Grade Levels
Foundation at Broadford Primary School.
Welcome to the Foundation Unit here at Broadford Primary School. We welcome our youngest students into our school offering a safe, warm and nurturing environment where each individual is valued. We work closely with kindergartens and families to provide a supportive transition into school, emphasising open communication and the social emotional wellbeing of each child. A comprehensive transition program helps lay a positive beginning to school life, builds confidence and promotes lifelong learning.
Starting school can be a worrying time for Foundation students. Our primary focus is the feeling of belonging, safety and being ready to learn. Our Ready To Learn program at the beginning of the year allows the students to build relationships with their teacher, make friends and build confidence and independence.
The Foundation team work hard to teach daily routines as well as the school expectations using our School Wide Positive Behaviour Matrix, where we emphaisise Respect, Resilience, Responsibility and Readiness to Learn.
A day in Foundation:
Our foundation students have a structured, well balanced day that focuses on building literacy and numeracy skills, social and emotional awareness as well as independence and confidence.
A typical day includes:
Phonics – Explicitly working with letters and sounds.
Healthy Snack – A time for a brain break and snack of fruit or vegetables.
Reading – Exposing students to a large variety of texts, developing a love of reading, building reading habits, strategies and concepts about print.
Recess – Students eat their playlunch in the classroom, then go outside to play.
Writing – Developing fine motor skills, early writing, letter formation, writing words and constructing sentences.
Numeracy – Investigating numbers, counting, measurement, pattern and shapes.
Lunch – Students eat their lunch in the classroom, then go outside to play.
Inquiry – We learn about the world around us as well as how to learn.
Social and Emotional Learning – Learning about feelings, friendships, strategies for solving problems.
Specialists – Art, Drama or P.E (Physical Education) Each specialist session lasts for one hour.
Welcome to grade one & two . . . here are all the things we like to do
It is a very exciting time in the life of a student. Grade one’s have just finished their first year of learning, while grade two’s are preparing for their senior years at primary school.
We start the year with our ‘Ready to Learn’ program which teaches students the routines and expectations that will help foster their learning over the year.
Every day students are engaged in Reading, Writing and Numeracy lessons that build on from the foundations taught the year before and begin to extend their critical thinking skills. Speaking and Listening is fostered during Show and Tell and term oral presentations about topics such as ‘my favourite book’ and ‘an activity I do’
Throughout the year students in grade one & two will experience their first camp-like activity by participating in a sleep over at the school. We also have a long distance run, as a precursor to cross country. Excursions can include trips to the local swimming pool, the Broadford library and …
Through our inquiry program, MAPPEN, in 2021 we will be investigating several topics including:
Term 1 – Community: Places and Spaces
The students will learn about the services in our community. They will consider sustainable practices as they design and construct model buildings seen in our community.
Term 2 – Sustainability: Tip-Toe Through Our World
Students will learn how to reduce, reuse and recycle as they consider the importance of sustainability. They will develop personal sustainability goals as they consider the ethics of sustainability.
Term 3 – Social Justice: Celebrating Differences
Your child will be immersed in the food, games, music and traditions of different cultures. They will explore the meaning of traditions as they explore cultural traditions.
Term 4 – Creativity: Robot Buddies
In groups, your child will design and build a robot using craft materials. They will learn about the properties of different materials and consider which materials they should use to create their robot.
We look forward to sharing our learning with you on our class Compass newsfeeds.
3/4 at Broadford Primary School
In Year 3 and 4 students embark on new areas in their learning journey.
In English, Year 3 and 4 students develop a range of strategies to help them read and understand a variety of text types and genres. Students complete activities to interpret information in the text and are able to answer comprehension questions to show what they have understood. Students practise making connections with a text based on personal or world experiences and spend time discussing this with others. Students continue to build on imaginative and informative text types including narrative, informational and persuasive.
In Mathematics, Year 3 and 4 students complete regular pre-tests to target learning needs and provide challenging tasks to apply their skills. Lessons are structured to include whole class introduction followed by activities catered to student abilities. Teachers try to incorporate a range of tasks to engage students with a mixture of hands-on activities and written work. Students are exposed to multiple topics including Place Value, Fractions, Multiplication, Chance, Shape and Measurement.
Throughout Inquiry units students investigate areas such as geography and history. Students complete research tasks to expand their knowledge of these areas and present their findings in a range of ways including artworks or verbal and digital presentations.
Developing their personal and social skills, students take part in activities focusing on their interaction with classmates, understanding the complexities of friendship and how to treat others with respect. Students reflect on their own strengths and weaknesses through mindfulness and practicing gratitude.
Years 5 and 6 at Broadford Primary School
Grade 5/6 is a special time for students at BPS where we take final advantages of the supportive and nurturing environment of primary school life. Student wellbeing is a huge focus with weekly Social Emotional Lessons focussed around our fantastic School Wide Positive Behaviour Support framework. These lessons are carefully created using engaging resources from Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships learning material and the Resilience Project.
Other key learning areas include Reading where, through the development of personal reading goals, modelling and strategy-based lessons, we build on students’ deeper understanding of texts. Personal desktop libraries ensure each student has a range of engaging and challenging books at their fingertips.
Writing sessions are carefully undertaken with an emphasis on establishing a community of writers. Much of our writing centres around the use of our personal Writer’s Notebooks. This is a fantastic tool that holds all our ideas for future writing. Informative, persuasive and narrative writing units are taught with an emphasis on the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing.
Specialist classes include Physical Education, Visual Arts and Performing Arts and are held once a week.
A huge highlight of the year is the Grade 5/6 Production that sees all students involved in some way, shape or form. Our amazing drama teacher oversees the process from auditions, singing, costumes, dance moves to the performance nights, with lots of help from all of our talented BPS staff members!
As we near the end of the school year we ensure we are preparing our grade six students for a happy and successful move to year seven. We work closely with local secondary schools ensuring a smooth transition for all of our students.