TERM TWO BLOG SENIOR 2021

Welcome to Term 2, 2021 in the Senior School. We are all excited to be back at school and are looking forward to an exciting term ahead. Teachers and students have hit the ground running this term with many engaging learning opportunities and with some extra special events happening in the term.

Senior students are already getting excited about our upcoming camp at Sovereign Hill, where they will be immersed in a unique ‘Costumed School’ experience. The Sovereign Hill camp brilliantly compliments our Term 2 investigation of how events such as the Victorian Gold Rush and the Eureka Stockade changed the political landscape of Australia and impacted upon the development of Australian as a diverse nation.  

ENGLISH

Our literacy focus this term is developing and improving our reading strategies and understanding how texts vary in purpose, structure and language. Teachers will be sharing their love of reading with a mentor text titled “The Valley of Gold” by Jackie French, which is a collection of stories that takes us on a journey through the ages, focussing on a valley and its hidden treasures. This  ties in nicely with our topic as it explores the tales of gold-rush miners. Students will continue to build on their vocabulary, focusing on high modality words and persuasive structure to convince and inform readers. Smart Spelling lessons will be held weekly, giving students the opportunity to practice these words at home each night. We strongly encourage our students to record their nightly reading in their student diaries.

MATHS

In Mathematics, we will be working across all three mathematical strands and especially building upon our problem solving skills, such as ‘create a table,’ ‘guess and check’ and ‘draw a picture.’ Will will start the term delving into the various forms of data representation, such as ‘side my side’ and ‘pie’ graphs.  We will also be learning about probability, and how it can be shown as a percentage, a decimal or a fraction. We encourage every student to continue working on all four of the mathematical operations at home; addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. These can be practised using Mathletics and My Numeracy.

WELLBEING/TOPIC

Our Inquiry topic is focused on ‘Australia as a Diverse Nation’ and investigating the key figures and events, such as the gold rush, that led to Australia becoming the nation as we know it today. We’ll explore the contributions of individuals and groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and migrants who shaped our country, and explore the reasons for various groups migrating to Australia.

SENIOR SPORT

Our students will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of games, activities and sports this term including:

• Senior Sport on Thursday afternoons
• Interschool Sport with another local school
• Play Leader activities
• Lightning Premiership Sport Training

SPECIAL EVENTS - TERM TWO

Friday 23rd April - School Anzac Day Service

Thursday 29th April - Senior students have their Lightning Premiership day.

Wednesday 5th May - World Maths Day

Friday 7th May - Mother's Day Stall & special Mother's Day assembly

11th to 20th May - NAPLAN testing between these dates.

Friday 21st May - Curriculum Day. Students do not come to school.

Tuesday 24th May - District Cross Country

31st May to 2nd June -Senior Camp.

Thursday 17th June - School photo day (Year 6, absent students and re-takes)

Tuesday 22nd June - Regional Cross Country

Friday 25th June - Last day of Term 2

SENIOR TEACHING TEAM

Ms Elle Sullivan (S9)                     

Mrs Stephanie Van Twuiver  (S10)

Mrs Lynda Cameron (S12)                    

Mr Paul Leslie (S13)