Our Curriculum
We develop our Learning Programs based on sound curriculum guidelines:
St Mel’s is a professional learning community where we work together to create an environment that encourages us to play, explore, wonder, discover, love, dream, touch, grow, question laugh and learn. A fundamental belief of our community is - that everybody can LEARN.
The learning at St Mel’s builds on the knowledge your child has attained to date and strives to improve and develop learning. At the core of our learning and teaching we use:
Source of Life proposes that Religious Education in its fullest sense belongs not only to the catechetical or religious education program but it encompasses everything in the curriculum.
The Victorian Curriculum encourages a flexible and creative approach to learning for all year levels. In the Prep year they are at Foundation Level – as the level suggests it is the solid base from where learning springboards progressing to Level 1 for Year One, Level 2 for Year Two and so on for each progressive year - Year Six being Level 6.
The Victorian Curriculum
The Victorian Curriculum F–10 sets out what every student should learn during their first eleven years of schooling. The curriculum is the common set of knowledge and skills required by students for life-long learning, social development and active and informed citizenship.
The Victorian Curriculum F–10 incorporates the Australian Curriculum and reflects Victorian priorities and standards
The school curriculum is a statement of the purpose of schooling. It defines what it is that all students have the opportunity to learn as a result of their schooling, set out as a series of learning progressions. Enabling students’ progress along this learning continuum is the fundamental role of teachers and schools.
The content of the Victorian Curriculum F–10 includes both knowledge and skills. These are defined by learning areas and capabilities. This curriculum design assumes that knowledge and skills are transferrable across learning areas and capabilities. The capabilities enable students to develop particular values, dispositions and self-efficacy to become ‘successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens’.
Learning areas:
INQUIRY LEARNING
A snapshot of inquiry learning at St Mel's
Inquiry Learning is a stance or disposition adopted by both teachers and children
An approach that encourages students to question, investigate, analyze, synthesize, act and reflect. Students do the ‘cognitive heavy lifting’
Students investigate – they are positioned as researchers
Concept driven and integrative
Strong emphasis on the development of transferable skills and dispositions
Emphasis on authentic contexts - connecting learning with ‘real life’ experience
Based on the belief that learning is:
Inquiry is an approach....Not a ‘subject’ , not something that happens in isolation , it’s about how to teach.
And make no mistake.... Inquiry is not for the faint hearted. True inquiry teaching and learning is rigorous and explicit.
To do it well, we need to
Know our students (as people, as learners)
Know our curriculum
Know our pedagogy
HOME LEARNING – or Home Work for some.
Please refer to the Home Learning policy in the Policies Section in Downloads.
We believe that the best type of homework is practical, able to be shared and fun. Homework needs to be 'family friendly' and support all families, including those who have commitments after school.
Research supports the view that homework is interfering with family life, which is already rushed and pressured. Time is taken away from important elements of life such as mealtime, leisure time, music lessons or sports. Dr. Michael Carr-Gregg goes further to suggest that the setting and completion of homework has limited value to learning when children may already be tired from a day at school. With this in mind, we see homework as complementing family life. (Dr. Michael Carr-Gregg 2004 Breaking the homework habit.)
Home Learning could include: Reading, learning spelling strategies, practising number facts: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, completion of organisational diary in Years 5 / 6, following up on classroom activities, spend time together as a family, watching the news together, playing board games, going on bike rides, or walks through the park. Home Learning can be the best form of education. We encourage you to turn the television off, silence the phone and play, talk, laugh, argue, win or lose, have fun and LEARN.
Camps and Excursions
Camps and excursions are a compulsory part of the curriculum. Camps and excursions are a way to extend each child's understanding and knowledge of the wider world - and at the same time to introduce, consolidate and enrich particular areas across the curriculum. Students who miss camps and excursions are placing themselves at a disadvantage both academically and socially.
Camps are quite expensive to run, therefore we require all families to pay the camp levy.
• If there is a medical emergency or family crisis that prevents a student from attending camp then the levy may be rebated
• No child will be prevented from attending any excursion or camp due to an inability to pay.
We develop our Learning Programs based on sound curriculum guidelines:
St Mel’s is a professional learning community where we work together to create an environment that encourages us to play, explore, wonder, discover, love, dream, touch, grow, question laugh and learn. A fundamental belief of our community is - that everybody can LEARN.
The learning at St Mel’s builds on the knowledge your child has attained to date and strives to improve and develop learning. At the core of our learning and teaching we use:
- Source of Life, our Religious Education Curriculum,
- Victorian Curriculum - based on the national curriculum and incorporating Essential Learning Standards
- Inquiry Learning
Source of Life proposes that Religious Education in its fullest sense belongs not only to the catechetical or religious education program but it encompasses everything in the curriculum.
The Victorian Curriculum encourages a flexible and creative approach to learning for all year levels. In the Prep year they are at Foundation Level – as the level suggests it is the solid base from where learning springboards progressing to Level 1 for Year One, Level 2 for Year Two and so on for each progressive year - Year Six being Level 6.
The Victorian Curriculum
The Victorian Curriculum F–10 sets out what every student should learn during their first eleven years of schooling. The curriculum is the common set of knowledge and skills required by students for life-long learning, social development and active and informed citizenship.
The Victorian Curriculum F–10 incorporates the Australian Curriculum and reflects Victorian priorities and standards
The school curriculum is a statement of the purpose of schooling. It defines what it is that all students have the opportunity to learn as a result of their schooling, set out as a series of learning progressions. Enabling students’ progress along this learning continuum is the fundamental role of teachers and schools.
The content of the Victorian Curriculum F–10 includes both knowledge and skills. These are defined by learning areas and capabilities. This curriculum design assumes that knowledge and skills are transferrable across learning areas and capabilities. The capabilities enable students to develop particular values, dispositions and self-efficacy to become ‘successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens’.
Learning areas:
- The Arts: Dance , Drama ,Media Arts ,Music , Visual Arts , Visual Communication Design
- English
- Health and Physical Education
- The Humanities: Civics and Citizenship, Economics and Business , Geography, and History
- Languages
- Mathematics
- Science
- Technologies: Design and Technologies and Digital Technologies
INQUIRY LEARNING
A snapshot of inquiry learning at St Mel's
Inquiry Learning is a stance or disposition adopted by both teachers and children
An approach that encourages students to question, investigate, analyze, synthesize, act and reflect. Students do the ‘cognitive heavy lifting’
Students investigate – they are positioned as researchers
Concept driven and integrative
Strong emphasis on the development of transferable skills and dispositions
Emphasis on authentic contexts - connecting learning with ‘real life’ experience
Based on the belief that learning is:
- An activity of construction (making meaning not receiving)
- Driven by a sense of learner agency (their sense of intention, capability and choice)
- Dependent on monitoring and reflection
Inquiry is an approach....Not a ‘subject’ , not something that happens in isolation , it’s about how to teach.
And make no mistake.... Inquiry is not for the faint hearted. True inquiry teaching and learning is rigorous and explicit.
To do it well, we need to
Know our students (as people, as learners)
Know our curriculum
Know our pedagogy
HOME LEARNING – or Home Work for some.
Please refer to the Home Learning policy in the Policies Section in Downloads.
We believe that the best type of homework is practical, able to be shared and fun. Homework needs to be 'family friendly' and support all families, including those who have commitments after school.
Research supports the view that homework is interfering with family life, which is already rushed and pressured. Time is taken away from important elements of life such as mealtime, leisure time, music lessons or sports. Dr. Michael Carr-Gregg goes further to suggest that the setting and completion of homework has limited value to learning when children may already be tired from a day at school. With this in mind, we see homework as complementing family life. (Dr. Michael Carr-Gregg 2004 Breaking the homework habit.)
Home Learning could include: Reading, learning spelling strategies, practising number facts: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, completion of organisational diary in Years 5 / 6, following up on classroom activities, spend time together as a family, watching the news together, playing board games, going on bike rides, or walks through the park. Home Learning can be the best form of education. We encourage you to turn the television off, silence the phone and play, talk, laugh, argue, win or lose, have fun and LEARN.
Camps and Excursions
Camps and excursions are a compulsory part of the curriculum. Camps and excursions are a way to extend each child's understanding and knowledge of the wider world - and at the same time to introduce, consolidate and enrich particular areas across the curriculum. Students who miss camps and excursions are placing themselves at a disadvantage both academically and socially.
Camps are quite expensive to run, therefore we require all families to pay the camp levy.
• If there is a medical emergency or family crisis that prevents a student from attending camp then the levy may be rebated
• No child will be prevented from attending any excursion or camp due to an inability to pay.