The Teaching of Reading

This year, with the implementation of version 9 of the Australian Curriculum, at Dayboro State School we have been implementing some new procedures in our teaching of reading. As a staff, we engaged in much professional learning in 2024 to prepare for this implementation.

Our Prep-3 classes now participate in whole class word reading explicit instructional routines 4-5 times per week. These instructional routines include explicit teaching of the sound, opportunities to segment words containing that sound and multiple opportunities for the students to interact with the teacher by spelling words and reading words. These explicit routines are then followed by some purposeful reading activities based around the focus sounds. The students use decodable readers to develop their word reading skills and to develop fluency. It is wonderful to see the students gaining so much confidence in their reading.

Our upper school classes are heavily focusing on teaching comprehension through their English units using the aligned texts. The students have been learning explicitly about the vocab in the texts they are reading with teachers using shared and dialogic reading routines to analyse this vocab. Many students have been engaging in rich discussions about inferencing from the texts.

Dee Mathiesen, our Head of Curriculum is regularly posting information about the new reading processes in her ‘Curriculum’ section of the newsletter. She has shared plenty of links for parents to use to support your child in their reading journey!

Renovations at Helping Hands House

We have recently been seeking quotes for repainting the interior of our old house, our Helping Hands (outside school hours care) home base. We are working with QBuild to commence this project as soon as possible. We look forward to a great result, creating a wonderful space for our students before and after school.

In the meantime, Declan and his wonderful Helping Hands crew are working out of the school hall. The students are having a great time in the afternoons using the covered sports area and the playgrounds. Thanks to all our HH parents for your understanding.

Student Success

We love to celebrate our students’ successes outside of school as we know how much hard work and persistence is involved in their extracurricular events. On Monday, we celebrated Henry’s achievements at his recent Ninja obstacle course competitions. Most recently, Henry competed in the FINA international qualifier and placed 1st in both Speed & Endurance courses. Henry has been working towards qualifications for the World Obstacle Expo in Dallas, Texas in July where he will compete in 5 events over 3 days. We are super proud of his achievements so far, and excited to see how he goes at World Championships!

We have also had our Lego Robotics Team attend an immersion day with two other schools. This team practise at lunchtimes in a Robotics Club with Mrs Wilkinson, our Technology Specialist. We know these students will learn amazing new techniques today at their immersion day.  

Term 2 Parent Calendar Update

Please find attached our latest version (V6) of our Parent Calendar to support you to stay informed about all of our school events.  There have been some recent changes…..please find attached this version  7  of our Term 2 Calendar.

Please note there are some changes in this calendar version:

• Chappy Pancake Day is now on Tuesday 27 May – gold coin donation please
• Senior Athletics Carnival – now Friday 20 June

Gabrielle