Academic Excellence

ST ANDREW'S ANGLICAN COLLEGE PRIMARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM - 2013

At St Andrew's Anglican College, students are given every opportunity to learn and grow in a supportive, caring, challenging and inspiring environment. Staff at St Andrew's Anglican College are committed to providing children with a learning environment that allows them to grow at a rate that is commensurate with their levels of knowledge and understanding, whilst offering students opportunities to develop academically in a stimulating learning arena.

At St Andrew's Anglican College, students' learning achievements are celebrated on a daily basis. Staff encourage children to achieve to the highest levels of academic knowledge and understanding.

The Primary School offers a rich and varied curriculum which is based on national standards. The curriculum has an emphasis on content which makes explicit what students are typically expected to know in each year level.  This is complemented by an inquiry approach that places the student in a central location in terms of their own learning.  We have seen much success using this model where our students have posed and responded to questions, solved problems and constructed knowledge for themselves rather than being the passive recipients of someone else’s knowledge.  The descriptive nature of our curriculum model gives teachers a clear scope and sequence from which each student's learning journey can be paved.

Key Learning Areas
Emphasis is placed on the basic skills of Literacy and Numeracy; however, all students study a wide variety of subjects.

These include:
Mathematics
English
Social Studies (History and Geography)
Science
Technology
LOTE (Chinese)
Art
Music
Health and Physical Education
Religious Education

The students also participate in:
Infant Sport: Prep to Year 3
Interschool Sport: Years 4 to 6
Chapel/Assembly
Enrichment days

A Parent's Guide to the Primary Curriculum
To view an outline of our curriculum in the four Key Learning Areas click on the relevant year level below.

Prep Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6

Culminating Activity Days
In 2013, we will be holding two culminating days on Thursday, 28 March (to coincide with Grandparent's Day) and Monday, 2 September. Culminating activities provide students an opportunity to breathe life into what they have learnt throughout the term and to demonstrate their learning to the people that matter most to them; you!  Whilst the focus of the culminating activity will tend to be themed around the topic of Social Studies and Science units, students are encouraged to demonstrate their learning in all areas of the curriculum.

We hope that you will be able to join us on these days and accommodate these dates into your work and family commitments.

Further Primary Programmes
Australian Curriculum
In 2013, students from Prep - Year 6 will be using the Australian Curriculum in English, Mathematics, History and Science, which is reflected in the curriculum outline above.  Please note that the expected Achievement Standard level for students exiting that year level is a C standard.

Words Their Way

Words Their Way is a developmental approach to phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction.  It offers a teacher-directed, child-centered plan for the study of words from Year 1 – Year 6. Students are placed into groups within their class according to their level of spelling ability, where they are involved in a word study. This encourages active exploration and examination of word features that are within a student’s stage of literacy development.  Students are provided with hands-on opportunities to manipulate word features in ways that allow them to generalise beyond isolated, individual examples to entire groups of words that are spelled the same way.

You Can Do It
Added to the academic subjects which are being taught, the Primary School has adopted the You Can Do It program, which is a program designed to improve student outcomes through developing their social and emotional competence. The program focuses on building the social and emotional skills of Emotional Resilience, Confidence, Persistence, Organisation and Getting Along with Others. A thorough curriculum program, with a series of lessons for the classroom teacher, has been written in order to develop these Foundations.

Mathletics
All students in Years 1-6 are involved in Mathletics,which is a web based mathematics programme designed to help students enjoy maths and improve their results. Students will use Mathletics during school time and for homework tasks.To find out more visit:www.mathletics.com.au

Reading Eggs
All students from Prep to Year 6 are involved in Reading Eggs (Prep to Year 2) or Reading Eggsress (Year 3 to Year 6). It is an online reading programme designed to assist students with reading comprehension. Students will use Reading Eggs during school time and for homework tasks.To find out more visit:www.readingeggs.com.au. If you encounter issues using the site with Internet Explorer, try using an alternate browser such as Google Chrome.

Bug Club
Students from Prep to Year 2 are involved in Bug Club which is a digital book resource to support PM Benchmark reading levels. It designed to assist students by providing additional reading comprehension opportunities. Students will use Bug Club for homework tasks and to find out more visit:www.bugclub.com.au.

Science

All Year 5 and Year 6 students enjoy regular visits to the Science Lab and selected Year 3 and Year 4 students to extension Science lessons.  This certainly sparks a love of science which is complemented by a fantastic Science week where all students are involved in fun Science experiments.

Music
In addition to the classroom music lessons, there is a Strings and Band Immersion Program for Year 4 and Year 5 students to have the opportunity to be included in a number of ensemble groups.

Chess
All students in Year 3 learn Chess. A qualified chess teacher facilitates the chess program for all of the Year 3 students one afternoon per week for each term.

Karate
All students in Prep learn Karate. Wayne MacDonald and Donna Suter, qualified Karate instructors facilitate the Karate program for all of the Prep students for 30 minutes, every week for the year.

School Musical
The Primary School produces a School Musical every two years. In 2013, the production is Guys and Dolls. The aim of the musical is to include all students from Years 3 - 6 who wish to participate. All students in Prep, Year One and Year Two are involved in the musical.

Spiritual

St Andrew's is foremost an Anglican School. Our Anglican ethos commits us to convey Christian values and beliefs. The children are taught about tolerance, respect and acceptance towards their peers and adults. The staff work with students so that they understand the principles of the Christian faith. The students participate keenly in the weekly Chapel Services and they are instructed in Christian Education. The students are nurtured in a caring, Christian environment; one which will help to foster their special talents and qualities; one which will help each child find his/her special niche within the school. We believe this is done very well.

If you have any questions regarding the Primary School Curriculum please contact
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (Primary Primary Teaching and Learning Leader).