Pedagogy & Learning News
Straight into Learning!
What a wonderful start back to the year. The Leadership Team has been through many classrooms and it is very exciting to see so many eager students already. Everyone is getting to know their new class, their teachers, and moving into routines and structures to enable a successful term. I can’t wait for the next step in the learning journey.
Parent Engagement
As parents and carers, you play a primary role in supporting your children’s wellbeing and learning, guiding and supporting them successfully through educational processes. At St Benedict’s we recognise and value the partnerships between parents and carers, the community, and the school to promote student learning and high expectations for student success and personal growth. We foster positive parent engagement through a variety of ways, some of them being:
Class Newsletters: These are emailed by your child’s teacher (or another teacher from the same year level) on a fortnightly basis. These newsletters have important information, please take the time to read them each fortnight.
Open Classrooms: From week 5, we will roster classes each week and invite their families to the classroom to showcase work and possibly engage in learning activities. Students will generally share their learning portfolio and other work they have been doing throughout the term. Open Classrooms are held after assembly each Friday morning, from around 9:20am - 10:00am.
DATES TO PUT IN YOUR CALENDAR:
Open Classrooms for this Term will be:
Week 5 (Friday Feb 23rd)
- Year 6 Scorpions
- Prep Bilbies
- Year 1 Possums
- Year 2 Curlews
Week 6 (Friday March 1st)
- Year 4 Grasshoppers
- Prep wombats
- Year 1 Bandicoots
- Year 2 Magpies
Week 7 (Friday March 8th)
- Year 5 Turtles
- Prep Koalas
- Year 1 Wallabies
- Year 2 Kingfishers
Week 8 (Friday March 15th)
- Year 3 Brolgas
- Prep Platypus
- Year 1 Echidnas
- Year 2 Lorikeets
Week 9 (Friday March 22nd)
- Year 6 Crocodiles
- Year 3 Kookaburras
- Year 4 Dragonflies
- Year 5 Jellyfish
10 Questions To Ask That Gets Kids Talking About School
- Tell me about the best part of your day.
- What made you laugh?
- Who did you play with? What did you play?
- What are you looking forward to about tomorrow?
- What did you learn about in PE/Music/Drama/Dance/Spanish/Technologies?
- What games did you play at lunchtime?
- Tell me about what you read in class.
- Can you show me something you learned (or did) today?
- What was the most interesting thing you learned today?
- What was the hardest/most challenging thing you did today?
NAPLAN
NAPLAN is a national literacy and numeracy assessment that students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit each year. Year 3 and Year 5 students complete NAPLAN Online, with the exception of the year 3 writing test which is completed on paper. Coming up to the tests, students will be engaged in learning about the types of questions that will be on the NAPLAN test and how to navigate the site. Students will also participate in a practice test in order to become familiar with the platform.
If you would like to, you and your child can access the Public Demonstration Site to familiarise yourselves with the type of questions and related functionalities available in the NAPLAN Online assessment.
This website ‘NAPLAN For Parents & Carers’ provides further information and resources about NAPLAN for parents and carers.
Parents or carers may choose to withdraw their child from the tests for religious beliefs, philosophical objections, or your own other reasons. It is recommended that withdrawal be considered in consultation with your child's teacher. If you would like to withdraw your child from NAPLAN please contact your child’s teacher as soon as possible and you will need to sign a form along with the Principal by Monday 4th March (forms can be found from Janeen or Mel at the office).
If you have any questions or concerns regarding NAPLAN please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher. As stated, we appreciate that NAPLAN is a point in time assessment, and we know your children for all their strengths and achievements outside of standardised testing.
Yours in Learning,
Aleesha Rockemer
APPL