Welcome to IHM 2024

This week as staff have prepared to commence the year, all teachers and leaders participated in Playberry Laser Training. This approach to teaching reading is based on evidence of the Science of reading. More information about the Program is included in the newsletter.

We invite parents and caregivers to join us for an information session on Wednesday 7^th February 6.30 - 8.00pm to learn more about this approach as it will consist of some changes to our practices and routines. Come along and find out the why and how, and you can best support this at home.  Mary Mellon will also run a session about Auslan for parents.

Ready, Set, Learn

As we commence the school year together the first two weeks will be a focus on building relationships, class connection, routines and rhythms and finding out all about your child so teachers can establish a strong foundation for effective learning and positive wellbeing.  

Reminders

Some reminders for parents and caregivers that will help students develop these routines;

• Wear the uniform with pride. Don’t forget your hat
• Bring a water bottle daily to keep hydrated and a piece of fruit for brain break time
• Healthy, wrapper free food to support our Wipe Out Waste initiative. (This includes no lollies, chocolate, soft drinks/energy drinks, birthday treats should be non-food related) 
• Label all belongings.

Julie Hancock
PRINCIPAL

Catholic Identity: Year of Inclusivity

It is a true privilege to be part of the IHM learning community. I thank all the staff, students and families for their kindness and wonderful greetings. I look forward to getting to know you and your school community. If you would like to contact me, my details are below:

Jhovana Fenu
Assistant Principal-Religious Identity and Mission/Learning Diversity
Ph: (08) 8115 7606
Email: jfenu@ihm.catholic.edu.au

“Be kind and compassionate to one another” Ephesians 4:32

Ephesians 4:32 says that we need to be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just like Christ has forgiven us. As a school community we will be looking at how we can live this passage at school and community daily, through our kind words and gentle actions.

Our Story Book: The Colors of Us by Karen Katz

This beautiful story is about a seven year old girl Lena, who is wanting to paint a picture of herself by using the brown paint for her skin. However, when she and her mother take a walk through the neighbourhood, she discovers that brown comes in many different shades. This book celebrates the similarities and differences that connect all people. If you would like to hear the story click here

Shrove Tuesday

Tuesday 13th February is Shrove Tuesday. This is the time where we begin preparing our hearts and minds for the Season of Lent. Traditionally, this is a time where people ate a feast, and then fasted until Easter.

Our P & F will be leading the baking and distribution of our pancakes on the day. Please let your child’s teacher know if there are any dietary requirements. We are also inviting families to donate to Project Compasssion by bringing along a gold coin.

Ash Wednesday

This liturgical year Ash Wednesday is on 14^th February. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a significant time in our Church, a season of reflection, fasting and alms giving which prepares us in faith for the Easter Season.

We will be having a whole school Ash Wednesday Liturgy at 9am led by the students in 4/5F.

Commissioning Mass

Our Commissioning Mass will be on Sunday 25^th February at the Sacred Heart Church at 9am. All families are invited to attend.

Jhovana Fenu
APRIM

This year your child will be learning Auslan.

Auslan is Australian Sign Language, the native language of the Australian Deaf community, and is a visual-spatial, expressive natural language with its own grammar and vocabulary.                                                             

Why should you learn Auslan?

• enhances children’s educational and personal development
• increases memory retention and motion processing
• stimulates brain development and mental flexibility
• increases enjoyment in communicating for both hearing and deaf.

As it is a new language/subject to the school this year in 2024, your child will be learning about Auslan signing, and the Deaf culture. The lessons are once a week for 45 minutes. The lessons will incorporate stories, songs and games.

Following the Australian Curriculum Aims: students will communicate in Auslan, understand language, culture and learning and their relationship, and thereby develop an intercultural capability in communication.

Some of the topics that will be covered in the Auslan lessons through the year:

Greetings and general communication: question signs and everyday words (R-6)

Alphabet (fingerspelling): this will be used to spell words and names and some words that may not have an Auslan sign.  Fingerspelling is a kind of language-mixing which is common and normal in most bilingual communities (Years 1-6)

Numbers: 1-20 and beyond (Years 1-6) reception students may learn this later in the year or the following year of school so as not to confuse them. Activities will include topics such as “How many people are in your family and family word signs

Students from Reception to Year 6 will be learning about Places, people, family continuing from what they are learning with their classroom teachers

Descriptive signs: colours, shapes, animals, and basic everyday descriptive words. (R-6)

Special Events: Birthdays, Easter, Christmas, holidays, and celebrations

I am excited about working with your children and watching them flourish, as they have a successful school year.

With Gratitude,                                                                                                            

Mary Mellon
EDUCATOR OF AUSLAN

At IHM, we have long been aligning our teaching of reading and writing with quality research.  We are deeply committed to delivering a quality education that equips each child with the tools to be a successful reader.  As educators, we are continuously searching for new, evidence-based methods surrounding best practice.  Over the last year and as recently as this week, IHM staff have been working alongside reading specialists to help unpack and understand the Science of Reading. This title is an umbrella term that encompasses the research that explains how children learn to read and how best to teach reading. Our staffs learning and practice around this has been tremendous.

German scientist Herman Ebbinghaus created a memory model called ‘The forgetting curve illustrating that when you first learn something 50% of all new information will be forgotten within a day and 90% of all new information will be forgotten within a week. To help us overcome the forgetting curve Cognitive Psychology (the science of how we think) explains the importance of spaced, interleaved, retrieval practice to transfer information into long-term memory and build automaticity.  For this reason, we are changing our practice to match what works best for students to become successful readers.  Therefore, commencing term1, all students will take part in the multi-sensory Ebbinghaus-informed literacy resource called the Playberry Laser Literacy Program, which is a structured synthetic phonics program. 

Playberry Laser promotes repeated exposures to new learning, providing multiple opportunities for students to respond and apply their knowledge. Repeated exposure builds automaticity, promotes orthographic mapping (transferral to long-term memory) and increases each students’ word bank, which in turn supports comprehension. Sometimes, despite repeated exposures, teacher expertise and highly structured lessons, information may not transfer to the long term memory. Many factors can contribute to this. For example, Ebbinghaus suggests that physiological factors, like sleep and stress can influence how well we retain information because it affects our focus and attention. As a result, we struggle to learn efficiently. At IHM, we use many diagnostic assessments to keep track of what students have retained. Teachers then use this information to plan for whole class instruction and to inform their planning for small group or individual intervention.

During these daily literacy sessions, students are engaging in structured reading and writing lessons that include phonology and morphology lessons. 

These lessons improve reading and spelling instruction across the school by:

• Ensuring/consolidating/improving a structured approach to teaching phonics
• Providing greater consistency across the school in the way content is sequenced and presented
• Changing the structure of phonics learning so that concepts, rules, words and sounds are introduced, revised and assessed on a continuous basis, rather than relying on a weekly spelling list.

The introduction of these routines will also involve some changes to learning at home. 

• While there will be rules and sounds which will be a focus in class each week, students won’t be receiving lists of spelling words to learn at home  
• New rules and sounds will be introduced and revised on a continuous basis, with ongoing informal assessment and periodic formal assessments
• There may be phonics-based or weekly focus texts sent home to allow students to consolidate their knowledge of sounds or rules and to help build reading fluency
• There may be lists of words to help students practise focus sounds or rules at home
• There may be lists of irregular words (heart words) for students to practise at home
• Not all students will receive readers to take home at the same time.  This will depend on how a student is progressing across the Playberry Program and teachers will monitor this closely
• Decodable readers will be sent home as opposed to levelled readers of the past.

The changes referred to and the Playberry Laser phonics program, represent only a part of our literacy program.  Literacy instruction will also focus on reading fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, oral language and writing.   

We are running a Parent Information Session at IHM about our new literacy initiative on Wednesday 7^th February (6:30 – 8:00pm) where we will further explain the reasons and science behind this change in reading practice.  There will also be opportunities for you to ask questions.  We look forward to seeing you there!  If you would like to read more about this resource please view here - __files/d/17077/Playberry_Laser_-_Parent_Information_Flyer.pdf

On behalf of the Parents and Friends committee, we would like to welcome you all to a new school year at IHM.  We would also like to express our thanks to Cindy and Belinda for all of their hard work last year.

We are very excited about the coming year and have some new ideas for activities for the school community. We are planning some new fundraising ideas to help provide equipment and services for the children.

Our P & F meetings are going to be held at school at 7:00pm on the Thursday evening of the second week of each term. The first meeting will be on Thursday 8th February 2024.

We welcome any parents who are interested in becoming involved to attend.  It is okay if you need to bring your kid/s with you.

Please mark the date in your calendars and come along to meet the other members and bring your new ideas to the committee.

Last year, our fundraising efforts were able to contribute over $5500 to the school and equipment for the children - this went to purchase Bond Blocks for mathematics education and new decodable readers.

P&F have also provided breakfast club to the students on a weekly basis, bbq and cake stalls at referendum voting, an internet safety education session, fundraising lunches for students once a term, refreshments for welcome assemblies and the parent feedback session and arranged a dinner to welcome new families.

Please don’t hesitate to contact either of us if you have any questions.

Judith and Erika
P & F CO-CHAIRS

(Judith 0405 420 017)
(Erika  0459 045 018)