Term 2

Reading

This term, Year 5/6 students are focusing on reading informative and persuasive texts, including learning about the structure of these texts, language devices that enhance these genres, and how we use them in context.

Students are also strengthening their reading strategies by monitoring their understanding as they read, questioning a text, and adjusting fluency when reading aloud. They are encouraged to apply critical thinking to understand different viewpoints and how arguments are supported. This promotes the development of their higher order thinking skills, an essential skill for Years 5/6 and beyond.

These skills help students become more thoughtful readers who can engage with a variety of texts confidently and effectively.

Writing

In Term 2, Year 5/6 students are focusing on writing informative and persuasive texts.

For informative writing, students are learning how these texts are organised using subheadings and structured paragraphs to present clear and factual information. Key writing skills include summarising main ideas and searching for and using information from texts.

For persuasive writing, students are identifying how authors present opinions and arguments. They are exploring how to order their strongest ideas within their paragraphs, the powerful use of statistics, as well as persuasive devices such as figurative language and high modal words to influence readers.

Students will create seeds in their Writer's Notebook to generate ideas and brainstorms of different text types and ideas which students can use to create their own texts. Through Free Choice Writing, they will continue developing as young authors, exploring their creativity and individual voice. We look forward to seeing all of the work they publish this term!

Word Work

In Year 5/6 Word Work, students are building stronger spelling, vocabulary, and language skills through a mix of SpellEx and Word Study lessons. In SpellEx, we are practising regular and irregular spelling patterns, learning not just how to spell words correctly but also how to use them in different contexts. Students are exploring the meanings of words, using them in sentences, playing games, and setting personal spelling goals, helping them to build a rich and usable vocabulary.

In Word Study lessons, students are investigating etymology (the history and origin of words) and morphology (how words are built). They are learning how prefixes, suffixes, and root words form word families and are discovering patterns that make complex words easier to understand and spell. Activities like word family trees, collaborative investigations, and discussions help students develop strategies to decode unfamiliar words and deepen their understanding of language.

Our Word Work program supports all learners by providing multiple entry points and challenges, with extra scaffolding for those who need it and extension opportunities for those ready to analyse word origins and structures.

Numeracy

In Term 2, Year 5/6 students will be learning to think flexibly about their understanding of place value, such as the importance of estimation, positive and negative integers and algorithms. We will then move into efficient multiplication and division strategies, which will support our work in ordering, adding and subtracting fractions.

Alongside this, students will explore nets and cross-sections of shapes, translating shapes and plotting on Cartesian Planes. In Probability, they will conduct, compare and analyse results from chance experiments, including what occurs in larger scale experiments and how to verify the results of such tests.

Lessons are built upon during the week so students can extend their skills within the one area, depending on their entry point.

Health & Wellbeing

In Term 2, Year 5/6 students are learning about emotional literacy, including why they feel comfortable and uncomfortable emotions, how to recognise these emotions in others and positive coping strategies that can support them throughout various stages and struggles in their life. Students will also celebrate their personal and cultural strengths, and how we can use these to support others and importantly, ourselves.

In the second half of the term, we will also begin to explore the physical, social and emotional changes related to puberty. This includes the different timings and experiences of puberty, anatomy, menstruation and hygiene.

Our Year 6 students are also trained Peer Mediators, who help all students in the school yard who are experiencing 'friendship fires', communication troubles or struggling to engage in play. We really value their leadership and expertise in this area.

Inquiry

In our current Inquiry unit, students are exploring the structure and responsibilities of government by creating their own states, which will work together as part of a shared country. This exciting project encourages collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking as students design their state’s identity, values, and systems. As we dive deeper, students will investigate the roles and responsibilities of local, state, and federal governments, understanding how they function and work together. A key part of our learning will involve students participating in a mock House of Representatives and Senate, where they will experience the law-making process firsthand. They will propose, debate, and vote on bills, building their understanding of democracy, leadership, and decision-making. Through this hands-on and immersive experience, students will develop a deeper appreciation of how governments operate and how citizens can contribute to society. It’s a fantastic opportunity for real-world learning and building lifelong civic skills!

** Differentiated learning will be present in each class to cater for all students individual learning requirements **

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