Curriculum Opportunities

We pride ourselves on a wide range of curriculum opportunities 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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Student Wellbeing

English

English at Wantirna Primary School is based on the Victorian Curriculum and as such is organised by three modes of language:

Reading and Viewing,
Writing and
Speaking and Listening

Mathematics

Mathematics at Wantirna Primary School is based on the Victorian Curriculum and as such is organised into three strands: Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability.

Physical Education

At Wantirna, we offer Physical Education from Foundation to Year 6. Each grade has weekly lessons with the physical education teacher.

Visual Arts

Art at Wantirna Primary School, is celebrated and valued as a form of communication, self expression and beautification of our school. We have a strong Arts Program that runs across the whole school, which includes Visual Arts, Performing Arts, incorporating both Music and Drama in weekly lessons.

STEM

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Mandarin

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Inquiry

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Student Wellbeing

Wantirna Primary School’s focus is to provide a safe, caring and supportive learning environment, which encourages students to become independent and confident lifelong learners. Our school is proud of its reputation of delivering a high quality, balanced educational curriculum for all students. We actively promote social responsibility, resilience and tolerance and support the development of the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for success in our global community. Our core business is ensuring your child’s academic and social growth, whilst maintaining their strong sense of personal wellbeing. Staff take pride in differentiating our learning programs to cater for all students’ needs. Classroom programs are engaging, include cooperative learning, and mixed groupings. We work to provide a balance of learning experiences that attends to specific needs and challenges all students.

The school’s positive learning environment cares for and supports children’s development as individuals and provides them with the appropriate skills for their continuing education by:

focusing on the schools’ core values of C.A.R.E. – Compassion – Achieve –Respect -Engage
Consistently implementing ‘Classroom Expectations’
Promoting a safe and caring environment
Providing all students with a fulfilling and challenging education, appropriate to their abilities
Encouraging students to take pride and to value their potential by building on strengths and experiences
Supporting and encouraging students to take on new challenges
Celebrating students’ achievements and efforts through recognition and rewards
Developing life skills of responsibility, decision making, communication, collaboration, relationship building and leadership
Promoting confidence, self-discipline, self-esteem and responsibility through the Restorative Practices program;
Providing students with positive experiences which model tolerance, equal opportunity, care and respect of others

The school fosters positive values through:

The use of consistent language and expectations across the school based on shared discussions and agreements
Restorative Practice philosophies, including ‘Community Circle’ discussion
Student leadership opportunities including Junior School Council, Year 6 Student Leadership and Captains’ Roles, Buddies
Student of the Week awards
Transition programs that assist pre-school and Years 5 and 6 students
Strong links with a range of support agencies

English

The study of English is central to the development of all young Australians. It contributes to their development as confident communicators, imaginative thinkers and informed citizens.

Through the study of English students learn to analyse, understand, communicate and interact with others and the world around them. It provides the opportunity for students to develop the knowledge and skills needed for education, training and the workplace. It helps them become ethical, thoughtful, informed and active members of society.

Although Australia is linguistically and culturally diverse, participation in many aspects of Australian life depends on effective communication in Standard Australian English.

English in The Victorian Curriculum covers three key domains/areas:

Reading & Viewing
Writing
Speaking & Listening

What does this look like at WPS?

The English curriculum at WPS is aligned with Vic. Curric. Students undertake lessons in a one hour Reading block and a one hour Writing block each day. They learn to be confident and successful readers, writers, speakers and listeners; they are exposed to a range of strategies that they can draw upon to progress their own learning.

Reading:

The Reading lesson addresses the learning and development of students’ decoding and comprehension skills. Students explore a variety of texts, making connections to other texts, themselves and the world around them. Our reading program focuses on ‘the enjoyment of reading’.

We assist students to read by teaching decoding skills. Decoding is essential to reading, allowing students to ‘figure out’ words they have heard but have never seen in print, as well as sounding out words they are not familiar with. The ability to decode is the foundation upon which other reading instruction is based, including fluency, vocabulary and comprehension skills.

Writing:

The Writing lesson addresses the students’ development and understanding of language convention and structures, across a range of text types. This knowledge supports students to create their own written texts, or to respond to others’ pieces.

From Foundation we teach an explicit Phonics approach. Students learn letters and the sounds they make, as well as sound patterns. These skills assist the development of reading, spelling, writing, and speaking and listening.

Students are taught the different genres (styles) of writing and are given opportunities to write in a variety of genres to help foster a love of writing. Students are also taught the traits of organisation, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions and presentation as foundations of writing.

Speaking and Listening:

Speaking and Listening is not taught as a stand-alone subject, and does not have an allocated block of time in which to be addressed. Rather, it is integrated throughout all areas of the curriculum, with a particular focus on developing student confidence and competence in questioning, public speaking situations, and communicating clearly and coherently. Students are explicitly taught speaking and listening skills through a variety of experiences within all curriculum areas. Speaking and listening refers to informal and formal ways oral language is used to convey and receive meaning. Students are taught about the appropriate language for particular audiences and occasions, including body language and voice.

Mathematics

The study of Mathematics establishes sound and well developed numeracy skills which are essential to students’ future learning and their successful interaction within the world. It provides students with access to important mathematical ideas, knowledge and skills that they will draw on in their personal and work lives.

The Mathematics program ensures students can demonstrate confidence and competency with mathematical concepts and skills by the time they finish primary school.

Mathematics in The Victorian Curriculum covers three key domains/areas:

Number & algebra
Measurement & Geometry
Statistics & Probability

What does this look like at WPS?

At WPS we support our students to develop mathematical skills in order to function effectively in society. The Mathematics curriculum is aligned with Vic. Curric. Students undertake lessons in a one hour block each day. The Mathematics lessons aim to ensure that students:

develop useful mathematical and numeracy skills for everyday life
see connections and apply mathematical concepts, skills and processes to pose and solve problems in a variety of contexts
acquire knowledge and skills in Mathematics that provide for further study in mathematical fields

Students are exposed to open ended problems, hands on tasks and activities that challenge their thinking. This provides opportunity for them to apply their knowledge and understanding to solve mathematical problems.

The Mathematics lesson addresses the learning and development of students’ number and operational skills. Students explore a variety of problems, making connections to real life situations. Students work as a whole class, in small groups and individually, depending on the task at hand. This allows students to collaborate, work together or work independently to solve mathematical problems. Students have access to a variety of ‘hands on’ resources to further support their learning and exploration of mathematical concepts.

Physical Education

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Visual Arts

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STEM

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Mandarin

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Inquiry

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