Learning

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.

Wellbeing
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.

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 activities targeted to individual learning needs. Lessons are structured to include fluency practice, whole class mini lesson, 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, using resources, and written work. Students are exposed to multiple topics including Place Value, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and Division, Fractions, 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. We showcase our learning at the end of each term as an Expo.

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.

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 an important focus and is discussed daily. Students are becoming more independent in identifying connections between their emotions and behaviour. They are encouraged to use a range of strategies to feel calm, happy, and ready to learn. Formal Wellbeing lessons are also a priority, covering curriculum areas that develop self-awareness, resilience, and collaboration.

Our reading sessions are taught through the development of personal reading goals, modelling with mentor texts and strategy-based lessons, where we build on students’ deeper understanding of texts. Personal desktop libraries and classroom 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.

Mathematics in Grade 5/6 is all about students developing a positive mindset and making connections to the real world. If you visited our classrooms during a Maths session you would see students practising number skills and strategies, students working collaboratively to explore problems and find solutions, and lots of talking to share the learning. We also love great maths games that help us to learn maths, and they are fun!

Specialist classes include Physical Education, Visual Arts, Performing Arts, AUSLAN and ICT which 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 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!

Another 5/6 highlight is the opportunity to take part in our Interschool sports where we train and compete in a number of different sports, both Summer and Winter sports, against local schools from our area. The students love meeting new people from other schools as well as learning new sports.

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 our students.

BPS also takes pride in the end of year celebrations for our Grade 6s, including a very special graduation night, a graduate family morning tea and a trip to Funfields.