Our classrooms are predominantly composite classes, designed to best suit the needs of our students. This year we have 6 classrooms - a Prep/Grade 1 class, a Grade 2 class, 2 x Grade 3/4 classes, and 2 x Grade 5/6 classes.

Our Prep/Grade 1 teacher this year is Angela Stringer.

Over the years, Angela has worked at Paynesville Primary School in a part-time capacity as the specialist teacher in Library, PE, ICT, Art and Kitchen. In 2020 Angela returned full-time into a classroom role, team teaching middle school with Mary Sowa, while Kate Ingram was on sick leave, then continued in Terms 3 and 4 as the Grade 3/4 Literacy and Numeracy teacher, working with small groups. Then in 2021 and 2022 Angela took on the role of Prep teacher and we are very lucky to have her again this year as our Prep/Grade 1 teacher.

Both of Angela's sons attended Paynesville Primary School and are now in university! As a family, they spend their time on the farm and capturing all the fun the Lakes have to offer. Angela says that Paynesville Primary School has many great programs on offer and she encourages all students to make the most of their opportunities and enjoy life to the max! 

Mary Sowa is our Grade 2 teacher this year. 

To give you a brief run-down of what we plan to cover this term:

Reading - we will be spending 5 weeks on fiction texts (learning about plot, characters, themes and word-use) and 5 weeks on non-fiction texts (learning about summarizing and subject-specific words).

Writing - our focus will be 5 weeks on narrative writing and 5 weeks on persuasive writing. We are also planning to be creating a weekly 2/3/4 magazine, which will feature student writing. We will do handwriting or touch-typing each week. 

Spelling - we are using the Oxford spelling program this year. Students will also do one day on grammar per week.  

Maths - topics for this term are: place value, addition and subtraction. 

Swimming - Tues & Thurs for the first 5 weeks.

Respectful Relationships & Resilience - problem-solving and managing stress.

Specialist Subjects - Art (with Deanne); Kitchen (with Mrs Clack); and Music (with Mrs Jefferis).

OUR GRADE 3/4 CLASSes

Our Grade 3/4 teacher and Team Leader this year is Kate Ingram. Kate has been a primary school teacher for the past 17 years with experience teaching specialist classes (Visual Art and Science), middle and senior school. This will be Kate's fifth year at Paynesville Primary School, having taught Grade 5/6 last year, Grade 1/2 the year before and Grade 3/4 the previous 2 years, as well as successfully beating cancer during that time!

Rachel Smith is our other Grade 3/4 teacher this year. 

We have had a wonderful start to the year and look forward to some exciting learning and activities throughout 2023. 

Home Reading 
Students will be taking home readers on a daily basis, along with a Diary. We expect students to be reading at home for 15 minutes each night, filling in their diary and having it initialled or signed by an adult. Daily reading is vital to students' progression in all areas of the curriculum. Students will soon be receiving M100W words in their diaries to practise sight words. Please help your child to have a go at these daily.

Home Learning
Students will be receiving home learning every Monday and it needs to be completed and returned every Friday. There will be a mixture of maths, reading comprehension and writing activities. Please support your child to complete these each week.

AUSLAN
We will be learning the Australian Sign Language this year. We'll be learning new signs each week and practising them throughout the week. Please ask your child to show you what they've learnt so far!

Volunteers
We would love to have some volunteers to help read through the M100W sight words and/or listen to the students read in the mornings. If you have a free morning, please see Rachel or Kate and we will pencil you in for a time.

Our Senior Team Leader and one of our Grade 5/6 teachers this year again is Jarryd Floyd. This is Jarryd’s ninth year at Paynesville Primary School. Jarryd and Krystal Lewis (see below) work together, planning and teaching all the senior school students in joint, open plan classrooms.

We are so excited to welcome the grade 6s back into our classes this year. We’re equally excited to have our fabulous new grade 5s join us in the Senior School this year. 

Learning in Term 1 2023
Term one will see us target a fun and wide range of learning topics.

In writing we will be covering a range of genres including Autobiography, Biography, persuasive and recount.

In reading, we will be covering strategies that will assist students with their comprehension of texts. These include visualising, connecting, asking questions and inferring. We are also focussing on reading stamina, which will see students practice lengthening the amount of time they can comfortably read for.

In maths we will be covering topics such as, shape, line and angles, place value and addition/subtraction. We’ll continue testing through our usual pre/post testing, as well as through essential assessment. 

Inquiry this term will see us all become Brainologists as we study the brain in our science units. By the end of the unit students will have a deeper insight into how the brain changes as we learn, as well as the purpose and function of different areas of our brains. We will also be exploring some of the physical and behavioural features of desert plants and animals, and compare them with plants and animals that live in other environments. Students will pose questions and develop evidence based claims to support their reasoning. Through hands on activities, students will investigate how the features of desert plants and animals will help them to survive in their own natural environment.

This year students in Grade 5/6 will be learning Japanese. This will include students learning greetings, pets, food, family members, and numbers 1-10.

Feel free to come by the Grade 5/6 classrooms at any time to meet Krystal and Jarryd – their classrooms are always open during school hours!

Teaching alongside Jarryd in our Grade 5/6 classrooms this year is Krystal Lewis. This is Krystal's first year teaching at Paynesville Primary School. Krystal taught for a number of years before joining Victoria Police. We are excited to be welcoming her back to teaching as one of our Grade 5/6 teachers.