point out unusual words in the books you read together.
- Look for words in the environment.
- Show that you care about spelling. Ask: ‘Who knows how to spell …’ Say that you will write it down and take a look at it to see if it looks right.
- Children learn to spell by writing and noticing words when they read. Make reading and writing an integral part of your child’s day.
6 Essential Learning Questions
How many times have you asked your child, 'how was school today, what did you do/learn?' And the answer has been, 'oh nothing really'? Dr Lyn Sharratt, educational leader, author and researcher encourages parents to ask their children 6 essential learning questions that directly align with their child's learning. These questions are: