Welcome to Foundation/One

Reading: Students participate in a reading session every morning. This program is implemented right across the school to develop well-balanced readers. We use the Fountas and Pinnell "Systems of Strategic Actions". There are three areas we focus on; Thinking About the Text, Thinking Within the Text, and Thinking Beyond the Text. Students have Reading Conferences with their teacher to set and monitor specific individual reading goals.

Writing: Students participate in writing every day. They are exposed to a range of writing genres and text types throughout the year including recounts, narratives, procedures and information reports. Goal setting with students allows us to target individual needs within the grades. We follow the Big Write and VCOP methodology in our teaching of writing. Big Write occurs fortnightly where we celebrate our learning throughout the unit.

Spelling: Increasing a student's bank of known words, as well as developing strategies for tackling new words is our ongoing goal for spelling. Students participate in Spelling Mastery four times a week at a set time, in multi-level groups. The levels range from Synthetic Phonics, Phonemic Awareness, then Level A to Level F. 

Mathematics: We teach mathematics at point of need in the areas of Number and Algebra (place value, addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, counting, money and fractions). We also cover a range of Measurement (length, time, mass, capacity, volume, area, time and shape) as well as the concepts of statistics and probability (data collection and graphing). 

Inquiry: Each term we have a focus of study around a single Big Question.

This year the topics are:

Term 1 Belonging (Geography and Pesonal Capabilities)

Term 2 Where in the Universe? (Earth & Space Science)

Term 3 It's Alive! (Biological Science)

Term 4 Making a Scene! (The Arts & Technologies)

Respectful Relationships: Respectful Relationships supports our school to promote and model respect, positive attitudes and behaviours. It teaches our children how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence. Students participate in lessons with activities targeted at each year level on a weekly basis.

Mindfulness: We practise mindfulness on a daily basis. Every day we take part in a mindful activity, including meditation, with a focus on Gratitude (being thankful), Empathy (being kind), and Mindfulness (reflecting and being 'in the moment').

Communication: Parents and carers are invited to contact the school to make an appointment to consult about their child’s education at any time. It is important that teachers and parents work together as a team to provide the best learning experiences for your children. A school diary is also used on a daily basis to check in, and to record home reading.

PMP: We aim to have a weekly session in PMP (Perceptual Motor Program). PMP is an engaging movement-based program that helps younger students improve their eye/hand and eye/foot coordination, fitness, balance, locomation, and eye-tracking skills.

Specialist Subjects: Students all participate in weekly sessions in STEAM, PE, MARC Van, and Japanese. 

Thank you!

Stephen Barrett - Classroom Teacher

Mary Ann Ogle-Joyce

Amanda McDonald

Romaine Ball-Vinten

Elise Amarant