Curriculum Opportunities

We pride ourselves on a wide range of curriculum opportunites for our students

It’s not the curriculum that we offer that sets us apart, it’s the manner in which it’s delivered

Any school can teach a curriculum. Amazing schools like ours is full of teachers actively and passionately exploring the possibilities of making their teaching practice more innovative, engaging and fun at every turn. This is the single ingredient that drives the most growth in our students.

The success we attain is not only evidenced by the assessment data – but it’s seen through the smiles and joy we see on our student’s faces as a concept is grasped. This is the indefinable element that drives us as teachers to produce and grow our own teaching skills year in, year out.

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Religious Dimension

As members of St Mary’s School community, we recognise Jesus Christ as the centre of our lives and the integrating influence of our school community.

Student Wellbeing

At St Mary’s we actively work to provide support and learning for our students, staff and school community to develop positive relationships in a safe, supportive school environment.

Literacy, Language and Literature

English is recognised as a means of communicating through the elements of Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing.

Numeracy

Number, space and measurement, chance and data are common aspects of most people’s mathematical experience in everyday personal life, study and work situations.

Health and Physical Education

ICT

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is the hardware and software that enables a variety of data to be digitally processed, stored and communicated.

Languages (Italian)

A specialist teacher teaches the Italian language to all classes from Year Prep to 6. The learning of a second language (Italian) enhances each students’ understanding about the world and develops their thinking and reflective skills.

Performing Arts

This program aims to build creativity, confidence and leadership skills.

Science and Digital Technologies

The focus of this program is to embed learning using the scientific approach and to develop Science Understanding and Science Inquiry Skills.

Visual Arts

A wonderful program the builds creativity and problem solving skills.

Library

Students have a weekly library session with their classroom teacher.

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Religious Dimension

Rationale:

As members of St Mary’s School community, we recognise Jesus Christ as the centre of our lives and the integrating influence of our school community.

We acknowledge our responsibility, in partnership with parents to provide a holistic religious education for all children- paying specific attention to our school’s dominant Catholic context. We also acknowledge the diversity of faith backgrounds within our school and our responsibility to provide programs that are respectful and inclusive of all.

Goals: ‘Enhanced understanding’ is the primary goal of Religious Education. Students are supported to develop a richer understanding of their own faith and the faiths of others through a structured classroom program which is based upon a contemporary model of inquiry learning.

Through our Religious Education program, students will:

Appreciate that through Jesus Christ, the one God has been revealed to us as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Experience a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ through Sacraments, Scripture and Tradition.
Be encouraged to be open to God through personal prayer.
Grow in appreciation of the beauty, unity and interdependence of God’s creation.
Recognise and respond to personal and social challenges through the Commandments and the Beatitudes.
Appreciate that God, the Holy Spirit is at work in the Church, Creation and their daily lives.
Reflect on the scriptural story of the Church and to share in its life and mission.
Enhance their identity and wholeness through the example of Mary as the model of faithful discipleship
Discover that sacred liturgy reflects the essence of their lives and is a unique expression of our communion with God
Understand that each individual is unique and made in the image of God
Understand that through the grace of God and BY faithfully responding to Christ's call, they can receive eternal happiness in the life to come
Understand and respect the rituals, traditions and beliefs of the world’s major Religions and identify, respect and celebrate the similarities that exist.

Implementation:

Formation in faith is a life-long journey. Students change and develop over time and a variety of approaches are employed to support students and their families to come to a richer understanding of what it means to be a part of a Catholic community.

The content of our Religious Education program is structured upon the Religious Education Curriculum Framework document used throughout the Archdiocese of Melbourne .and across Victoria. The curriculum schema is supported by the ‘To Know, Worship and Love’ textbooks that have been specifically developed to support students and families strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith. The schema identifies three key dimensions through which student learning is achieved:

Knowledge and Understanding, Reasoning and Responding and Personal and Communal Engagement.
Within the Religious Education Frameworks document. the major thematic units include:

God
Creation
Human person and the Family
Jesus Christ
The Holy Spirit
The Church
Mary, Mother of God, and the Saints
Liturgy/Seasons and Celebrations
Sacraments
Sacred Stories
Grace and Moral Life
Prayer
Commandments and Beatitudes
Death and Everlasting Life

The selection and composition of units of work will take into account the Seasons of the Church Year, Sacramental preparation within the school, feast days, specific school celebrations and the Integrated curriculum.

Assessment practices are to be inclusive of all, and reflect assessment for learning, assessment as learning, and assessment of learning. Student and collegial evaluation of units of study, suitability of resources and learning experiences offered is an important element within our Religious Education program. Evidence of growth and learning is gathered through a variety of modes such as:

Targeted student observation
Anecdotal notes
Annotated student work books or work samples
Teacher prepared assessment tasks (individual & level, pre and post)
Graphic organisers
Formal reports
Open-ended questions
Class/Group discussions
Oral reporting
Preparation of liturgies
Personal response to and analysis of scripture
Dramatic improvisation
Multimedia presentations

Student Wellbeing

At St Mary’s our Student Wellbeing goal is to create a safe, happy, inclusive and respectful learning environment for all.

At St Mary’s we actively work to provide support and learning for our students, staff and school community to develop positive relationships in a safe, supportive school environment. We follow the National Safe Schools Framework and the Health Promoting School Framework (from the World Health Organisation) to facilitate a whole school approach to student wellbeing and learning.

We pride ourselves in being a ‘Restorative Practices School’ and being part of the ‘School Wide Positive Behaviour Support Program’. These processes and practices provide a framework for a broad range of proactive approaches that support social skills teaching, learning and development. They also provide the tools and principles needed to resolve problems, deal with conflict in a positive way and build relationships.

We believe that connectedness and building relationships are paramount for wellbeing and resilience. This is achieved through Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) being taught and supported across the whole school.

“Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process for integrating thinking, feeling
and behaviour to achieve important social/life tasks, meet personal and social needs
and develop the skills necessary to become a productive, contributing member of society.”

The Social and Emotional Learning of all students is a major focus of our school. Programs such as Social Skills lessons, Library Club, Student Leadership, Community Classroom Awards and Values Education assist Students with their personal and social development.

Our Vision Statement

At St Mary’s we provide evidence-based, literacy instruction for all learners. We promote an environment where building pedagogical knowledge is paramount; empowering teachers to deliver high-quality instruction that meets the learning needs of all students. In collaboration with all stakeholders we assess, analyse and respond to data to monitor student growth and ensure responsive teaching. We aim to empower all learners to strengthen their skills in Oral Language, Reading and Writing; giving them the essential tools to actively engage in their world.

How Learners Learn: Our overarching principles of instruction in Literacy

Cognitive science research offers important information on how learning happens with practical implications for teaching. We align these beliefs in our approach to teaching Literacy.

These include:

Explicit teaching is required to learn biologically secondary knowledge (Reading and Writing)
Learning is a change in long-term memory
Memory is prone to forgetting; review can strengthen previous learning and lead to fluent recall
Students process limited amounts of new information
Students develop and demonstrate mastery
Students are actively engaged when learning

TEACHING LITERACY AT ST MARY’S

Oral Language

A large body of research indicates that oral language is critically important to achievements in reading and writing and has a direct impact on social emotional wellbeing. We need to support children with skills that are biologically natural, such as speaking, to what is not, such as reading and writing.

RELEVANT READINGS:

ICPALER - Oral Language Introduction

SOLAR: The Science of Language and Reading

Implications for Instruction in Oral Language at St Mary’s:

Frequent opportunities for students to develop their skills in speaking and listening through:
Encouraging speaking in whole sentences.
Development of social and emotional contexts for language use including functional language and conversational skills
Regular whole class and small group discussion
Opportunities to share and engage with peers
Think/Pair/Share

Story Grammar Macrostructure:

Categories needed to retell and create a complete story
Explicit vocabulary instruction
Oral retell of shared texts

Language Microstructure:

Developing the finer units of language that develop mastery
Grammar
Tense
Use of conjunctions
Sentence development

Reading:

The ability to read proficiently is fundamental to a student’s success at school and in later life. The science of reading provides the strongest evidence about how young children learn to read. Understanding the cognitive science behind how students learn to read and the research on effective instruction has underpinned our approach to teaching reading.

The research that underpins our instructional approaches in Reading are:

The Simple View of Reading - Gough and Tumner (1986)
The Big 6 or 5 Pillars of Reading
Simple View of Reading Quadrants - Rose 2006
Scarborough’s Reading Rope - Scarborough 2001

The simple view of reading Importantly, the Simple View of Reading states that reading comprehension is a product of word identification ability and language comprehension. If either of these two factors is absent, the student will not demonstrate reading comprehension

Our high-quality, evidence based Literacy Program comprises the following core areas:

Phonemic awareness: the ability to identify and manipulate the individual speech sounds in words called phonemes.
Phonics: knowledge of the relationships between letters and sounds, and the ability to use letter-sound relationships to decode words.
Fluency: the ability to read accurately, quickly, and expressively. Fluent readers can focus on reading for meaning.
Vocabulary: knowledge of the meaning of words in isolation and in context.
Comprehension: the ability to extract and construct meaning from written text.

Implications for Instruction in Reading at St Mary’s:

Phonemic Awareness:

Formative Assessment at the beginning, middle and end of year is conducted in phonemic awareness in Prep and Year 1 to monitor progress over time.
Phonemic Awareness is explicitly taught for 10 minute sessions daily in Prep and Year 1 with the use of the Heggerty Program.
Intervention is provided for those students who require additional supports

Phonics:

Implementation of a Scope and Sequence from Prep to Year 2 to ensure the systematic teaching of phonics.
Morphology is explicitly taught as an extension of this in Years 3-6
Correlations between decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) are explicitly taught
Consistent, daily retrieval is implemented after explicit instruction of sounds
Spaced retrieval is implemented to ensure students are able to decode and encode explicitly taught phonemes and graphemes over time to ensure long term memory retention

Fluency:

Focus on increasing word-level reading competency in order to improve reading fluency
Repeated exposure to texts to enhance fluency
Fluency sessions are incorporated at least three times per week for a minimum of ten minutes from Prep to Year Six
Paired Fluency routines are established in each classroom for students to review and provide feedback consistently.
Fluency is assessed regularly throughout the year to monitor progress

Vocabulary:

High-level vocabulary (encouraging mature use of language) is explicitly taught weekly in all classrooms from Prep to Year Six
Multiple exposures to vocabulary words are incorporated in lessons that explicitly teach:
Word definitions
Word associations (Synonyms and Antonyms)
Visual representations of the word
Sound chunks within the word
Examples and non examples of words
Words in context: Sentence development incorporating new vocabulary.
Consistent daily retrieval is implemented after explicit instruction.
Spaced retrieval is implemented to ensure students are able to understand and apply words in context over time to ensure long term memory retention

Comprehension:

Comprehension is developed orally through oral retells
Knowledge-rich curriculum is incorporated to allow students to build context and apply background or general knowledge to new learning
Developing the skill of generating questions and thinking about and beyond the text in order to build deeper understandings
Formative and summative assessments are incorporated into our Assessment Schedule to monitor student growth.

Writing:

Reading and Writing are foundational to all other learning areas. Implementing evidence-based instructional practices enhances students’ writing skills and confidence while fostering a deeper understanding, enjoyment of, and appreciation for the writing process.

At St Mary’s our writing instruction is aligned to principles from The Writing Revolution and endeavours to provide a Knowledge Rich Curriculum where connections between Reading and Writing are made explicitly.

The principles that underpin our current approach to Writing are:

the explicit teaching of writing skills, through children’s own writing practice
the centrality of the sentence, as the basic building block of all good writing
the progression from simple to more complex strategies (sentences, to paragraphs, to creating text)
the content (knowledge) about which students write drives the rigour

The purpose of teaching in this way is to ensure that all students become proficient writers, not just those who enjoy writing already. This approach also allows stronger writers to more explicitly manipulate their language choices and understand the why and how of good writing and grammar.

Implications for Instruction in Writing at St Mary’s:

Writing is one of the most cognitively complex skills for our brains to master. It requires many working parts to become proficient writers and this needs extensive and explicit instruction. Ultimately, we know that writing does not sit simply within the ‘writing session; and is a skill transferable in all learning areas. We also know that writing is an expression of our thinking and we must nurture this wonderfully complex learning in a way that empowers students to explore their thinking and express themselves through the writing process.

At St Mary’s we endeavour to explicitly develop the following skills in order to build proficiency in writing.

Spelling: Spelling is one of the fundamental mechanics of writing and is linked closely with decoding and our ability to hear sounds in words. In order to be successful spellers we must make connections between phonemes (the sounds we hear) and graphemes (the corresponding letters that represent these sounds) to spell. At St Mary’s we endeavour to teach these skills simultaneously.
Sentence Development: Sentences are the building blocks of all writing. If students are unable to grasp the concept of sentence formation, they will never be able to successfully create text. We follow the basic sequence of sentence development from The Writing Revolution (Hochman & Wexler) to drive our explicit teaching of sentence structure.
Punctuation: Punctuation is taught in context with sentence development. It not only allows us to convey and read with expression but also to assist in teaching sentence types. Another mechanic of writing, punctuation cannot be taught in isolation and is an important tool for students to use when creating expression as writers.
Grammar: In conjunction with sentence development, grammar and punctuation is a way to allow students to become more proficient and sophisticated writers. Grammar and syntactic structure is taught explicitly in conjunction with sentence development to enhance writing proficiency. At ST Mary’s we believe if grammar is taught in isolation it will not transfer skills or improve general writing practices.
Vocabulary/Word Choice: Understanding and making informed and sophisticated word choices is explored through reading and writing. We make clear and explicit connections to improve comprehension and written work (sentence level and planning and creating text). At St Mary’s we want to see transference of skills and that is observed most effectively when students are able to use academic and sophisticated vocabulary in both their oral language and writing.
Creating Text: Creating text incorporates all explicitly taught writing skills in order to achieve proficiency and writing mastery. When students are able to manipulate and play with languages and use them for particular purposes, we see cohesion and fluency in whole text development.

We explore:

Paragraph level writing
Scaffolded planning (The Writing Revolution)
Single Paragraph Organisers
Multiple Paragraph Organisers
Note taking
Recording sentences with the conscious use of punctuation, grammar and word choice.
Editing and revising to make improvements and refine

Numeracy

Rationale:

Number, space and measurement, chance and data are common aspects of most people’s mathematical experience in everyday personal life, study and work situations. Equally important are the essential roles that mathematical structure and working mathematically play in people’s understanding of the natural and human worlds.

We teach mathematics so our students learn to be critical thinkers, equipped to solve real life problems independently. Mathematics also enables our students to make sense of, and actively participate in their ever changing world.

Goals:

To provide an environment that enables students to work in a supportive learning environment, confidently sharing their understandings with their peers, while engaged in the learning of real life mathematical experiences.
To provide a challenging, flexible integrated mathematics curriculum
Utilize a variety of assessment strategies, both formative and summative to accurately inform planning and teaching of Mathemtics .
Support parents so that they are confident to engage in the educative process in the area of Mathematics

Implementation:

The Mathematics program will be based upon the learning focus standards within the Victorian Essential Learning Standards.
Student progress in all areas of Mathematics will be reported in half and end of year academic reports.
Mathematics Leaders will support classroom teachers through resourcing and PLT meetings providing current mathematics pedagogies.
An allocated budget will ensure mathematics resources are constantly maintained and updated.
Mathematics professional development will be provided and made available where needs arise.

Health and Physical Education

Rationale:

A significant aspect of young people’s lives is their physical, social and emotional development. The Health and Physical Education program recognises the challenges faced by young people as they grow and develop and the many contexts in which they form and negotiate relationships with family, friends, partners and groups. The Health and Physical Education program promotes an understanding of the importance of personal community actions in promoting good health and lifelong participation in physical activity, and of the crucial role that supportive physical and social environments play in the development of the health of individuals and communities.

Goals:

Health and Physical Education aims to develop in students:

An understanding that health has physical, social and emotional dimensions
An understanding of the factors that impact directly and indirectly on the health and safety of individuals, families, groups and communities
Knowledge and skills to plan, implement and evaluate actions that promote the health and safety of individuals, families, groups and communities
An understanding of the physical, social and emotional development that promotes good health and well being
An understanding of how relationships develop and change, and the knowledge and skills to promote effective relationships
Experience as a skilled participant in play, games, dance, gymnastics, aquatics, sport and other outdoor activities and recreation
An understanding of the physiological, biological and socio-cultural dimensions of movement and fitness
An understanding of how food provides nutrients for energy and growth, and plays a significant social and cultural role in people’s lives
Knowledge and skills to select food that promotes good health and strong growth
Knowledge and skills to access the range of information, products, resources and services that promote good health, development and participation in physical activity

Implementation:

All aspects of Health Education are integrated into Units of work studied.
Emotional wellbeing is supported through our work in the area of Values Education.
Healthy life choices are promoted and modelled in the school community.
Physical Education is taught as a specialist area.
A variety of programs are provided to encourage active living ie. – Dance Program, Gymnastics Program, Swimming Program.
Students participate in a variety of Sport Activities.
Students compete in the Inter-School Sports Program

Gymnastics

Instructors from Pit Gym provide lessons at school for students in Year Prep, 3 and 4 for a Term throughout the year. Students in Year 6 participate in a 6 week program at PIT Gym in Bundoora.

Interschool Sports Program

Year 6 students compete in the Interschool Sports program against other schools in our district. Year 3 – 6 Students have the opportunity to participate in Athletics, Cross Country and Swimming Carnivals at District, Zone, State and National levels.

School Sports Carnival

All Students participate in our Annual School Sports Carnival.

Camp Program Year 5 and 6

Students in Year 5 and 6 participate in our camp program every year. This experience provides an opportunity to develop personal skills such as community living, independence and self- confidence.

Swimming Program

Students in Year 2 and 5 attend a Stroke and Water Safety Program over a 6 week period. Students in Year 4 participate in a 4 week Water Safety Program. All students are involved in a Dry Water Safety Program. Our Swimming program is conducted by qualified instructors from the Eltham Leisure Centre.

Tennis Lessons

Private lessons may be arranged. These are held during class breaks.

ICT

Rationale:

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is the hardware and software that enables a variety of data to be digitally processed, stored and communicated. ICT can be used to access, process, manage and present information; construct new understandings and communicate with others. ICT is vital in the lives of all people; and the ability to be conversant with ICT skills is essential.

Goals:

Information and Communications Technology focuses on providing students with a rich learning environment in which they can build skills and knowledge. The knowledge, skills and behaviours identified for this domain enable students to:

Develop new thinking and learning skills that produce creative and innovative thoughts
Develop more efficient ways of working and solving problems individually and collaboratively
Create information products that demonstrate their understanding of concepts, issues, relationships and processes
Understand the implications of the use of ICT and their social and ethical responsibilities as users of ICT.

Implementation:

The ICT domain is an essential component of the Interdisciplinary Learning strand of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS).
All students at our school study ICT which is embedded across the curriculum and taught by teachers throughout the school.
The learning focus and standards contained within VELS drive the ICT skills taught throughout the curriculum.
ICT activities reflect the topics being studied, and are appropriate to each child’s ability. They form a component of the Inquiry process.
Student progress in ICT is reported in semester reports.
The ICT co-ordinator oversees ICT administration, maintenance, equipment and curriculum.
An allocated budget ensures ICT equipment and needs are constantly maintained and updated.
ICT professional development is provided to staff.

Languages (Italian)

Rationale:

The Language other than English studied at St Mary’s is Italian. Students successfully acquire a second language in the formative years of primary school. In learning a language students develop communication skills, social, historical and cultural knowledge of the target language. This encourages students to develop an awareness and appreciation of all cultures in the wider community.

Goals:

• Provide a rich experience in their LOTE studies.
• Develop a basic understanding and competence in using the Italian language.
• Develop a positive understanding of the Italian culture and develop intercultural awareness.
• Encourage enjoyment in learning another language through literature and varied activities.

Implementation:

• LOTE incorporates and compliments other learning disciplines.
• The skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are taught and developed through a variety of mediums such as stories, games, songs, poems, role plays, vocabulary tasks and art.
• Students attend weekly Italian lessons.
• LOTE utilizes a wide range of resources and technology.
• Incursions, guest speakers and special events are incorporated to enrich the program and immerse the students.
• Year 5 & 6 students exchange letters with pen pals in primary schools in the cities of Milano and Treviso.
• Year 5 & 6 students participate in an annual poetry competition.

Performing Arts

Kurt Geyer is the specialist Music and Drama teacher. Students attend a lesson each week. All students participate and the content of the lessons is based on student learning where student voice is embraced.

Science and Digital Technologies

Each week students attend a Science/Digital Technologies lesson with Rochelle Lopez. The focus of this program is to embed learning using the scientific approach and to develop Science Understanding and Science Inquiry Skills. It will also focus on developing the students skills in the area of Digital Technologies. This specialist area enriches the development of concepts explored through classroom inquiry.

Visual Arts

The Visual Arts program is conducted by Jan Tivisini. Students attend this program each week for one lesson. In 2021 in Term 3 an Art Exhibition will be held.

Library Resource Centre

Students have a weekly library session with their classroom teacher. Students are encouraged to borrow books regularly. The Library is open during some class breaks. Tilly Stoove is the Librarian.

St Mary's Library System

Infiniti is a cloud based system that allows access to the school's library database 24/7. The advantages of this is that you can search and locate resources from anywhere using any device. The system allows you to find resources for your teaching programs and identify possible inclusions to the library’s collection. To access the system go to the SMD dashboard and log on with your current Google login username & Password.

If you are new to the system you need to use the password ‘changeme’ and then change your password by accessing your account. Your login allows you to see resources borrowed. You will also be given restricted access to circulation rights. Your students will also have their individual logins which gives them access to the status of their borrowing records and past borrowings. Certain students will have circulation rights to help with the flow of borrowing books in some collections, for example, Lexiles. Please see Tilly Stoove for any questions.

Curriculum Opportunities

It’s not the curriculum that we offer that sets us apart, it’s the manner in which it’s delivered

Religious Dimension

Student Wellbeing

Literacy, Language and Literature

Numeracy

Health and Physical Education

ICT

Languages (Italian)

Performing Arts

Science and Digital Technologies

Visual Arts

Library

Take Our Online Tour

Book a School Tour

Isn't it time we got to know each other? Take our online VIDEO TOUR or book a SCHOOL TOUR!

Religious Dimension

Rationale:

Implementation:

Student Wellbeing

Numeracy

Rationale:

Goals:

Implementation:

Health and Physical Education

Rationale:

Goals:

Health and Physical Education aims to develop in students:

Implementation:

Gymnastics

Interschool Sports Program

School Sports Carnival

Camp Program Year 5 and 6

Swimming Program

Tennis Lessons

ICT

Rationale:

Goals:

Implementation:

Languages (Italian)

Rationale:

Goals:

Implementation:

Performing Arts

Science and Digital Technologies

Visual Arts

Library Resource Centre

St Mary's Library System

Isn't it time we got to know each other?
Take our online VIDEO TOUR or book a SCHOOL TOUR!