Inside our curriculum - partners in learning

We know families love to be part of their child’s learning journey. Each newsletter in our Curriculum Corner section, we’ll share a snapshot of what students are learning in different areas of the curriculum, along with simple tips and ideas for how you can support at home.

Helping Our Students Become Strong Readers

Recently, our K-2 students completed a phonics check. This is a short assessment that helps us understand how well each child is recognising sounds and letters when reading. Our teachers look closely at this information to support the effective teaching of phonics in the classroom as part of the reading process.

Phonics means knowing the sounds that letters make and how to put those sounds together to read words. Before children can do this, they need to be aware of the different sounds in spoken words - this is called phonological awareness. When children develop these skills early, it makes learning to read easier and helps them become confident readers.

To explain how phonics fits into the complex process of reading, we often talk about Scarborough’s Reading Rope. Imagine reading as a rope made up of many strands. Some strands are about recognising letters and sounds (like phonics), while other strands are about understanding the meaning of words and sentences. All these strands work together and strengthen over time to help children become skilled, fluent readers.

By combining the phonics check results with the new teaching strategies from our training, we are working hard to help all our students improve their reading skills and enjoy reading every day.

Helping Your Child with Phonological Awareness and Phonics

What is Phonological Awareness?

Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and play with the sounds in spoken words. It includes skills like recognising rhymes, counting syllables, and noticing the sounds in words. These skills help children get ready to learn to read.

Simple Activities to Try at Home

• Rhyming Games: Say two words and ask if they sound the same at the end, like “cat” and “hat.”
• Clap the Syllables: Say a word and clap for each part, like “but-ter-fly” (3 claps).
• Sound Matching: Find words that start with the same sound, like “ball” and “bat.”
• Stretch the Word: Say a word slowly by stretching out the sounds, like “f-i-sh.”
• Blend the Sounds: Say separate sounds and help your child say the whole word, like “d-o-g” makes “dog.”
• Find the First Sound: Ask your child what sound they hear at the beginning of a word, like “m” in “m

What is Phonics?

Phonics is about connecting sounds to letters. It helps children understand how letters make sounds and how these sounds come together to form words. Phonics is essential for reading and spell.

Simple Activities to Try at Home

• Read Together Daily: Our Cengage Digital Library has a range of texts for children to practise reading at home in addition to home readers
• Practice Letter-Sound Matching: Use alphabet cards to match letters with their sounds. Say a sound and ask your child to find the matching letter.
• Segment and Blend Sounds: Say a word slowly by breaking it into sounds (e.g., “c-a-t”). Ask your child to blend the sounds and say the word. Reverse this by saying a word and helping your child break it into individual sounds.
• Sing Alphabet and Phonics Songs: Songs that focus on letter sounds can make learning phonics fun and memorable.
• Write and Draw: Encourage your child to write letters and simple words. Help them connect sounds to letters as they try writing.

Why These Skills Matter

Developing phonological awareness and phonics helps children become confident readers and spellers. When kids can hear sounds and link them to letters, they can read and spell new words.

Happy reading everyone!

Mrs Vanessa May

Assistant Principal - Curriculum and Instruction

Recently, our 3-6 students completed a ‘snapshot assessment’. This is a short assessment which helps us understand how well each child is progressing with aspects of numeracy.

Our teachers look closely at this information to support the effective teaching of mathematical skills in the classroom. Student data is so important to assess the impact of teaching and decide what needs to be consolidated further.

Have you ever been confused about how your child is answering maths questions, or felt that maths in primary school looks very different to when you were at school or have you experienced stressful times when working at home with their child on maths questions? If so, there is a great opportunity for you to ask questions and learn how to assist your child at home with maths via our parent workshop. Last week a survey went home on SchoolBytes called “KPS Parents - Survey Mathematics”. Please assist us with guiding our direction for planning a parent information workshop for next term by completing this survey.

**Workshops will be held early next term and we hope to see many families in attendance.

In the meantime, here are some examples of simple ways to assist your child strengthen their mathematical understanding:

What is Number Sense?

Number sense is the ability to understand, relate, and connect numbers and quantities. These skills are important all the way through primary and high school. It includes skills like counting, recognising numerals, comparing amounts, and understanding simple addition and subtraction (and later division and multiplication). These skills help children get ready to learn more complex maths.

Number sense means understanding numbers, their relationships, and how they can be used to solve problems. Before children can do this, they need to develop skills like counting, recognising patterns, and understanding the parts that make up numbers. When children develop these skills early, it makes learning more complex maths easier and helps them become confident mathematicians.

Simple Activities to Try at Home

Counting Games: Count objects around the house like toys, fruit, or steps.

Number Hunt: Find numbers in everyday places like clocks, books, or signs.

Compare Quantities: Ask your child which group has more or less, like comparing two bowls of fruit.

Pattern Play: Create and extend patterns using colours, shapes, or objects.

Simple Addition and Subtraction: Use small objects to add or take away and count the result.

What is Mathematical Reasoning?

Mathematical reasoning is about thinking logically to solve problems and explain your thinking. It helps children understand why maths works the way it does, not just how to do it.

Simple Activities to Try at Home

Solve Everyday Problems: Ask your child how many apples are left if you eat one from a basket of five.

Talk About Maths: Encourage your child to explain how they worked out an answer.

Use Visuals: Draw pictures or use objects to represent maths problems.

Play Board Games: Games with counting, strategy, or shapes support reasoning skills.

Teachers often talk about a student’s ability to ‘work mathematically or their ability to reason’. Encouraging characteristics such as: being curious, being open to making mistakes, a willingness to attempt challenging problems, being persistent, a willingness to take learning risks, welcoming feedback and the ideas of others, are all really valuable skills to develop in the classroom as well as at home.

Why These Skills Matter

Developing number sense and mathematical reasoning helps children become confident and capable mathematicians. When kids understand numbers and how to think about problems, they can tackle new maths challenges with confidence.

Our impact

Our own views as parents about mathematics can influence our own children in both positive and negative ways.

We would love to see you at our parent workshop next term, in the meantime please complete the survey so that we have a better understanding of how to support families.

Regards,

Mrs Low, Classroom Teacher

Planning is key to successful writing. It helps students organise ideas, build confidence, and express themselves clearly. One effective method to support early writers is Draw, Talk, Write.

What is Draw, Talk, Write?

1. Draw: Students create pictures to explore and develop their ideas.
2. Talk: They discuss their drawings to organise thoughts and build language skills.
3. Write: Finally, they write down their ideas, using the planning they have done.

How Draw, Talk, Write Supports Writing Success

• Develops oral language skills: Talking about ideas strengthens vocabulary, sentence structure, and storytelling skills.
• Builds confidence: Students feel more prepared and less overwhelmed by the writing task.
• Encourages creativity and ownership: Drawing inspires imagination, and talking helps students take ownership of their ideas before committing them to writing.

Example from our classrooms:

In our Kindergarten classes, students read Clancy and Millie and the Very Fine House by Libby Gleeson and focused on using time connectives (such as first, then, next) to retell the story's beginning, middle, and end. They drew key events, labelled their drawings with time connectives, discussed their plans with peers, and then wrote sentences sequencing the story appropriately.

Planning is the foundation of strong, meaningful writing. The Draw, Talk, Write strategy provides a fun, interactive, and effective way to help students plan their writing with confidence and creativity.

“If maths were a food what would it be?” Brussel sprouts, cold porridge or melted chocolate and ice cream? How we speak to our children about mathematics is important. If maths was a struggle for you at school would you be okay with your child also struggling? Think about that in the context of reading. As parents we want our kids to be strong readers, we know it's important. I encourage parents to think about how they are talking about maths with their children. We use maths every day; being numerate is as vital as being literate. We are all mathematicians!

Practising multiplication together at home is a powerful way to help your child build strong mathematical skills and self-confidence.

In Week 1, Term 4 - 2025 - we held a parent workshop where the Maths Team; Mrs. Thompson, Ms Tran, Mrs Delaney and I presented some ideas about how mathematics is taught in schools and how this differs from when we were in school.

• Mrs Thompson shared a game called ‘Ten in Row’ for Kindergarten
• Ms Tran shared ‘Minute to Win It’ for Stage 1
• Mrs Delaney shared ‘Top It Multiplication’ for Stage

Mrs Low shared ‘Multiplication Toss’ for Stage 3

I have attached these four games for parents to use at home with everyday materials like pasta, dice and playing cards.

An important aspect of our parent workshop was on how, as teachers, we want to ensure that our students from K-6 understand mathematical concepts and can represent them when asked. You might be asking what this actually means? If I asked you to do a drawing which represents 3 x 5 would you draw something like the first drawing or the second below? The product of both is 15 but the first drawing actually represents 5x3 not 3x5. This is an important step for young children in having a deep ‘conceptual understanding’ of multiplication facts. Once they can correctly represent these facts they build their fluency in being able recall their facts with fluency and automaticity.

I encourage you to give these games a try with your child/ren. Any additional support you give your child at home around multiplication facts will benefit them. Did you know that multiplicative thinking underpins the following mathematical skills and concepts and more:
Patterns and Algebra: Recognising and creating numeric patterns are often based on multiplicative relationships (e.g., doubling, scaling).

Fractions and Decimals: Understanding fractions as parts of a whole and multiplication of fractions by whole numbers.

Measurement and Geometry: Using multiplication when calculating area (e.g., length × width), scaling shapes, and working with units of measurement.

Problem Solving: Applying multiplicative thinking to solve real-world problems involving rates, ratios, and proportional reasoning.

Arrays are a great starting point. Ask your Kindergarten child if they can draw a ten-frame. Ask your older children to create pictures or arrays to explore and visualise multiplication problems (for example, drawing groups of objects) e.g. show me a picture of 6 groups of 5 (if they are representing 5 groups of 6 their conceptual understanding may be confused.
Playing games regularly with your child will build their multiplication fluency far more than it would if they completed a worksheet full of maths questions. Game-based maths learning:

• Develops number sense and language: Talking about multiplication helps build vocabulary and understanding of groups, sets, and repeated addition.
• Builds confidence: Students feel more prepared and less overwhelmed by multiplication tasks.
• Encourages creativity and ownership: Drawing and discussing multiplication encourages students to take ownership of their problem-solving approaches before calculating the answer.

Example from our classrooms:

In our Stage 2 classes, students used arrays to solve problems like 4 groups 3 by drawing four rows of three dots, labelling the rows, discussing how many groups and objects they had, and then calculating the total. They described their thinking using words like “groups of,” “multiplied,” and “total.” They learn the inverse operation of multiplication is division.

There is a link to a ‘cheat sheet booklet’ which contains the correct terminology used in classrooms.

Lastly, I encourage you to value maths learning, talk with your child about what they are learning and approach your child’s teacher about how your child is progressing and how you can help support them.

Mrs Low

Link to "Cheat Sheet Booklet" - Cheat Sheet Booklet

• Early Stage 1 - 3 Tens in a Row
• Stage 1 - Minute to Win It
• Stage 2 Multiplication Top It Game
• Stage 3 Multiplication Toss