6 April 2023

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Message

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As we approach the end of term 1, I hope that your child has had a great start to the new school year and is settling in well. We have had a busy and exciting first term, with lots of learning and fun activities taking place both in and out of the classroom.

In the early weeks of the term, we focused on helping our students establish routines and expectations for the school year. We also spent time getting to know each other and building a sense of community within our classrooms. As the term progressed, our students have been engaged in a variety of learning experiences.

We had our annual school camp for our Year 3, 4 and 6 students, which were held at various campsites. Over three days, our students participated in a range of outdoor activities, including climbing, swimming, and bushwalking. The camps and excursions provide an opportunity for our students to build resilience, develop teamwork skills, and step out of their comfort zones in a safe and supportive environment. These experiences are great ways to bring learning to life and help our students make real-world connections.

Looking ahead to the rest of the school year, we have many more exciting opportunities and events planned for our students. We look forward to continuing to work with you and your child throughout the year to help them achieve their full potential.

As we are in the holy month of Ramadan, we extend our warmest wishes to all our Muslim families and students. We hope this holy month is filled with blessings, peace, and spiritual growth. Additionally, we wish you all a happy and joyful Eid al-Fitr celebration in advance.

Have a safe and enjoyable Eid and holiday.

Best Regards,
Murat Guzel
Primary School Principal

Deputy Principal’s Message

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As we come to the end of Term 1, I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on the many achievements and milestones that we have accomplished together as a school community. It has been an eventful and productive term, and I am incredibly proud of the hard work and dedication that our students, staff and parents have put into making it a success.

Our students have shown outstanding commitment to their studies and extracurricular activities, with many demonstrating exceptional results in academic assessments. Their achievements are a testament to the quality of teaching and learning at our school, and I would like to commend our teachers for their tireless efforts in supporting our students to reach their full potential.

In addition to academic success, we have also placed a strong emphasis on the wellbeing of our students. This term, we have introduced several new initiatives and programs to support the mental health and resilience of our students, including mindfulness sessions and wellbeing check-ins with our student services team. We believe that supporting the whole child is vital to their success both in and out of the classroom, and we will continue to prioritise students’ wellbeing in all that we do.

As we look ahead to Term 2, we have a range of exciting events and activities planned for our students. These include a range of excursions and incursions designed to enrich their learning experiences. We are also planning for our annual parent-teacher conferences, where you will have the opportunity to meet with your child's teachers to discuss their progress and achievements.

Finally, I would like to thank our parents and guardians for their ongoing support and partnership with our school. Your involvement in your child's education is invaluable, and we appreciate your contributions to our school community. I wish you all a safe and restful break, and look forward to seeing you back at school for Term 2.

Best Regards,
Azize Ulku
Deputy Principal

Teaching and Learning Coordinator

Greetings Sirius College Primary School Community,

It is my pleasure to welcome you back to school for the 2023 school year. I would like to extend a warm welcome to our new students and their families. This term has been nothing short of exciting! We have enjoyed a very busy term as our management team, teaching staff, supporting staff and students are establishing successful and positive school routines for the year. Our focus remains consistent and strong on establishing positive and supportive relationships with all our students, whilst setting high expectations around individualised personal best academic achievement.

I would like to emphasise the importance of parent/guardian engagement and involvement. There is strong evidence linking parent engagement with improvements in academic achievement for children of all ages. I like to describe it as a pyramid, where the student is at the top, parents/guardians and school are on either side. This defines our main priority being the students' success and reflects that by working together, we can ultimately provide a strong support system that can help them grow and blossom.

English and Maths will continue to be a strong focus in 2023. Sirius College staff have set high yet attainable goals for all our students, with reading as a high priority. It is vital that all our students leave our Primary campus with the ability to competently and confidently read.

Our students are provided with a synthetic systematic Phonics program that will develop their competencies in knowing and applying speech sounds when decoding text. The focus is for your child to competently develop their phonemic awareness skills, as this will ensure students will have the foundational building blocks to successfully read and comprehend texts. All staff will continue to work hard in achieving growth for every student, in every class, in every year level.

NAPLAN 2023

This year, The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students was held in Term 1 from March 15th -March 27th. NAPLAN tests assess student knowledge and skills in writing, reading, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. The results of the tests provide information for students, parents, teachers and principals and can be used to improve student achievement. Congratulations to our Year 3 and 5 students for completing their NAPLAN tests. There was excellent attendance for the testing with our students entering with a very positive mindset.

Online Learning

Please be encouraged to regularly remind your child to access and complete all assigned tasks. Students with great participation success will be acknowledged and rewarded with certificates during our whole school assemblies. Below you can find brief descriptions of the programs our students have access to:

Reading Eggs

ABC Reading Eggs is the breakthrough educational website where 3 to 7 year olds learn to read as they play. With its game-like activities, vibrant animations, fun sound effects and catchy songs, ABC Reading Eggs makes learning core literacy skills fun and motivational for young children. ABC Reading Eggs introduces children to multiple learning areas, including:

My Lessons – 120 reading lessons each consisting of a variety of instructional activities.

The Playroom – includes over 170 activities and books. This virtual playroom allows children to

play with music, patterns, picture making, puzzles and much more.

The Story Factory – Children can write their very own story books and choose full colour illustrations to match their story.Storylands – features 20 lessons with a focus on developing reading, vocabulary and comprehension skills. Storylands also includes 20 wonderful books and lots of fun rewards!

Skills Bank Spelling – 96 carefully graded spelling lessons with a focus on developing grammar and vocabulary.’Reading Eggspress ‘ABC Reading Eggspress continues the learning to read journey for 7 to 13 year olds, helping children further develop their comprehension, spelling, grammar and writing skills. ABC Reading Eggspress includes:

My Lessons – over 200 comprehension lessons which cover six levels equivalent to school grades 1 to 6.

The Library – home to over 2000 e-books, sorted by reading age and Lexile level.

English Skills – provides over 200 spelling lessons which focus on improving reading, writing and comprehension skills.

The Stadium–your child can compete against students from around the world or against the computer in four contests that test skills in spelling, vocabulary, usage and grammar.’Students are able to directly access Reading Eggspress using their Reading Eggs accounts.

Mathseeds

ABC Mathseeds teaches kids aged 3-9 the core math and problem solving skills needed to be successful at school with fun, highly interactive and rewarding lessons. ABC Mathseeds combines highly structured lessons with fun motivational elements that keep children engaged and keen to learn. Students are able to directly access Mathseeds using their Reading Eggs accounts.

Mathletics

Mathletics complements and reinforces schoolwork and classroom learning. It provides learners with the chance to put their mathematics skills to use through activities and challenges that are relevant and attention-grabbing.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any queries regarding our online learning programs.

Kindest Regards,
Ms. Bassant
Teaching and Learning Coordinator

Student Services Team

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to 2023! Our year has been off to a busy start. Our grades 3-6 students attended a student wellbeing incursion, on Friday the 17th of February.

Brainstorm productions presented their performance ‘Zanna and the Lost Code’ which aimed at engaging students in conversations about values, respect and responsibility, to inspire them to build safer and more positive online experiences.

Our students seemed to really enjoy the performance and it initiated conversations about bullying, cyber safety and resilience, which we hope they will use and rely on in all their online decision making from this point forward. We recommend parents also discuss the importance of online safety and power of empathy, respect, kindness and resilience at home as well so our students receive the same message at school and home.

Kindest Regards,
From the Student Support Team

Enrolment

A warm welcome to all of our parents and students for our new school year!

My name is Gulcan Arslan and I am the enrolment coordinator here at Dallas Campus, I will be able to assist you with any questions or enquiries you may have related to new student enrolment.

Currently we have 700 students enrolled at our campus, with new enrolments open for 2024.

Enrolments are open for the academic year of 2024 from now until 31st of May 2023.

If you wish to enroll your other children at our campus please access the Sirius College Website and fill out an application form online under the enrolment tab. Alternatively please click on the link below:

Please note applicants will be accepted based on availability as well as the selection criteria.

If you require any further information you can reach me directly via phone, email or in person.

Phone: 9301 5855
Email: gulcan.arslan@sirius.vic.edu.au

First Aid Officer

Welcome back to our Students and Families,

I hope that 2023 is a happy and healthy year for us all. To help keep each other safe and well please be mindful of the following:

• Please make sure that we are all washing our hands with soap and warm water to prevent the spread of germs or use hand sanitizer when water is unavailable.
• If your child does become unwell please keep them home from school until they are well enough to return. This means a minimum of 24hrs symptom free for infectious illnesses (vomiting/diarrhoea), absence of fever without medicine or with a clearance from the G.P.
• Please make sure that your child eats a nutritious breakfast before school so that they have the energy to focus and learn in class
• Ask your child to help prepare their lunchbox the night before, ensuring that healthy snack options are available.
• Ensure that students bring their water bottles to school every day filled with water only.
• Please return any outstanding asthma/allergy/anaphylaxis action plans & medication as soon as possible.

For any questions please feel free to email me saadet.gungor@sirius.vic.edu.au

Kindest Regards,
Saadet Gungor
First Aid Officer

Community Engagement

Dear Sirius Community,

The Community Engagement Team organises regular family hikes, encouraging our parents and students to stay active and have a great time outdoors with the family and the community.

On the 12th of March, fifteen families joined the hike with their children at You Yang Regional Park. We walked 2 hours with the magnificent scenery. Parents had delightful conversations and kids mingled with each other during the hike.

The hike ended with a short and sweet picnic as everyone munched on their snacks and reflected on the beauty of the area as well as the rewarding nature of the walk.

Secondly, Dallas Campus mothers attended food handling and cooking courses during Term 1. All the attendees demonstrated their abilities in a friendly atmosphere. Participants also tasted the food they made and had a delightful conversation while eating.

Mrs. Hatice Yamakoglu had organised a traditional year level mothers' gathering activity. The participants shared their parenting experiences throughout the activity. Parents also had a chance to listen to PD's in some of these gatherings.

The Community Engagement Department has been targeting to build a strong and close-knit community through these programs. Thanks to Dallas Campus mothers for allocating their time in such activities.

Lastly, Sirius College’s unique and traditional parent home visits. Studies clearly show that family engagement with school increases student’s success and well-being. It strengthens the sense of belonging to school and helps our students to build their confidence. Therefore, the Dallas Community Engagement Department had organised 24 home visits during Term 1.

Thank you so much to all the teachers and staff members for accompanying us on these visits. We also send big thanks to our parents for their sincere invitations.

Community Engagement Coordinators

Hatice Yamakoglu

Fatih Ozdemir
Email: fatih.ozdemir@sirius.vic.edu.au

Dallas Campus

Religion and Values

Assalamu Alaikum!

2023 started with excitement and hope for all of us. In term one there will be a very special month starting for Muslims. This is the holy month of Ramadan. I would like to share some points about Ramadan to refresh ourselves.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. During this month, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. Ramadan is a very significant month because the Quran was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and this night is known as Laylatul-Qadr. Fasting is an expression of gratitude, we are grateful for drink and food. Fasting allows Muslims to teach themselves self-discipline and also allows them to become better practicing Muslims. At the end of Ramadan, Muslims celebrate Eid ul-Fitr, where they celebrate the end of fasting. During Eid ul-Fitr, Muslims dress in their finest clothes, give gifts and spend time with their friends and family.

Some ideas we can apply at home this Ramadan.

• Read the Quran with translations! We are reading many pages from the Quran during Ramadan, but many of us, unfortunately, don’t know the meaning. To understand the message of the Quran further, we can read translations with our family members. Set a time with your family to come together to read.
• Have some goals! Setting up some goals for this Ramadan and having an attempt to accomplish your goals will improve you a lot. Also, If you have gained some good habits, try to maintain them after Ramadan.
• Make the most out of Ramadan! It is a month of many opportunities for us to deepen our relationships with our Creator, so use every opportunity, big or small, to get closer to him.

Ramadan Mubarak
Religion And Values Department

Pastoral Care Boys & Girls

Pastoral Care Boys Team

First of all, we would like to wish you all a Ramadan Kareem.

We finished off last year with our Annual Quran Camp and concluded it with a barbecue with all families and also had a day out at Luna Park.

We welcomed our year 4 students to the Pastoral Care program this term. They have made a great introduction to the year and we have 3 classes running in year 4 which is great to see.

This year we have made some changes to our programs. We will no longer offer Quran classes on weekends but will continue with the classes on Tuesdays afterschool.

We also have mentors who also help run the programs along with our Pastoral Care Teachers. These are university students who are generally graduates of our school who give up their time to spend it with younger generations to help them grow and build their characters to be better students and people who can be socially responsible citizens with universal moral values. We hope this can lead to them being active and contributing members of society.

We would like to remind parents that Pastoral Care is the development of the whole student. This involves supporting each student in their entire school life experience whilst engaging families in the process: academically, physically, socially, emotionally & cognitively. This is so they can be the best version of themselves.

Our Year 4 teachers are Mr Fatih Ozdemir, Mr Taner Demirci & Mr Ilyas Yilmaz.

We also have our mentors Ilhami Eker, Yunus Akin & Omer Yilmaz.

Our Year 5 teachers are Mr Mustafa Kadioglu & Mr Adam Dina who will be running a class together.

Our Year 6 teachers are Mr Emre Topoglu, Mr Mehmet Canbolat & Mr Cemil Yildiz. We also have Ihsan Yamakoglu & Zakee Mohamed as our Mentors in Year 6.

During the month of Ramadan, our PC Classes & Quran classes were canceled due to families having to make it home for iftar and iftar preparations. During the school holidays, we will be having a camp where we will be having 3 days with iftar and Teravih prayer being prayed together. Camp will run from April 7-9 and a notice has gone out to parents. We hope that students can make the most of Ramadan.

We would also like to remind parents to pick up their children on time on PC days. Any parents who are more than 5 minutes late will need to pick up their child from the office. Continuous late pick-up warnings may result in your child being removed from the class. Any early dismissal will need to be resolved from the office as they need to be signed out. Finally, during pick-up times, it can get quite busy, we would like to remind students to remain at the pick up point and not outside the school gate.

PC Days

Monday - Pastoral Care lessons 3:30-5 pm (food is provided)
Tuesday - Quran Lessons 3:30-4:30 pm (fruit is provided)

Best Regards,
Pastoral Care Boys Team

Pastoral Care Girls Team

“Ramadan Kareem” to all our lovely parents, teachers and students and welcome back to another exciting year. We have been very busy with our Pastoral care activities this term.

We started the term by inviting our parents and students from year 4 to 6 to our “Girls Pastoral Care and Wellbeing (PCW) Orientation Day”. It was a pleasure meeting all our past and new PCW students and their parents. We talked about our PCW’s intention, values and our plans for the year. Thank you to all our parents and students who joined us on this special day and hope to hear your lovely feedback throughout the year.

We had our Ramadan workshop for the PCW Girls in Week 7. Thank you to Ms Zainab Mourad from ISRA for her amazing Ramadan Presentation. During the workshop we tested our knowledge about Ramadan, discussed how we can prepare ourselves both physically and spiritually for Ramadan and what we can do to get the most of this precious month.

In addition to our Ramadan workshop, we also wanted to feel the spirit of Ramadan by decorating our school and wanted to show its’ unique power of connecting people together and on the Harmony Week in Week 8, PCW Year 4 Girls put their hands and hearts together to make an amazing “Ramadan Mubarak” banner. They also made lanterns and Ramadan colorings. We hung them around the school in our corridors. Please do have a stroll inside when you come to pick up your children and enjoy our PCW Girls beautiful work.

Our Monday after-school Quran classes started as well. If you would like your daughter to join, please contact one of our team members when we come back for Term 2.

We started the year with lots of excitement, but we were left heartbroken due to the news about the two powerful earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria. Our prayers are with all who got affected. As PCW Girls Team, we also wanted to do our share and help ease the pain of our sisters and brothers in Turkey and Syria. Hence we organized a sausage sizzle day,Krispy Kreme sale and a toy/stationary stall to raise money. Alhamdulillah it was a great success; special thanks to our SRC students, aides and classroom teachers for their great help and contribution to this heartfelt cause.

We are planning to have iftar dinners during Ramadan with our lovely PCW students, teachers and mentors. Students will be going to restaurants or staying at school and enjoy the moment of breaking their fast together. We will also invite year 4 PCW parents to the DLC to have a mother daughter iftar in week 10,7th of April. We wish to see our mothers there.

During the term holiday students will have their Trm 1 PCW camps as well and participate in some spiritual activities to make the most of Ramadan.

Wishing you all a fruitful month of Ramadan and Eid-al Fitr.

Best Regards,
Pastoral Care Girls Team

SRC

Student representative councils are made up of a group of students who represent student views within the school. A Student Representative Council (SRC) is a group of students elected by their peers to represent all students within the school. SRC's work democratically to represent the student body in school decision-making and organise ways for students to participate in and enjoy school life.

Their role includes

• Attending meetings with SRC teachers to discuss possible activities for the students at school.
• Promote student Health and Wellbeing through activities aimed at developing greater connections within the student population and between students and the College.
• Participate in any fundraising that is seen as important to the school part of the Pastoral care widening program
• Organising various sport activities to cater for each year level and ensuring all year levels participate in this event
• Make important announcements to the school by traveling to each classroom
• Assisting the library or Reception where required
• Problems or concerns that students have and which need to be discussed by the School Council. (An example of this is the discussion and proposal regarding the canteen menu).
• Receive leadership skills through weekly SRC meetings, facilitated by the SRC teacher.
• Having involvement in representing student work/progress in the school’s newsletter.

Sirius College introducing 2023 Semester 1 SRC reps.

Year 4

Fatimah Salman from 4A, Zehra Guven 4B, Haris Asif from 4C, Mujde Bradshaw 4D

Year 5

Barakah Sikder from 5A, Farida Mohamed Ahmed from 5B, Jasmina Hameidan 5C, Waddi Bin Abid 5D

Year 6

Syed John Kazmi from 6A, Yourself Quasi from 6B, Sumeyye Kose from 6C, And Mohamed Anees Rizwan from 6D

SRC Events

The SRC team with the assistance of the school captains have been involved in a range of events during the second half of Term 1.

Some of the events include:

Harmony week assembly

The SRC team organized an assembly to introduce to the students ‘What Is Harmony Week’, they also talked about the history behind Harmony Week with spray painted t-shirts writing ‘EVERYBODY BELONGS’!

Stationary Stalls

The SRC team held a stationary stall to raise funds for the recent earthquake which happened in Turkey and Syria.

We look forward to taking part in many more events like this in the year ahead of us.

Warm Regards,
Mishael Shahid (School Captain)

Foundation Team

On March the 8th, Foundation students participated in an inspiring Mind and Body Incursion.

Throughout their session, students demonstrated enormous concentration and focus while they were guided through activities designed to improve their strength, coordination and flexibility. They also learnt ways to regulate their emotions through stretches, movements and breathing techniques.

Students thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were engaged throughout the fun 75 minute session!

Best Regards,
Foundation Team

Year 1 Team

Welcome to Year 1!

STEM

‘STEM’ stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Why is it important to teach our students STEM skills? It’s simple! STEM is all around us. These disciplines are embedded in our daily lives. When our students recognise how these skills influence their lives now and into the future, they have a better understanding of the world around them.

In Year 1, students participated in the following STEM units:

• Lego Masters
• M is for STEM
• LEGO Technic
• STEM Projects

In Lego Masters, students in 1A work independently, in pairs or small groups to work through a set of ‘Building Challenge’ cards. They plan their design and use Lego to construct their building.

In M is for STEM, students in 1B work independently, in pairs or small groups to work through the task cards. For each of the problems students must find a creative way of representing their answers or reflecting on the problem at hand, and keeping a visual record in their STEM journal. Some tasks will take one day, while others may last over several weeks.

The LEGO Technic system is based on beams and pegs to more realistically replicate real-life machines, however is still compatible with standard LEGO Bricks. With LEGO Technic, students in 1C build their very own impressive machines, vehicles, racing jets, Mack trucks, race cars, ocean explorers and more.

STEM Projects provides opportunities for students to develop Science skills and Knowledge, Design and Technology skills, Mathematical skills and general capabilities while completing short and long-term projects.

1D students worked in pairs to design a table made of newspaper and masking tape. Students were required to meet the criteria for this task which was to build a table strong enough to hold 5 reading books.

In the building process students experienced some challenges such as the legs being too weak because not enough newspaper was used, sticking some parts together using the masking tape was difficult at times and building a large table was more difficult compared to building a smaller table.

Students discovered that they needed to make some changes to their original design in order to build a stable table. Upon completing this task, we were able to meet the criteria as the majority of the tables were strong enough to hold 5 reading books.

We are so proud of our lovely Year 1 students for their passion, commitment and creativity in STEM. We also thank all parents for their ongoing support this term.

Year 1 Team
Ms Kader, Ms Ayse, Ms Yanilmaz, Ms Vandana and Ms Klara

Year 2 Team

Welcome Year 2!

The Year 2 team are very excited to meet you this year.

This term, the Year 2 students were busy with exciting and fun learning activities that helped expand their knowledge in all areas.

During Mathematics students have been learning about Number and Place value, Units of measurement and Chance. Students completed work in their Oxford Math book as well as exciting hands-on activities.

In English, students have been busy writing Information Reports on various topics. The Year 2 team are so proud of their efforts and the improvement they have shown since the beginning of the term.

Students also had the best time during our Como House excursion which was part of our Integrated Studies unit where students were comparing and contrasting past and present. The Como House was built in 1847 and offers a glimpse into the privileged lifestyle of former owners, the Armytage family, who lived there for nearly a century.

The Year 2 team thank all parents for their support and students for their efforts this term.

Bring on term 2!

Year 2 Team
Ms Suzan, Ms Serap, Ms Fadime and Ms Derya.

Year 3 Team

All students from Year 3 and staff had a fantastic time in Term 1.

How could we forget our adventurous ZOO Camp? At the camp students learned about the lifestyle and nutrition of different animals. They also gained knowledge about native animals living in Australia. On our one-night camp students gained a different life experience by sleeping in tents. How wonderful it was to be able to provide these opportunities and experiences for our students.

On the 10th of March 2023, we had an excursion to the Royal Botanical Gardens. We learnt about Aboriginal culture and ways that they used the environment to make tools.

Best Regards,
Year 3 Team

Year 4 Team

Dearest Year 4 Community,

We hope you are all safe and enjoying the beginning of our 2023 academic year.

We would like to take a moment to provide an insight into our learnings for Term 1. This will give you the opportunity to get together with your child and reflect on many key concepts we have covered in our classrooms in Term 1 thus far.

English

For English, we commenced the term by reading and writing Auto/biography texts. While reading and writing our biographies we ensured we had the correct structure and language features

• Title
• Introduction of the subject
• Body - Characteristic features of the subject (appearance, quality, behaviour, significant attributes)
• Conclusion

Our grammar focus was nouns. Taking this opportunity we learnt all the different types of nouns ranging from abstract and concrete to collective and possessive nouns. We incorporated our learning of nouns to make our writing more enjoyable to read.

Mathematics

During Maths we predominantly focused on improving our Number & Place Value skills this term. We practised using mental and written strategies to solve addition problems. Following on we were able to learn about improper fractions and mixed numbers. Our final topics which will be studied during the next couple of weeks are Measurement (length) and 2D shapes which was a favourite for many of our friends.

History

We covered a comprehensive ‘First Contacts’ history unit during our first term of integrated studies this year. Our ‘First Contacts’ unit covered themes such as Australia’s first people, famous explorers and the First Fleet journey. The unit of learning was complimented with our visit to The Pollywood Woodside where the students were involved in an interactive learning experience.

Alongside all the incredible learning we acquired during our key learning areas, we also had the opportunity to have fun while developing our skills in minor team games in PE and touching up on our PowerPoint skills in ICT.

Finally, we concluded our eventful term with an amazing camping experience at Royal Melbourne Zoo to remember! It was the best possible way to compliment a term of hard work.

We must add that we are all super proud of every single one of our students.

THANK YOU very much for your support and endless hard work on helping our students learn.

Warmest Regards,
Year 4 Team

Year 5 Team

Dearest Year 5 Community,

The Year 5 Team welcomes you all back for another positive year at SIRIUS COLLEGE. This term students explored a range of different topics in various subjects.

In English students learnt about narratives. They went over the overall structure as well as how to use figurative and descriptive language to make their writing more interesting to read. During this time they came up with some fantastic pieces of work. We are very happy with their progress thus far.

In Mathematics students were introduced to place value before going onto addition as well as learning about number patterns, shapes and fractions. Students also completed their Oxford Maths texts to further understand mathematical concepts.

During Integrated Studies students dived into recent Australian history learning about the First Contact between settlers and indigenous Australians as well as the impact this has had on today’s society. Students also had a lot of fun visiting the Old Melbourne Gaol exploring one of Australia’s oldest colonial prisons and the place in which Ned Kelly spent his last days.

On another note, we would also like to congratulate students for their efforts in NAPLAN this term. Students showed tremendous patience and resilience to get through it all given our busy schedule.

We thank all parents for their support and students for their efforts this term.

We look forward to an exciting term 2!

Year 5 Team
Ms. Hatice, Ms. Sewita, Ms. Houda, Mr. Adam

Year 6 Team

What an incredibly exciting term it has been for our wonderful Year 6s!

Term 1 has definitely been a very memorable and super exciting term for all Year 6 students as they started their Year 6 journey with an amazing 3-day Coastal Adventure Camp located on the Mornington Peninsula. Despite the change in weather conditions, students were overjoyed with the activities and experiences they had. Please, enjoy reading their recounts about their camp experiences.

At school, Year 6 students have been working extremely hard, learning many new concepts and topics across the various areas of the curriculum.

For Literacy this term, students have been exploring the letter writing text type. They have been practicing writing formal and informal letters, using the appropriate structure and language features used in this genre of writing. Students have been developing and improving their writing skills immensely by writing formal and informal letters about a multitude of topics.

For Numeracy, we have been exploring various concepts including Place Value (Mental Strategies for Addition and Subtraction, Written Strategies for Addition and Subtraction), Units of Measurements (Length, Area and Timelines and Timetables), Geometric and Number patterns.

In History, students studied a unit of work on Australia as a Nation. Additionally, Civics and Citizenship is a new subject that was introduced to Year 6 this term.

In Health this term, students have been enjoying learning strategies to incorporate nutritional awareness, personal hygiene and sun safety into their daily lives.

In ICT students have been looking at how computers work and the internal and external components of a computer. They were introduced to binary numbers and how to change normal text and numbers into binary numbers in a fun and engaging way during our weekly ICT sessions.

Thank you to all Year 6 students, parents and teachers for an incredibly productive term thus far.

Best Regards,
Year 6 Team

Visual Art

Ramadan Exhibition 2023

We are incredibly proud of our talented Sirius College Dallas Campus years 4-6 students who participated in the Ramadan exhibition organised by Broadmeadows Central! Our students were able to showcase their creativity and artistic skills by completing a beautiful painting that portrayed what Ramadan meant to them. It was amazing to see the different perspectives and interpretations of this Holy Month. This week, our students had the opportunity to visit the exhibition and see their artwork on display. It was a truly unforgettable experience for them and we are so grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this event. Congratulations to the following students who participated in this exhibition:

Farida Khalifa,6A : Time for Iftar,
Amna Usman ,6B:Key to a Paradise- A View through the Moon
Hasan Tariq, 6D:Timeless Devotion-Celebrating the month of Ramadan,
Suleman Baluch,6D : Colours of Unity,
Mujde Bradshaw, 4D: Observing
Ramadan-A Portrait of Inclusion,
Leen Banat, 6C: The Ramadan Lantern
Inshira Rizvi 6B: Making dua

Best Regards,
Ms. Fisun

Music

Our Sirius College Dallas Campus Choir is back on for 2023 after having a break in semester two last year. Students have been very excited for the opportunity to get together with other like minded peers who enjoy singing as much as they do. The choir runs at lunch time on Mondays. We aim to not only give an outlet of extra music time for those who enjoy it but also strive to create opportunities for performance. In term two we will aim to perform at Monday morning assembly with the possibility of lunchtime performances also. Later in the year there will be our Art Show and School Concert which also may present further performance opportunities. All grade 4, 5 and 6 students are welcome to join or return for term two.

Best Regards,
Mr Christian

Languages Team

ARABIC

Salam Everyone

Happy Ramadan!

This term our year 1 Arabic students enjoyed learning about the Arabic alphabet, Arabic numbers and colours. They used their textbooks as well as writing books to improve their handwriting.

Students listened to a few nasheeds (Arabic jingles) that reinforce our school and societal values. The Arabic class time was ideal for students who come from different home groups to interact and mingle in a positive manner where Arabic is used as a medium of speaking. Such a learning environment helped build students’ confidence and social interaction.

The class was very proud of Reem Yassin from 1A who made a TV out of cardboards and was delighted to show and tell her work to the whole class. Students were fascinated to see the different TV channels, namely the Ramadan Kareem one.

Best Regards,
Mr Yacoub Ali
Arabic Teacher

FRENCH

Topics of French language

This Term 1 was an exciting term for year 3, 4, 5 and 6 French students. The Topic was a revision of last year's topics. And they learnt a song: Je ne regrette pas (No regret) , a very well known song by Edith Piaf.

The students enjoyed the song and will sing it in one of our assemblies or concerts.

Best Regards,
Mr Mourad
French Teacher

TURKISH

This term in Languages we have been learning about class items and nationalities. We played games to learn class objects and phrases. We role played as teachers and learnt to say ‘sessiz olun’, ayagi kalkin’ ‘tekrar et’, ‘oturun lutfen’, ‘kapiyi kapatin’. Our favourite phrase was ‘Eyvah, derse gec kaldim’ which translates to ‘Oh no! I am late to class’. We also learnt to say our nationalities, where we live and how old we are. We coloured our flags and made posters.

Best Regards,
Ms. Hacer
Turkish Teacher

ADVANCED TURKISH

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the new school year!

I hope everyone has had a safe and enjoyable summer. A big welcome to our returning students and to students and families who are newly joining the Sirius College community.

2023 will be a wonderful year packed full of learning, fun and not to mention, a lot of change; as we work with your child and tap into their potential to “Reach for the Stars!”

On behalf of the Languages Team, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our staff as we are all very much looking forward to working with you and your child over the course of the year.

Our languages team consists of;

Arabic: Mr Yacoub Ali
French: Mr Mourad Djebarra
Turkish: Mrs Nuray Ali, Mr Ilyas Yilmaz, Mr Taner, Mrs Neslihan, Mrs Hacer and Mrs Esra Oz.
Head of Languages: Mrs Esra Oz

Should at any point you have any questions or concerns relating to languages, we would welcome the opportunity to liaise with you through email, phone or face-to-face.

Once again, welcome to the Sirius community.

Warm regards,

Head of Languages
Best Regards,
Ms. Esra Oz
Advanced Turkish Teacher

Physical Education

YEAR 6 INTER-SCHOOL SPORTS PROGRAM

Sirius College Dallas Campus has just completed its Inter School Summer Sports Program for Term 1. Selected students had the opportunity to represent the College in Basketball, Volleyball, T-Ball and Cricket, competing against other local schools in the Broadmeadows District. All competing teams showed great competitiveness, skill and sportsmanship throughout the season and we will be looking to build on this during the winter sports season in Term 2. Winter sports in Term 2 will include Soccer, European Handball and Netball.

Students that were not part of the Inter-School Sports Program had the opportunity to take part in a specialized tennis program that was run by Jesse Laino from Top Tennis Melbourne at our College. The specialized tennis program ran for 8 weeks where students got to practice and refine their tennis skills as well as having friendly competition matches against one another.

Well done to all teams and students for their efforts in Term 1.

Best Regards,
Mr. Mehmet

Library

Dear Parents/ Guardians,

Our library is dedicated to fostering a love of reading and learning.

We strive to provide activities and resources that will support students and staff to become more effective and discriminating life-long-users of information.

We encourage all students to borrow from our school library every week. I look forward to helping your child become an enthusiastic reader.

Students will have the opportunity to attend the library every week during their allocated class library session. Please encourage your child to enjoy and take care of our library books, also make note of your child’s library session day so that they may return them for more.

Remember to enjoy the library books with your child.

Happy Reading!

Best Regards,
Ms. Sonmez

Camp Australia