Students have made an amazing start to their year in this first week at JB. Our students in Preschool have shown such enthusiasm for their learning and adapted brilliantly to online learning with their teachers. Across Year 1 and Reception, children have engaged in a range of activities getting to know each other, their teachers and sharing information about themselves.
From Year 1-6, units of learning centred around chosen texts have begun. These ‘Hook from a Book’ units have brought great excitement and interest amongst our students. The range of texts being used across school is incredible and will provide students with opportunities to explore real world dilemmas and concepts including war, love, loss, hope, survival and many others.
Engagement with the same text for a whole class has a number of learning benefits. It provides students with a common area and a shared reference from which they can engage in deep learning conversations about so many aspects of writing. Students can become collectively immersed in the story plot and characters and can develop a shared understanding of the features of high quality writing.
This week students will explore different styles and genres of writing. They will expand their abilities at sentence level within their writing and be introduced to a range of new vocabulary. Some of the titles chosen include ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ by Michael Murpurgo, ‘Arrival’ by Shaun Tan, ‘The Journey’ by Francesca Sanna, ‘Dear Greenpeace’ by Simon James and ‘Bog Baby’ by Jeanne Willis.
I am very excited to see the learning that will take place over the coming weeks.
Alan McCarthy
Primary Principal