Weekly News: 29th September—3rd October

It has been a busy start to the year already with two major events last week - the first being Let’s Discuss Our Class last Tuesday and Thursday. It was great to meet with so many parents last week and to share our first impressions and thoughts about your child. There are still some parents who were unable to make this event and we are trying to organise meetings this week. Please be patient as we finalise appointment times over the coming days. The second major event was of course the Welcome Back BBQ last Saturday afternoon. It was fantastic to see so many families at the BBQ and to share some food, fun and sun! Thank you for your support and participation in this event.

Reflections 22nd – 26th September
The children are well and truly in the midst of our first unit of inquiry. Last week saw the children work in small groups to help create a timeline of important political events and leaders who helped to shape and influence recent history. During reading groups the children read about important leaders and viewed political posters, discussing the effectiveness of these posters as well as the message conveyed in the posters. The children also did quite a bit of work on constructing good sentences and editing their work for correct punctuation and grammar. Each class also continued working and discussing different political scenarios as part of their role play activities in class.

Weekly News: 29th September —3rd October

Unit of Inquiry
The children have generally developed a good understanding of different types of governance studied in class, particularly democracy, communism and socialism. They have also improved their knowledge of key political leaders over the last 100 years and discovered how such leaders have helped to shape history and society generally. This week will see the children continue to consolidate their understanding of important leaders in history as well as study the impact of fascism and dictatorships on society. The children will also participate in their class role-plays as a way to experience these issues first hand. Ask your child about these role plays and their learning.

Mathematics
This week the children will continue to focus on mental strategies for addition while consolidating the students’ understanding of basic place value and numeration concepts. We also anticipate that Maths Groups will start this week with the support of Mr. Costello and our very talented Year 6 assistant, Ms Isabel. In addition, the children will continue to work on concepts from the Data Handling strand, particularly in conducting surveys and analysing tables and graphs, as they get ready to poll the Year 4 and Year 5 electorate on various issues that will determine their political campaigns in the coming weeks.

English
Students will continue to consolidate their understanding of persuasive texts. We will develop the children’s persuasive speaking and writing skills as they prepare for the upcoming Year 6 Presidential Elections as part of their summative assessment. In particular, we will focus on how to deliver a persuasive and emotive speech to potential voters and how to write convincing and persuasive political texts to influence and convince readers. In our reading groups this week we will continue to practise basic comprehension and reading skills, particularly when it comes to identifying key words in questions and scanning texts for key words and clues.


What can I do to help?
· Make sure your child is doing the required homework each night. Remember the recommended amount of homework is 40 minutes plus leisure reading - children do need time to rest and play.
· Congratulations to all those children who have been working so hard over the last few weeks to complete their homework on time. Many of the children have clearly been spending a lot of their time doing their best work at home. WELL DONE! We would like to encourage all students to put in their best effort when doing their homework. Beginning this week, those students who have clearly rushed their work and not completed their homework to an acceptable standard will not have their work marked. As a reminder, if for any reason your child is unable to complete their homework, please write a note to your child’s teacher in their class diary.

Upcoming Events and Reminders:
· Please let the school know in advance if you wish your child to have a school lunch on a particular day. This helps in organising the lunch for your child.

Library News
Congratulations to all students who are bringing their library bags for borrowing. We do have some overdue books from the summer holidays and would appreciate if those books are returned as soon as possible before costs are charged for the books.

With thanks,
David Barrett, David Gocentas and Ms Isabel Costa Pereira