Foundation

Foundation

Welcome to our Foundation page. Here is where you will find out all about the fantastic learning that takes place within the Foundation years. ​

Classroom Teachers for 2024

Prep PC – Paris Craig
Prep L – Danielle Lamprell
Prep M – Bev Martin

What’s on in our Week?

Monday – Phys Ed, Music/Performing Arts, Environmental Science, PMP (PC & PL)
Tuesday – Phys Ed, Music/Performing Arts (PC &PL)
Wednesday – Phys Ed, Music/Performing Arts (PM)
Thursday – Buddies (Commencing Week 6)
Friday – Assembly, PMP (PM), Art/Chinese   

Foundation Curriculum

Literacy

English

​​In Foundation English, students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read and view spoken, written and multimodal texts from varying genres. These include traditional oral texts, picture books, various types of stories, rhyming, poetry and non-fiction texts. They participate in shared reading, viewing and storytelling using a range of literary texts, and recognise the entertaining nature of literature.

Reading

In the Prep classrooms, literature provides the focus for much of our teaching and our teachers use the Little Learners Love Literacy Program – a sequential and explicit program with engaging multisensory activities. It is carefully sequenced in seven stages to teach children the 44 sounds of the English language and the principles of the alphabetic code.
We start with teaching the simple code in Stages 1–4. We will focus on phonics and phonemic awareness to build the strongest foundations for reading and spelling success. We will also focus on building vocabulary and oral language skills to develop equally strong foundations for comprehension and writing.
Once we finish teaching Stage 1 sounds, we will start to send home decodable books. Each story practises the sounds and letters that we have taught, so children will be able to read the books themselves by sounding out and blending (and no guessing!).

Spelling

The Little Learners Assessment of Spelling Skills (LLASS) is a structured synthetic phonics program spelling designed to inform teaching and monitor student progress. The LLASS program follows the Little Learners Love Literacy sequence to reveal to what extent children are able to apply their phonologic (letter sounds) and morphologic knowledge (parts of words) to spell with accuracy, and to identify any gaps in students’ knowledge of phoneme-grapheme correspondences. Children take part in explicit spelling lessons every day. As their knowledge of letter and sound relationships develop, they are encouraged to use this knowledge to attempt spelling.
Children are also introduced to learning simple high frequency words such as- the, and, this, look, see etc.

Writing

Within Writing, students create a range of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts including pictorial representations, short statements, recounts, performances and poetry.
Students are encouraged to ‘have a go’ when writing their own stories. This sometimes commences with scribbling or lines, moving onto letters, then initial sounds and then proper word formations. ​

Numeracy

Mathematics

In Foundation Maths, students play, classify and sort objects into sets, decide when two sets are of equal size, or one is smaller or bigger than another is. They develop an understanding of the concepts of number, amount, size, counting, ordering, adding and partitioning using small sets of objects. They create and continue simple patterns.
Students compare common objects with respect to length, mass and capacity, and order events and compare their duration. They make rough estimates and simple measurements with informal units. Students name, sort and describe familiar everyday shapes and objects. They describe where objects are using position words and movement in their immediate environment.
Students investigate situations requiring data collection and present their findings in simple displays, and recognise unpredictability and uncertainty in some events.

Foundation Extra-curricular Highlights

There are many special events that our Foundation students look forward to throughout their first year of school. 
The Teddy Bear’s Picnic, Fairytale Parade and the Prep/One Games Afternoon are several favourites, as well as a major excursion to the Jirrahlinga Wildlife Park. On the sporting calendar, the House Athletics and Cross Country are a great experience for our younger students as they get involved in House spirit with older students across the school. On the performing arts stage, we can’t go past the Easter Hat Parade or the Junior School Concert.

Speaking & Listening and
Independent Learning Time (ILT)

Play is a powerful and important activity. We believe it is important to offer it as part of our learning program as some of the best learning happens when children play. It has a natural and positive influence on children’s social, physical, emotional and cognitive development. Play-based learning engages imagination and encourages imitation, simulation, talking, reading, thinking and writing. Through this, students see literacy and numeracy as part of their everyday experience.

Buddies Program

Buddy systems teach, and give children the opportunity to practise, the important values of respect, care, valuing difference, responsibility, friendship and including others.  Through looking after and caring for Foundation students who are just starting school, older children learn the skills associated with empathy and compassion through activities in the classroom and in the playground. Teaching pro-social values and skills can contribute to the development of resilience, a protective factor for children if they experience hardship or loss.
​Our Buddies Program enables younger children to feel safe and cared for while older children feel valued and respected.

Home Partnership

Daily Home reading We encourage families to establish a routine for daily home reading. A regular time and place will help you and your child to remember and enjoy the reading. This is an extremely important part of your child’s education. We have found that the most effective learning occurs with an effective home – school partnership. 
From Prep to Grade Six, we expect that all students read 5 nights a week. At the beginning of Prep, before readers come home, we encourage parents to read a story each day. This helps to expose your child to written language; how it sounds, what it looks like, and better still, it helps them associate reading as a pleasurable activity.		Supporting Maths at Home In Foundation, helping with maths looks like play and talk. We are trying to build awareness and vocabulary. Any counting games, board games, travel games (eg car cricket, sign spotto), and so forth will support your child to become aware of mathematics in their environment and improve their number skills. Have them sort and categorise objects into groups according to any rule you can think of (value, height, length, weight, colour, shape… the list is endless), then count how many their are in each group. Talk about which has more, less, or which have an equal amount. 

Communication

The Compass Parent Portal is one of our major communication methods between Teachers and parent/carers. Upon meeting your child’s classroom teacher on the commencement of school year, you will be given an email or printed invitation to connect. If you are new or unfamiliar to Compass, your child’s teacher or the Office staff will be able to assist you in signing up. Please check your child’s profile regularly for any updates.

Essential Blocks Advanced Heading

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Gaining Reading MileageDownload

Essential Blocks Advanced Heading

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‘Creating Successful Readers’ Information Session Recording

Term Overviews

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