Important Dates

Teaching and Learning Coordinator

National Simultaneous Storytime

On Wednesday 22nd May, Sirius College students participated in National Simultaneous Storytime for the first time. We joined over 1,138,889 participants from over 11,554 locations around Australia and New Zealand, reading the same book at the same time. National Simultaneous Storytime is organised by ALIA (Australian Library and Information Association) and sponsored by Scholastic. It is designed to promote the value of reading and literacy and the fun of books and has been running for 19 years. Each year a book written by an Australian author is selected to help promote Australian literature. This year the book was “Alpacas with Maracas”. All classes from all year levels met at various locations around the school to read the story together.

Helping Your Child Learn

Zeynep Filiz – Teaching and Learning Coordinator

Hello all Sirius College families.

As the TLC, I am looking forward to working with parents and the school community to support them in their endeavours to help their children learn. Learning is a lifelong process that continues throughout our journey into adult life. At Sirius College our goal is to engage and motivate our students to constantly ask questions, be curious about their world and embrace learning. We want our children to be the best people they can be and to become independent and valuable community members.

As we reach the halfway mark of the year, it is essential that we continue the year in an organised way. Having set routines and expectations will help your child know what to expect each day and prepare them for the day ahead, ready to learn and do their best.

Some things to consider:

1. Have your child’s specialist timetables visible so that they know which days they are having Library, Sport, Art, Music, Religion and Values or Languages and can have the tools they require for learning.
2. Encourage your child to pack their bags the night before with all the things they will need for the next day.
3. Have a consistent routine each morning which requires your child to eat a healthy breakfast and check that they have all the things they need for school packed in their bags. They should not watch TV or engage with digital technology until they are packed and ready for school.
4. Set up a weekly routine for after school which takes into consideration all your family’s after school commitments and allows time for your child to wind down and have a snack.
5. Set aside 10 - 15 minutes a day for your child to read to you, with you or independently if they are older.
6. Have a clear bedtime routine. Young children need to have 10 – 12 hours sleep in order to be re energized and ready to take on another physical and active day.
7. Pack a healthy snack and lunch which includes things your child likes to eat. This could be an activity you do together each day.
8. Leave home early so that your child is not late for school. Parking is always difficult if you arrive after 8.50 so make sure you are here before then.
9. Let your child know about their pick up arrangements. Explain where you will pick them up and who will be picking them up.
10. Be positive about their schooling experience. Ask them to share their day with you. What was the best thing that happened today? Perhaps you might get them to rate the day out of 10.

The Importance of Home Learning Tasks

Home Learning Activities are an important part of your child's learning.

It gives them a chance to:

• work through the things they have learnt at school
• strengthen their long-term understanding of the topic or activity.

Home Learning helps your child to develop study skills that they will use for the rest of their life.

These tasks also give a chance for you to get involved and help and in your child’s learning.

There can be many different Home Learning Activities. Some of these include:

Practice exercises

Practice exercises are things like:

• math problems
• Reading and comprehension
• essay writing
• practising words and phrases learnt in another language
• practising sports skills
• playing a musical instrument
• other creative tasks.

Practice exercises give your child the chance to:

• apply new knowledge
• understand and go over what they have learnt in school.

Home Learning that introduces a subject or topic

This type of homework gives your child the chance to learn about a topic before their teacher covers it. This helps your child prepare and understand future lessons.

Examples of this type of homework include:

• reading about history
• reading English texts so that the class can talk about it together
• researching topics for class work
• collecting newspaper articles
• watching the news.

Home Learning that builds on what they already know

This type of homework is sometimes called extension work or extension assignments.

This type of work helps your child to build on what they already know. It also allows them to do this in their own way.

Examples include:

• writing a book review
• making artwork
• completing science experiments or investigations
• researching local news
• finding information on the internet.

How you can help???

There are lots of ways you can help your child with their homework. These include:

• Encourage a homework routine
• Help your child to do their homework at the same time everyday.
• Some children concentrate better in the mornings. Some are better in the afternoons. Choose a time that works best for your child.
• Having a regular homework time will set your child up with good study habits. This will help them throughout school and beyond.
• Set up a comfortable space
• Talk to your child about their homework: Ask them what they find easy, difficult or interesting?

Reading with your child

I would like to draw your attention to some research presented by the Education Department of Victoria which highlights the importance of spending time to read and interact with your children. The research clearly shows that parents who value reading and expose their children to literature can have a huge impact on their children’s learning outcomes and success.

Reading to Young Children: A Head-Start in Life

The research sets out to explore the connections between parents reading to their young children and their child’s later reading and other cognitive skills.

Key Findings of the research include:

• The frequency of reading to children at a young age has a direct causal effect on their schooling outcomes regardless of their family background and home environment.
• Reading to children at age 4-5 every day has a significant positive effect on their reading skills and cognitive skills (i.e., language and literacy, numeracy and cognition) later in life.
• Reading to children 3-5 days per week (compared to 2 or less) has the same effect on the child’s reading skills at age 4-5 as being six months older.
• Reading to children 6-7 days per week has the same effect as being almost 12 months older.
• Children read to more frequently at age 4-5 achieve higher scores on the National Assessment Pro-
• gram – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests for both Reading and Numeracy in Year 3 (age 8 to 9).
• These differences in reading and cognitive skills are not related to the child’s family background or home environment but are the direct result of how frequently they have been read to prior to starting school.
• This research is a result of a partnership arrangement between the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research.

The full paper can be found at this address.

Naplan

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is an annual assessment for all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. NAPLAN tests assess student knowledge and skills in Writing, Reading, Language Conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy. The tests provide parents and schools with an understanding of how individual students are performing at the time of the tests. NAPLAN tests are just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process; they do not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance.

This year, our Year 3 and Year 5 students again took part in the National Assessment Program over a two week period commencing on Tuesday 14 May continuing until Friday the 31 May.

NAPLAN begun to move online this year, resulting in our Year 3 and 5 students completing their assessments using school technology. The move online brought many benefits in the form of more precise and detailed results for teachers, and a more engaging test for students. However, along with the positives were several technical issues which arose during the testing process. Thousands of students disadvantaged by technical glitches during this year's NAPLAN Online tests were given the opportunity to resit the assessment. Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) are aware of the glitches the new system created and are working on developing amendments to improve the testing process.

Schools will be given the results of these NAPLAN tests later this year.

New Reports

As we have previously announced, there have been changes with the layout and content of our academic reports at Sirius College. This term you will be receiving a semester report which consists of a full report page for each learning area. Further information and clarification on the new reporting system will be provided later this term

In addition to our reports, students’ academic and behavioural progress is regularly updated on the school's learning management system: SEQTA which you can access online.

Please refer to our Academic Reporting and Scholarship Policy to access further information including the methodology used to calculate the overall achievement of your child. The policy is available through SEQTA.

We thank you for all your support and understanding during this transitional phase.

Food for thought

“Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions” (unknown)