Dear families,

We are pleased to invite families to participate in our Three Way Interviews in Week 9. These meetings bring together the student, their parent or caregiver, and their teacher to talk about learning and progress. They are a wonderful opportunity to spend quality time with your child and their teacher, discussing learning, celebrating achievements, setting goals and talking about ways to support learning both at school and at home. Information about how to make an appointment time with your child's teacher was emailed to families today.

We are also proud to share that we had our biggest team ever compete at the South West Swim Carnival, with five students representing our school. Congratulations to Ethan, Adrian, Addison, Hanna and Lexie for their fantastic effort and for representing our school with pride.

Next week is also an exciting one for our Year 6 students, who will be heading off to Canberra for camp. This is always a highlight of the year and a wonderful opportunity for students to learn more about Australia’s history, government and national institutions while enjoying time together as a group. We wish our Year 6 students a fantastic trip and look forward to hearing all about their experiences when they return!

Enjoy the long weekend.

Warm Regards, Rebecca

Our Year 1 teachers are currently completing the Department for Education Year 1 Numeracy Check with students – and it’s safe to say the tiny teddies are making maths thinking both fun and engaging!

Using colourful teddy counters, students work through simple number problems, such as: “There are 11 teddies and 3 go on a picnic… how many are left?” While the answer is important, what teachers are most interested in is how students solve the problem.

Students might:

• Count on their fingers
• Count the teddies
• Use a strategy they already know
• Or simply “just know it”

These conversations help teachers understand the thinking and strategies students are using when working with numbers.

The numeracy check looks at several key areas of early mathematics, including:

• Counting – forwards, backwards and in patterns such as 2s, 5s and 10s
• Place value – reading, writing, ordering and interpreting numbers
• Strategies for addition and subtraction
• Early strategies for multiplication and division

This check in provides a helpful snapshot of each child’s numeracy development and helps teachers identify the next steps for learning.

It’s wonderful to see our students confidently explaining their thinking, with a little help from some very small teddies!

Our youngest learners have been having a wonderful time exploring music in their classrooms! Recently, our Foundation classes were fortunate to work with Alex from the Department for Education Music Strategy, who spent time with students and teachers exploring how music can support learning.

Students focused on learning about beat, using songs, movement and playing untuned musical instruments to bring music to life. There were plenty of smiles as our littlest learners clapped, tapped and moved along to the beat.

Music is a powerful way to build engagement, confidence and joy in learning. Our teachers are now having fun embedding music and rhythm into everyday classroom routines, helping students learn while they sing, move and play.

It’s been fantastic to see how music can make learning even more joyful in our Foundation classrooms!

Clean Up Australia Day is on Sunday, 1st March, 2026! On Monday, Townsend 1 cleaned up our school community. We were pleased to not find too much rubbish. Well done Brighton! Together, we can make a big, positive impact on our environment – one piece of litter at a time!

Issue 2 catalogues were handed out today orders are due in by Thursday19th MARCH