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 at St Paul’s Primary 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.

Literacy

We are widely regarded as one of the leading schools in the region for literacy. Our approach is unique and hands on.

Numeracy

One of the pillars of the strong education we offer. We make numeracy engaging by bringing it to life with real world problem solving.

Student Wellbeing

Student wellbeing is central to everything that we do inside the classroom and outside. We have a strong focus on building ‘well-rounded kids’.

Physical Education

Our aim is to promote healthy bodies and healthy minds through our brilliant P.E. program.

The Arts

Through play, experimentation and participation, our performing arts program is designed to build confidence in our students

Languages (Italian)

Students are immersed in the Italian language and culture through a range of activities, including speaking, singing, listening, reading and writing

Digital Technologies

Technology is an inescapable medium in today’s digital age and with a very healthy eye on balance we immerse our students in iPads, interactive whiteboards, computers and lots more.

Faith (Religious Education)

Religious Education at St Paul’s is living the core values from the Gospels. RE is taught through story, and teaching and learning experiences based in the Inquiry process which encourages children to wonder and explore.

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Literacy at St Paul's

When teaching English in the junior school, St Paul's School applies explicit instruction in phonics. This involves systematic and sequential teaching of the letter-sound relationships in written text, and teaches readers to decode words. This begins in our Prep classes. In English lessons, students are monitored and worked with according to their point of need, including small group work and literacy intervention where necessary.
We know that phonics instruction is most effective when integrated into a comprehensive literacy program, which includes practice with decodable text as well as exposure to literature with a rich vocabulary. In recent years, the St Paul’s Staff have been engaged in a collaborative inquiry on evidence based literacy approaches in order to find the best way forward for addressing our English curriculum.
After exploring a range of options, InitiaLit meets our agreed requirements for a strong literacy program. InitiaLit is an evidence-based whole-class literacy program providing all children with the essential core knowledge and strong foundations to become successful readers and writers. InitiaLit addresses the key components of high quality, evidence based practice.
InitiaLit is split across a three-year program. Typically Prep (Foundation) to Year 2. In InitiaLit–F and InitiaLit–1, children are provided with all the foundational skills and understanding to get them started on their reading and writing journey. InitiaLit–2 will focus on comprehension, fluency and spelling. Children will be given a number of excellent strategies to help them understand text and consolidate their understanding of the alphabetic code.
When teaching English in the middle and senior school we apply a range of strategies and approaches: the phonemic approach, the whole word approach and the morphemic approach. We explicitly use Spelling Mastery which is designed to maximise the advantages of each approach. We also relate our English programs to our Integrated Inquiry Topics and Religious Education topics to embed the learning within an authentic purpose.

Wellbeing at St Paul's

At St Paul’s we are justifiably proud of our safe, welcoming, inclusive school. We believe the wellbeing of our school community is the building block of our whole school culture.

“The school is to be commended on the positive achievements it has made in the area of student wellbeing.”

“There appears to be a positive environment at the school ...”

“St Paul’s School provides students with a secure and orderly learning environment which is well resourced and staffed with keen and enthusiastic teachers. The community of parents in the focus group believed that the school was friendly and welcoming and that their children enjoyed coming to school”.

Excerpt from External Review Report June 2011

We see the area of Wellbeing as primarily focused on raising the wellbeing of the whole school community. This prevention practice embraces the safety and connectedness of the whole community. When intervention is required for small groups or individual children to address either social, behavioural or learning issues we are able to provide them with valuable assistance through our teachers, student wellbeing team or school counsellor.

St Paul’s is a Restorative School and actively works towards implementing Restorative Practices, a whole school approach that aims to develop positive behaviour between individuals. The Restorative process provides people with skills and strategies to take responsibility for their choices and actions. It helps them recognise the impact of these actions on others, and encourages them to rebuild broken relationships and move forward.

At St Paul’s we provide explicit teaching in the areas of:

Social and Emotional Skills
Restorative Practice (strengthening and repairing relationships)
Values for Australian Schools
National Safe Schools Guidelines (Drug Education, Cybersafety)

We encourage and value involvement and engagement by the parent community, and see this as a vital link to the wellbeing of our children. Classes partner up together on a regular basis to get to know each other. We also have a buddy system that supports the younger children when they begin school. All of our Extra Curricular activities raise the wellbeing of our school, some of these things are:

Seasons program (a program to support children in their grief and loss)
Friendship Tree
Interschool Sports
Student Representative Council
The Lighthouse Literacy Project with St Joseph’s Secondary College Ferntree Gully

Student Welfare Program

A Pastoral Care Worker is funded by the Australian Government, under The National School Chaplaincy Program (NSCP), and complements the care offered by the Student Wellbeing Department at St Paul’s Primary School. The Pastoral Care Worker aims to assist our school community through the provision of help and care to support the social and emotional wellbeing of students and the school community.

The Service aims to:

Provide students, their families and staff with support and or appropriate referrals, in difficult situations such as during times of grief or when students are facing personal or emotional challenges
Support students and staff to create an environment which promotes the physical, emotional, social and intellectual development and wellbeing of all students
Support students and staff to create an environment of cooperation and mutual respect, while promoting an understanding of diversity

The services of the Pastoral Care Worker is available to every family within the school and offers one-on-one or group sessions with students, parents, staff and other members of the school community as required. The program is offered to the school community with the understanding that participation is always voluntary. No child is required to participate in the activities or sessions offered if they or their parents are unwilling for them to do so.

Specifically, the Pastoral Care Worker:

assists families facing personal and emotional challenges such as ‘Grief and Loss’ through death, divorce and separation, or loss of a pet
mediates between children experiencing friendship issues, helping build self-esteem
provides strategies for dealing with anger management and anxiety issues
provides resources and support to parents dealing with ‘parenting issues’
builds relationships with both children and their families, whether simply connecting through a phone call, or just being there to listen
organises and provides meals and a support network to families, in times of personal crisis
provides details of outside agencies to parents seeking specialised services
presents staff with initiatives to promote Social Emotional Learning
trains staff and parents in the principles of Restorative Practices
builds networks with Shire groups e.g. SFYS (Student Focused Youth Services)
consolidates partnerships with community groups, such as Monbulk Care and St Vincent de Paul
possesses a working knowledge of Values Education in Australian Schools and integrates these into the fabric of the school culture
possesses a working knowledge of the National Safe Schools Framework including Cybersafety, Drug Education and Mandatory Reporting and imparts this knowledge to staff, students, parents and the local community
assists with the transition of children entering and leaving school and
liaises between other schools

Physical Education at St Paul's

At St Paul’s we recognise our Physical Education program develops the required skills in movement and physical activity, while building on the interpersonal skills of teamwork, collaboration and cooperation. A specialist Phys Ed teacher takes classes on a weekly basis, and these lessons are complemented by another taken by the classroom teacher during the week.

Our grounds enable us to offer a broad range of physical activities. We have:

a large grassed sports oval
2 basketball courts
an undercover play area
2 adventure playgrounds
a large multi-purpose hall

Our Year 5 and 6 children are involved in a camp program. All children have the opportunity to participate in the annual school athletics carnival, while the senior students also participate in interschool sport during Terms 2 and 3. St Paul’s is a member of School Sport Victoria (SSV).

The Arts at St Paul's

The Arts program is comprised of both Music/Performing Arts and Visual Arts. At St Paul’s we have specialist teachers dedicated to both disciplines, with well-resourced rooms to accommodate the students’ learning and participation. The Arts program encourages exploration, critical thinking and the development of skills and techniques in a creative environment.

The school offers extra curricular opportunities through:

a biennial art show
a biennial performance

Languages at St Paul's

At St Paul’s our Language is Italian. All children from Prep to Year 6 receive a weekly lesson, taught by our specialist Italian teacher. The students are immersed in the Italian language and culture through a range of activities, including speaking, singing, listening, reading and writing. Once a year we celebrate ‘Italian Day’ which involves children dressing in Italian costume or colours. A variety of fun ‘Italian’ activities are planned for the day, including a parade, workshops and eating Italian food for lunch.

Digital Technologies at St Paul's

Digital Technology is fundamental to preparing our students for a rapidly evolving technological future. We believe Digital Technology:

enables our students to access, manage, process and present information
empowers students by providing access to local and global sources in an ever-changing world
enables learners to communicate, gather information, develop new thinking skills and problem solve both individually and collaboratively
provides opportunities to cater for individual learning styles
enables students to present digital portfolio assessments

At St Paul’s, students and staff have regular access to technology resources including chromebooks and iPads. Our students are provided with a variety of opportunities to process, manage and communicate effectively and efficiently through multimedia.

Faith (Religious Education) at St Paul's

Religious Education at St Paul’s is living the core values from the Gospels. RE is taught through story, and teaching and learning experiences based on the Inquiry process which encourages children to wonder and explore.

Our program engages children in:

Whole school fortnightly prayer gatherings
Daily prayer and meditation
Sacramental programs and celebrations for Reconciliation, Eucharist and Confirmation
Social Justice actions that range from actively supporting community needs to supporting global issues.
Eucharistic celebrations with community
Family Masses
Whole school mass celebrations for significant events such as St Paul’s Feast Day, beginning and end of school year, graduation, and Ash Wednesday.

We provide links between school, home and Parish to enhance the Faith journey.

The Sacramental program is school/parish based and includes:

Information evening
Interactive parent/child faith evening
School based preparation with support from the home context.

We use the CEOM Religious Education Program “Coming to Know, Worship and Love” as the foundation of our teaching and learning. Purposeful connections are made so that children use current learning strategies to experience an engaging and relevant understanding of God in their lives.

While Religious Education is taught as a subject area it is an aspect that forms the umbrella of our school life and is interconnected through the modelling and practising of values that underpin our school’s motto “Love One Another.” Our Vision Statement reflects our belief that our faith is central to our learning journey.

We are fortunate in having a Parish Priest who has a genuine involvement in the life of the school.

Numeracy at St Paul's

Our Mathematics curriculum provides children with the skills and strategies that will enable them to apply the knowledge taught to solve mathematics problems in real-life situations. Within the program we implement a combination of whole class, small group and individual teaching strategies to support students. Our primary focus is on open-ended mathematics tasks, enabling children to work at their own level.

Staff have received professional development through participation in the CTLM (Contemporary Teaching & Learning of Mathematics) project, which is an exciting joint initiative of the Australian Catholic University National and the staff of the Catholic Education Office Melbourne.