Simon Learning Community

Welcome to Simon Learning Community

Deanna

Simon

Kathleen

Bronwyn

Phoebe

Ebony

Curriculum

The Victorian Curriculum F–10 sets out what every student at MPPS and all Victorian schools should learn during their first eleven years of schooling. The curriculum is the basis of all our MPPS planning documents and guides our teaching at MPPS, as well as forming a common set of knowledge and skills required by students for life-long learning, social development and active and informed citizenship. Further to this the Victorian Curriculum F–10 incorporates the Australian Curriculum and reflects Victorian priorities and standards.
Further information is available http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/

Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR) is a comprehensive approach to the primary prevention of violence against women and children. As a school we are dedicated to promoting and modelling respect, positive attitudes and behaviours with the aim of teaching our children how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence. The whole school approach to RRRR goes beyond curriculum, recognising that to drive real change, classroom learning needs to be reinforced by what is modelled within the school community.
Further information is available http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/programs/Pages/respectfulrelationships.aspx

Home Reading Books

Students are encouraged to bring their take home reader to school every day and read a variety of texts. The books are organised into engaging themes to pique their curiosity. The selected book will be placed in their blue reading bag for them to enjoy at home.

Family reading time can look different each night. Perhaps your child will read independently, or you might enjoy reading together. Maybe they'll prefer to listen to you read the book aloud. The most important thing is to create a positive and enjoyable reading experience.

Each evening, please encourage your child to record the book they read in their reading diary. Following this, have a brief discussion about the book. You could talk about the characters, the plot, or what they enjoyed most about the story. You can also help them identify and point out different sounds within the text.

Our goal is to cultivate a genuine love of reading and encourage your child to explore a wide variety of books.

Remember:
- Never cover the pictures up. Using the pictures as clues is an important strategy for children to learn
- Some words can’t be read by sounding them out, so do not focus too much on this with your child
- Talk with your child about the difference between words, pictures and letters
- Don’t focus on the mistakes... celebrate the successes!

Labelling Your Child's Belongings

Please label all lunchboxes, containers, drink bottles and school uniform items including hats, so they are easily identifiable.

Brain Food

Students eat brain food twice a day. Brain food consists of fruit or vegetables and no processed foods. We encourage students to bring brain food because the brain requires two times the amount of energy to function efficiently during the day.

Birthdays

We love to celebrate your child's birthday in SLC! If you wish to send your child to school with something to share, please ensure that these are individually packed chocolates, for example Freddo Frogs.

Simon Learning Community Curriculum
2024

Little Learners Love Literacy: Building Strong Foundations in Reading

Our school is committed to providing an outstanding teaching and learning program that sets our students up for success. We're excited to announce the implementation of the Little Learners Love Literacy (LLLL) program for students in Prep to Grade 2. This comprehensive, evidence-based approach focuses on developing essential literacy skills in a fun and engaging way.

LLLL helps children build a strong foundation in reading by systematically teaching key concepts like phonics (the relationship between sounds and letters), phonemic awareness (the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in spoken words), comprehension and high-frequency words. Through interactive activities, games, music and puppets students learn to decode words, improve their reading fluency, develop spelling and handwriting skills and foster a love for reading.

All components of the Literacy Big 6 are integrated and embedded into our comprehensive Literacy program. Our structured literacy approach engages students in each of these essential aspects of literacy on a daily basis.

Literacy Big 6:
• Oral Language - knowing and using spoken words to express knowledge, ideas and emotions
• Phonological Awareness - which is the knowledge of sounds (phonemes)
• Phonics - knowing the sound (phoneme) and letter (grapheme) relationships
• Vocabulary - understanding words in isolation and in context
• Fluency - reading accurately and at an appropriate rate with expression
• Comprehension - making meaning from text which includes developing knowledge of grammar.

Here is a snapshot of what students in Prep to Grade 2 can typically cover within the LLLL framework:

Grade 1: Building upon the foundation laid in Prep, Grade 1 students delve deeper into phonics and begin to read more complex texts. Key areas include:
- Expanding Phonics Knowledge: Learning more complex letter-sound correspondences, including digraphs (two letters that make one sound, like 'sh' or 'ch') and blends (two or three consonants together, like 'str' or 'bl').
- Reading Fluency: Developing the ability to read connected text accurately, quickly and with expression.
- Comprehension Strategies: Learning basic comprehension strategies like predicting, questioning and retelling.

Grade 2: Students in Grade 2 continue to refine their reading and writing skills, focusing on increasing fluency and comprehension, and developing more complex writing abilities. This includes:
- Advanced Phonics: Learning more complex spelling patterns and rules.
- Reading Comprehension: Developing a wider range of comprehension strategies, such as inferencing, summarising and identifying the main idea.
- Vocabulary Development: Expanding vocabulary through reading and explicit instruction.

English

Maths

Reading
Level 1
This year, we aim that students will:
- engage with a range of different types of texts, including decodable and authentic texts;
- discuss characters, settings, events and images;
- make connections to personal experience when explaining characters and main events in a story;
- identify that texts serve different purposes and that this affects how they are organised;
- read aloud short texts with some unfamiliar vocabulary, simple and compound sentences and supportive images;
- blend, segment and manipulate words with one and 2 syllables;
- read an increasing number of high-frequency words and directionality when reading;
- recall key ideas and recognise literal and implied meaning in texts.

Level 2:
This year, we aim that students will:
- understand how similar texts share characteristics by identifying text structures and language features used to describe characters, settings and events or communicate factual information;
- recognise all Standard Australian English phonemes, and most letter–sound matches;
- read texts that contain varied sentence structures, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a significant number of high-frequency sight words and images that provide additional information;
- monitor meaning and self-correct using context, prior knowledge, punctuation, language and phonic knowledge; - identify literal and implied meaning, main ideas and supporting detail;
- make connections between texts by comparing content.

Writing
Level 1:
This year, we aim that students will:
- provide details about characters, ideas or events;
- use writing strategies to enhance their writing;
- accurately spell frequently used words;
- use their knowledge of sounds to write unfamiliar words; - use capital letters and full stops appropriately.

Level 2:
This year, we aim that students will:
- create texts that show how images can support meaning;
- accurately spell words with regular spelling patterns and can write words with less common long vowels and silent letters;
- use some punctuation accurately;
- write words and sentences legibly using unjoined upper- and lower-case letters.

Speaking and Listening
Level 1:
This year we aim that students will:
- listen to others when taking part in conversations using appropriate interaction skills;
- listen for and reproduce letter patterns and sounds in speech;
- understand how characters in texts are developed and give reasons for personal preferences;
- describe characters, settings and events in different types of literature;
- tell stories during play;
- interact in pair, group and class discussions and take turns to respond to others;
- use turn-taking skills;
- make short presentations on familiar topics.

Level 2:
This year, we aim that students will:
- students listen for particular purposes;
- listen for and manipulate sound combinations and rhythmic sound patterns
- when discussing ideas and experiences, students use everyday language features and topic-specific vocabulary;
- they explain their preferences for aspects of texts using other texts as comparisons;
- create texts that show how images support the meaning of the text;
- create texts, drawing on their own experiences, their imagination and information they have learned;
- use a variety of strategies to engage in group and class discussions and make presentations

Number & Algebra
Level 1:
This year, we aim that students will:
- count to and from 120 and locate these numbers on a number line;
- pull apart numbers using place value;
- carry out simple additions and subtractions, using counting strategies
- recognise Australian coins according to their value
- identify representations of one half;
- describe number sequences resulting from skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s;
continue simple patterns involving numbers and objects.

Level 2:
This year, we aim that students will:
- count to and from, and order numbers up to 1000;
- perform simple addition and subtraction calculations, using a range of strategies;
- find the total value of simple collections of Australian notes and coins;
- represent multiplication and division by grouping into sets and divide collections and shapes into halves, quarters and eighths;
- recognise increasing and decreasing number sequences involving 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s;
- identify the missing element in a number sequence, and use digital technology to produce sequences by repeated addition.

Measurement and Geometry
Level 1:
This year, we aim that students will:
- use informal units of measurement to order objects based on length, mass and capacity;
- tell time to the half-hour and explain time durations;
- Students describe two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional objects;
- use the language of distance and direction to move from place to place.
-collect, represent and compare data

Level 2:
This year, we aim that students will:
- order shapes and objects, using informal units for a range of measures;
- tell time to the quarter hour and use a calendar to identify the date, days, weeks and months included in seasons and other events;
- draw two-dimensional shapes, specify their features and explain the effects of one-step transformations;
- recognise the features of three-dimensional objects;
- interpret simple maps of familiar

Statistics and Probability
Level 1:
This year, we aim that students will:
- describe different graphs, such as pictograph;
- ask questions to collect data and draw simple graphs;

Level 2:
This year, we aim that students will:
- collect data from relevant questions to create lists, tables and picture graphs;
- interpret data in context;

Soundwaves

Soundwaves is a word study program designed to develop reading, spelling and writing skills through phonemic awareness. This is essentially a knowledge and understanding of sounds and sound patterns of our language. Our students will be working through their student activity books each week to study a different sound and the different letter patterns used to represent that sound. They will soon have an online login code that provides access to games and activities that helps students consolidate the spelling words that are being studied in the classroom.

Integrated Studies

Term 1 - Community
Students will explore how music and stories can bring communities together. They will learn different ways to tell stories, including through animation, picture storybooks, and live performances. At the end of the unit, students will work together to put on a community performance.

Essential Questions
How can we bring communities together?
What are different groups called and how do they work?
How can we collaborate to create a community performance?

Class Dojo

To help us create a positive culture in our Learning Community, we use Class Dojo to acknowledge positive behaviours that display our CARE values. Teachers can encourage students to display skills or values using Class-Dojo as an incentive — whether it's working hard, being kind, helping others. This is done by awarding points that are displayed electronically in the Learning Community or Specialist class. Using Class Dojo can help student’s emotional literacy grow as they have the opportunity to receive immediate, regular and positive feedback in a fun visual way.

Reading Eggs

Reading Eggs makes learning to read motivating and engaging for students, with interactive games, songs and activities. To further support your child’s reading, students will be provided with their own username and password to explore the online program at home. For more information, visit https://readingeggs.com.au

Essential Assessment

Essential Assessment is designed to provide students with an engaging and interactive learning experience. Games and activities support the Victorian Mathematics Curriculum. To further support your child’s mathematics skills, students will be provided with their own username and password to use the online program at home. For more information, visit https://www.essentialassessment.com.au/

Term 1 - Weekly Timetable

Term 1 Roll Group Space
SLC 1 Tangerine Entry Area
SLC 2 Violet Glasshouse
SLC 3 Emerald STEAM Room
SLC 4 Aqua Backspace
SLC 5 Indigo Main Learning Area

Everyday students will participate in Literacy and Numeracy activities. Our Specialist programs are as follows;

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Performing Arts Indigo Visual Arts Tangerine Physical Education Aqua Emerald Japanese Violet	Performing Arts Aqua Tangerine Visual Arts Indigo Japanese Emerald		Performing Arts Emerald Visual Arts Aqua Physical Education Violet Japanese Tangerine Indigo	Performing Arts Violet Visual Arts Emerald Physical Education Tangerine Indigo Japanese Aqua

SIMON LEARNING COMMUNITY