How have we already made it to the end of Week 2? Time flies when you’re deep in learning! We've had a fantastic start to the term, packed with energy and excitement. One of the highlights was our surprise delivery—our Year 6 students received their leavers’ jumpers in a mystery box, and it certainly set the tone for the term ahead!

In English, we’re about to delve into Tom Appleby: Convict Boy by Jackie French. This powerful historical novel will be the springboard for both our reading and writing units. The text is rich in vocabulary and offers opportunities to explore big ideas, figurative language, and character development, while building comprehension through discussion and reflection.

This ties beautifully into our HASS focus this term, where we’re exploring Australia’s colonial past. We’ll be unpacking what life was like in 18th-century England and why convicts were sent to Australia, before looking at the experience of arrival and early settlement from a range of perspectives. For our Year 6 students, we’ll be extending this to consider the impact of colonisation on First Nations Australians, using historical texts, class discussions, and our novel to support reflection and empathy. We’ll also continue flicking back to our Term 1 Geography unit, maintaining our ties with our sister school in Indonesia as we consider Australia’s engagement with Asia and what we can learn through cultural exchange and connection.

In maths, we’ve hit the ground running with fractions, percentages, factors, multiples, and prime and composite numbers. These areas all interconnect beautifully, giving students a strong understanding of how numbers relate to one another. For example, understanding how to simplify fractions relies on knowing your factors and multiples, while converting between fractions and percentages helps reinforce proportional reasoning. These concepts will be explored through real-world tasks and hands-on learning, encouraging flexible thinking and application. I’ve already discovered 5/6’s competence in this area, which is a wonderful reflection of the teachers they’ve had before me—it certainly makes my job easier!

Each morning before the 9:00 am bell, I’ve been setting up optional maths challenges to create a calm, curious start to the day. These short tasks allow students to engage in mathematical thinking in a low-pressure way—exploring number patterns, discussing strategies, and developing metacognitive awareness of how they approach problems. It’s been fantastic to hear their mathematical vocabulary grow as they collaborate and share reasoning with one another. These rich moments of math talk in authentic contexts not only build confidence but also deepen understanding.

Lastly, you might notice some students bringing home two Mother’s Day gifts, while others only bring one. Mrs. Cherry got a little too creative this year with a brand-new art idea… let’s just say it looked great in theory, but in practice, it crumbled—literally! So, with a quick pivot and a trusty backup plan, we managed to pull together something heartfelt just in time.

Wishing you a joyful weekend celebrating the important people in our lives.

Warmly,
Mel Cherry