Literacy and Numeracy Week
In preparation for National Literacy and Numeracy Week, we have created our very own program to celebrate and develop literacy and numeracy skills in all our learning areas.
Our Middle School Word Mania Champions
We acknowledge the efforts of all our students and staff who are participating so positively in these initiatives, which have included:
The gift of a bookmark for use with the College Diary, which displays the PEEL paragraph, STOP editing and CUBES scaffolds we use across KLAs from Years 7 to 12;
The launch of the ‘Free Rice’ campaign, which encourages students to complete online literacy and numeracy quizzes to support the provision of free education and rice for communities in need all around the world;
The introduction of the ‘Countdown’ website to all students, enabling independent and class practice in working with letters and numbers under timed conditions;
The Human Calculator Challenge, to test our mental computation skills;
A guessing competition to exercise our skills in estimation;
The ‘Amazing Race’ Literacy and Numeracy lunch time challenge, to be held on Friday 1 September; and
Our Middle School Assembly on 29 August, which had a Literacy and Numeracy Focus and was led by our Year 9 student leaders.
We were honoured to welcome guest author, Yvette Poshoglian, to speak to our Middle School students about her passions for reading and writing. She shared with us the journey she undertook to research and write her book, ‘Escape from Cockatoo Island’, and inspired us to look at the world with inquisitive eyes and listen to the stories that surround us every day.
With thanks to Mrs Tanginoa, we learned the Dharawal verbs for sitting, standing, making and walking, and we celebrated the wonderful worlds of literacy and numeracy in Music with Mrs Samyia’s rap.
This week we also celebrated our achievements in Literacy Planet’s Word Mania Challenge, which ran for a month and tested our vocabulary skills. Over three thousand schools participated around Australia and New Zealand and we acknowledge these fantastic results:
Overall School Results
Year 7 ranked 7th nationally
Year 8 ranked 40th nationally
Year 9 ranked 14th nationally
Individual Results - Highest Scores and Most Games Played
Yr 7 Jessica K, Christabelle A, Layla E
Yr 8 Alana P, Marissa K, Ashley E
Yr 9 Angelique H, Wintana G
We are thankful for the opportunities we have to run these Literacy and Numeracy initiatives, in addition to all the valuable programs and supports we always deliver to foster the development of these vital skills in our students.
Claire McGillicuddy - English Teacher and Michelle Parker - Mathematics Teacher
