Learning and Teaching

St Joseph’s has developed a learning culture of building independent, collaborative and innovative learners. Students are encouraged and supported to develop Good Learning Behaviours, such as focusing on task, asking effective questions and reflecting on challenges and achievements.  From this regular reflection, students develop plans for improvement and future direction of learning. The skills of problem-solving are actively taught in a variety of contexts. Students are given opportunities to practise problem-solving and effective decision making in their learning and in social contexts. Teachers focus on empowering students to take responsibility for their learning and behaviour.

 Victorian Curriculum

 St Joseph’s School uses the Victorian Curriculum as the core planning document.  This curriculum includes a strong focus on the foundational skills of literacy and numeracy and on personal and social skills, thinking skills and new areas of learning such as computational thinking.

LITERACY: Reading, Writing, Spelling and Oral Language

Students are exposed to a variety of text types such as narratives, recounts, procedures, reports, explanations and expositions. Students participate in learning experiences where explicit teaching takes place to cater for particular needs of students. A typical literacy learning session consists of modeled and guided reading, comprehension, genre writing, spelling and grammar activities.

NUMERACY: Number, Alegbra, Measurement, Geometry, Data and Statistics.

The NUMERACY program is focused on mastering basic mathematical skills, understanding mathematical concepts and solving problems. It involves hands on activities, using concrete materials and tools to ensure new concepts are learnt. Areas covered in the numeracy curriculum consist of number and algebra, measurement and geometry, data and statistics.

Digital Technology

Our school is well equipped with information communication technology resources.  The junior classes share ten iPads with a wide range of educational apps on each iPad.

The school has acquired a range of chromebooks and laptops for student use in grades 3 – 6.  Effective twenty-first century learning is about reshaping the way we view education as our children are growing up in a world where technology and information use are growing exponentially, and it is important that schools provide a curriculum that meets the demands of an increasingly globalised and interconnected world.  By providing opportunities for students to use technology as a tool, students are able to further build independent learning skills and to learn through collaboration.

Each class has an Apple TV installed that is used for learning and teaching in all areas of the curriculum. All children are provided with specialist ICT classes during their time at St Joseph's. Students also have access to the internet and their own individual school email address.