Learning and Wellbeing - St Mary's Catholic Primary School Orange

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Learning and Teaching

St Mary's holds close to our hearts, our core values of Learning, Justice, Love. These values permeate a collaborative approach to learning and teaching at our schoool. In 2023 we developed a Curriculum Framework that outlines our priorities for how we believe students learn best, identifying four key pillars that anchor what we do. This work proudly represents a collaboration between parents, students, staff, the school executive team and the Parish. It demonstrates our alignment as a community.

Each year a rigorous schedule of professional learning is developed for our staff, so that they have every opportunity to be contemporary educators that prepare our students for life long learning across all of the challenges of the current context. Any initiatives that our school engages is have a solid research baseOur educators work collaboratively in teams so that all students in the grade benefit from the skills and talents of each colleague. We uphold the minimum expectation that one year of learning must equal at least one year of growth for each of our students.

The professional standards for teaching provide a firm base for expectations of our profession. The first standard, 'Know Students and how they Learn' drives the importance of really knowing our students. At St Mary's 'our students are all our students' and we take collaborative responsibility for really knowing and understanding the children in our care. We have developed a comprehensive schedule of assessment from K-6 to track our students' growth and offer differentiated learning to meet our students in their zone of proximal development (Vygotsky). On a tour of St Mary's you will find a calm and focused environment where students have the opportunity to learn with and alongside their peers in a variety of modes.

We are fortunate to have bright, comfortable and inspiring spaces for learning, both in classrooms and in the playgrounds. We are well-resourced, with students having access to a variety of devices and digital technologies as well as opportunities to express themselves through Creative and Performing Arts. Our teachers regularly use our outdoor spaces as an extension of the classroom and children have ample opportunity for 'brain breaks', movement for and exercise throughout the school day.

St Mary's Catholic Primary School Orange, Learning Framework

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Curriculum

All schools including St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Catholic Diocese of Bathurst, follow the same Kindergarten to Year 12 curriculum, with our Catholic values underpinning everything that we do.

With a focus on the development of the whole person, curriculum offered at the school covers the NESA syllabus requirements, developing the core skills of literacy and numeracy as well as our Catholic Education Diocese of Bathurst Religious Education curriculum.

Our teachers extend and challenge students to be the best they can be, building responsibility while recognising the human uniqueness and sacred dignity of each student.

Religious Education

Catholic Schools hold core Catholic beliefs as central to their mission. Such beliefs permeate all that is done in a Catholic School, including teaching and learning across the entire curriculum.

At St. Mary’s we believe that through Religious Education in our classrooms and in partnership with our parents and parish community, students will gain knowledge and understanding of the person of Jesus Christ and the traditions of the Catholic faith.

Curriculum areas have a spiritual dimension, inviting students where appropriate, to examine the world of human culture and the world of religion, exploring a just worldview and fostering the search for meaning and truth. This religious dimension is given depth by the faith witness of staff through their presence, relationships and teaching.

Catholic Schools view Religious Education as a core curriculum area. As well as being an opportunity to develop knowledge and skills, values and dispositions, Religious Education in a Catholic School invites students into a relationship with their faith. "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly". (John 10:10)

Students of all faith backgrounds are welcome at St Mary's and we value the richness of our diversity. Regardless of their faith backgrounds, all students are asked to participate in the religious life of the school, including Religious Education classes.

English

In English ‘students learn to read, write, speak, view and represent language. They learn about the English language and literature through working with a wide range of spoken, visual, multimedia and digital texts. Students learn how language varies according to context, and how to communicate with a range of audiences for different purposes. They learn to read for information and pleasure. Students gain a sound grasp of language structures, punctuation, spelling and grammar. They also learn to think in ways that are imaginative, creative and critical.’ – NSW Education Standards Authority.

Literacy is the effective use of knowledge and skills to interpret and use language confidently for learning, communicating and engaging in a rapidly changing society. It involves the integration of listening, speaking, reading, viewing, creating, writing and critical thinking. These skills are applied in different curriculum areas for a variety of purposes. High quality texts, in a wide variety of modes, are used as exemplars of language and literature.

Parent Guide to the NSW Primary Syllabuses