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Term 1, 2014 Report

First Term has flown by, and it is very pleasing to see how well all the children have settled into school. Our transition program has meant that the vast majority of children had been to our school on a number of occasions prior to commencing Prep. This means that school is a familiar, happy place for them. We also maintain contact with the local crèches and kinders, so that we can place children in friendship groups and allocate classes according to individual needs.

Our focus for the first part of the year is making sure that the children are happy and comfortable both in the classroom and the playground. We also like to establish good working habits and attitudes to learning. Our You Can Do It program helps the children to realise the importance of getting along, persistence, resilience, confidence and organisation.

The Preps didn’t attend school for the first six Wednesdays of term. Instead they each came to school for an individual testing session. This has enabled us to ascertain each child’s entry point and base our teaching on the needs of the children.

We have now commenced our Independent Reading, and allocated the children to flexible ability groups for literacy activities. In Literacy we are focusing on letters and sounds. We make this fun by using the many resources available to us. The interactive whiteboard means that we can use school programs plus many resources from the internet. We also read lots of books with the children and include cooking and craft activities. If we can instil a love of reading and learning in our children we can be proud of the job we have done.

Maths is also conducted using as many hands on activities as possible. Our focus this term has been on counting with one to one correspondence, recognising and writing numbers, pattern and order, and shapes.

Our buddy grades have been invaluable in helping the children to settle into school. In the first few weeks the buddies were on hand to look after the children at recess and lunch time.  We will continue to have buddy activities throughout the year so that the children maintain these wonderful relationships. It is a very positive experience for all involved.

The children have learnt much already, and are all eager and enthusiastic students. We look forward to seeing them grow and develop as the year progresses.

Term 2, 2014

It has been a busy term for our Prep students. The children are all now well and truly settled into school and we have begun to know each other really well.

The term started with two weeks of swimming at Haileybury. This is an exceptionally well run program, and we find that because it is an intensive swimming course that the children attend on consecutive days, they all make great progress over the course of the two weeks. It also has enormous benefits in terms of the children developing their independence. Although it is a hectic two weeks it is well worth the effort and planning that goes into running such a program. Besides the water safety aspect a nd the fun the children have swimming with their friends, it is also great training for later excursions where we need the children to line up quickly, take responsibility for their own belongings and behaviour, and sit sensibly on buses. We are very lucky at Patterson Lakes in that we always have many willing parent and grandparent helpers to assist with programs such as this, and we would like to say a big thank you because without them it would be impossible to run our swimming program.

A large portion of first term was taken up with assessing each child’s entry level, getting to know each child and developing relationships; ensuring that the children are happy and settled in school, and setting classroom expectations and routines. We are now working hard towards our learning goals and it is very rewarding to see the progress the children are making.

Our topics this term have been OnThe Move (Science) and People Who Help Us. We have been fortunate to have Abbie Phillips and Luke Milgate helping us with our Science Program and both Abbie and Luke have taken each Prep class for some Science lessons where the children have investigated the push and pull forces they can use to move objects in ways such as sliding, bouncing and spinning.  Our children also loved the lesson we did during Education Week where we learnt about Lois Pasteur. Luke provided us with some liquid that the children rubbed into their hands. They then washed their hands and were amazed when we shone an ultra violet light on their ‘clean’ hands to see how much of the original gel remained.

As part of our People Who Help Us topic, the local fire brigade visited the Preps to teach them what to do if there is a fire and showed them their fire engine. They took two fire trucks to school and while one half of the  Preps learnt about fire safety the other half got to clamber inside the cab and also have a spray of the high pressure hose. The car park and paving got a good clean that day.

The last few weeks have been very busy for the teachers, as we have been assessing the children in preparation for midyear reports, not to mention the report writing itself.  We always keep checklists and records over the course of the year, but we have been doing some extra assessments as well. It really is very rewarding teaching our children because we are in a position to see all their gains over the year, both social and academic.

Finally, we all bade farewell to Meaghan Bainbridge at the end of week six as she left in preparation for the birth of her baby. She joined our school early in her career and has been such an asset to Patterson Lakes Primary. We will miss her greatly, but we wish her and Jarrod every happiness as they start their family. We welcome Belinda Mercuri to Preps and look forward to working with her.