Victorian Curriculum
St Catherine of Siena uses the Victorian Curriculum to plan for students from Prep to Year 6.
Learning areas and Capabilities
The Victorian Curriculum includes both knowledge and skills. These are defined by learning areas and capabilities.
The learning areas and capabilities taught at St Catherine of Siena:
Learning areas
The Arts (P-6) – Dance, Drama, Music, Visual Arts
English (P-6)
Health and Physical Education (P-6)
The Humanities -Civics and Citizenship (Yrs 3-6), Economics and Business (Yrs 5 & 6), Geography (P-6), History (P-6)
L.O.T.E – AUSLAN (P-6)
Mathematics (P-6)
Science (P-6)
S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths)
Technologies (P-6) – Design and Technologies, Digital Technologies
Capabilities
Critical & Creative Thinking (P-6), Ethical Capability (P-6), Intercultural Capability (P-6), Personal & Social Capability (P-6)
Literacy
At St Catherine’s, we are committed to providing literacy instruction that is inline with MACs Vision For Instruction which underlines the importance of a learning environment that prioritises explicit instruction and student participation. MACS – Vision For Instruction
Explicit instruction
Skilled in evidence-based practices, our staff are committed to a literacy approach that is responsive to new research through regular professional development in the key areas of literacy. Staff have a sound understanding of Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, 2010) and its relevance in understanding how students learn and retain information. We use teaching methods and approaches that avoid overloading the working memory and therefore maximise the opportunity for learning to occur.
( Source: Oliver Lovell, Cognitive Load Theory in Action (John Catt, 2020), p19)
We optimise learning by using effective instructional routines and explicitly teaching with clear explanations and opportunities to practise in all areas of the reading and writing rope;
- Phonological awareness
- Systematic synthetic Phonics
- Morphology
- Fluency
- Vocabulary
- Comprehension
- Spelling
- Handwriting
- Syntax
- Text structure
( Scarborough, H. S. (2001). Connecting early language and literacy to later reading (dis)abilities: Evidence, theory, and practice. In S. Neuman & D. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook for research in early literacy (pp. 97-110). New York: Guilford Press)
Full participation and engagement norms are an essential component of explicit instruction. Learning is fast-paced, engaging and interactive, allowing students to be frequently called upon in a variety of ways, such as using our mini whiteboard routine, pair sharing, thumbs up, thumbs down and reading along with the teacher.
(© 2019 Joan Sedita, Keys to Literacy. Published in The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects (Brookes Publishing Company).)
All of our students are screened 3 times a year to progress and monitor reading skills and to ensure any students who may require additional support are identified early.
We are committed to closing the reading gap through effective screening, assessing and responsive teaching.
Numeracy
At St Catherine’s of Siena developing a love of Mathematics is of high priority. Each classroom uses a consistent approach to teaching Mathematics, in line with the Vision for Instruction. Each session consists of a Daily Review and slides which incorporate Key Vocabulary, Accessing Prior Knowledge and Worked Examples (following an I do, We do and You do model), leading to students being able to independently practice the skills taught in the lesson.
The collection of data is a key component to targeting the needs of our students. Throughout the year data is collected from whole school formal assessments such as PAT-M (both Adaptive and Linear), Acadience and Westwood. Unit specific assessments are also created to know students’ current understanding of a topic and what areas students need more support in. This allows our teachers to work in small focus groups to support their students’ learning.
Technology
New technologies are integrated, engaging children in ways not previously possible, creating new learning and teaching possibilities, enhancing achievement and extending interactions with the local and global community.
All students have access to appropriate devices, including iPads in Prep and Chromebooks in Years 1 to 6.
Students have access to robots right through from Prep to Grade 6; including Beebots, Dash Robots, Kai’s Clan and Sphero robots. Each are used to enhance Maths lessons and support students in learning coding and engineering problem solving.