Transcript Welcome to Prep 2015 - Footscray City Primary School

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Welcome to Prep 2015
Prep Information Morning
10/02/2015
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FCPS Teachers
Prep Teachers:
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Prep A – Rebecca Raso
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Prep B – Sally Mackintosh
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Prep C – Juliet Walker
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Integration Aide – Hamish Watt
Specialists Teachers:
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Art – Emily Power Moore
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Music – Alison Handley
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Chinese – Hannah Gan
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P.E, PMP & Hot Shots – Joe Diamond
Classroom and Specialist
Teachers can be contacted at
any time via email.
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General Information
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Fruit and Vegetable break – Daily around 10am. Students to bring cut up fruit and/or
vegetables (as well as their recess snack and lunch).
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Recess and Lunch – Students eat their recess snack at 10:45am until the bell goes at
11 to go outside. They eat their lunch at 1:25pm until the bell goes at 1:40.
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Water bottles – Important that students have their water bottle in class to have a
drink when needed.
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Sunsmart Policy – Terms 1 & 4, please make sure your child wears a school hat with
name clearly labelled (No hat, no play).
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Sunscreen – A pump bottle is supplied by the school in each Prep classroom, your
child will need to apply it themselves throughout the day, they will be reminded to
do so before going outside at Recess and Lunch. If your child needs to use a specific
sunscreen, please provide it.
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Notes – Will be sent home in your child’s school bag, and a copy of every note is
available on the school’s website, http://www.fcps.vic.edu.au, under Curriculum
then, Prep Overview. Also ‘like’ the school’s Facebook page to receive updates and
information.
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Before and After School Care – Please see the office for more details and to book.
Jennifer walks students to the Peppercorn Building in the morning, teachers walk
students to After School Care after school.
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General Information - Continued
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Buddies – Grades 4/5 and 5/6. We will have buddies every Friday.
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Lunch orders – Every Wednesday. Please provide order in a clearly
labelled bag with correct money.
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Assembly – Monday morning, 9:00am, drop your child off next to the Main
Building. Friday afternoon in the Multipurpose Room, 3:15pm – 3:30pm,
collect your child from the Multipurpose Room (not the Peppercorn),
followed by Market Stall. We will email parents on Thursday to let them
know if their child is receiving an award.
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Homework (Reader Bags) will be sent home this Friday, a copy of every
note inside will also be available on the school’s website. Every child will
have a designated day to return their Reader Bag and change their books.
Students assigned on a Wednesday will change their books on a Thursday
throughout February.
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Curriculum Newsletter – Will go home after Planning Week (Prep
planning day (at this stage) is on Monday17th). This will include important
dates for Term 1.
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School Nurse – Forms went home yesterday, please return by Friday 13th.
The Primary School Nursing Program is a free service offered by the
Department of Education. It is designed to identify students with potential
health-related learning difficulties and to respond to parent concerns and
observations about their child’s heath and wellbeing.
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School Values and Policies
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School begins at 8:55, allowing students to settle in the classroom
for a 9am start. If your child arrives late to school, please have
them sign in at the office and collect a late pass. Then bring your
child to their classroom.
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If your child is not coming to school for any reason, could you
please contact the office in the morning to let the classroom
teachers know.
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Absent students require a note confirming absence from a
parent or guardian, you can also email your classroom
teacher.
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Each class will design a set of Essential Agreements which follow
our school values: Excellence, Respect, Honesty, Empathy, and
Fairness.
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Morning Routine
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Lunch boxes and drink bottles on tables.
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Reader Bags and Show and Tell to teacher (Show and Tell
will be linked to a different letter each week).
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Return any notes to teachers.
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Whiteboards and Word of The Week (learning how to read,
write and spell a different High Frequency Word each week).
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Lunch orders in the basket (Wednesday’s only).
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Curriculum
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Literacy Block - Every day 2 hours (1 hour Reading focus: Guided & Independent
Reading and 1 hour Writing focus: Various Genres)
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Numeracy Block - Everyday 1.5 hour
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Integrated Learning - Term 1 focus is Rules and Essential Agreements.
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Bounce Back - Whole School Student Wellbeing Program, Term 1 focus is Bucket
Filling. The Bucket Filling concept is based on the picture book 'Have You Filled a
Bucket Today?', by Carol McCloud. The ‘bucket’ represents your mental and
emotional self. You can be Bucket Filler  or a Bucket Dipper .
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Specialist Program - 4 hours each per week
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PMP and Hot Shots - Half an hour each per week
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Library - 1 hour per week, borrow books for home (library bags are already at
school), find books for classroom library, focusing on how to find and return books,
particular authors, topics/non-fiction, what a library should look, sound and feel like.
We will have a Specialist timetable displayed outside each classroom. The
timetable may change throughout Term 1. Every Specialist has started, except for
PMP.
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Literacy – Reading & Writing
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Reading at School:
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Mini Lesson, Guided Practice, Independent
Reading, Guided Reading (Reading Goals),
Conferencing, Share Time.
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Mentor Text Focus: Comprehension
Strategies (Predicting, making connections,
visualising, questioning, determining
important ideas, summarising, inferring), and
Decoding (Does it make sense? (Meaning),
Does it sound right? (Sentence structure),
Does it look right? (Visuals in the word).
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Writing at School:
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Mini Lesson, Guided Practice,
Independent Writing (Different
Genres), Guided Writing (Writing
Goals), Conferencing, Share Time.
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Writing Process; Planning, Writing,
Revising, Editing and Publishing.
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Reading at Home:
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Links to Integrated.
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3 Just Right books, focus on fluency,
enjoyment.
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Writing at Home:
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Notes in Reader Bag: Bookmark, questions to
ask note.
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Reading Eggs.
Encourage your child to write for
different purposes, e.g. letters, cards,
lists, etc.
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Numeracy
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Numeracy at School:
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Warm up (100 Days of School), lesson intro, student activities, guided
teaching/conferences, share time.
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Real life experiences, open-ended, problem solving, use of different
mathematical language, hands on materials.
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Numeracy at Home:
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Involve your child in maths at home, counting, time, money, etc. Look for
maths in the environment.
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Refer to Curriculum Newsletters for specific topics, e.g. Shapes, Chance
and Data, Patterns, etc.
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Mathletics.
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Homework
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10-15 minutes per night.
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Reading to, with or by your child.
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3 books will be taken home weekly for the child to read daily
and become confident with (fluency).
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Alphabet cards focusing on letter ID or common sounds.
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Oxford Word List Plus – 15 Spelling words to read and write,
to be changed when needed.
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Reading Eggs and Mathletics.
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Tasks related to Integrated Curriculum, e.g. time capsules.
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Nurturing Creativity & Imagination
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‘Having a go’ - We encourage mistakes and ‘having a go’ in the classroom,
emphasising the learning process not just the outcome.
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We incorporate music, singing, games and movement into the curriculum as
a means of learning.
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Pre-assessments – We find out what the students already know and then plan
to cater to their individual needs.
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Differentiation – We use pre-assessments and our knowledge of our students
and the ways that they learn to provide each child with the best possible
teaching and learning experiences.
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Art & Music - The specialist programs of Art and Music are centred around
nurturing creativity and imagination. Each grade will be completing a
collaborative work of art that will be up for auction at the Art Show in Term 3.
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Our priority is knowing our students and how they learn - Building strong
relationships with students and finding out how best they learn is a key focus
of Term 1.
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Incursions & Excursions
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We will have a variety of excursions which will be designed to
support our learning activities. Please return the consent form and
payment as soon as possible to support program planning. All
monies should be securely sealed in a named envelope.
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The money raised from the Prep Market Stalls will be used to
subsidise incursions, excursions, and the Prep - 2 Camping
Program.
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The Prep – 2 Swimming Program will run in Term 4. Dates and
times will be confirmed later in the year. All parents are welcome
to attend.
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Parent Helpers
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Parents are a fantastic resource and can be an ‘expert’
visitor in our class.
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Parent Helpers are often welcome on excursions, numbers
permitted. A Working with Children Check is required.
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Parent helpers are required to attend the information
morning or evening which will be held this term – dates
will be provided by Jessie Hand.