Today we say farewell and 'Good Luck' to Britt Densmore who will be leaving us to start a new chapter in her life as a parent. Britt and Jarrod's baby is due on the 27th September. We wish them both well and we look forward to sharing the news of the birth with you.

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On Wednesday, 17 of the staff at St Mary’s began a course on significant reading difficulties focussing on Dyslexia with consultants from the Catholic Education Office in Werribee. 

This course includes 3 face to face sessions (via Webex), professional reading and preparing a case study which focuses on identification and intervention. 
Our first topic was “What is Dyslexia?”

We have all heard of the term Dyslexia - often it is associated with reading difficulties, letter and number reversals, using coloured lenses and paper. But we are learning that it is much more than that!

Dyslexia is a condition which is likely to be present at birth and to be life-long in its effects. Dyslexia is not affected or caused by intelligence and there is no cure but individuals can overcome it. 

People with Dyslexia have difficulty in:

1. Developing phonological skills. This is includes hearing, recognising, segmenting and blending individual sounds e.g. cannot hear the sounds that make up the word C-A-T, unable to manipulate the sounds in words e.g. take away the c in cat and swap with a b now you have bat
2. Reading fluency, writing and spelling
3. Working Memory. This involves the ability to store and process information. Some of the ways this can be seen is in the person’s ability to blend and construct sound units in words, to recall elements in a story and to retain and follow multi-step directions.
4. Rapid naming speed. This is concerned with the speed and fluency by which we can retrieve and say information e.g. the ability to quickly name aloud a series of familiar items on a page. These include letters, numbers, colors or objects.where the words are represented by pictures or the sounds are represented by letters.

In our future sessions we will be looking at the assessments that are used to identify students who may have Dyslexia. We will then look at the various strategies that our school can adopt to cater for the needs of these students so that they can achieve to the best of their abilities.

So far this course looks both interesting and valuable and we are all looking forward to seeing what we will learn in the coming weeks. Of course we will keep you posted, but if you would like more information now please contact me.

Cathy Sims

Learning Diversity Leader/ Junior Literacy Leader

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Over the last 18 months the staff at St Mary’s have been working with Jeni Wilson on sharpening their skills with Inquiry Learning. The model of Inquiry Learning we are using at St Mary’s was developed by Kath Murdoch. 

During remote learning you will have seen your children being encouraged to ask questions, design and explore to spark curiosity.

As you can read on Kath Murdoch’s website, being an inquirer means learning to ask questions.  Big, small, open, closed, philosophical or practical  - questions are the inquirers most valuable tool. There are certain questions that we can return to again and again to help support our inquiry journeys. We can ask these of ourselves and others:

• What are you wondering?
• How might you find out?
• What are you noticing?
• What did you discover?
• What now?

These questions are as relevant to educators as they discuss their plans for learning as they are to students working through an inquiry. In fact they are relevant to everyone – at school, at home – in any moment we find ourselves doing some ‘figuring out.’ 

The above information was published on Kath’s website. If you would like to read more about Inquiry Learning visit https://www.kathmurdoch.com.au/blog to read her blog and explore more.

Stefanie Harvey

Learning and Teaching Leader

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Many families celebrated the first day of Spring and 'Yellow Day' by making yelllow pic collages and and finding ways to share happiness and kindness. Thanks to everyone who sent photos through for Facebook. It was great to see everyone out enjoying the sunshine.
How will you send a ripple of kindness throughout the community through the month of September?

         

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We should remember Sunday 6th Sept when we celebrate the dads and other significant male role models in the lives of our children. 

Thurs 10th Sept will be our Footy Fun Day. Let's make it as fun as it would be if we were all onsite!

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Click on the links to access a range of information & activities across our community, including news & information from the parish and local secondary schools as well as, this week, information about Creative Music and Workshops for parents re teens.
NEW this week...
Church Bulletin 21st October
Emmanuel College Update 21st October
Hobsons Bay Children's Week
Creative Music - Sign up for Term 4

Tuning in to Teens is heading into its Term 4 sessions so we’re getting the word out to parents who may want to join in. This 7-week program is designed to support parents in raising emotionally intelligent teens to improve relationships, communication skills and overall wellbeing.

Two Tuning in to Teens courses will be running in term 4:

• Wednesday 6 to 8pm from 14^th October to 25^th November.
• Wednesday 6.30 to 8.30pm from 28^th October to 9^th December.

Registrations essential. Learn more over on our webpage: www.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/teens

Archive...
Emmanuel College Update - 16th October
Camp Australia
Joseph's Corner newsletter
Camp Australia

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Playing Lego with others can help improve a child’s language skills by having to follow directions, respond to questions and ask questions ~ important communication skills in life.  Engaging in structured Lego play at home with your child will help build speech, fine motor skills & social skills. Lego play helps to improve instruction-following, providing directions and information, seeking assistance and clarification, communicating in sentences amongst many other things.
Read more in our latest article from Speech Pathology in Schools - Play lego to promote language

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Drowsy - it means feeling sleepy

Adjective

Synonyms: sleepy, tired, lethargic, dazed

He was drowsy so he went to bed.

Tim couldn’t concentrate in class because he was drowsy.

What are WOWs?

WOWS, or Words of the Week, are words that will appear every week both in the newsletter and in the display cabinets around the Prep/1 building as a way to help the students at St Mary’s Primary School build their vocabulary.

What we know from research about the importance of a large vocabulary is as follows:

1. Having a large vocabulary helps children think and learn about the world around them.

 

2. Vocabulary implications for literacy, in particular comprehension of written word essential for being able to answer questions about and successfully predict things from text.

 

3. A child’s vocabulary growth is directly linked to his or her overall school achievement.

 

What can we do with the Word of the Week?

It is important to talk about the words of the week with your child. Initially, discuss what the word means and put it in a sentence. Use the word frequently throughout the week – at set times like in the car after school or at the dinner table but also incidentally throughout general conversation where appropriate. When the child has a solid understanding of the word, you can think about other ways to build upon this knowledge and further increase vocabulary by thinking about other words that mean the same thing (synonyms) and words that mean the opposite (antonyms) to the WOW. 

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