Primary Press March 2016

March 2016

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PrimaryPress

FromtheHead of Primary Vinaka vakalevu to you all for providing such useful feedback through our homework and communications survey. As a result of that survey and 'feedback with discussion' as a whole of primary staff, we have devised our new homework policy which will take effect from the beginning of next term. We believe that we have found that 'common ground' and look forward to your continued support in the implementation of it.

In regards to the communication channels and how often, as of Term 2, you will be hearing from classes/ year levels each week with the usual monthly year level and specialist reports in our Primary Press. Some of you are already communicating with classroom teachers via online mediums including 'Class Dojo' and blogs more often than this. This will continue. The remainder of our class teachers will email their weekly updates/ information to parents. The majority of parents and caregivers have stated they would like to hear from me as Head of Primary, fortnightly so I will try my very best to keep to this. There will be at times, however, where information may need to go out at other times. Like anything we do, it is always impossible to keep 100% of people happy so for those of you who would like limited communication, it will be of course your choice to open any updates.

Thank you to all of those parents who have 'committed' to being a PTFA parent rep for this year. We are still looking for volunteers for certain classes so please check with your class teacher if you are interested in taking on this role and they will let you know if they still need a parent rep. Information regarding this helpful role is included in this edition of Primary Press.

Commitment has been our focus attitude these past few weeks and we congratulate all of our award recipients, voted by their classmates. What do we mean by commitment? Commitment is action. No excuses. No debate. No complaining about how hard it is. Just doing it. We are committed at ISS to exhibit the rigour required to ensure actions are based on educational best practices and to meet individual student needs. During this term, teachers have been heavily involved in professional development and meetings to ensure that they are planning for these individual student needs through differentiation. By attending and participating in these sessions, teachers are ensuring that best teaching practices are becoming universal for continuous improvement. One of our sessions involved 'tiered instruction'. There is a page in this edition of Primary Press dedicated to this topic and how it all works. Enjoy reading about how we, as a school, are structuring lessons at multiple levels so that each student has the opportunity to work at a moderately challenging, developmentally appropriate level. Using the individual data from our PAT assessments supports the differentiation planning for each and every student. I take the opportunity to thank all of our teachers and assistants for their commitment to focus on the continual improvement of teaching and learning. We certainly have a committed bunch here on staff.

Today was our 'Day of Happiness', which was celebrated in lieu of the whole school assembly. We had an awesome time participating in activities including the happiness chain, decorating cupcakes, creating cards for cyclone victims and dancing. Thank you to our PTFA for providing the 300 cupcakes. We loved decorating and of course, eating them! The program for today was assembled by our Year 4 team and Ms Rosi. Bravo organising team! Ms Kate, our primary counsellor has been busy this term working with our younger students in the early learning centre and Year 1 on our 'Stop, Think, Do' social skills program. After the break, Ms Kate will target the Years 1/ 2 - 3 classes to continue her very important work in raising the children's awareness of their social strengths and weaknesses and to assist in improving such skills. Thanks Ms Kate!

To conclude, I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy Easter break and we look forward to seeing you all back at school on Tuesday, April 12. A reminder that Monday, April 11 is a Teacher Only Day. A few families depart our school and Fiji's shores over this break and we wish them well for their journeys ahead. With students leaving, we also have many new students joining us, so we look forward to welcoming our new families too!

Karen

Fijian Studies During Fijian Studies skills lessons

students are learning to: - Dem on st rat e t heir un derst an din g of Fijian w ords an d p hrases b y f ollow in g rout in e classroom in st ruct ion s, usin g sin gle w ords or very short p hrases.

- Use sin gle w ords or p hrases in act ion relat ed act ivit ies, son gs, p oem s an d rhym es.

- Recogn ize sin gle w ords or p hrases in Fijian .

Did you know that?

Traditional Navigation Year 1/ 2 and Year 2 Excursion Year 1/ 2 an d Year 2 st uden t s w en t t o Korova, a set t lem en t n ear Suva Picn ic Park, w here som e of Fiji' s m ost exp erien ced t radit ion al sailors live.

We w ere f ort un at e t o b e host ed b y Bera, a skilled t radit ion al sailor, w ho shared w it h us his sailin g exp erien ces an d how a ' b akan aw a' (sm all, m odel can oe) is used t o t each youn g children b asic sailin g skills w hich w ould b e lat er used w hen sailin g t he larger ' cam akau' .

A lali is a drum .

I t w as a very im p ort an t p art of t radit ion al Fijian cult ure. A lali is used as a f orm of com m un icat ion t o sum m on villagers ab out dif f eren t even t s such as a church service or t he deat h of a chief .

A saqa n i w ai is a w at er con t ain er w hich holds w at er f or cookin g an d f or t he p rep arat ion of yaqon a.

SOME OF OUR REFLECTIONS....

"Af t er sail ing a camakau, it is repaired and l ef t on dry l and f or a whil e. I t hink f or about a week." (Jai Ludher, 2C) "Tradit ional sail ors used st ars t o f ind t heir way and t here were t hree main st ars. Animal s l ike ant s and geckos t ol d a l ot about t he weat her and t hings t hat woul d happen." (Anderson Passin, 2C) "In t he ol der days, a Fijian's school was his vil l age because he l earnt everyt hing l ike skil l s by wat ching his el ders. If you are a good l ist ener, you wil l l earn a l ot and if you do not respect your el ders t hen you shoul dn't go sail ing." (Al ex Wil d, 2B) "When you're l it t l e you l ern t o ride a camakau. There are t wo st ars t hat use 'vol asiga' and 'vol abogi'. (Roviana Gina, 2B)

Music wi t h M r Ti m Our Music journey continuing from week 6 has flown by pretty fast as our Year 1 students ventured into their new UOI titled: ?Diversity?. After having completed the first 4 weeks of this UOI we have been looking at ?Diversity? through the music lens. Part of our tuning in phase involved our discovery of how musical instruments in the past were used and their purpose and we also looked at the changes that have come about through time, and how these instruments are now used in the present. A local example used in this exercise was the introduction of the ?Lali? (a Fijian wooden drum) that was used in the early days as a form of sending messages.

Today, the ?Lali? is still used for different purposes in different settings of the community.

In addition to our learning in our finding out phase, our students identified their different countries of origin and the traditional musical instruments used by their own people. Through this phase our students were able to clearly identify the many differences in instruments brought forward by students from different parts of the globe. As we begin to identify these instruments, we are now beginning to sort out the various families these different instruments belong to e.g. string, wind or percussion. Our year 1 students are in for a treat as we return next term to make conclusions to this UOI and as we further our understanding we continue to tie in with our key concepts of this unit which are ?Change and Perspective?. It is interesting to recognize how so much change has come about through time and the diverse perspectives we bring in individually identifying our unique beliefs and values.

While our year one classes have been absorbed in there UOI on ?Diversity?, other year levels have been working on skills at differentiated levels with their stand alone classes. We also welcome the return of our ECH 1, ECH 2 and Reception year levels as we now continue all music classes with Mr Tim and we look forward to an enjoyable journey with these little performing artists.

Our guitarists in the ?Guitar Club? have now completed their first phase of learning how to play the guitar and have been working on identifying notes on the first 3 frets in all 6 strings. As off week 10, our advance guitarists have now completed their first 32 bars of ?Largo? from the ?New World Symphony?. We have been progressing with different skill ability levels for the different students in our Guitar Club. Our long term objective for this club is for students to be able to read and play simple tunes and also be able to strum and accompany songs such as our ?National Anthem? and our ?School Song?.

In term 2 we now have plans to also run lunchtime ?Ukalele classes? and further information regarding timetables on running this new club should be available after week 3 upon receiving enrolments from interested students. (Students interested in joining this club will need to attend these classes with their own Ukalele?s).

Our Primary choir has introduced a song composed by Mr. Tim titled: ?We will rise?. This song is especially dedicated to all families around Fiji that suffered loss and devastation during cyclone Winston. More so with the progression in the learning of this song it has now become a whole school initiative to learn the song. With this, the next step of work in progress will be recording this ?Nation Building Song? and possibly producing a video.

As we conclude our learning journey this term I would like to wish all students and teachers a safe and enjoyable 2 weeks break and looking forward to more exciting achievements come term 2.

For the love of music.

Tim Nova Ulacake.

Primary Music Teacher

For Th e Love Of M u si c

Marvellous 1/ 2M Well here we are at the end of term 1 and what a busy term it has been. We?ve all gotten to know each other a little better, we worked on building friendships, and practiced and come up with ways to solve conflicts with our friends. 1/ 2m has submitted an idea to Ms Whittaker about installing a ?Friendly Bench? at school where children can sit if they are feeling lonely at school and other children can go an chat to them or invite them to play with their group. We are really looking forward to seeing this bench at school and are trying to make it happen. If anyone has an old garden bench seat at home they are no longer using and would like to donate please let us know. We can refurbish it at school and the children are full of amazing ideas for decorating the seat.

We performed with 2B and 2C on Assembly with a wonderful instrumental performance where we all had to work together as a team to stay in time and under the guidance of Mr Tim we did an amazing job of following our very able conductor Joseteki. Well done Joseteki and all of 1/ 2m for an amazing performance. I am very proud of how you all worked together.

As part of our unit on relationships we learnt about poems and we all got to pen our very own poem!

These are coming home this week in a 1/ 2m Anthology of Poems. We hope you enjoy reading them over the holidays and maybe creating some poetry of your own. We have also been writing recounts and learning how to choose the most important and exciting information and then how to use transitional words to order the events.

Mrs Casatoka organised for us to visit the Korova Settlement where we were fortunate to listen to stories about the traditional Fijian canoe, how it is made, how it is sailed and how the traditional sailors navigated through the waters of Fiji without a compass. We also learnt some very interesting facts about how the animals can help us know what the weather will be like, and how if you treat the ocean with respect and dignity it will respect you back and keep you safe. Back at school we tried to work out how and why a boat floats ? this was an interesting, albeit a bit wet, investigation with water and plasticine.

We are now inquiring into how the solar system affects us on Earth both physically and biologically.

Have your children demonstrate why we have day and night with a torch, balloon and permanent marker pen. Some of us were amazed to find out that the sun doesn?t just go to bed at night for a rest!

In maths we are learning about what subtraction is and its relationship to addition. We are beginning to work with subtracting numbers that have no regrouping and will further this study by moving onto numbers that need to be regrouped and understanding how we can partition a number so we can complete the equation (an example is shown so you can help your child once we learn this concept at the beginning of next term).

Thank you for all the time and support you have shown this term and I look forward to another successful term after the Easter break. Happy holidays and travel safely.

Ms Amanda MacKellar, Mr Gerry and Ms Roshni

Instrumental Performance How does a boat float?

How subtraction relates to addition.

How can we prevent conflict?

Excursion to Korova Settlement

PSPE Swimming classes continued in Weeks 7 and 8 for our Years 3/ 4 and 5. Since most of these swimmers were advanced and intermediate swimmers, most of our lessons were refining their skills and also preparing them for the swimming carnival.

The elimination was held on Thursday, March 10, the last day of the swimming program where students who took part began winning points for their teams. The I guana (green) and the Eagles (yellow) team drew and took the lead in the points after elimination. The hunger for the win and the spirit of competition and teamwork filled the school days even before the competition day as teams practiced their songs and cheers as part of their cheering squad.

Our carnival was blessed with very fine weather and the four colours filled the swimming pool with screams, cheers and festive music. Both pools were used with beginners using the 25m pool while advanced swimmers, used the 50m pool.

Children came out in numbers to participate in order to win a point; win or lose, they still got their points for participating.

Teachers and parents also took time out to swim when they took part in the 25m freestyle relay with Mr. McKellar stealing the show when he swam away from Mr. Tim to help his team win.

The competition finished at 1.15pm and by 1.30pm, all were on their way back to school.

Congratulations to the Eagles for winning the swimming carnival.

PSPEIntensive Reception UOI - Who We Are The Reception Unit of I nquiry was an inquiry into the nature of self and the central idea was based on making choices about our daily routines, rest, sleep and play which enables us to have a healthy lifestyle. Our PE focus was based on exercise; what it is, why we need to exercise, how it helps our body and what happens when we do no exercise.

The children shared their ideas with each other and then demonstrated a form of exercise with their peers.

We also discussed the importance of eating healthy food and how it affects our bodies and our minds.

Groovy Banana Our year 4 students had 2hours of music workshop with the Alliance Francaise Francophonle ?Groovy Banana? duet.

The ?Groovy Banana? showcased how music can be enjoyed by using your body as an instrument which is called body percussion.

The duet also promoted their French language tying in Frence words into simple tunes which added a lot of fun to their visit.

This collaboration between International School Suva and the Alliance Francaise was a first of its kind through the Arts and we look forward to having more visits in the near future.

Year 4 & 3/ 4 -

Attitudes Pave the Way For many Year 4 students, it was the first time that they experienced a tropical cyclone. On the 18th February, Friday afternoon, a visit from Dr. Marsden requesting that we secure the classrooms, confirmed that TC Winston was heading in our direction. She requested that we secured the classrooms to the best of our abilities. The Year 4 students immediately got to work by moving their desks and chairs to the middle of the room and making sure that all spaces next to the windows were clear of books and math equipment. The teachers disconnected their computers and placed them in high and dry areas of the classrooms along with the XO units.

Power switches were all turned off. Quick tips were shared about safety and food and water and then it was time to head home.

Following the cyclone, many opportunities were provided in class to allow students to express their experiences and anxieties. Students were encouraged to write, draw and speak about what was in their minds and hearts pertaining to the cyclone. Data was collected and graphs made by the Year 4 students to show how many students had no electricity and water or suffered damage to their properties. This valuable learning experience was then extended to the whole school.

Through their data collection, students were encouraged to find that they were not alone in their experiences, that there were other children from Reception through to High School that were coping without electricity and water.

Discussions then ensued about involvement of many students and their families in relief efforts.

Commonalities about destruction to homes of friends, homes of nannies, housekeepers and security guards were shared. Deliberations and conversations about initial relief trickled in. The IB mission & vision were scrutinized and then the ideas came pouring in ? ? ?What if? ..??, ?Could we? ..?? ?Can the Principal? .?? ?Ok, just wait a minute, we must document all your efforts in order to learn from them, how are we going to do this?? points out a teacher. ?We can take pictures!?

4 weeks on, the efforts and discussions still continue. With the right attitudes, obstacles were made into stepping stones which paved the way for meaningful and engaging learning to occur.

Reception

Year 3?s have been busy for the past 4 weeks into their new unit of inquiry which is Tourism. With the Central Idea ?Communities provide interconnected services designed to meet people?s needs?, the students gathered and collated information based on the resort of their choice.

Students worked in groups to plan, create and design a resort/ hotel of their choice.

With the use of MS Publisher, students create a bird?s eye view location of their resort.

They will also give their opinion and suggestions on the advantages and disadvantages to the local community and to the environment. This will be done by posting a blog. Each student is given the opportunity to post in their answers and at the same time have the chance to view others opinions and ideas. They can also give their support or views on what others think.

This is exciting as students are able to share their knowledge and express their views online.

Year 3'sLearningAdventures In our current unit on Tourism, Year 3 students have been learning about the process involved in the development of tourist destinations. Students have been teaming up to design their own plans for resorts and hotels. We have been working hard on our ICT skills with Mr Naca, learning how to use the program Publisher when designing.

Year Three has also been exploring 3D shapes and how to make 3D shapes as we will be using these skills to create our hotel models from the plans we have designed, in Term 2. Students have also been exploring number properties, plurals and punctuation and have been focusing on specific authors of fictional tales.

LearningSupport Corner Egg Activities for the Easter break Breaks are a great time to recharge your batteries, enjoy the free time and relax, but also a fantastic time for fun activities around our favourite topics such as reading, writing and maths. Here are some fun ideas for your Easter break! Enjoy!

Our ideas come from the wonderful online resource called Pinterest.

DiscoveryandECH1 March and Easter greetings to you all. One more sleep before we welcome the first term holidays. Thank you, vinaka vakalevu, Dhanyavad, Merci Beaucoup, Gam Sa Han Ni Da, Arigato and Chee Chee Nee for a rewarding Term 1, to Georgia for the ice cream and Nevaan for the tray of fruits and making our swim day a great one!

Our first fun swim day. Lots of fun and laughs was had on this day!

Mira checking out the water, while Remy blows bubbles.

Mr Kennedy, the ice-cream Dad serving ice-cream after our swim.

Swimming with sharks at Laucala Beach.

It's your birthday, it's your birthday.......

Gus Burdon - March 17th (Happy St. Patrick's Day) Term 1 ends today and Term 2 resumes on Tuesday, April 12th.

See you all then!

Have a healthy and safe holiday everyone!

Ms Jacqui, Ms Fariah and Ms Josephine The ECH1 Vonu Team

Counselor'sCorner Hello from your primary school counselor! Just a reminder, the role of the school counselor is to help students achieve in school by helping to remove obstacles to learning. The counselor assists in the personal, social, academic and career growth of all students. This is done in many ways such as classroom guidance, small group counseling, individual counseling, teacher consultation, and whole school programs. If you would like to learn more about the primary counseling program here at ISS, please do check out my webpage at http:/ / primaryschoolcounselingiss.weebly.com/ .

In order to reach the most students in my two days a week at ISS Primary, I have been teaching the Stop, Think, Do curriculum. I have completed the curriculum in Reception and Year One. If you have a student in one of these classrooms their learning was focused on the following: <Understanding and managing their emotions <Recognizing when they feel angry and practicing how to calm down so they can control their behavior <Stopping and thinking before they act ? thus making good choices <Listening with empathy <Standing up for themselves in a positive way by using ?I messages? <Sharing and taking turns You can help reinforce this learning at home by praising your child when they stay calm and use good problem solving skills. Next term I will be doing these lessons with years 1/ 2, 2 and 3.

Of course, I am also available for students who need a more targeted intervention via individual or small group counseling. If you think your student would benefit from meeting with me, please speak to your student?s classroom teacher.

Next term the student ambassadors program will be up and running.

This program is designed to help new students feel more welcome here at ISS while also developing leaders in the classroom.

Also, look out for another internet safety session for parents in term two.

Have a happy, restful break from school.

Sincerely, Kate Passin

Wh at ' s New i n Year 2?

The Solar System and Fijian Traditional Navigation Our Year 2 students were pleased to have met traditional canoe builder, Mr. Bera at Korova Settlement last week. The trip to the settlement was arranged by our Fijian Studies teacher, Ms Kasatoka, as part of our current inquiry into ?How the World Works?.

Within this inquiry, our students have been learning how traditional navigation is connected to elements within our solar system such as the stars, Sun, moon and tides. Mr. Bera, a second generation canoe builder and sailor shared with the students his knowledge on how a ?Waqa ni Viti?or Fijian canoe is built and important lessons he had learnt about our connections to nature and the importance of respecting our environment. Unfortunately, we were not able to witness the launch of a ?camakau?while on this excursion as we happened to visit at a time when the tide was out. Instead, Year 2 students were able to ask Mr. Bera many questions and sing a couple of songs for him which they had learnt in Fijian Studies classes about the ?Waqa ni Viti?. For more photos from our excursion, please be sure to check the Year 2 web page on the school website Goodbye, dear friend!

We are very sad to have to say goodbye to Noa Becker in 2C who leaves us at the end of this term. Noa?s friends in all the Year 2 classes will miss his happy and positive attitude and friendly smile. The Year 2 children and teachers wish Noa and his family all the very best in their new home and school.

Until next Term?

We wish you all a very happy and restful term break. Vinaka Vakalevu to Year 2 parents and guardians for your support and enthusiasm this Term. We look forward to seeing you all again after the break.

Developing inquiry questions with Ms. Kasatoka.

A Fijian canoe built by the people of Korova.

Year 5 I nquiring Minds We are now well into our second unit of inquiry, investigating how today?s societies incorporate many aspects of past civilizations for development.

As part of tuning in to ?Where We Are in Place and Time? we were lucky to visit the Uto ni Yalo, a drua (double-hulled canoe), where we learned about traditional technology used by people of the Pacific to navigate the ocean. We heard interesting stories about the different voyages the Uto ni Yalo had sailed to and how the captain navigates the drua (vaka) using the forces of nature; the sun, stars, the moon, wind, and waves and not forgetting his dedicated crew. The students were able to make the connections of past civilization and modern day transportation, and how technology influences and changes over time. They marveled at the fact that the Uto ni Yalo?s mission is to promote conservation for our oceans and marine life. Did you know that every second breath you take comes from the ocean? We have to take care of it to take care of ourselves! Many of the students and the teachers would like to take up the offer from the captain to visit the Uto ni Yalo another time, to help clean, repair and probably go for a short sail around the Point.

In Year 5 we held a debate about whether or not homework is important for Primary students. 5B argued that homework is important; 5M argued that is it not. As part of our discussions students began to design their own homework assignments that would be relevant to their learning, challenging, and interesting to complete. Each student had to prepare at least 5 reasons with supporting evidence. All students had a chance to share their ideas during the debate and it was very interesting to hear their arguments. The debate was moderated by the Year 5 Team but we were unable to decide on a clear winner because of the strength of the children's arguments. In the end it came to a vote and the children each cast a ballot. The results were close but in the end homework was the loser with 17 students voting for homework and 21 students voting against it.

We would like to wish all of Year 5 a happy and safe holiday. Thank you for all your hard work this term and we look forward to seeing you all again in Term 2.

Year 5 Team

PrimaryVisual Arts It?s been a great term! ISS primary students have demonstrated commit ment to their learning, and have shown ent husiasm in learning and applying new art skil l s. Deep and creat ive t hinking has pushed us to new understandings. We have had so much fun, though we?ve also shed a few tears in the art room following TC Winston.

We have ref l ect ed on friendships, and our identities both individually and in our families and cultures. We have enjoyed expressing our ideas through our artwork. Thank you t o al l f amil ies who have creat ed a parent account on Art sonia t o view our onl ine gal l ery and your chil d?s digit al art port f ol io. All students in ECH1 through Reception should have received account information already, and some students in Year One and Year 2. Thank you for your patience as I prepare the remaining accounts. Woul d your chil d l ike t o add a t it l e or art ist st at ement to one of his or her art works?

Here?s how: Tap ?Student? on the login page (or go to www.artsonia.com/ class and use the code WMNF-ZJMX or scan t he QR code bel ow.

Now you or your child can add a title or an artist?s statement on any piece in his or her portfolio, if he or she hasn?t yet done so in the art room. I wish you al l a wonderf ul f irst school hol iday, and l ook f orward t o cont inuing our creat ive advent ures in Visual Art s in Term 2.

Mrs Lindy St ice

ECH2

Hindi Studies - Namaste ECH1 and ECH2 have been excitedly learning the names of colours and numbers from 0 - 5 in Hindi. The Year 3 students, in addition to this are learning the days of the week. 'Saptah ke Din' Year 3/ 4B are inquiring into 'Who We Are' in their unit of inquiry. Their central idea is 'Body systems are interrelated and work together for good health.' Body systems (Sharirik kramavyavastha) are being learned in Hindi and they are learning and practicing 'Kapalbhati pranayama'. This is a breathing exercise that is beneficial in many ways. Yoga, meditation and breathing exercises are proven techniques to achieve good health. Yogasanas (yoga postures) are based on certain breathing patterns that help to maintain the wellness of the body and the mind. Breathing exercises have been learned and practiced throughout India for centuries.

In the Year 5 UOI, we are looking at civilizations. In Hindi, they have watched a video on the construction of the Taj Mahal. After discussions and finding out, the students have constructed their own 3D models of this magnificent building.

Students have also chosen one ancient civilization structure of their choice and are currently in the process of making their own models.

Dhanyavaad!

Subadra Chandra

Hi n d i St u d i es

TieredInstruction Many teachers use differentiated instruction strategies as a way to reach all learners and accommodate each student?s learning style. One very helpful tactic to employ differentiated instruction is called tiered assignments? a technique often used within flexible groups.

Much like flexible grouping? or differentiated instruction as a whole, really? tiered assignments do not lock students into ability boxes. Instead, particular student clusters are assigned specific tasks within each group according to their readiness and comprehension? without making them feel completely compartmentalized away from peers at different achievement levels.

There are six main ways to structure tiered assignments: Challenge level, complexity, outcome, process, product, or resources. It is your job? based upon the specific learning tasks you?re focused on? to determine the best approach. Here we will take a brief look at these techniques.

Chal l enge Level Tiering can be based on challenge level where student groups will tackle different assignmentsaltogether. Teachers can use Bloom?s Taxonomy as a guide to help them develop tasks of structure, or questions at various levels. For example Group 1: Students who need content reinforcement or practice will complete one activity that helps build understanding.Group 2: Students who have a firm understanding will complete another activity that extends what they already know.

Compl exit y When you tier assignments by complexity, you are addressing the needs of students who are at different levels using the same assignment. The trick here is to vary the focus of the assignment based upon whether each group is ready for more advanced work or simply trying to wrap their head around the concept for the first time. You can direct your students to create a poster on a specific issue? recycling and environmental care, for instance? but one group will focus on a singular perspective, while the other will consider several points of view and present an argument for or against each angle.

Out come Tiering assignments by differentiated outcome is vaguely similar to complexity? all of your students will use the same materials, but depending on their readiness levels, will actually have a different outcome. It may sound strange at first, but this strategy is quite beneficial to help advanced students work on more progressive applications of their learning.

Process This differentiated teaching strategy is exactly what it sounds like? student groups will use different processes to achieve similar outcomes based upon readiness.

Product Tiered assignments can also be differentiated based on product. Teachers can use the Howard Gardner?s Multiple Intillegences to form groups that will hone particular skills. For example, one group would be bodily/ kinesthetic and their task is to create and act out a skit. Another group would be visual/ spatial and their task would be to illustrate.

Tiering resources means that you are matching project materials to student groups based on readiness or instructional need. One flexible group may use a magazine while another may use a traditional textbook. As a tip, you should assign resources based on knowledge and readiness, but also consider the group?s reading level and comprehension.

Year On e' s I n q u i ri n g Year 1 have started their new unit of inquiry learning about where we are in place and time. As part of this unit, students have been learning about their past, present and future as well as the diversity in people and cultures.

Students have been interviewing teachers within the school community to find out more about their past and present lives. We looked at different questioning skills and what types of questions to ask like who, what, where, when, why and how questions. During music, Mr Tim has been getting the students to identify musical instruments from their culture and grouping instruments into different groups. In class we are using the painting title ?The Haywain? by John Constable as a stimulus to get the students to think about the past and the problem that is evident in the painting. We will be looking at putting this story of the painting into a narrative next term along with music to wrap up this unit of inquiry.

Lit eracy Throughout literacy this term students have been looking at a different sounds each week based off our Jolly Phonics program. So far we have covered / e/ , / ck/ , / n/ , / p/ , / I/ , / t/ , / a/ and / s/ . Students have seen how these sounds appear in different words and have been able to identify words that include these sounds too. We have been working on the students letter formation with our new handwriting books as well. Each week we do a new page in a our handwriting book teaching the students the correct formation on how to write each letter.

This term students all chose literacy goals to work towards and achieve. These reading goals consist of visualizing, summarizing, making connections, detecting, rereading, pointing, sounding out, predicting and questioning.

Mat h We have had multiple focuses this term in math continuing to build stronger math skills with all students. So far we have learnt about ordinal numbers, place value, positional language, measurement, patterns, odd and even numbers, as well as skip counting with our 2s, 5s, and 10s. Students have been able to apply everything they have learnt through hands on, practical activities. It has been an excellent start to the year with a few interruptions, an excellent assembly item and lots of learning, which all includes having lots of fun here in year 1!

Homework Policy We believe: - children need active play every day.

- children should read for pleasure and/ or be read to every day.

- children should follow their passions and have choice in what they want to learn after school time.

- family time is important.

What might this look like?

- Interviewing family members about topics being investigated.

- Collecting objects or artifacts to support learning in the classroom.

- Discussing inquiry questions at the dinner table.

- Reflecting on what they have learned at school.

- Exploring and researching their own interests.

- Playing games and cards that involve logic, strategy, word play and maths.

- Exploring mathematical thinking through real-life experiences.

- Reading, reading, reading and more reading? ? ?

Homework when given should support or reinforce learning that is taking place in the classroom, and should be work that students are capable of completing independently. Setting of homework is undertaken only if there is a need to support student learning ? homework should never be busy work. Children must develop in a balanced way and have a life beyond school, an opportunity to develop friendships and hobbies and passions. If a child is swamped by many hours of homework every day they cannot do this and will face a challenge in developing into balanced adults. Whilst we support homework, we do not believe it should dominate school and home life. We accept that not every activity will capture children and parents? imagination and that weekends can sometimes be busy. We believe that homework should be enjoyable and manageable for all concerned and if that becomes a burden or source of conflict it ceases to be a constructive aspect of teaching and learning.

Accordingly, the total time spent on homework should not exceed 30 minutes per day and in younger classrooms, 15 minutes per day. Homework should be developmentally appropriate and needs to be part of a wider partnership between parents and school. Parental support and encouragement should enable the student to work independently to allow for development of their self-management skills. If a child has difficulty with homework this should be reported to the teacher, as doing so helps a teacher to identify further needs of that child. Likewise if there is some reason why homework is not done on time, the teacher should be notified by the parent. As a school, we recognize that children do have outside events and activities and we need to show understanding to support that. Homework is meant to be an enjoyable and worthwhile activity for all, and should not cause undue stress to students, parents or teachers! Please discuss any concerns with the class teacher concerned as soon as they arise. If after talking with your teachers and there are still concerns, please talk with the Head of Primary.

We hope that children are motivated by positive incentives and by the tasks themselves; children are not punished if they fail to complete homework. However, discreet homework records will be kept and if a child consistently fails to complete the reading or work set, this will be discussed with the child and their parents.

Homework, where applicable, will be handed out on a Friday for the following Thursday. All homework will be marked with the children on the Thursday. The tasks set may not always need to be handed in; there are other ways in which teachers will respond or give feedback, for e.g. sharing results in class discussion, putting work on display or transferring work into class books.

The work should always have been explained and discussed in class before coming home; it may be a continuation of class work or a math?s game already familiar to your child. It is our intention, and good practice, not to send work home that the child cannot already do. I.e. Parents are not expected to teach new skills.

Homework Policy cont.

All children from Year 1 ? Year 5 will have homework books/ folders. In addition, every child will have a home reading book that is changed regularly, either by the teacher/ teacher assistant or the child themselves. The reading books will be at the level the child is working so that they can read it independently at home. Broadly speaking, these are our current expectations: Early Childhood Parents/ caregivers read on a regular basis to their children. Letter sounds and sight words, counting and number games. UOI work ? collecting and bringing materials. Reception Parents/ caregivers read on a daily basis to and with their children. Take home reader/ sight words. Letter sounds and sight words, counting and number games. UOI work ? collecting and bringing materials. Year 1 Parents read daily to and with their children. Inquiry based learning may be initiated by the student and encouraged by the parents.

15 minutes daily including reading, number work including counting and number games. Year 2 and 3 Reading daily ? reading with, sharing a book with parents and caregivers. 20 minutes daily including literacy and maths (including basic multiplication facts) that revisits work completed in class in that given week. UOI related work.

Year 4 and 5 Reading daily ? reading with, sharing a book with parents/ caregivers. 30 minutes daily including literacy and maths that revisits work completed in class in that given week.

UOI related work. *Literacy tasks may include spelling, a reading-related task, comprehension activity, written task, research. Numeracy tasks may include times tables, maths activities, problems. UOI related work will enhance the work being completed in class.

Homework, where applicable, will be handed out on a Friday for the following Thursday.

All homework will be marked with the children on the Thursday. All children from Year 1 ? Year 5 will have homework books/ folders. Increasingly teachers are also using the web for some homework. This may be directing children to sites such as Study ladder or an interactive game, or to comment on a blog. Alternatives are available for students who do not have regular internet/ laptop/ device access at home. Please see your class teacher if this is the case.

Homework is not set during the school holidays. Parents can continue following the term overviews and always continue to read at home with their children. If a holiday is taken during term time, we actively discourage parents requesting work from a teacher.

We suggest that parents continue with the daily reading and organize a holiday diary.

Homework will not begin until Week 3 of Term 1 in any school year as assessments are completed in the first three weeks.

Homework - Guidancefor Parents At International School Suva, we appreciate how important and valuable good home/ school links are and the need for us to work together to ensure an excellent education for all children. How can parents help?

Ask the children questions about what they are learning at school. (talking helps everyone understand things clearly) Play word and number games to consolidate early learning of letter sounds, common vocabulary and number bonds.

Spend a little time on a regular basis, listening to your child read and discussing the books they bring home. Encourage your child to read words and books regularly (show them how important words are).

Help them to form letters the way they are taught at school starting at the correct point.

(NSW print/ cursive font is used and will be shared with parents) Hear their times tables, number facts and spelling of words.

Read what your child has written and talk to them about their writing. Does it make sense? Is it correctly punctuated? Is the writing neat and accurate? Have they used exciting words?

Encourage your child to check over their work.

Help your child find out additional facts, e.g. UOI on space ? visit the library or research on the internet. Time set aside for homework should be respected by the rest of the family. Try to make it become part of your child?s daily routine.

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