Welcome to Foundation
“In their first year of school, students learn through teaching interactions with others, experimentation, practice and play in the classroom and school community. Priority is given to literacy and numeracy development, as these are the foundations upon which further learning is built. Opportunities to develop literacy and numeracy are found in all subjects but particularly in English and Mathematics. Learning in a classroom and belonging to a school community are key to the first year at school.” (Information for Parents, The Australian Curriculum – Foundation Year: ACARA)
The purpose of this site is to share information, provide links and educational resources and give assistance to families. It will be the central location for information about our Foundation classes, with Class Dojo remaining the main tool for day-to-day communication. The site will progressively change, and we will endeavour to improve it regularly so that we continue to work well together and maintain our sense of belonging to the classroom and school communities.
What We are Working Towards
Thank you for your patience, understanding and support. We aim to be as responsive as possible to your questions and needs at home, while continuing to provide high quality teaching in our classrooms.
This is a very new experience for all of us. With so many unknowns and different family scenarios, planning and implementing home learning is proving to be a steep learning curve for all involved. We are working hard to provide the opportunity for all of our students to continue learning.
We need to get ourselves in the position to help provide
Clear help for families so they can meet minimum requirements of Maths & Literacy
All links to families for required sites, resources and information.
Ongoing connections and sense of belonging for children and families isolated from each other at home.
Click here to access the South Australian Department for Education Our Learning SA resources
Parents
We understand that our Foundation children will need support to successfully engage in some learning activities and recognise that families are facing a variety of challenges, as parents try to school their children whilst also looking after younger children, or other family members, and keeping up with work commitments from home .
In recognition of the need to support caregivers to manage their child/ren’s learning in the home environment our programs are designed to follow the Department’s implementation guidelines.
Structuring Learning at Home
as per Guidelines from the Department for Education
Minimum Formal Learning Time: 2 hrs 30 min plus lots of play!
Their daily program will be structured around four learning blocks.
Daily Literacy activities for 90 minutes per day, with a focus on reading, writing, speaking and listening. These activities do not need to be in one 90 minute session but can be spread throughout the day, as small bites of learning, with movement in between, are better for young learners . They may include:
phonological awareness,
phonemic awareness and other oral language activities,
phonics practice and consolidation,
vocabulary development,
the reading (including being read to) of appropriate texts, including decodable texts and
daily writing activities.
2. Daily Numeracy activities for 60 minutes per day, with a focus on number. These may include:
sorting, patterning, counting and measuring activities that can be conducted using everyday materials
identifying and describing shapes, and the use of mathematical language.
3. Daily Physical Activity recommendations
These could be completed indoors and outdoors, for example, simple exercises and dance movements or outdoor games. (30 min)
4. Play-based learning activities.
These indoor and outdoor activities will require less caregiver supervision, in comparison to the more formal literacy and numeracy components of the day, and may include free drawing, colouring and painting, collecting and grouping, creating and making, and listening to sounds, including music.
Additional Learning Activities: Class teachers and specialist teachers will also provide additional tasks for students to undertake, linked to other curriculum areas beyond English and Maths. However it will be left to the discretion of each parent to choose how many of these activities their children undertake.