Northern Region Public Speaking

Congratulations to our students for a great effort at the competition. It was challenging to deliver speeches via Zoom and I am pleased at how well students responded to this change in the competition.

First Communion

Students from Year 4 & up are preparing for this special celebration. Please keep them in your prayers.

Communications

Please download our school app if you wanted to keep up to date with all that’s happening at school. With current restrictions we are relying on the app and newsletter to keep you up to date of school events 

If you are having trouble with your App working correctly you can the makers of the APP SchoolZine directly on 07 5414 2372 between 7am & 6pm (AEST).

Please don't hesitate to contact the office to make a time when ever you want to talk to your child's teacher. We know a lot of conversations used to take place at pick up and drop offs pre-covid restrictions. Teachers are happy to chat to you about how your child is travelling or maybe follow up from parent teacher interviews by telephone. Just contact the office to organise this. If you feel you need a face to face conversation, we are happy to organise this. We are keen to keep the lines of communication open.

School Photos

A reminder that school photos have been rebooked to occur on Tuesday 27^th October.

Book Week Parade

We will be having a Bookweek parade in Term 4 on Tuesday 20^th October.

As always, these events will only go ahead if Covid restrictions allow.

Phonics Spotlight

During the past couple of weeks all students in Year 1 have been part of a national push for a phonics screening. Why? Phonics is one of 6 big ideas that help a child with learning to read.

Did you know, in the English language there are 26 letters in the alphabet BUT there are 42 distinct phonemes? So, what are phonemes? Phonemes are the smallest unit of speech sound that can convey a unique meaning. Phonemes consist of consonants, long and short vowels, digraphs and other sounds. They are the critical building blocks of language. Phonemes need to be manipulated when it comes time to read, write or even speak. For example; the words bat, mat, rat and cat only differ by one sound, but that one sound makes a lot of difference when you consider their meanings. The English word phoneme dates back to the late 19th century and was borrowed from two sources:

1. The French phonème meaning ‘sound unit’.

2. The Greek word phon which means ‘sound’ and is found today in all kinds of English words from telephone to saxophone to symphony.

To understand how there can be 44 sounds in English and only 26 letters, consider the sounds associated with the letter S in the words 'Silly', 'Trees' and 'Shark'. In the word 'Silly' the S makes its customary hissing kind of /sssss/ sound, but in the word 'Trees' it makes more of a /zzzz/ sound, and of course in 'Shark' it is a blended digraph that makes the sound /shhhh/. That's one letter and three sounds! Interesting!

If you’d like to know more, have a look at

or

At Ss Peter and Paul’s  we understand the importance of teaching phonics in an explicit and systematic way. We use the program "Jolly Phonics" as the foundation for our phonics program. This daily, high quality instruction coupled with a great deal of practice is assisting our students to build a strong foundation for becoming better readers and writers.