Horsley Herald Term 2 Week 5

Dear Parents/Carers,

Our upgrade work around the school is progressing nicely with our carpeting now completed, fencing in its final stages, and painting well underway and on track to finish within the next few weeks. 

It certainly has been a busy time at Hosley during the first part of this term. This week we welcomed back Mrs White from leave and Miss Martinez from her placement. Students were excited to have both teachers back.

Check in Assessment

Check In Assessment (CIA) for years 4 has now been completed and year 6 will complete their assessment next week. Initial results show an uplift of 13.8% of questions answered currently in numeracy by our year 4 cohort which is great to see.

The CIA allows us to identify how students are performing in literacy and numeracy and to help teachers tailor their teaching more specifically to student needs. We continue to make reading a focus at Horsley with the introduction of new resources, shoulder to shoulder support in each classroom by our AP Curriculum and Instruction, Mrs Biro and weekly library lessons for all classes about to resume.

Cross Country

Zone cross country took place at Brenan Park today and we were represented by 23 of our students. Our students had a great day and displayed beautiful behaviour and outstanding sportsmanship. It was great to attend the event and see three of our students progress to the Sydney South West (regional) carnival taking place in June. Congratulations to all our competitors and our three place getters Isac (2nd 8/9 years boys), Calais (3rd 10 years boys) and Tayliah (3rd 11 years girls).

Got It!

Please refer to flyer previously published and in this addition about our upcoming parent information session on raising emotionally intelligent children. This is a worthwhile session to enhance your understanding and support you and help your child's development. We do require numbers by 31st May for our June 5th 1-3pm session, so if you intend on participating please let the school know. There is a minimum number of required particpants for us to engage the company and proceed with this workshop. 

Biggest Morning Tea

Our choir and dance group performed successfully at The Biggest Morning Tea community event this week. Our students represented Horsley beautifully with their confident performances wooing all in attendance. Congratulations to all creative artists and to the staff who prepared our students (Mrs Khoo, Mrs Biro, Mrs Payer and Mrs Orecchio).

Staying home when sick

Students should continue to stay home when sick. Students and visitors should only attend school when they are symptom free. We strongly encourage all students and visitors to follow the guidance issued by NSW Health.

Anyone who believes they have been exposed to COVID-19 is strongly recommended to monitor for symptoms and test if they have any concerns, as well as wear a mask. We will continue to support our families to use rapid antigen tests (RATs) if symptomatic or if you believe you have been exposed to COVID-19. RAT testing may help identify the infection early and is important if you are in contact with people at greater risk of serious illness if exposed to COVID-19.

Parents and carers who have children with persistent or ongoing symptoms of COVID-19 are encouraged to have these assessed by their local health care professional. These symptoms may be related to other illnesses (e.g. allergies or hay fever) that require treatment and management by a doctor. Students can return to school if this is confirmed with a medical certificate.

 Quick updates:

• SchoolBytes is now fully operational for all payments. Keep checking emails for all things school related. Permission notes will be distributed through this platform also.
• Seesaw has been reintroduced to all classrooms so those that consented should have received log in details from their teacher or you can use your previous year's log in details.
• Parent/teacher interviews will occur over the last two weeks of this term. More details to come including how to book your interview times.
• Be sure to like our Facebook page for regular updates of what is happening at Horsley.
• Tell Them From Me survey for years 4-6-if you do not wish your child to particpate please inform school.

Until next time,

Mrs Tracy Sweeney

R/principal

You may keep hearing or will see in your child's upcoming report vocabulary that teachers are using with your children in class.  So here is a quick lesson on the terms that may be new to you.

Phonemes

Each sound that you hear in a word is a Phoneme. It’s the smallest unit of sound that makes up a complete word. This is not to be confused with the letter itself; phonemes are only the sounds made. It's important to understand that phonemes can be made of more than one letter. There are 44 phonemes in standard Australian English. These phonemes are used to speak all the words in the English language.

Grapheme

A Grapheme is a symbol used to identify a phoneme; it’s a letter or group of letters representing the sound.

Decodable text

Decodable texts are specifically written for beginning readers as they are developing their blending and segmenting skills and their knowledge of the alphabetic code. Decodable texts support students as they practise by using a continuous meaningful text.

Decodable texts contain a very large percentage of words that incorporate the letter-sound relationships that students have been taught. Decodable texts increase in complexity as the student learns more of the phonetic code.

We are currently exploring as a school the role decodable texts play in developing the reading skills of our younger students.

Subitising

To subitise is to identify (instantly recognise) the number of things in a set simply by quickly looking at them—not by counting them one by one.

Part-part whole knowledge

Collections to ten can be conceived  in terms of their parts  (e.g., 8 is 1 more than 7, 2 and 6, 5 and 3) or as they are a part of a larger collection (e.g., 8 is 1 less than 9, or 2 less than 10).

Providing your child with opportunities and experiences in composing (putting together) and decomposing (breaking down) numbers can assist in the development of flexible additive strategies. When students know the parts of numbers and see how they relate to other numbers, they are able to use this understanding for additive problems.

Part-part-whole knowledge based on subitising and visual imagery is key to establishing the numbers to ten as mental objects which is a core component of trusting the count.

We hope that supports your understanding of some of terms used in our classrooms. We will continue to build a collective understanding of these newer terms as the year progresses.

Mrs Biro

Assistant Principal Curriculum and Instruction

Student Merit Awards

Student Bronze Award

CONGRATULATIONS