Years 2-5 YACHTS

“Reading literature makes us smarter and nicer.” – Annie Murphy Paul

This term, our Year 2-5 YACHTS students have been immersed in a world of emotions and real life issues as they ESCAPED to literary horizons. From environmental responsibility, sustainability and value of family in the novel ‘Blueback’, to gender stereotyping, respect for older people and strength to be true to oneself in ‘To the Light’. Themes of friendship, trust, loyalty and betrayal were examined in ‘Fox’ and ‘The Giraffe, Pelly and Me’ shared valuable lessons about friendship, cooperation and justice with a hint of humour. Phoebe shared her thinking that Bird’s role in the book ‘Fox’ was that of a damsel in distress who needed rescuing and protecting – a great insight.

We lost ourselves on a sparkling sea of Book Week fun as we escaped to everywhere, sharing personal experiences through wonderful stories and literature. As Logan reflected in his journal, “if you read a million books, you will live a million lives and go to a million places. If you read no books you will live one life. You will stay in one place”.

Our Legendary Literature Lovers engaged with complex texts and analysed big ideas from character perspectives through the lens of amazing authors’ craft. Visits to classes were loaded with fun and interest as we spread the escape message through our own love of reading and made great activities for our classmates to enjoy.

Our older YACHTS students also enjoyed a special thinking workshop with Eric Frangenheim as a culminating literature treat at the end of Term 3. This term has been a brilliant opportunity for our students to engage deeply with a great story and have the time to share personal responses with their like-minded peers.

Ms Anthea Brighton, Head of Learning Enrichment P-5