Curriculum
St Joseph's Primary School Red Cliffs
17 Fitzroy Avenue, Red Cliffs, 3496. Phone: 03 5024 1654 Email: [email protected] |
The curriculum at St Joseph’s is planned carefully to ensure the development of the whole child, including intellectual, spiritual, physical, emotional and social dimensions.
The curriculum is based on the dignity of the human person, a culture of community and a commitment to social justice and service for the common good. It is designed to prepare students to be lifelong learners who can respond creatively to the challenges of the future, including rapid developments in science and technology, the environment, global activity and social change. We meet the curriculum, assessment and reporting requirements set by Victorian government. This is now known as the Victorian Curriculum, and it identifies what is essential for all students to learn during the compulsory years of schooling (Prep to Year 10). To ensure we are covering a broad range of content areas with other curriculum areas within the Victorian Curriculum we the MAPPEN program which provides teachers with planned integrated units that cover content in Science, Humanities, Technologies, Health and Capabilities. MAPPEN has 32 units that cover the whole curriculum from Foundation to Year 6. English and LiteracySt Joseph’s Primary School and St Paul’s Primary School, Mildura are partners in providing evidence-based, best-first literacy instruction. Both schools subscribe to the Sciences of Reading and Learning, and apply a Structured Literacy approach, recognising that literacy acquisition is too important to the life outcomes of our students to leave to chance.
Daily, explicit literacy instruction occurs in the areas of phonology, sound-symbol (phonics), syllables, morphology, syntax and semantics from Foundation to Grade Six. The award-winning partnership between our schools, known as The SunLit Project, ensures that our teachers are highly skilled in the teaching of reading, writing and speaking & listening, and kept up to date with current research and best-practice. Our literacy curriculum is enriched by a focus on building background and general world knowledge. We ensure that literacy is always tightly connected to the whole curriculum and inclusive of Religious Education, science, geography, history and the humanities. Want to know more about Structured Literacy? Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcsXZ9MLMNs&t=389s For more information on the teaching and learning of literacy, we invite you to contact Bec Thurman, Literacy Leader, via email [email protected] or follow The SunLit Project Facebook page. MathematicsMathematics provides students with essential mathematical skills and knowledge in Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability. It develops the numeracy capabilities that all students need in their personal, work and social lives.
St. Joseph's Primary School staff regularly assess and monitor student progress in Mathematics, ensuring that all students are receiving instruction that is specific and relevant to their point of need. This regular assessment and monitoring informs the strategies and skills that each child is being taught through individual, small group and whole class instruction. The Mathematics learning program, where necessary, is supported by a number of evidence-based programs that are designed to support and enrich the learning of students appropriate to their specific mathematics learning needs. ScienceScience provides a way of answering interesting and important questions about the world. The knowledge it produces has proved to be a basis for action in our personal, social and economic lives. Science is a dynamic, collaborative and creative human endeavour arising from our desire to make sense of our world through exploring the unknown, investigating universal mysteries, making predictions and solving problems.
HumanitiesThe study of history, geography economics and business, and civics and citizenship gives students the opportunity to learn about people and their cultures and environments, in the past and the present. The humanities assist students to gain the knowledge, skills and attitudes to understand themselves and their world.
At St Joseph’s your child will learn to plan, investigate and ask key questions, analyse data, form conclusions and present information in a variety of ways through integrated topics and projects. Health and Physical EducationSt Joseph’s promotes the development of a healthy lifestyle by providing a well-organised and active environment in which students can participate in a wide range of sports and physical activity. As well as improving fitness, participation in sport and physical education develops a sense of fair play, self-confidence and an ability to work with others as part of a team.
Physical education is timetabled for all students from Prep onwards with a specialist physical education teacher. Opportunities are provided for students to participate in a large range of sports at school, district, zone, state and national levels. ArtsThe Arts are a vital part of primary school experiences, allowing your child to express his/her emotions, individuality, imagination and creativity. At St Joseph’s there are many opportunities for your child to participate in music, dance, drama and visual arts activities. We have a specialist Performing Arts teacher who conducts a one hour lesson with each class, weekly class assemblies and an annual end of year performance involving dance, drama and music. Through visual arts your child will be able to create artworks in different media, including painting, drawing, clay modelling, graphics programs, etc. There are opportunities for students to learn e.g. a musical instrument and/or participate in the school choir.
LanguagesSt Joseph’s offers the opportunity for students in Grade Prep-6 to learn Italian as LOTE. The study of languages is an integral component of a broad and balanced education for all students. At a time of rapid globalisation, learning a language is more important than ever. In learning a language, students develop communication skills and knowledge and awareness of other cultures. They come to understand social, historical and family relationships and the culture of the people who speak the language studied.
TechnologiesThe Technologies provide a framework for students to learn how to use technologies to create innovative solutions that meet current and future needs. Students are encouraged to make decisions about the development and use of technologies, considering the impacts of technological change and how technologies may contribute to our future. The Technologies provide practical opportunities for students to be users, designers and producers of technology.
General CapabilitiesGeneral capabilities and values are explicitly taught and developed in Catholic schools, supporting students to manage their own wellbeing, relate well to others and make informed decisions about their lives. Students develop as citizens who behave with ethical integrity, relate to and communicate across cultures, work for the common good and act with responsibility at local, regional and global levels. These general capabilities encompass the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that will assist them to live and work successfully in the twenty-first century.
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