Banksia

Welcome to Banksia!

The Banksia unit comprises four Year 5/6 classes. As part of the daily program students are involved in opportunities to read, write, explore number concepts and further mathematical understandings. They also undertake Integrated Studies, learning History, Geography, Science, Digital Technologies, Civics and Citizenship, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Personalised Learning Tasks/Time (PLT)

Banksia’s weekly timetable is a mix of workshops and Personalised learning Tasks/Time (PLT).

• Students receive a PLT sheet at the beginning of each three-week cycle. This PLT sheet records all workshops, flowcharts and tasks assigned to the individual student. This PLT tracking sheet is used to monitor the completion of set tasks by students, teachers, parents and support staff.
• When students are working during PLT sessions they may be working in small groups or individually with their teacher in a conference. This allows personalised feedback, differentiation and extension to happen regularly.
• Students complete learning extensions at the completion of their set tasks. Learning extensions allow for a student to return to a topic they were having difficulty with, work on a personal goal or work on a passion project in an area of interest.
• A student is celebrated when they have completed a PLT where their personal success is acknowledged by their peers, parents and teachers.

Bring Your Own Device

To support this PLT structure students in Year 5/6 are asked to bring their own device (chromebook or similar) to school everyday. Having their own device allows students to access their work on the Google platform, have their learning supported through educational videos made by their teachers as well as benefit from a range of educational websites such as Mathletics. When not in use, during the day, devices are stored in a locker for safe keeping. If your child is unable to bring their own device to school you are encouraged to contact our front office to speak with the IT coordinator who can provide advice and options in this area.

English

Reading, Writing, Viewing, Speaking and Listening are taught through focus sessions that balance both the practice and application of skills and knowledge.

Reading - reading strategies and comprehension are taught through the ‘Cooperative Reading’ structure. This structure further develops students' abilities to decode, discuss, analyse and enjoy texts through the four reading roles (Code Breaker, Investigator, Discussion Manager and Illustrator).

Writing - authentic writing is taught by focusing on the structure and language features of different text types through. These are done through ‘Quick Writes’, “Writers Camp’ ‘Workshops’.

Viewing - watching Behind the News (BTN) on current events/topics where students take notes, participate in class discussion and complete comprehension questions.

Speaking and Listening - students develop their communication and listening skills as well as their confidence by writing and presenting speeches for school roles of House Captains, Sports House Captains and their class Students Representative Council (SRC). They also participate in the ACT Primary Schools speaking competition, Rostrum

Learning Modules

At Gordon Primary, teachers plan learning modules using the ‘Learning by Design’ approach.