To all the Parents and Carers of Rooms 9, 10 & 11,

Welcome to term 2!

The children have all settled well and are ready to learn. Term 2 is 10 weeks long and the teachers have planned many great learning activities including a great excursion to Sovereign Hill. Our Grade 6 students have all received the Year 6 to Year 7 Transition Forms to begin the process to Secondary School. These forms needed to be completed and returned by Friday 8^th of May. 

If you have any questions about the process to Secondary School, please make an appointment to speak to Mrs Filomena Raif or ask the office to speak with Mrs Young.

We look forward to a successful term 2!

Rights and Responsibilities:

At Thomastown West we have developed the following ‘Rights’.

• At this school everyone has the right to feel comfortable and safe.
• At this school everyone has the right to work and

All classrooms are using these rights to establish class and playground standards of behaviour.

School Values:

At Thomastown West we focus strongly on our school values Respect, Responsibility, Resilience and Empathy and Being our Best, as well as honesty, cooperation, and kindness. We teach the children that:

• Values guide the way we think, speak, and behave.
• Values help us to decide what is right and what is wrong.

You can help your child develop these values by discussing them at home and encouraging them to make good choices. 

Just a few reminders …

WHOLE SCHOOL PHOTOS: Tuesday 26th May

Please ensure your children are wearing the correct school uniform.

Assembly:

Assemblies are held from 2:30pm-3.00pm Friday afternoons.  Assembly dates have been included in this newsletter and can be found in our weekly newsletter. Parents are most welcome to attend. We endeavor to contact parents of children who will be receiving ‘Star of the Week’ awards through Class Dojo. Please ensure you are connected to your child’s classroom.

Brain Food:
Each class allows ‘Brain Food’ time in between morning sessions. Children may bring some fruit or vegetables to eat during this time.  

Homework:
It is expected that all students read for 20–30 minutes each day. Please ensure this is built into your child’s after-school routine. Students are also required to complete a reading log, recording the pages they start and finish each night. Reading logs and books are kept in a Reading Wallet, which must be brought to school daily so books can be changed if needed. Students may also continue reading during class time once they have completed their set work.

This term, students have begun written homework, which is completed in their homework books and stored in a Homework Wallet. Students are expected to complete nine activities from a rubric across the term. It is recommended that they complete one activity per week. Students may choose any activity that interests them, with all tasks linked to our Gold Inquiry unit. Each piece of work must include the date and a title indicating the chosen task. We would greatly appreciate parents supporting this process by overseeing homework completion and signing the relevant rubric box once an activity has been completed.

Students will continue developing their multiplication facts, based on their Term 1 assessments. Mastery of all multiplication facts is an expectation by the end of Year 4. Your support at home is very valuable. A helpful approach is to:

• practise counting by the chosen fact,
• then learn the facts in order,
• and finally practise answering them out of order.

Short, regular practice — such as while travelling in the car — can be very effective. Each week, students will be tested on their focus fact. They will have 45 seconds to correctly answer 10 questions.

Punctuality: School begins at 8.45 am. Please ensure your child is at school on time. Remember, ‘Arrive on time, ready to learn, at quarter to nine!’ Late children disrupt the learning of other children and miss important instructions. Often late children become upset and take longer to settle into school. Please ensure that your children go to bed at a time that allows for enough sleep to assist with morning wake up, so they are ready to learn when they arrive at school each morning. We suggest 8-8:30pm as a suitable bedtime.

Absences: School attendance is compulsory; however, we do not encourage sick children to come to school. If your child is absent, please provide the classroom teacher with a note for the absence. Lessons taught in the classroom are sequential and frequent absences can result in knowledge gaps for a child. Prolonged absences can cause significant deficits in a child's education.

CURRICULUM PROGRAM FOR TERM 2

Below is an outline of the work the children in Grades 4/5/6 will be involved in this term.

Inquiry:

Our Inquiry unit this term is on the Gold Rush and its impact on Victoria. Students will learn about and explain the causes of significant events that shaped the Australian colonies, and the effects of these on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and migrants.

Maths:

This term, our focus for Number will be Addition and Subtraction including. For Measurement the focus will be Enlargement and Symmetry of 2D shape, Lines and Linear Movement, Length, Location and Perimeter. We will be focusing on Data for Statistics & Probability.

Literacy:

Reading:

Our focus this term will be on the reading strategies of Main idea and supporting details, Comparing and Contrasting and Summarising.

Writing:

This term, the focus will be understanding and writing the structures of Information reports and Historical and Excursion Recounts.  All of these will relate to our Inquiry unit.

SEWI (Student Engagement, Wellbeing and Inclusion):

This term, the area will continue to focus on Help Seeking by building students’ capacity to seek help if they need after trying to solve their own problems first, and they then require further assistance.
These are some of the lessons covered.

- Who to turn to and who to thank

- Rehearsing help-seeking conversations

- Communicating clearly and
- Revisiting key learnings via ‘The roller-coaster day’ storyboard

Students will also continue to reflect on self-regulation and review their ‘Ready to Learn Plans’ throughout the semester as well as have sessions with a Buddy grade to build friendships and trust.

Thomastown West Primary School, we believe that education is a partnership between teachers, families and the wider community. We work together to ensure all students experience success. When sharing the responsibility of improving children’s learning, effective communication is vital for teachers, parents, and carers at TWPS to work in a positive and productive partnership. Our school utilises a range of multimodal communications with all key stakeholders within and beyond our school community.

Our fortnightly newsletter is shared with you via Compass, Class Dojo and Facebook every week and it can always be accessed on our school website:

https://www.thomwestps.vic.edu.au/enews/ 

We hope you all have an enjoyable term and thank you for your continued support.

Kind Regards,

Mrs Gaeta, Mrs Rocca, Mrs Raif, Mrs Santiglia, Mrs Colakovski and Mrs DeNiese.

Important Dates