School Review

Last week I held an introductory meeting with our School Reviewer, Tracy Hammill, and our Kingston Network SEIL (Senior Education Improvement Leader), Tim Wilson. Our School Review will take place during Week 4 and 5 this term. The make up of the review days include elements such as, a reflection of school performance over the last 4 years, classroom observations, student focus groups, staff feedback sessions, parent focus groups and requirements of compliance and minimum standards. Thankyou to the parents who will take part in the parent focus group session.

Foundation 2025

If you have a child enrolling in Foundation for next year then Enrolment forms are available at our School Office or you can access a copy on our school website. We follow the timeline set by the DE and are now able to accept enrolments for next year. We ask that all enrolments are submitted by the due date, Friday 26th July.

We are also offering Foundation Experience opportunities for next year’s preps twice a term in Term 2 and 3. Please see the flyer within this week’s newsletter for more information about these sessions.

Safe Tree Program

Last term an aborist appointed by the VSBA conducted a tree audit of our site. Following this, works will be undertaken according to the findings. We will liaise with the contracted company to schedule the works in the near future.

Miss Dickson

We congratulate Kate and Nick on the safe arrival of Frankie earlier this week. We look forward to meeting Frankie in the weeks ahead.

Fruit Break

Just a reminder that we have Fruit Break during the day at school and this is a great opportunity for a healthy snack. Any piece of fruit or vegetable is encouraged during these times.

In the Spotlight

Hello Foundation families,

What a great start to term 2 we have had.  We have learnt to be resilient, dedicated and kind.  We are growing up so quickly

The last few weeks the Foundation students have been getting up to lots of exciting and new learning. One of the great learnings this fortnight has been about Anzac Day, we have really enjoyed reading stories, decorating our own Anzac Ted and sharing Anzac Biscuits.  We are also excited to have started home reading this week!  A reminder to return their black reading folders on Mondays.  Reading Eggs, Wushka and Matific usernames and passwords are glued into the front cover of their Reading Journal, for optional use at home.

Just a reminder that students should be reading books at home that they can confidently read independently and parents are encouraged to read the book to their child if they are not able. The Take Home Reading Program is designed to build confidence and develop a love of books. Don’t forget to ask your child what reading strategies they can use for working out ‘tricky’ words such as ‘stretching the word out’ and ‘sounding it out’. As per our Intialit Literacy Program we please ask that we avoid asking the children to guess what the words say, based on the pictures but rather ask them to use their prior sound knowledge to sound the word out. Again, if they are unsure parents modelling, sounding out the word to them is always beneficial too!

We are now also into the swing of Show and Tell.  This is occurring on Monday and Wednesday each week. We thank you for your support in bringing an item that is special to your family.

Benefits of show and tell:

• Show and Tell is beneficial for young childrens’ development, as it helps demonstrate vocabulary and articulation.
• It allows turn taking.
• Encourages students to develop their social skills, for example whole body listening, asking and responding to appropriate questions.
• Show and Tell develops confidence when speaking in front of a group.

School Nurse

Just a reminder that the School Entrant Health Nurse visit will take place in this coming week.  It is a great opportunity for us to work together for your child’s health and wellbeing and therefore their educational progress.

Reading/Phonics: We are learning to connect our sounds to rhyme and put the words back together.

Writing: We are exploring how to sound out words and have a go at writing the sounds we can hear.

Maths: We are continuing our learning about Friends of Ten and delving into teen numbers.  We have also looked at missing numbers and playing games to support our learning. 

Welcome to Term 2 in the Junior Hub! We have been so impressed with how all Year 1/2 students have eased back into routines and school expectations. It was lovely to hear about their wonderful moments during the school holidays and we look forward to the term ahead full of wonderful learning experiences.

Inquiry

This term we are studying a geography unit called ‘Our Land and Our Connections.’ Students will explore questions through the inquiry process to: Investigate how places can be spatially represented in geographical divisions from local to regional to state/territory and how people are interconnected across those scales.

Students will learn about the interconnection of First Nations Australians to a local Country/Place. This unit takes students through an inquiry process to develop questions, and collect, sort and record related information and data from observations and provided sources.

They interpret information and data, and identify and discuss perspectives. Students will use interpretations to draw conclusions and make proposals. Students will use sources, and subject-specific terms to present narratives and observations about our land and our connections on a regional and global scale.

Literacy 

We all continue to enjoy our InitiaLit literacy classes and can already see the benefits this wonderful program is having. Below are our current focus sounds and words. Your child would greatly benefit from practising these at home!

        Year 1

Tricky Words (sight words): here, what, want, some, where, should, would, could, saw, friend, school, your, again, home

Digraphs: oo (moon, book), ng (swing), ai (rain), ay (play)

Terminology: Compound words, nouns, verbs

Wow Words: mission, spectacular, improve, announce, require, perfect

        Year 2

Trick Words (sight words): Caught, Who, People and Something

Digraphs/Trigraphs: Spelling choices for long vowel sounds A - (ay, ai, a_e) E - (ee, ea, e_e) I - (igh, _y, i_e) O - (oa, ow, o_e) U - (ew, ue, u_e)

Grammar: Pronouns (He, She, I, You, We, Us, Them, They, Him, Her)

Wow Words: Admire, Success and Sensational


Writing


Write a recount with a clear beginning, middle and end.

In writing, we have been writing recounts. Students chose a highlight from their holiday break and weekend to write an interesting recount with a beginning, middle and end. Students have been learning about ‘Super Sentences’ and know that all sentences:

- Start with a capital letter

- End with a full stop

- Are about someone or something

- Make sense

Numeracy

Skip count collections and place value, working on expanded form

In numeracy, we have been learning to skip count collections by 2s, 5s, 10s and even 3s to assist us in being able to count large groups faster. This past week we have been learning about place value and expanded form, where a number like 256 can be represented as 200+50+6 or 2 hundreds, 5 tens and 6 ones.

Library

Our library day has moved! 1/2A and 1/2C now have library on Tuesday, and 1/2B have library on Friday. Please ensure your child brings their library bag on their day. Library is a lovely opportunity for students to peruse the large range of books and choose something they are interested in.

Hello Middle School families,

Welcome to Term 2! We have had a wonderful couple of weeks settling back into our school routines and hearing all about everyone’s school holiday adventures.

It has been a busy start to the term, with the Middle School students focusing on the importance of asking questions while reading to strengthen their understanding in Reading, developing their research skills in Writing to create their own explanation texts, and consolidating their addition and subtraction strategies in Maths. We have also begun our new Inquiry topic of Location and Place, in which the students are learning about the different continents, hemispheres, weather conditions, and climates around the world.

In Wellbeing this term we have begun our Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR) program, currently focusing on exploring emotions and recognising these in ourselves and others. Below are some photos from his week’s wellbeing task where students were exploring emotions. After acting out some short scenarios and guessing the emotion, students worked in teams to draw and describe a different emotion.

A friendly reminder regarding homework:

Beginning this term, Middle School students are expected to practice their spelling words each night and complete one of their spelling grid activities per week. They should also be practicing their focus times tables for the week, and continuing to complete two reading journal entries a week.

Students’ homework books and reading journals are to be handed in on Fridays :)

READING - Ask questions before, during and after reading to deepen our understanding of texts.

WRITING - Select and apply information on a research topic to create a well-structured explanation piece.

MATHS - Apply different mental strategies, including vertical subtraction, to solve 3- and 4- digit subtraction sums.

INQUIRY – Identify the difference between weather and climate, and how these are affected.

Welcome to Term 2 in the Senior School! As always, we are off and racing with fun learning and events. It is going to be a long term (12 weeks), so we are mindful of pacing ourselves, however there are many exciting opportunities planned along the way!

Below are some reminders for all students in the Senior School. Please take the time to go through them and discuss with your child.  

• Winter Interschool Sport – Continuing from Term 1, we are still encouraging excellent sportspersonship regardless of the outcome. Win or lose, we are proud of everyone for having a go! Our sports this term are netball, AFL & soccer. Due to unpredictable weather, we do recommend packing extra clothing on a Friday. The guide below outlines what the school provides and what students are required to bring. A reminder also that payment for the bus for away games will be required soon, remembering that we are combining the cost of Term 1 & 2 together for a single payment. This will appear soon on Compass.

• Cross Country - Early this term, Middle and Senior students will have the opportunity to trial for District Cross Country. Students will compete in age groups here at school on Friday 3^rd of May. If any parents are available to assist with marshalling between 9 and 10:30 on this day, it would be greatly appreciated. 9/10 Boys & Girls will complete a 2km run, while the 11, 12/13 Boys & Girls will complete a 3km run. Everyone is encouraged to try, even if they can’t complete the course. Please ensure your child is wearing comfortable running shoes, has a drink bottle and an extra piece of fruit break on this day.Based on run times, a team will be chosen to compete at the District Cross Country on Tuesday 14^th of May. Please let the office know if you are available to assist. 
• Return of forms - At the end of Term 1, some students were given an enveloped IEP document. Could please be read, signed and returned as soon as possible. For our Yr 6 students, Applications for Yr 7 Placement are due Friday 10th May, regardless of intention to attend a State or Independent school. 
• Homework - To ensure consistency and accountability among the Senior Students, homework will be handed out on a Monday and due the following week, on the Friday. This allows students 2 weeks to complete ALL tasks neatly and ensure that they are responsibly managing their time in preparation for Secondary School. Homework will be posted digitally to Google Classroom on a Monday to save printing, however students are required to complete the tasks by hand in their homework book so that we can correct them collaboratively on the due Friday. We have discussed the expectation of neatness and setting out, along with the importance of using a ruler, headings and subheadings. Tasks include spelling (our SMART spelling list is included as the first page), reading comprehension, grammar, number, measurement/geometry and/or statistics/probability & STEAM. Depending on their year level (5 or 6), all SMART spelling words in that list are to be written out 5 times across the 2 weeks. We do not recommend the students writing the list all in one night as it can cause them to repeat a spelling mistake. Nightly reading is encouraged (at least 4 nights a week) and should be recorded in their homework books.
• Health – Ensuring our students are happy and healthy is our number one priority. As you may be aware, we currently have a student and 2 parents in the Senior School who have either recently completed or are still undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer. Due to treatment, their immune systems are compromised, making them highly susceptible to infection and illness. In the event your child or a close contact of theirs is ill, we encourage you to please consider the following:

• Keep your child at home until recovered or advised by a health professional
• Inform the school of any contagious illnesses such as Covid or chickenpox
• Discuss the importance of personal hygiene and hand washing

Further information regarding infectious diseases and the recommended exclusion times can be found here at: https://www.health.vic.gov.au/infectious-diseases/school-exclusion-table#exclusion-periods-table

We appreciate all efforts to help keep everyone here at Mentone Park safe!

Reading: Identify details and information from a different social, cultural and historical context. We are using the text ‘Parvana’, to achieve this.

Writing: Use symbols to create notes from sentences.

Maths: Estimate, measure and compare angles using degrees.

Inquiry: Identify the impacts that mining has on the environment.