Goondi SS Newsletter T1 Week 10
From Leadership
It is difficult to believe that we are at the end of Term 1, which has been an extremely busy Term, with school photos, our school investiture parade, cross country, the Morecombe’s visit, netball and football games and trials, and of course NAPLAN for students in Years 3 and 5. Congratulations to all who helped to organise and co-ordinate these successful events and to all who participated and received recognition for their achievements.
Our P&C held the AGM and we thanked our outgoing P&C for the amazing work and support over 2023 and welcomed our new P&C who also have exciting ideas of how to support our students including opening the tuckshop once a week.
During the past few weeks with Cross Country and many other activities and events underway our focus continues on teaching and learning in the classroom, especially in English and explicit reading instruction.
Our School Priority Areas for 2024 are:
School Priority 1: Implementation of Version 9 English of the Australian Curriculum with an explicit focus in the Prep-Year 2 area
School Priority 2: Develop staff capability and the teaching of Reading through the Australian Curriculum with an understanding of the Simple View of Reading and Scarborough’s Reading Rope.
School Priority 3: Creating safe, supportive and inclusive practices for all students
By the end of 2024, our goals and targets are for all students at Goondi State School are achieving a minimum of a C in English with an increase in A’s and B’s across all year levels.
Some of our school strategies to achieve these goals include:
- Introduction of Systematic Synthetic Phonics instruction in P-2
- Introduction of Decodable Readers Australia quality decodable readers in P-2
- Students having access to DRA online to practice decoding and developing fluency
- Focus on developing and improving Fluency using Fluency Pairs in P-6
- Focus on building Background Knowledge to support and improve comprehension of rich texts in years 3-6
- Focus on explicit instruction in Vocabulary Development in P-6
Next Term, Mrs Scheiwe will be on leave and we welcome Mrs Tredwell to teach our year 2/3 class.
Prep Classroom learning
This week I had the absolute pleasure of spending time in the three Prep classrooms. Seeing all students engaging in learning around early literacy, sounds and letter formation.
Thankyou Mrs Barba, Mrs Corby and Mrs Sheffield.
Grandparents/Parents visit to Year 1 classrooms
Thankyou also to the Year 1 classes for inviting me to Grandparent’s afternoon, sharing family trees and learning from Term 1, including sounds, blends, bookwork and math warm up.
Congratulations Ms Slater and Mr Sims.
School Calendar
Term 2
Mon 22nd Apr - Lif Education Talk (Year 4-6)
Mon 22nd Apr - P&C Meeting, 5:30pm start
Tue 23rd Apr - Lif Education Talk (Year 4-6)
Wed 24th Apr - ANZAC Ceremony at 10am
Thur 25th Apr - ANZAC Public Holiday
Mon 29th Apr - Year 5 Camp (Mon - Wed)
Tues 30th Apr - District Cross Country at Warrina Lakes
Mon 6th May - Labour Day Public Holiday
Prep Capers
We are at the end of the first term of school for the preps. This term has been a time of huge learning for all the students and they have grown so much already this year.
Students all completed writing assessment telling us about their weekends and retold how to build a sandcastle.
In Maths students have worked hard on rote counting to 20 and understanding representations to 10. We have learned about longer and shorter, smallest to biggest and taller and shorter. Students have also been able to demonstrate how to sort objects into different categories.
We look forward to all the amazing learning to come in Term 2.
Have a safe and happy holidays
The Prep team
Year 1 Capers
Well we made it to the last week of term!
We would like to thank all of the students for turning up each day ready to face any challenges that awaited them. This cohort are certainly a resilient bunch! We look forward to starting next term with a fresh room, organised resources and recharged batteries.
We would also like to thankyou for you support over the term with helping the children complete home work .
Have a safe and enjoyable holidays. We know we will!
Leigh, Steven and Fiona
Year 2 Capers
Greetings from Year 2!
We have all made it to the end of Term 1. We know that students are tired and looking forward to their holidays. They should use this time to relax and get ready for next term. Don’t forget though that you can keep learning over the holidays with your students! Some great things to include are daily reading (and asking questions about what you read), asking your students what time it is, and getting them to help in the kitchen (measuring and cooking is fun). If you travel over the break, this is a great chance to talk about distances, the way we travel, how long things take and different things we can do or see at different places.
While the majority of assessment is finished, a few students are still finishing up this week, and others will still be learning, so attendance is just as important this week as any other. There are no report cards this term, but the information we get from these assessments helps us greatly in Term 2, and throughout the year.
From the Year 2 team, we hope everyone has a safe and happy break, and we look forward to seeing everyone in Term 2.
Kathy Pike, Tayla Vandal and Jeanette Spataro.
Year 3 Capers
Thank you everyone for your support throughout a very busy term one. Grade 3s have covered a lot of ground and revised many concepts to prepare for the NAPLAN test. We are very proud of the way students conducted themselves during this testing. Over the next three terms we will continue to consolidate these concepts.
This week we have listened to ‘All About Me’ presentations and have seen many delightful posters, which we will now display in our classrooms.
Our Maths lessons have focussed on patterns and learning the four-time tables. We have squeezed in some extra Spelling Mastery lessons in order to reach lesson 30. This marks a quarter way through the book.
HASS lessons have been on ‘Country and Place’ and we have listened to some Indigenous people share their language and names for various plants and animals.
We wish you a safe and relaxing Easter break with your family and look forward to another productive term.
Until next time, Ashley, Robyn, Janelle and Amanda.
Year 4 Capers
It is finally Week 10 of the term and all our students have finished their first term of Grade 4. Students have worked incredibly hard in the past two weeks with completing assessments. After finishing the book Matilda, students got to watch the movie.
During Week 10 on Wednesday and Thursday, students participated in the bridge challenge for the strongest bridge and the best-looking bridge. All students did really well. There were three students that won the strongest bridge challenge.
We hope you all have a safe and restful holiday and we look forward to seeing you all back in Term 2.
Kind regards,
Miss Jade Reitano and Mrs Jenna Sulter
Year 5 Capers
It is the last week of Term 1!
A few reminders:
- Please ask your child if they have working headphones. We use them daily in the classroom.
- Check if your child has all of the required resources for next term. This includes: pencils, rubbers, red pen, ruler etc. We have a place to store spare resources in the classroom so they can access them when required.
- Please return all camp forms and pay as soon as possible. Camp is in Week 3 of Term 2.
Let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Enjoy the Easter break!
Rebecca Nolan, Kayla Hutchins and Rhonda O’Brien
Year 6 Capers
And just like that we find ourselves at the end of Term 1. We’ve ended with exciting times, with the Cross Country last Friday, and the ISC transition day, as well as HOTSHOTS, in week 10. With a quarter of the year gone we can now look at the data that Term 1 gave us, to refine and target our teaching for next term. While Maths will remain mostly the same (with some additional skills), we look forward to brand new units in Science, HaSS, English and Health.
These holidays are a great chance to make sure your learner has everything they need for school. Be sure to ask if they need any more pencils, markers, or other stationary items.
Our PBL focus for this week is ‘being safe in the holidays’, so whatever that looks like for you, we hope all of our students have a restful (and safe) break, and come back ready to tackle new ideas and challenges in Term 2. As always, if you need to contact the teaching staff you can message us through Class Dojo, or make contact through the office.
We would like to thank all of our students for their hard work through this term. It has been exciting to watch the development of skills already, and we’re sure this will continue for the remainder of the year.
Mr Worth, Mrs Worth and the Year 6 team.
L.O.T.E News
Saluti (Greetings)
Students in years 5 and 6 have worked well in Italian this term. Students have learnt to listen to, speak, read and say Italian to gain understanding.
Students we will continue listening to Italian songs in the following terms. Songs help to enhance pronunciation and increase fluency. Ask the students to sing the songs to you. Year 5 students are continuing to learn how to respond to questions about themselves. Year 6 students are working on conversations between two or more people using known and new vocabulary and beginning to colour and decorate masks representing an Italian cultural celebration.
Exercise books and worksheets are collected regularly and feedback provided. Encourage your child to speak Italian with you and discuss what they are learning!
Arrivederci (Goodbye)
Signora Lazzarini
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