This year the Year 5/6 class is run by the Primary Coordinator – Mr Steve Carter.  Steve has been at SMCS for 8 years and has taught all the grades in that time.  He has been the Primary Coordinator for the past 5 years.

Our Year 5/6 class for 2009 has 23 delightful students. 

As with all the primary classes, the Board of Studies Key Learning Areas include

English (spelling, writing, talking and listening, grammar and reading)
Maths (number, space and measurement, data, working mathematically, patterns and algebra)
Science
Human Society and Its Environment
Creative Art (visual art, music, drama)
Biblical Studies
Personal Development, Health and Physical Education
IT Skills

English work covers a thorough study of all grammatical concepts, and builds upon work covered in Stage 2.  Reading studies are achieved by way of novel studies – this year looking at Midnite to tie in with our Gold studies, as well as The Hobbit via an audio production.  The area of writing looks at narratives and informative, outlining, project work, paragraph development and poetry.  Spelling lessons continues with Spalding method, which is used throughout the entire school, although by term 3, our Year 6 students look at Latin and Greek roots.  Our talking and listening program has a strong focus in public speaking and debating, both within the school and the wider community. 

Maths looks at many concepts such as fractions, decimals, factors, graphing data, problem solving just to name a few.  We use a mixture of American and Australian texts.

As we have 2 grades in the year 5/6 year level, we rotate the subjects taught for HSIE and Science.  This year in Science we are covering Electricity, earth Sciences, Light and Treasures of the Sea.  In HSIE we are covering God, Federation of Australia, Mesopotamia and a global issue. 

The discipline of Creative Arts – taught this year by our art specialist – Mrs Ruth Salzke, covers areas such as pottery, drawing, painting with a variety of mediums and tools, sculpting and tiling just to name a few.  In music, each member of the Year 5/6 class plays an instrument in the Year 5/6 band. 

Specialist private tuition is available for all our students and is managed by our music specialist – Mr Phil Hornemn.  Drama is also taught by a specialist teacher this year – Ms Liz Dee.

Biblical Studies this year builds upon the work of earlier years and continues to focus on the characteristics of God such as God is Protector, Faithful, Patient, etc but uses stories and lessons appropriate for the year 5/6 students.

Our PDHPE curriculum works on issues such as friendship, peer pressure, an anti-bullying program, and aspects of a healthy lifestyle.  Our PE and sports program includes swimming lessons in term 1, athletic skills, indoor soccer, netball and cricket at a local indoor gymnasium, skiing in winter as well as our three annual carnivals – swimming, cross country and athletics.

For IT skills, in the SMCS computer lab, students will be exposed to basic skills such as typing as well as specialised use in Microsoft products such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Photo story and other programs.  Mr. Carter has just completed a Microsoft certification as a Master Instructor in Integrating Microsoft products into the curriculum.

The Year 5/6 class has a strong focuses on structured learning through fun., and preparation of students for High School.  The class endeavours to get to an excursion every term, and hopefully will enjoy a class camp towards the end of this year.