Learning & Teaching

Religious Education

The Religious Life of our Catholic school aims to nurture and enrich the religious and spiritual development of students. We have a strong focus on guiding students to live the school motto "Love is Service”.   Prayer, liturgy and Christian meditation are part of our everyday school life. Prayer Assemblies are held every week and families are encouraged to be actively involved in all prayer and liturgical celebrations. 

Deeper learning about the Catholic faith and the gospel values occurs through the Religion curriculum.  This is divided into the four strands: Sacred Texts, Church, Christian Life and Beliefs. "The overarching focus of curriculum in Catholic schools is to empower learners to enrich the quality of life in the community by living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ" (TCEO Learning and Teaching Framework, 2015-19, p2).

English

Prep, Year One and Year Two follow the Macquarie University’s InitiaLit Program.  It is an evidenced-based literacy program that provides all students with essential core knowledge and strong foundations to become successful readers and writers.

Middle and upper primary classes continue this strong focus on language, literature and literacy through explicit teaching, exposure to a variety of texts and the use of  the Sound Waves spelling program.  

Our co-teaching model provides an additional teacher and school officers to support year level cohorts in English.  This allows for a targeted, small group learning approach to reading and writing, in order to extend, support and encourage all of our learners and their individual strengths and needs.

Mathematics

Mathematical understanding, fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills are developed with the assistance of concrete materials, real-life situations, and whole body experiences.  

Mathematical programs such as RoleM, Yumi Deadly, and HOTmaths (Cambridge online resource and text book) are resources teachers use to support and consolidate learning.

Our co-teaching model provides an additional teacher and school officers to support year level cohorts in Mathematics.  This allows for a targeted learning approach to mathematical concepts with smaller groups, in order to extend, support and encourage all of our learners and their individual strengths and needs.

Science

The four disciplines of Science: Chemistry, Physics, Earth/Space and Biology are explored using investigations and hands-on experiments  that are engaging and guide students to explore, question, evaluate and reflect on their findings.

The Science curriculum aims to develop an interest in science as a means of expanding their curiosity and willingness to explore, ask questions about and speculate on the changing world in which they live.

From designing toys that move to discovering Galileo's contributions to our knowledge of the Solar System, science at St Joseph's excites and challenges students to design solutions and test hypothesis in innovative and fun ways.

Humanities and Social Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) develops student’s understanding and appreciation of historical developments and geographic phenomena.  From Year Three they also explore civic values and from Year Five, economic factors.  All of which shape society, influence sustainability and create a sense of belonging.  

In many year levels local community members with knowledge or skills related to our units of study are invited into classes to share their experiences.  Student's understanding is enriched with the use of virtual tours, interactive sites, online resources, practical activities, guest experts and excursions.

Design & Digital Technologies

Learning in Digital Technologies focuses on developing student understanding and skills in computational thinking and awareness of how digital systems are used.  

The school uses both Lego WeDo and Lego Mindstorms EV3 kits within the Curriculum. Class lessons provide an introduction to Lego robotics and students are involved in  building robots and programming the motors and sensors to complete challenges.   

Students in Years 3-6 are also given an opportunity to participate in the Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge which is an international initiative aimed to promote Computer Science and Informatics  among school students. 

Learning in Design and Technologies enables students to explore and harness their creative, innovative and imaginative ideas.  Students are provided with opportunities to work individually and collaboratively to identify and sequence steps needed for design tasks.

The Arts

Visual Arts is often integrated with other subjects to deepen knowledge and to communicate understanding.  At times the visual arts focuses on techniques or works of art.  

The other disciplines of The Arts (Music, Media, Drama and Dance) are taught by our specialist teacher. 

Music is taught once a week to all students using the Kodály Approach.  This inspires developmental, sequential, cumulative and continuous Music Education across Prep to Year 6. The lessons are centered around play based exploration of the Elements of Music. 

Drama and Dance are taught for a term each and allow students the opportunity to explore these areas in an enjoyable and creative environment. 

Additional opportunities to participate in choir and instrumental music are given to students on a weekly basis.

Health and Physical Education

In Health, students explore messages about keeping safe and active.  They use the Zones of Regulation program to understand their feelings, regulate their emotions and help respond to a variety of situations. 

In Physical Education, students acquire, apply and evaluate movement skills, concepts and strategies to respond confidently, competently, co-operatively and creatively in a variety of physical activities and sports each week with our specialist PE Teacher.  All students attend swimming lessons in either Term 1 or 4. The school is also involved in a number of inter-school sporting activities and invites development officers from a variety of sports to train students.

Languages 

The Curriculum acknowledges the importance of developing an understanding of language, culture, intercultural relationships and communication.  At St Joseph’s students in Years 1 and 2 have Italian lessons while children in Years 3 to 6 have a semester each of Italian and Japanese.

Students are given a range of opportunities to learn about the language, culture and geography of Italy and Japan.  Learning is made meaningful by using events, celebrations and  traditional stories that are familiar to our Australian culture.

Proficiency in other languages is an important skill that gives students the opportunity to interact with the world in a more immediate and meaningful way.