Off and Running!
Welcome back to all our families for Term 4! It is hard to believe we are already two weeks into what will be a big 11-week term. With the warmer weather now with us, a timely reminder that hats are required at all playtimes — please make sure your child has theirs each day, and if they need one, they are available at the office for $15 or through the QKR app.
We are also thrilled to welcome five wonderful new staff to the 502 team. Laura Hyslop and Sarah Considine join us as Education Support in Grade 1/2, Amy Millar as Education Support in Grade 5/6, and Angela Baker as Education Support in Grade 3/4, who will also help run a Mini Hands-On Learning program. We also welcome Michelle Giblett, a teacher who will primarily be taking Numeracy in Grades 4 and 5. We are so excited to have them all on board!
There has been plenty to celebrate in sport, too. We sent a huge team to Regional Athletics, and they did us proud. A massive congratulations to Cameron, Jack, Louis, Hazel, Elise and Tom for progressing all the way through to State level — a truly outstanding achievement! Every athlete competed brilliantly and showed wonderful sportsmanship.
Our Grade 6 students also took to the court at Black Ranges Basketball. Our girls’ team finished a fantastic second, while our boys’ team went all the way to win the championship and will now progress to the next level — congratulations to you all! Thank you, too, to our parent helpers who stepped in as coaches.
And to cap off a busy fortnight, on Friday we held our annual Ball Sports competition. A huge thank you to Blair for organising, and to Miss Ma and Jemma for practising the events in PE. It was a fantastic day, and a big well done to Green House for taking out the win!
The 502 Way
VTLM 2.0 sets out four elements of learning, and our teachers plan every lesson around them:
Attention, focus and regulation — calm, well-routined classrooms and Opportunities to Respond keep students focused and ready to learn.
Knowledge and memory — new content is taught explicitly in small steps, with teachers modelling and checking understanding.
Retention and recall — daily reviews, do nows, Rocket Maths and flash cards help learning stick in long-term memory.
Mastery and application — students practise in varied ways and apply skills to new problems, including word problems and different texts