Our beautiful flowering gum (Corymbia ficifolia) near the fish pond has begun to flower, a truly stunning Australian native from Western Australia. It’s these special things in nature that I really love, we have noticed that many of the children do too, they especially love the gumnuts.

It’s been another fabulous week of learning at Claremont College, with students now truly into their new grade routines, and being challenged to achieve academic excellence at their next curriculum level of learning.

It has also been really appreciated by our teachers to have had the opportunity to meet most of the parents of the students in their care, over the past two weeks. Some parents have commented too that it has been so lovely to be able to come back into the school. It really is the small things we miss when we don’t have them anymore, isn’t it? Our school community has been strong throughout 2020, however we are all looking forward to being able to gather together more often, to strengthen our community.

Each year at the end of the year, we survey parents from Kindy, Year 3 and Year 6 to find out how we are doing in regard to many aspects of school life including:

• Academic Programs,
• Pastoral Care,
• Christian Education,
• Co-Curricular & Extra Curricular Opportunities,
• Sports Program,
• Administration,
• Communication,
• Reputation,
• Affinity (Loyalty), and
• Overall Satisfaction.

We sincerely thank all parents who have taken the time to complete these surveys as the results help us to see how we are tracking from year to year and against 230 schools and over 17,500 respondents across Australia. Our results again this year have been outstanding. While this is the case there is always something to learn from data which is the reason we survey parents, to see what we can do better.

This year we have invited interested parents from the current Year 1 and Year 4 to join us to view the data and to dig deeper into the questions and responses.

During the year, within the newsletters we will be focussing on the Key Learning Areas (KLA) for students, with a specific focus on a different KLA each week. This week our focus is on the English sub-strand of Reading, and within Reading our particular focus is Guided Reading. To many, including myself, this is the most important aspect of learning there is, because it permeates all other learning areas. We hope you enjoy reading about Guided Reading in the ‘Around the School’ section of the newsletter below. 

Please note the following date change, from the website and information sent home to our new parents:

Speech Day is on Wednesday 8 December (not Friday 3 December) and this will be the students’ last day of school for 2021. 

Please consider coming along to the parents seminars listed below, as these are an important aspect of how we connect with and inform parents about our school initiatives, and the impact of these on student academic achievement.

Sit back and enjoy all that is in the newsletter this week, and appreciate all of the small things in life that matter so much. 

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and became a tree. Matthew 13:31-32

Janelle Ford
Co-Principal

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Website: www.claremont.nsw.edu.au 
Instagram: @claremontcollege
Twitter: @claremont2031

Many of you may have followed the news about an online petition calling for schools to provide adequate education to students about sexual consent and that this topic is to be situated earlier in the school curriculum. The petition included many testimonies from women who were sexually assaulted as a girl by high school boys at parties and other social events. Some of the women were as young as 13 years old at the time. I have read some of these testimonies and they are incredibly sad and distressing. Many of the girls wrote that they were too fearful to report the assault afterwards or if they did report the assault, they were not believed or were treated with contempt afterwards. 

The petition, and the accounts of these women that it contains, has increased the community’s awareness about the needs of our young people. There has been a great deal of discussion regarding the need for high quality, comprehensive sex education programs in our schools. The issue about sexual consent being a top priority. All of this stirred my thinking greatly, so I asked my wife Rowena what she thought. Many of you know her through her ‘Amazing Me’ sex education programs here at Claremont. It was good to get her thoughts and perspective on this matter, and she has written a blog for our newsletter (see below).

For many years Claremont College has always prioritised the delivery of sex education, and this is done in a number of ways. The NSW government’s syllabus requires specific content regarding sex education including sexual consent to be taught from Year 4 onwards. Lessons from Kindergarten include simple conversations about private body parts, respectful relationships, child protection safety, cyber-safety, help-seeking behaviours including who and how to ask for help. The ‘Amazing Me’ Program provides evening seminars for parents and their children in Years 3 to 6. Our Year 6 students also participate in ‘Amazing Me’ lessons focussing on puberty and preparing for high school and the teen years. Further to this, opportunities for discussion on how to talk to our children about sex and other challenging topics, inevitably occur at our Fathering Project dinners. 

Dr Julie Townsend (Principal of St Catherine’s) wrote to her school community earlier this week. One point that I thought she expressed particularly well was:

“It is clear that schools and families must work together to teach both girls and boys about sexual education and respectful relationships. In a culture where sex is normalised, there can be incredible pressure on teenagers and they need to understand what is acceptable, the situations where they may be exposed to risk, how to protect themselves against those risks and how to report a criminal act.”

At Claremont we have strong systems and many staff whose specific role it is to support students; including their class teachers, Ms McKersie (School Counsellor), Mrs Cameron (Co-Principal) and others. We are here to help, support and care for your children and you. It is devastating to us, when a child keeps a difficult situation or incident to themselves. We can only imagine the feelings that a parent may experience when they learn that their child has felt or been made to believe that they need to keep something like sexual abuse a secret. As Julie Townsend writes; “Silence always protects the perpetrator, so it is also important that schools and families create environments of trust, where girls, boys, young women and young men, have the courage to come forward in the knowledge they will be supported.”  Or maybe we can even go a step further and hope to create a community of acceptance and non-judgement, that means the presence or absence of courage in the context of a disclosure, is no longer relevant.

Parents, if you have a suspicion or concern that something is not right with your child, please come and talk with us and share your concerns. Student wellbeing issues and challenges can be complex (not just in the teen years), so partnership between the school and family to navigate and reach a positive and successful outcome is essential. This success is especially achieved when parents and school work collaboratively. Please know we are here to support. Perhaps this will prove to be unfounded in our Primary School, but we will never know if we don’t respond together.

One last point, I believe that the best way to respond to the challenging issues of the teen years, is to invest in the ‘now’. The simple conversations about values, relationships, sex, our bodies, respect, consent and responsibility can start when children are toddlers.

I hope that this has stirred your thinking. 

Mr Doug Thomas
Co-Principal

To date there are over 21,000 responses to the online petition which commenced just one week ago. These responses include signatures and testimonials about the sexual abuse of teenage girls within schools, the majority being in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. How do we as parents respond to this? What happened to the girls (over 3,000 to date), who describe abuse which they did not report at the time, is shocking and heartbreaking. We must ask ourselves how can this happen? Therefore, it is good that the issue of ‘sexual consent’ has definitely been brought to light in the subsequent articles appearing in news items and social media, across this past week.

SMH regarding consent amongst teenagers

In most schools the curriculum is taught and involves age-appropriate education from Kindergarten teaching consent, bodily autonomy, understanding private and public parts, to safe and unsafe feelings, touch and secrets, to healthy and unhealthy relationships. Yes, school does have a big part to play and our sex education programs can always improve, but sexual consent education starts way before a child even goes to school and has nothing to do with sex until later on.

Children learn about the concept of ‘consent’ in everyday life relationships. They learn by watching and listening to your attitudes, values and beliefs and how you role model consent in all of your relationships. This takes practise. When we say things to our kids like; “can you please do that,” “make sure you share that,” and “give Aunt Betty a kiss on the cheek.” How we respond to a child sends them the message that their choice is valuable, for example whether or not they would like to be hugged, what they wear, what they want to play with, and that they are allowed to change their minds or say no, (it’s not a mean word). All of these things teach them how to express consent for future relationships, bodily autonomy, boundaries, their needs and wants, that consent is mutual, how to handle rejection and be safe. This is what consent is.

It is the responsibility of all adults in all of our communities to teach consent. We are all doing it anyway, whether we realise it or not. The challenge is, are we as parents teaching them the right things about how to be respectful and to keep safe?

Responding to Pornography

With the oversexualisation of woman in the media and the early access that our kids have to pornography it’s more important than ever that we are aware of the dangers and be pro-active in how we talk to our children. With over 81% of Australian parents saying that their pre-schoolers have access to the internet it’s important to begin positive age-appropriate conversations, way before they start school so they know what to do when they see pornography, and to know that you their parent is wanting and open to talk to them about it. 

Have the Conversations

By normalising conversations through the media, using examples from movies, songs and television to communicate how people are not/are using consent, speaking out if you hear someone else making an offensive joke or degrading a woman or other person tells your child what you believe. By avoiding language yourself that objectifies women and not letting stereotypes shape your actions you are role modelling consent. Helping your child to read body language and listen to their body helps them to understand that their behaviour affects others and that if their gut says ‘no’ to listen and respond to this and to speak up or ask for help.

More can be learnt and more can be done. Let’s not play the blame game. Instead we must be proactive with our kids because we can as parents make a huge difference. How we learn about consent and how we practice it now affects matters of consent in the future. 

Follow me on Instagram @amazingme.education for weekly parent tips and comments.

Rowena Thomas
Sex Educator and Consultant

The ‘Fathering Project’ events at Claremont College are organised to equip and resource our fathers to be the very best dads that they can possibly be, in the midst of our busy schedules and very full lives. Our nights at the Coogee Diggers Club always provide us with a great opportunity to get to know others, build community, and to also plan some of the Dad’s and Kids’ events for the year ahead. We always need some helpers to ensure the success of our initiatives. I hope to see you there on Monday 8 March (please note change of date) for a 7:00pm start. 

It’s 2021 and we are now living the ‘new normal’. So with this, our Fathering Project discussion topic for the night will ponder a little on this thought: 

• What is new normal parenting? 
• What are some of the current issues that dads (and mums) are facing, what should be our priorities, what is a father’s role in keeping our kids safe, and is this any different from how our dads raised us? 
• What is the power of a dad?

One of the goals for the night will be to throw some issues and questions up in the air for you to be provoked and challenged by. We won’t necessarily be trying to come up with all the answers, but we will certainly get the ball rolling for ongoing discussion at future Fathering Project events across 2021… including our Dads’ and Kids’ Camp at the end of the year, (save the date for Friday 8 - Sunday 10 October).

Sean Johns from ‘The Fathering Project’ and I will both give some short talks and lead the discussion that follows. I look forward to seeing you there. 

Please RSVP using the following link: https://www.trybooking.com/BPAHK. There is no charge for the event. Food and beverages are available at the venue. Note that specific COVID venue requirements will be confirmed closer to the date.

Mr Doug Thomas
Co-Principal

There is no place for physically hurting someone. Keep your hands to yourself. When you become frustrated or angry, use your words to explain how you are feeling. You could use the five finger breathing technique, or think of 3 things you are grateful for… these types of strategies can really help you.

Larissa Cameron
Co-Principal

Tuesday 9 March, 2:00pm, School Hall
Why should you come along?

We hope to answer all of your questions...

• Will my child get lost in a big learning space?
• Is there any structure to the teaching and learning?
• What if my child needs to work in a quiet environment?
• Is co-teaching experimental?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of having multiple staff for my child?
• Is there any research to back up this style of teaching?
• What is it like for the teaching working in these learning spaces?
• Are all staff suited to this style of teaching?
• How does the school support the teachers to make the most of co-teaching?
• How do students manage a traditional school environment after they leave Claremont and go to High School?

We also hope to discuss with you any questions we may not have thought of yet. Please come along and join this important discussion. To book please click here.

Year 1 Student: Mr Thomas, it's going to be my birthday soon, in a couple of months or a couple of days.

Mr Thomas: That's a big difference between months and days, do you know which one it is?

Year 1 student: It depends on the way you look at it. If you count in days it's a long way off but if you count in months it's just a few.

We have revised down the maximum amount of money the students can bring to school on Fridays to $2. This is because many are buying more than they need, just because they still have money in their pockets.

Other than this, the opportunity the parents are offering the students, has been a great initiative and the students are loving it. 

Thank you to the Mums who are giving up their time to make this happen.

Mrs Tara Barr
Acting Deputy Principal

CANTEEN MENU

It is important to the school that parents have an opportunity to raise concerns, complaints and speak with the leadership team before concerning issues become big problems. The document ‘All About Claremont’ click here provides information about the communication pathways that exist for parents to bring such matters to our attention. The main point we stress is please do not hesitate to bring a concern to our attention. It is very important to us that we listen, engage, and work together, demonstrating trust and respect with the goal of achieving resolution where there might be upset. The school’s formal complaints handling policy is available on our website here.

Term 1 2021

Term 2 2021

I encourage you all to mark in your diaries the evening of 18 March to attend a parent webinar hosted by a leading children’s technology researcher, Dr Kristy Goodwin. The webinar, ‘Raising Your Child in a Digital World’ will begin at 7:30pm and will conclude by 9:00pm. Earlier that day, our Primary students will participate in a ‘Digital Wellbeing’ workshop with Dr Goodwin. 

“Many parents are worried about the effects all this technology is having on their children’s physical health and development. They feel guilty about the amount of time their children watch TV or play with iPads, but admit that trying to wrestle a digital device out of their child’s hand can frequently result in massive conflict and tantrums.” (Dr Goodwin)

Dr Goodwin aims to help parents to understand healthy, safe and practical ways to use technology in the home. She uses the latest evidence-based research to explain how parents can develop healthy digital habits whilst promoting and safeguarding wellbeing. 

A cost of $25 per family will be charged to your Term 2 account. 

Please CLICK HERE to register for this event. 

Mrs Larissa Cameron
Co-Principal

Parent Seminar #1 - Why Co-Teaching

Parent Seminar #2 - Digital Wellbeing: Raising Your Child in a Digital World - Dr Kristy Goodwin

Y1 & Y4 Parent Follow Up Presentation & Follow Up from 2020 MMG Survey

Parent Seminar #3 - Home Learning Policy.

What is guided reading?

“Guided reading is a form of group instruction in which we introduce children to the techniques of reading new or unseen material for personal satisfaction and understanding.” (Don Holdaway in Fountas & Pinnell, Guided Reading) Guided reading aims to challenge students to go beyond their current level of reading ability, within a group setting where students are grouped according to their level of ability, using texts chosen at the groups instructional level of reading. 

Guided reading differs from the other three sub-strands of reading: Read-aloud, Shared Reading, and Independent Reading.

In Guided Reading lessons teachers plan so that students participate in three types of activities:

• Before reading, where students engage in conversations about the text, they may make predictions, activate background knowledge, and/or ask questions during this period.
• During reading, where students read the whole text, requesting help and problem solving to decode or understand the text where needed.
• After reading, students talk about the text, check predictions, reread for understanding and engage in activities about the text.

And finally, to ensure that students are learning all of the skills they will need to read texts with increasing difficulty and independence, students are specifically taught all of the following reading skills each year, however with a specific focus on no more than two at a time, and by following the Fountas & Pinnell Literacy Continuum.

Thinking Within The Text

• Searching for information: noticing and using sources of information (meaning, language structure, phonological information, visual information);
• Monitoring and Self-Correcting: Checking on accuracy and understanding and working to self-correct errors;
• Solving words: Using a range of strategies to recognise and take apart words, and understand word meaning;
• Maintaining fluency: Reading at a good rate, integrating phrasing, pausing, intonation, and stress;
• Adjusting: Taking action in flexible ways to solve problems or fit purpose and genre; and
• Summarising: Remembering important information and carrying it forward.

Thinking About The Text

• Critiquing: Thinking critically about the text; and
• Analysing: Noticing aspects of the writer’s craft including text structure.

Thinking Beyond The Text

• Predicting: Anticipating what may happen next;
• Making Connections: Connecting the text to personal and world knowledge as well as to other texts;
• Synthesizing: Adjusting present understanding to accommodate new knowledge; and
• Inferring: Thinking about what the writer means but has not stated.

Twelve skills and strategies are a lot to learn, and the progression of learning for these as the students move through the grades becomes more challenging. Our Scope & Sequence for teaching the 12 strategies is as follows:

Ultimately, we aim for all students to become lifelong learners through reading and to find reading an enjoyable pastime just for fun too.

Mrs Janelle Ford (Co-Principal), Mrs Stephanie Affleck & Mrs Alanna James (Heads of English)

READING IN KINDERGARTEN

Kindergarten is an exciting year of learning where students learn to read and write and we feel privileged to teach and support your child at this stage in their literacy development.

READING SKILLS

Research indicates that skilled reading is underpinned by two broad skill areas, Decoding and Language Comprehension. To develop both of these areas, it is important that five essential skills are explicitly taught. These include:

Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

• Phonological awareness includes recognising phonological patterns such as rhyme, alliteration and an awareness of syllables.
• Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to focus on individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words, and may include blending, segmenting and manipulating phonemes.

Phonics

• Phonics refers to the ability to decode words using knowledge of letter-sound relationships.
• Research indicates a synthetic phonics approach, including blending and segmenting phonemes, is the most effective way to teach phonics.
• Phonics lessons support both reading and spelling, and these are taught alongside each other.

Fluency

• Fluency includes reading with speed, accuracy and natural phrasing and intonation.
• Fluency in decoding text supports students to focus greater attention on the meaning.

Vocabulary

• Vocabulary refers to the knowledge of words, their meaning and the structure of language.

Comprehension

• Comprehension is understanding and building meaning from written text.
• Comprehension is related to background knowledge and vocabulary.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN THE KINDERGARTEN SPACE

Shared Reading

Each week, Kindergarten students engage in four Shared Reading lessons. These sessions focus on developing the skill areas of Vocabulary and Comprehension and utilise quality literature including well loved picture books. Each Monday, a new Book of the Week is introduced. The chosen book links to our learning in History or Science, with the purpose of both contributing to and drawing on background knowledge developed in these content areas.

Three new words from the text are chosen as the Vocabulary Words of the Week and we explore the meaning of each word and practise using it in a spoken sentence. Teachers model using these words in different contexts throughout the week and highlight when students use the words when speaking or writing. 

Before, during and after reading the book, we explicitly teach, model and discuss the comprehension strategies of Predicting, Making Connections and Summarising. Before reading the story each week, we focus on making predictions about what we think will happen in the book. When we re-read the text throughout the week, we make connections to our knowledge and experiences and discuss these with a partner and with the class. After reading the book multiple times throughout the week, we summarise what we have read to share only the most important parts in our own words. As part of our writing lesson, students apply this understanding to write a simple sentence about what they have read or a connection they have made.

Phonics lessons

Students participate in small group phonics lessons each day, which explicitly focus on developing the skill areas of Phonemic Awareness and Phonics in a systematic and structured manner. Student progress is monitored and these groups are flexible so that they can be adjusted to best meet student needs. 

Guided Reading

Students have daily opportunities to apply their phonics knowledge and develop fluency during small group Guided Reading sessions. These lessons utilise decodable texts so that students can apply what they have been learning in phonics lessons to solve words, read whole sentences, and when they are ready, read larger passages of text. Students engage in repeated practice of reading aloud, working toward reading with speed, accuracy and natural phrasing. Fluent reading is modelled by the teacher and timely verbal feedback is given to students.

Students also engage in comprehension activities including answering questions about what they have read and giving a simple retell of what happened in the story. Guided reading sessions provide students with an opportunity to apply the comprehension strategies they are developing in Shared Reading lessons, including Predicting, Making Connections and Summarising. 

We hope this gives you an insight into what Reading lessons look like in Kindergarten and the skills we are developing. We are committed to teaching each student to read and we want to foster a love of reading that will support them in their learning throughout their formal schooling and the rest of their lives.

Thank you for your continued support, 

Miss Abby Carter, Mr Julian Ko, Miss Jessica King, Mrs Sally Durek and Mrs Jesse Hitchen
Kindergarten Teaching Team

Reading in Year 1

This term, Year 1 students participate in a number of explicit guided reading lessons each week. The purpose of these lessons is to develop comprehension skills and strategies as well as to provide a springboard for stimulating creativity in the students' own writing. During guided reading lessons, students rotate within different activities in ability based groups. The activities target comprehension, fluency & decoding, reading for enjoyment and phonemic awareness. 

In the first guided reading lesson of each week, students are explicitly taught an element of the comprehension strategy. We spent the first part of the term looking at solving words and making predictions. This week we have started looking at summarising and making connections. 

With our Learning Enrichment teacher present in these lessons, Year 1 is able to split into 8 different groups for guided reading sessions. We are fortunate at Claremont to have so many guided reading resources, and the students are enjoying working through some reading resources called Key Links texts. These provide guided discussion points for us to work through in our groups, encouraging students to delve deeper into the texts they are reading, and look at the author’s choice of particular words and literary techniques. The students also participate in a ‘preview’ and an ‘initial viewing’ of the focus text, such as the pictures, characters and setting and the basic plot. 

This week we introduced our two new comprehension strategies, summarising and making connections. Students will focus on these for the rest of the term, where they will learn about the purpose and audience of different texts. 

Here are some Year 1 student reflections on guided reading:

“I enjoy completing the comprehension box.” Mason T
“I like reading with a teacher and answering the questions about the book.” Archer S
“I like guided reading because we get to read really interesting books altogether.”
Yasmin E
“I like how the teachers show us how to read properly.” Ollie H 

Mr Jake Smith, Mrs Melanie Stewart, Mrs Fiona Vula, Mrs Nicola Breakspear, Mrs Carol Giles and Mrs Nicole Nunn

Year 1 Teaching Team

Reading in Year 2

Throughout this term, the Year 2 students will be exploring rich texts to inspire their imaginative writing and build their comprehension skills and strategies. The theme for the term is ‘Belonging’. Students have the opportunity to learn in small groups, both mixed and ability-based, where explicit instruction, deep discussions and modelled examples are used to engage and inspire their love of reading and writing. 

Guided Reading:

Year 2 students experience both shared and guided reading throughout the week. Shared reading involves the teacher reading with a mixed ability group and encouraging rich dialogue around the purpose of the text, visual and linguistic features and the comprehension focus for the week. It is a time for group discussions, deep questioning and analysing a text to help students improve their comprehension skills. 

Guided reading happens three times a week and is ability based, depending on the instructional reading level of the student. These lessons involve explicit teaching of the comprehension strategy, with students reading aloud to the teacher and their peers. During these sessions, students participate in three types of activities. 

While students are reading with the teacher, the other students are completing independent literacy activities, and then swapping. These activities include: 

Spelling Word Work: Using their coloured spelling words to identify vowels and consonants, and use their words in a complex sentence.

Reading Eggs/Wushka: Online Apps focussed on comprehension strategies

Vocabulary: Choosing a word from their spelling words and looking for synonyms/antonyms to expand their vocabulary.

Comprehension: Students complete a set of comprehension questions based on a  written passage.

The reading comprehension strategies we are focussing on for the remainder of this term are paraphrasing and inferring. Generally, the comprehension strategy of inferring can be challenging for students. Here are some inferencing questions you could ask your child when they are reading at home:

Why do you think the character did…?
What is the message or lesson of this story?
What do the characters actions/choices tell you about him/her?
What can you figure out that the author didn’t tell you? What clues did you use to figure that out?
How was the setting the author used important for this story?
What is the mood or tone of this story? What tells you that? 

Here are some thoughts about English from our Year 2 learners:

“I like reading out loud with the group because it’s fun. And I like doing Reading Eggs too!” 
 Aveline B 

“I enjoy reading because you get to learn a lot of things and you can dream about what you read, and then you can get to sleep quicker. I am excited to write my narrative so I can write and write and write.” Finlay P 

“I love Guided Reading because we get to read fascinating books like ‘The Rainbow Diamond’.” Caitlyn Y 

“I like quick writes because you get to use your imagination and get your ideas down quickly.” Jai P  

Mrs Alanna James, Miss Deborah Tan, Mrs Susan Nicolaides and Mrs Sally Durek

Year 2 Teaching Team

Reading iN YEAR 3

Learning to read, write and develop a concrete understanding of the English language is an incredibly complex process. Therefore, it is no surprise that some one of the most common parent questions we receive in Year 3 relate to reading. For this reason, we will use this opportunity to provide a snapshot of how these Literacy components are structured in Year 3.

Reading

During the week, the students participate in two Guided Reading sessions. The first session focuses on comprehension strategies (‘how to understand what you are reading’) and the second session focuses on reading fluency (‘how to read aloud with expression and accuracy’).  Students are broken into 4 differentiated Guided Reading Groups based on the Fountas and Pinell levels.

Comprehension strategies

In the first session, students learn and apply specific comprehension strategies. In this lesson, students receive teacher led and explicit modelling of the strategy. Then, they are provided with an opportunity to practice the strategy with a differentiated text. This term in our comprehension lessons, we are explicitly focusing on four strategies - Solving Words, Predicting, Summarising and Making Connections.

Solving words (using our knowledge of prefixes, suffixes and root words to understand an unknown word).

• I have come across the word ‘Trans-Atlantic’ and I don’t know what it means. I know that the prefix ‘Trans’ means ‘across’, so it must mean ‘Across the Atlantic’.

Predicting

• Using the clues in the text, I can predict what will happen next. I will monitor and change my predictions based on new pieces of information.

Summarising

•  I can ‘sum up’ or ‘explain the main point’ of the text and won't get bogged down in irrelevant details. Throughout the text, I will pause to reflect on and summarise what has happened so far.

Making connections

• This book is about the mountains. I have been to / read about / seen a documentary about the mountains! I will use the connections between the text and my prior knowledge about the mountains to help my understanding as I read!

Reading Fluency

In the second Guided Reading session, students choose a differentiated text from our reading fluency box. We use differentiated Reading Fluency cards from the Fountas and Pinell program. With a partner, they practise reading the same text a number of times with fluency, accuracy and expression. They use a ‘Reading Aloud Checklist’ to access their own progress each week and a teacher will also listen to them reading, in order to provide verbal feedback in the moment.

Reading for Pleasure

We are continually trying to encourage the students’ to develop their reading skills by reading books of interest. To support your child at home, you can encourage them to practise their strategies and skills by reading each night. We love to acknowledge students with their effort by rewarding them with a prize at the end of the term. Students are encouraged to fill in their ‘Home Reading Challenge’ booklets each night for 30 nights. We look forward to continuing to develop our students’ confidence and love of reading!

Don’t take our word for it, here are some Year 3 students’ reflections on our Guided Reading program:

Ava L thought that getting feedback on how she read aloud enabled her to use learnt strategies, such as using expression, more often.

Magnus R found he was challenged when presented with unknown words, but was able to use prefixes and suffixes to understand the words.

Lauren C found she enjoyed receiving and giving feedback to her partner in guided reading.

Angus K enjoyed the text he read with a partner as he was able to use his skills of expression, and predict what might happen in the text.

Mrs Adelaide Marquet, Mr Darren Oen, Mrs Michelle Parker and Miss Sinead Kelly
Year 3 Teaching Team

Year 4 Excursion to Bundeena

Last week, Year 4 went to Bundeena for their Aborginal Experience excursion. The students and teachers were guided by the Gumaraa Rangers through the traditions of one of the world’s oldest surviving cultures. It was wonderful to be able to go on an excursion this year and learn all about Aboriginal life before European settlement. 

The day started with a traditional Welcome to Country smoking ceremony where the students had ochre painted on their faces or arms from the rangers. 

Boomerang throwing was a highlight of the day for many students, with a few boomerangs coming all the way back to them. The students were then shown different traditional artifacts and were able to hold them and ask the rangers about how they were made and what they were used for. They heard many stories of when these artifacts would have been used and saw the different stages of how to make a boomerang. In groups, students explored the area around them for a bush walk with the ranger and were shown the different plants and trees traditionally used for food and medicine  by the local Aboriginal tribe of the area. Students were taught some traditional Aboriginal dances by the rangers like the bird dance and the berry dance.

Student responses:

“I enjoyed the bush walking and when they explained what each of the trees and plants were traditionally used for.” Elizabeth C 

“I liked the medicine that can be found in the bush on the bush walk. It showed us what the Aboriginal people relied on to get better if they were sick.” Ned L 

“I liked looking at and learning about the artifacts because they showed you how to use them and explained what they were. There were shells, weapons, shields and animal skin.” Charlotte F 

“I liked throwing the boomerang. It taught us how to Aboriginal people used to use boomerangs for hunting and training.” Noah McC 

“I enjoyed throwing the boomerangs and looking at all the interesting artifacts.”
Clara K 

“My favourite part was when we got to hold the different artifacts.” Yui Kei C 

“A highlight for me was doing the Aboriginal dancing in the afternoon.” Summer L

Guided Reading

In Year 4, students participate in Guided Reading sessions. During the first lesson, students participate in a teacher-led activity with explicit modelling of the strategy of that week (‘how to understand what you are reading’). Students practise the strategy either in partners or as a whole class to check their understanding. The second session focuses on the students reading a levelled text with the teacher in groups and completing a task based on the comprehension strategy taught that week. These strategies are also reinforced during a Shared Reading session with a text based on the topic from both English and HIstory subjects of the First Fleet and Captain Cook this term.

Comprehension strategies this term:

• Solving words (Using our knowledge of prefixes, suffixes and root words to understand an unknown word.)
• Predicting (Using the clues in the text, I can predict what will happen next. Students will monitor and change their predictions based on new pieces of information.)
• Summarising (Students briefly state the main parts of the text and shouldn’t record irrelevant details. Students should pause throughout parts of the text to reflect on the events of the text.)
• Making connections (Students will use the three different types of connections of text to text, text to self and text to world to make connections between what I have read in the book. I will use the connections between the text and my prior knowledge to help my understanding as I read!)

Responses from students about guided reading:

“I like trying to solve the hard words with text clues and figuring out the definition of the words” Billy R 

“I enjoy the Dogonews with Miss Kelly.” Dion T 

“I liked learning what the definition of words are. I enjoy working in small groups.”
Leni OL 

“I enjoyed learning about how to use text clues to find words I didn’t know the meaning of.” Ben F 

“I enjoy reading in front of my group with my teacher.” Anya K 

“I enjoyed learning up in the attic and that the book is shared onto the board.” George M

Mrs Bianca Herborn, Miss Hannah Mackay, Miss Sinead Kelly and Miss Yasmin Campbell
Year 4 Teaching Team

GUIDED READING IN YEAR 5

In Year 5, we not only encourage daily reading, we expect it.  Student diaries are signed by a teacher daily to ensure that students are reading each night and exploring an aspect of their reading by logging comments in their diary.  Daily reading allows our students to explore a world outside their own reality, be exposed to new ideas and possibilities.  Furthermore, it allows students to help make connections between the written and spoken world, widen their vocabulary and master spelling. 

One of the ways we explore reading in Year 5 is through our guided reading program.  We have three streamed guided reading groups.  The overarching theme for our guided reading is the exploration of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their cultures, language and land. 

Students are reading one of three texts in their groups: My Girragundji by Meme McDonald, Two Hands Together by Dianna Kidd or the anthology Remembered by Heart. 

During the first 5 weeks of our guided reading program, students have been challenged to make predictions about the text, think critically about the text and explore specific words in the text to understand their meaning.  In the second half of this term, students will be learning to summarise the text and make connections.  Making connections helps students make meaning of what they are reading, retain information better and engage more with the text itself.  Students make connections between the text and themselves, another text and the world around them. 

Ms Rachel Shiels, Miss Louise Ireland, Mrs Nicola Breakspear, Mrs Speranza and Miss Yasmin Campbell
Year 5 Teaching Team

In Year 6, students engage in three Guided Reading sessions each week. In the first session, students receive explicit teaching instruction on a specific comprehension strategy. This term, we are focusing on solving words, predicting, summarising and making connections. During this time we have used a range of texts from ‘Kids News’ and ‘DoGo News’ to practise our current comprehension focus. This has been a great opportunity to link our texts to Government and Energy, which are our topics for History and Science this term. 

Later in the week, students are then provided with an opportunity to put this skill into practice with a differentiated text at their instructional reading level. We break into our four reading groups and have been using a program called ‘Reading A-Z’. This is a great tool, as it enables us to find a text specific to the comprehension focus of the week. 

In addition, the students engage in a reading fluency task each week, where they read a short text aloud with a partner in order to improve their fluency, accuracy and expression. The students listen to each other read, and provide feedback using a checklist. 

We are thoroughly enjoying our class novel ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ and we have also been exploring the book ‘The Arrival’ during our shared reading time. This term in Year 6, a key concept we are exploring is ‘Identity’, and we have been investigating this by looking at the different ways people live and their different perspectives. Both of these texts have provided the students with an opportunity to further explore ‘Identity’.

Throughout the week, students also have time for silent reading so they can focus on reading a book of their choice. This is also a great opportunity for students to discover new books to read. 

Here are a few thoughtful reflections from the students on our Guided Reading unit:

“We have really enjoyed reading ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ as a class. The characters and the story are very entertaining. Our favourite character is Violet because she is an inventor and she is very intelligent.” Xanthe S and Sanja P 

“I’ve enjoyed learning about solving words in reading groups. We read a really interesting article about rising sea levels, and we needed to use context clues to help us work out what unknown words meant.” Tom L 

“I like coming back into the classroom after lunch and listening to the teacher read our class novel.” Teddy G 

“On Wednesday afternoons we do reading fluency. We read out loud with our partner and give feedback about how they read. My partner told me that I need to practise using more expression when I’m reading.” Henry F 

Mr Angus Ryan, Miss Sophie Valdeck, Mrs Lisa Speranza and Miss Sinead Kelly
Year 6 Teaching Team

What part does reading play in language learning?

Listening, reading, speaking and writing skills are integral for students who are developing their acquisition of Bahasa Indonesia (the Language of Indonesia).

Reading, even at a slow pace exposes students to more sentences, grammar, and new vocabulary per minute than the average, short class, TV show, or even a song. This is why students who read foreign books are able to speak more fluently than students who don’t, despite having done the same hours of classes.

Although reading may be a source of frustration at first, students who make it a ritual to read gain language skills much faster than their counterparts. Teaching Indonesian through reading allows students to engage with their teacher cultivating a rich learning experience.

Many researchers have focused on the positives of why books are an essential part of a language curriculum, especially for children.  

Since children’s literature makes use of natural language patterns in familiar contexts that the students can relate to, it helps students to make connections and recollect those language structures much faster.

Children’s books contain more than just vocabulary, the images provided also help the reader comprehend the meaning without language skills, the images support the text in a mutual relationship. As learning is facilitated by visual cues, reading helps the brain to remember these language structures as the learner will connect an image to the word it represents.

But learning a language isn’t just about having a knowledgeable teacher, it’s also about having a good environment and strong support network —and luckily, parents and carers are able to provide these! Here are some ways you can be a part of your child’s Indonesian language learning journey.                      

Think outside the house: Whether your child is learning Chinese, French or Indonesian, there’s bound to be somewhere around town where your child can get some practice in. Take them to an Indonesian restaurant and buy them their favourite dish, but only if they can place the order in Indonesian! This creates both a challenge and a reward, two important parts of a successful lesson. Maybe you can take it a step further by putting yourself in the shoes of the clueless tourist, letting your child take the lead in International supermarkets which are also great places to get a bit of extra practice. Imported foods and beverages will usually have ingredient lists in the target language, and lucky for you, your child is there to help you make heads and tails of them! While you’re getting some grocery shopping done, they’re working on their food vocabulary skills!

Reading offers students a wider range of vocabulary and grammar, it essentially supports and feeds the brain with the correct language structures.

There are six essential skills needed for reading comprehension, and here are some tips on what can help kids improve this skill. 

• Decoding is a vital step in the reading process. ...
• Fluency. ...
• Vocabulary. ...
• Sentence construction and cohesion. ...
• Reasoning and background knowledge. ...Working memory and attention.           

With the right techniques, language learning can be fun, but this is even more true of learning to read in a foreign language: basically all you have to do is read whatever you want, and you’ll get better at reading! 

This year, we plan to broaden the Indonesian reading resources available to the children at Claremont College. I am in discussions with a representative from Gramedia (Indonesian publisher) to obtain age-appropriate, authentic resources for use across the school. 

Needless to say, sometime soon I am really looking forward to inviting parents to re-join our Conversations@Claremont activities in classrooms!

Sampai jumpa!

Bu Jill

Premier’s Reading Challenge 2021

Welcome to the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge.

The annual Challenge aims to encourage a love of reading for leisure and pleasure for students, and to enable them to experience quality literature. It is not a competition but a challenge to each student to read, to read more and to read more widely. The Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC) is open to all NSW students in Kindergarten to Year 9, in government, independent, Catholic and home schools. There are a number of Claremont students who have taken part in the challenge each year, and last year across the state more students than ever participated.

Students over the next fortnight will be given their usernames and passwords. Please note that these are the same usernames and passwords as previous years. Can we encourage you to make a copy of these to keep handy.

PRC FAQs 

When can I start?
Challenge opens: Monday March 1, 2021

When does it end?
Challenge closes for students: Friday August 20, 2021 

How many books do I need to read?
You must read a certain number of books to complete the Challenge.

Do book series count?

In an approved series on the PRC booklist, you can read any three books as PRC books. You can read up to five other books from the same series as Personal Choice books. So… You can read Harry Potter 1, 2 and 3 as PRC books, and then 4, 5, 6 and 7 go towards your personal choice books. 

What are the PRC books?

You can find the full list here. We are lucky enough to have a number of these books in our library, but you can also find many at your local library too.

Where can I find out more?

The PRC student site is available again this year! Students can search for books to read, add books to their reading logs, and track their progress throughout the challenge. The website is currently being updated and will be available for students when the challenge opens on March 2. You can find the site here.

We’re so excited to see what you end up reading :-)

Mrs Stephanie Affleck
Teacher Librarian

New Books for the Collection

This book is well presented and full of amazing facts. Between the pages the young reader can find the answers to 100 questions about Planet Earth. The text is supported throughout the book with exciting, full colour illustrations.

Recommended for ages 8 years and older.

Space is a big topic, but this book breaks it down into bite sized chunks, making it an accessible introduction for anyone who wants to find out more about this fascinating subject. The vibrant illustrations are supported with snippets of information about all aspects of Space exploration and the science of the Universe.

Recommended for ages 9 years and older.

Mrs Susan Kesur
Library Assistant

Inter-School Chess Competition

It is nearly that time of the year again. Students in Years 3 to 6 (Infants students only if their ability is at Primary level) have the opportunity to sign up for the annual Inter-School Chess Competition. 

The competition runs every Friday afternoon in Term 2 for at least 8 weeks. Games are played on a rotation between home games (at school) and away games (at another school).  Parents of children on each team are asked to help out by providing transport when the team is playing an away game.

Participation in the competition is entirely dependent on the number of children to make a team in each experience level (Intermediate, Rookies and Junior Rookies). A minimum of 4 children are required to register a team in each level.

As students have experienced in previous years, while chess is a friendly and social game, games can be highly competitive and opponents have a range of abilities. It is, therefore, important that students participating in the competition have substantial experience with playing chess and have attained a reasonable understanding of the rules in order to be competitive. With this in mind, please ensure you speak with your child before entering him or her into the competition.

The chess coaching sessions run by The Sydney Academy of Chess on a Friday mornings have been highly successful and the children have thoroughly enjoyed learning new moves and strategies from our chess coach.

Ideas for your child:

• Encourage your child to join our chess coaching program.
• Buy a chess board and play some games (explain the rules and possibilities as you play).
• Use a chess app on your iPad, laptop or smartphone and allow them to discover the rules for themselves.
• Teach them the ‘four-move-checkmate’ and how to defend against it.
• Using these tools will give you a great understanding of your child’s level of readiness.

If your child is interested in playing in this year’s Inter-School chess competition, and you are willing to provide transport assistance if your child is selected to play, could you please click here and complete the registration form, indicating your child’s level of experience, by Friday 12 March.

Kind regards,
The Chess Team

Debating and public speaking are great catalysts for learning invaluable communication skills and developing confidence when talking in front of others.  Although not all students will go on to compete in debating and public speaking competitions, all students need to develop the skills to communicate effectively throughout their lives.

Facilitated by Masters Academy, students who participate in the coaching program will have the opportunity to practise debating and public speaking activities, learn persuasive language, critical thinking and logical thinking and gain a deeper understanding of key learning areas such as health, economics, history, law, politics and current affairs.

Click HERE to complete the form if your son or daughter would like to register their interest in participating in the Debating Coaching sessions. 

Depending on numbers, coaching will be on Thursday morning at 7:45-8:45am in the school Library for 7 weeks.

It will cost $175 per term, starting Week 2, Term 2.

Ms Rachel Shiels
Debating Coordinator

Key Dates

Important Dates for Term 1 

IPSHA Swimming Carnival
Tuesday 2 March

Year 5/6 AFL Gala Day
Wednesday 10 March

Claremont Cross Country Carnival
Wednesday 17 March (TBC)

IPSHA Cross Country Carnival
Saturday 27 March

Cross Country Carnival

It was with great disappointment that we had to postpone this week's Cross Country due to the rain and wet conditions of the track and park. The new date will be Wednesday 17 March. We will communicate more information prior to the date.

AFL Gala Day

The Paul Kelly Cup gala day will be held on Wednesday 10 March and is available to both boys and girls. The day consists of a number of games of AFL against teams from other schools played on small fields with modified rules to make it more accessible to all participants. It is a fun filled day and a great opportunity to develop some more skills and interest in AFL. Students do not need to have prior experience playing AFL to participate. Students in Year 5/6 will be able to sign up with Mr Geering in PE lessons over the coming week.

Claremont Champions

Congratulations to Lola U (Year 6) who along with some other Claremont students mentioned in previous weeks, competed at the Regional Athletics Championships. Lola finished 4th in the 400m and the 800m, running a personal best in the latter. She has qualified for the State Athletic Championships for both events.

Mr Joel Geering
Sports Coordinator

Get Ready for Winter!

School Blazers, track jackets and track pants are now available. 

The Uniform Shop is run by Ranier on the school premises during school terms on the following days: 

Monday: 2:30pm-5:30pm (PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE OF OPENING TIME)

Wednesday: 8:00am-11:00am

Ranier Winter Flyer

Methods of Payment: Cash, EFTPOS, MasterCard and Visa.

For new students, fittings are by appointment. Simply book online at www.shop.ranier.com.au

The Uniform Shop is located within the main body of the School. Please access the Uniform Shop via Coogee Bay Road lower side gate.

CONTACT

Phone: 9213 0720

Email: claremont@ranier.com.au

Responses will be provided during opening hours.

Note: The website can answer most of your questions at www.shop.ranier.com.au

For more immediate assistance, head office details are

Online: ranier.com.au/contact

Email: custservice@ranier.com.au

Phone: 02 8337 7290

Swim school spaces filling fast for Term 1

The Coogee Diggers swim school has some class availability left after re-enrolling last year’s clients. It is currently Week 3 of Term 1 and we expect all available spots to be filled in the next three weeks. If parents would like to check for current availability to start Term 1 or to reserve a place on the waiting list could you please email swimschool@coogeediggers.com.au with the following information:

●      Child’s Name:

●      Child’s Age:

●      Current level of swimming (if known):

●      Contact Parents Name:

●      Contact Email:

●      Contact Mobile:

●      Any Medical Issues

Does your child just love music and drama? Would they like to have fun and grow their skills in singing, acting and performance? Enrolments for our after school extracurricular class, Curtain Call are underway! Learning how to sing and perform on stage is a great way to gain a love for music, grow in confidence, build self-esteem as well as self-discipline, and of course have a lot of fun. Curtain Call is an all encompassing group class where students learn how to sing and how to apply performance skills and stage presence as a performer. 

Class times each Wednesday during Term:

K-2: 3pm-4pm
Y3-4: 4pm-5pm
Y5-6: 5pm-6pm

Enrolments are still open so please email our singing tutor, Lyndell at l.arthur@claremont.nsw.edu.au for more information and to secure a spot for your child today.