Core Subjects
Our school follows the Victorian Curriculum which includes eight content Learning Areas and four Capabilities; a set of discrete knowledge and skills taught explicitly in and through the learning areas.
Learning Areas
English, Mathematics, Humanities ( Economics & Business, History, Geography, Civics & Citizenship), Science, Health and Physical Education, The Arts, Technologies, Languages, Religious Education.
Capabilities
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you\’ll go.
Dr Seuss
English
Our Lady\’s Primary School believes that effective reading, writing and speaking & listening skills are the core to successful life long learning. Teachers set high expectations and strive to explicitly teach the skills required to be literate.
Assessment and monitoring of students is ongoing and drives our planning and teaching to ensure student success. From Year Prep to Year 4, students are provided with two hours of English learning per day. In Years 5 and 6, students have eight hours of English classes per week.
As part of our English program, Our Lady\’s has implemented a phonics program to assist students as they learn to read, write and spell. \’Read Write Inc\’ is a synthetic phonics program particularly appropriate at the beginning of children\’s schooling, as it focuses on both the letter names and the sounds that letters make.
We understand the importance of oral language as the basis for being literate. Teachers impliment a number of strategies within the classroom to promote vocabulary development.
Students who come from a language background other than English are supported in their acquisition of English literacy skills. Teachers follow the EAL ( English as an Additonal Langauge) Continuum to ascertain and target the exact language needs of each particular student. Our New Arrivals teacher also works with students who are new to Australia and supports class teachers in developing programs to suit their needs.
Mathematics
Our school strives to provide a contemporary Mathematics program, which builds upon students\’ prior knowledge, is stimulating and engaging and where risk taking is encouraged.
Mathematics involves students working cooperatively to develop the confidence to inquire, explore, experiment and to question. We do this through the use of concrete materials, hands on equipment, games, stories, onsite and online technologies. The students are taught how to apply what they learn in the Mathematics program to their own lives and to real world problems.
Assessment in Mathematics is ongoing and provides valuable information for teachers to target their teaching to student needs. The Early Mathematics Interview, developed through Australian Catholic University is used by teachers at the beginning of the year to ascertain the mathematics ability and needs of each student. Teachers use the information obtained in this interview to develop programs suited to the specific needs of their students.