Dear Franklin Families,

I’m thrilled to share some wonderful news with you all—our recent NAPLAN results have arrived, and they are a testament to the hard work, resilience, and dedication of our students and staff. Across reading and writing, our students have shown strong growth, and we are especially proud of the way they approached the assessments with confidence and focus. These results reflect the strength of our teaching and learning programs and the supportive environment we continue to build together.

A huge thank you to our teachers for their commitment to high-quality instruction and to our families for the encouragement and support you provide at home. Celebrating these achievements reminds us of the power of community and the importance of working together to help every child thrive.

Looking ahead, Weeks 5 & 6 promise to be some of the most exciting of the term! We’re gearing up for School Camp, which is always a highlight for our students. It’s a chance to build friendships, develop independence, and create lasting memories. Our staff have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure a safe, fun, and enriching experience for all.

Also in Week 6, we’ll be celebrating Book Week—a time to dive into the joy of reading and storytelling. We’re looking forward to seeing the creativity shine in our Book Week Parade and sharing stories that spark imagination and curiosity.

Thank you for your continued support of Franklin Primary School. Let’s keep celebrating our successes and looking forward to the adventures ahead!

Warm regards,
James Milne
Principal – Franklin PS

Dear Families,

As mentioned in the last newsletter; this term teachers are currently implementing explicit fluency teaching to improve the reading outcomes of students.

There are several strategies that can be used to improve fluency in students. This term, we are focussing on the following:

Prep & Year 1

Choral Reading

“Choral reading is reading aloud together. [whole class, small group or student pairs]. When several readers read the same text aloud, the more fluent readers support the less fluent readers, through modelling and leading. The focus tends to be more on accuracy and rate than expression.” (Source: DECYP Evidence-based Strategies for Teaching Fluency document).

Year 2 – Year 6

Repeated Reading

Repeated reading involves students reading the same passage of texts 4-5 times. It can be timed or untimed (timing purpose: to capture gains in rate/to give concrete feedback. (Source: DECYP Evidence-based Strategies for Teaching Fluency document).

How can families support?
At Franklin Primary School, we strongly believe in the connection between school and home and the importance of families connecting with the learning of their children.

So, as you read with your child/ren at home, consider providing some feedback to our young readers on their fluency to support the work being done at school (NOTE: Students can use their home readers or texts from home [if the texts from home are at an appropriate level]. Students can also use the fluency passages that they have read at school – please contact your child’s teachers if you’d like some copies).

In particular,  you can focus on the following 3 Key Areas of Fluency:

Accuracy

• Accuracy refers to pronouncing written words correctly when reading aloud.

Rate

• Rate refers to the speed students read the text and depends on accuracy.
• Faster reading is not better as encouraging students to read quicky can increase errors and reduce comprehension.
• The reading rate should mirror speech as the human brain is wired to oral language. 

Prosody

• Prosody means reading with expression using the appropriate rhythm, tone, pitch, pauses and stresses for the text.
• It is dependent on accuracy and rate.

By talking about the above key areas with your child at home and providing some feedback on their reading, you’ll be helping them to learn.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact myself or your child’s teacher.

Thanks again for your support.

Nick de Tarczynski (Instructional Specialist/AST)

TERM 3 WEEK 4 AWARDS

P/1

Growth - Indie for consistently being a role model to all with the way she connects to others, and demonstrates kindness, empathy and belonging. Indie, you are a truly special human being!

Growth – Oli for showing growth in the way he approaches his learning. Oli has turned “it’s too hard” into “ok!” when given a challenge, which is fantastic! Well done Oli!

1/2

Growth - Tyler for his hard work with his reading and writing tasks, asking for help when he needs it and using strategies from UFLI to help him spell words. 

Courage - Olivia for her awesome participation in literacy, doing her best with segmenting and blending words. 

Responsibility - Shyloh for making great choices at school to help her be in the green zone. Shyloh has been working hard to be calm and focused which has not gone unnoticed! 

Connection - Hugo for all his efforts to make some great friendships here at FPS. Hugo is always friendly and kind to his classmates and adults alike which makes him such a wonderful asset to our class. 

Responsibility - Tiahla for consistently making responsible choices at school that set a great example to those around her. As class captain this term, Tiahla has really stepped up to be a leader in our class. 

2/3

Growth - Freya for being really focussed on repeated reading in her fluency and has seen amazing growth in the amount of words read. Great job Freya!

Respect - Piper has started Term 3 showing great levels of respect for her teachers as well as respect for her learning. Keep it up Piper – you are doing an awesome job!

Growth - Elsie has shown independence and perseverance as she has tackled some complex problems in Maths. She has a growth mindset and always challenges herself. Great work Elsie!

Growth - Travis is paying attention in class and has been able to challenge himself to explain his thinking in Mathematics – how he arrived at an answer, not just the answer itself. Keep thinking Travis ?

4/5

Growth - Ila for showing considerable growth in her writing and application to her learning. Ila is building her responsibility through working independently on known tasks.

Responsibility – Julian for developing his responsibility and connection, building skills through interaction with his peers and demonstrating and supporting their learning, sharing his knowledge and skills.

5/6

Growth - Jack for consistent effort and focus during Word Origins sessions, and for his outstanding weekly spelling results. Jack demonstrates a strong commitment to his learning and takes pride in his success.

Growth - Miah for her growing confidence and active participation during Word Origins. Miah is always ready to contribute and has shown fantastic improvement in her spelling through determination and focus.

Growth - Zoe for her enthusiastic approach to Word Origins each week. Zoey listens carefully, shares her ideas, and her consistent effort is reflected in her steady improvement in spelling.

Courage - Alice for demonstrating courage and independence in her learning. Alice shows maturity by seeking clarification when needed and approaching challenges in mathematics with a strong growth mindset and determination to improve.

What a science week we have had! We began with the Mawson’s Hut Antarctic incursion which was full of information about the landscape of Antarctica and the animals that live within it, particularly the penguins. We even got to rug up in coats designed to withstand some serious cold and wild weather and experience a pretend snow storm!

We also engaged in some in class activities with Tom for science, looking at the tiny bugs and insects we can find in our natural water sources. We got to collect samples and look at them under the microscope which was very exciting. Thanks to Tom for another exciting science lesson.

On Thursday we had a science morning where we explored some earth and chemical science activities. We filled balloons with gas (some may have exploded!), made mountains erode and weather into a new shape and made our own fossils.

While we are extremely fortunate to have our science curriculum covered by Tom, the focus for us this week has been on the other achievement standards within the science curriculum, as listed below.

Science as a human endeavour

• Students can identify examples of people using observation and questioning to learn about the natural world

Science inquiry

• Students pose questions and make predictions based on their experiences
• Students engage in investigations and make observations safely
• With guidance, students represent observations and identify patterns
• With guidance, students compare their observations with their predictions
• Students share questions, predictions, observations and ideas about their experiences with others.

In the last two weeks 2/3 have been working hard on their maths skills. We have been thinking outside the box as we tackle multiplication. First, we counted cereal and found the power of equal groups to help us calculate large collections. Then we made arrays using checkered towels, counters and paint. These tasks helped us explore the structure of an array and how it connects to our understanding of a multiplication number sentence.

We have also been investigating the concept of time and took on the challenge of creating a clock that had all the key features of an effective time telling device. Since then, we have been practicing telling the time on an analogue clock and connecting this with digital time representations.

We were also lucky enough to be involved with the Antarctic Classroom on Tuesday the 12^th of August. It was a special experience and here is what we learnt:

• I learned all the different species of penguins - Mason
• There are Krillions of krill – Paige
• Blue whales were larger than any dinosaurs that lived – Marcus
• The whale’s voice is really low – Millie
• There wasn’t actually that many whales in the world – Archie
• Blue whales are 30m long – Kate
• I learned all the different sounds of the animals – Conor
• Humpback whales go to Antarctica and then go up to warmer water – Tildie
• Penguins keep their eggs warm on their feet and under their feathers where the warmness of their body goes into the egg- Louie
• Antarctica can get to -90 degrees C – Rachel
• The leopard seals call is really loud – Jett
• I didn’t know elephant seals existed – Yolandi
• I didn’t know whales made a very ear-splitting noise – Harvey
• I learned that there are 18 species of penguins – Elsie
• Emperor penguin is the biggest penguin – Olly
• I learned that there’s live plants in the water (phytoplankton)- Immy
• You need to wear thick jackets to protect your skin and keep you warm – Molly
• I never knew there was a penguin called the Macaroni penguin – Freya
• Where the penguin keeps the egg, its as warm as our neck – Emily
• Penguins regrow their feathers every year – Lahni
• I learned that krill can shrink in winter and regrow in summer – Travis
• Some penguins can lean on their tail to rest – Lewis
• It’s the coldest, windiest, highest and driest continent – Lexie
• You can’t put penguin eggs on the ground because they won’t hatch – Piper

This week in 4/5 Witts we have started to learn about time.  What exactly is time and how do we use it.

Students started with the instruction to use objects around the room (counters, blocks, tiles, magnets, beads, buttons) and make something that showed their understanding of time.

It was really interesting to see the different interpretations; from plants growing, numberlines, analogue clock faces, day and night and items increasing.

Here are a few examples:

This time of year in our garden is all about preparation for the coming season. We have a green manure crop nearly ready to cut and dig in along with our continual building up of our compost.

Mrs Witts has kindly donated her old worm farm. The 1/2s and P/1s are going to take on the set up and the feeding of the worms for the rest of the year. This is another great free resource we have in our space to help improve our soil. The worm wee and their casting are like gold for a garden.

The 5/6s and 4/5s are finishing their mini projects which will be sent home for their evidence of learning at the end of the term. They’ve worked hard but are keen to finish so that we can get back into the kitchen.

The 2/3s are tirelessly working on their future pumpkin patch. They’ve been such hard workers weeding and turning the soil. They’ve already selected some varieties which they would like to grow – Kent, Golden Nugget, and Butternut. We would also like to have a go at planting some more unusual varieties.

Craft Club

This fortnight, we unpacked the glitter and let creativity shine! What began as dazzling firework paintings soon turned into glitter handprints and even a few love hearts popping up across the classroom.

Not to mention some amazing singing as students got creative, to some music playing thanks to Michelle.

Students also enjoyed getting hands-on with cutting and sticking activities, creating their own colourful ice-creams, proud peacocks, and even playful cats.  It's been a joyful and imaginative fortnight full of sparkle and smiles! 

Lego Club/Colouring In

A big thank you to all the students and families who have already brought in their amazing LEGO creations and placed them in the foyer - the display is looking fantastic!

If you are still planning to enter, attached is some important rules to keep in mind.

We can't wait to see even more imaginative designs.  Happy building!

Our colouring sessions have been buzzing with activity lately! Students have loved sitting together, chatting, and relaxing while bringing their artwork to life with colour.  It's been a wonderful way to unwind and socialise, with plenty of laughter and shared stories along the way.

One popular choice this fortnight has been Stitch - with many students reaching for their favourite shades to bring this cheeky character to life.  These sessions continue to be a favourite part of the day, combining creativity with connection!

Issy