We are so proud of our wonderful school, and nothing can match the joy of seeing our children learning onsite at one of our "Prospective Parent" school tours.
During the most significant COVID-19 restrictions when we were unable to run school tours, we did our best to capture some of the "heart and soul" of our school through this video.  

Even though face to face tours are now allowed once more, we have left this video here for anyone who wants a quick look around the school before deciding to book a tour.

We hope you enjoy a preview of our fabulous learning facilities, extensive open spaces, passionate teachers and words of wisdom from our school captains, along with a flavour of our school philosophies, which focus on developing the whole child, to create confident, independent individuals ready to transition into Secondary School and the world beyond. 

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National Ride2School Day is Australia’s biggest celebration of active travel and one of the best days on the school calendar. It is a day full of fun and colour where students, teachers and parents discover the joy of riding and kick-start healthy habits for the future. test

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Due to its success in Prep, we will be extending the Little Learners Love Literacy (LLLL) program to include the Year 1/2s this year. LLLL is a sequential, explicit teaching program broken down into 7 stages backed by research.

This program focuses on synthetic phonics teaching to support all children to be successful readers and spellers. We have invested in purchasing a range of resources to support the development of each of the 5 pillars of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension) using this program.

You might notice a difference in the books your child is taking home in Years 1 and 2. This is because LLLL has a focus on decodable bools.

What is a decodable book?

A decodable book is a story or non-fiction text that has been written only using the sounds and letter children have learnt to date. This means they have the tools they need to read every word in the book successfully without guessing.

How to use decodable books at home?
If your child has been taught, he sounds and letters on the book cover then they can read it - so let them read it out loud and proud! To really master a LLLL stage, children must be really fluent and automatic in their reading so don't be afraid to read it over and over again (the more times the better). All of the books have notes at the back to support your too. So find a quiet, comfortable space and enjoy!

Watch this video of one of the authors, Berry’s, reading with Ella for some hints and tips.

If you have any questions, comments or feedback, feel free to email me at blycke@smaltona.catholic.edu.au

 

 

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