Curriculum & Structure

Assessment and reporting progress

Teachers will continually observe and assess your child’s learning in class. At different times an assessment task or test may be set to gain a clearer idea of how well your child is understanding what has been taught. This important assessment assists the teacher to fine-tune teaching strategies for the individual student.

Various opportunities are provided during the year to let you know your child’s progress. You will receive two comprehensive written reports each year, and arrangements will be made for at least one parent/teacher/student interview where you can discuss your child’s progress with the teacher. In addition, you can always contact the school to arrange a meeting with the teacher if you have concerns or wish to have an update on progress.

National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)
Students in Years 3 and 5 participate in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), which tests literacy – reading, writing and language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. The results of these tests, in conjunction with a range of data from other assessment strategies and data collections, give you information on how your child is progressing and where s/he could benefit from greater challenges or extra help.
National assessment and reporting are the responsibility of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). In Victoria, NAPLAN is administered by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA).
For more information, see www.nap.edu.au, call 1300 895 563 (ACARA) or email info@acara.edu.au Alternatively, see www.vcaa.vic.edu.au, call 1800 134 197 (VCAA) or email vcaa@edumail.vic.gov.au

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is responsible to all Australian Education Ministers for developing Australian curriculum, student assessment, including NAPLAN, and for reporting overall student and school performance. ACARA also manages the My School website, which provides information on all Australian schools.
For more details on ACARA, see www.acara.edu.au
For more details on My School, see www.myschool.edu.au

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA)
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) sets the guidelines for what students learn from Foundation to Year 12 in all Victorian schools. The VCAA is responsible for the administration in Victorian schools of the Victorian Curriculum and the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN).
For more information, see www.vcaa.vic.edu.au, call 1800 134 197 or email vcaa@edumail.vic.gov.au

Digital Technology

Each child at St Patrick's School has 1:1 access to an iPad as part of the learning program to engage students and improve their educational attainment.

Parents, students and teachers are committed to making children aware of their responsibilities for using technology responsibly.  

As well as iPads, children also have access to laptops or Chromebooks to assist them to become engaged and motivated learners.



Information for families
What happens to the iPad after completion of a cycle?

  • iPad will be restored to factory settings.

  • On completion of a full cycle, and payment of technology fees for the full cycle, families will be given the option of purchasing the iPad on payment of a buyout fee.

  • Families may be given the opportunity to purchase an iPad if their child enrolled part-way through a cycle, provided that technology fees for that period have been paid in full and payment of a pro-rata buyout fee.

  • Families whose technology fees were supported by fee assistance or have not been paid at any time during the child’s enrolment will not be offered an iPad buyout.  These iPads will remain as property of the school.

Management

  • iPads are managed by the school using Apple School Manager and Jamf School.  This includes device allocation and management, and app installation.

Apps

  • Staff and students can request educational apps to be added.  These will be added at the discretion of the Principal.

Rules

  • Teachers will show students a presentation about how to use iPads at the commencement of each year.

  • Under no circumstances are children to attempt to download apps or make any changes to settings, such as wallpapers, passcodes, etc.

  • iPads remain at school and are not to be taken home, unless required in special circumstances such as remote learning.

Support Programs

At St Patrick's we are very committed to regular monitoring of students to ensure we are seeing progress with each child's learning. If we have concerns in any area it is likely that children will undertake one or more of our support programs. With all of our programs in place we are very confident that children who attend St Patrick's will achieve to their potential.

Speech Pathologist
We have regular access to a Speech Pathologist from the Catholic Education Office, providing support to children when teachers and families have raised concerns in regards to children's language development. The Speech Pathologist assesses the child and if additional support is seen to be required it will be provided on a regular basis.

Psychologist
We have regular access to a Psychologist from the Catholic Education Office who will assess children for social, cognitive and behavioural concerns when these have been raised by teachers and parents. After this has been done, if the psychologist has concerns programs will be put in place to support the child.

Our Class Structure

Curriculum Areas

  • We know that students cannot access the school curriculum effectively if they do not have the appropriate reading and writing skills required of the task. At St Patrick’s we continually revise and update best practice approaches to developing literacy skills in all our students.

  • Students at St Patrick's will participate in a comprehensive numeracy program every day. We support and challenge our students to engage in the three Victorian Curriculum Mathematics strands of Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability.

    During numeracy sessions students participate in whole class focus sessions, develop mental computation strategies, experience small group rotation activities and teacher lead sessions and complete tasks tailored to their individual learning needs. At the end of each numeracy lesson formative feedback is provided to students via processes of peer led discussions or teacher elaboration to consolidate the learning focus and to redress any misconceptions

  • Religious Education is a core component of the curriculum at St Patrick’s. The Catholic Education Office Awakenings program is used as the core document of this curriculum area. All students enrolled at St. Patrick's are required to participate in the Religious Education program.

    This program offers an invitation, a structured approach and an evaluative framework to teachers of Catholic Education. It takes into account the complex and ever increasing secular world that we live in. Most importantly, it prepares our students to contribute to this world by immersing them in the Christian tradition through experiences which are reflective, intellectual, spiritual and prayerful. It is hoped that this immersion will enable students to develop an awareness of justice, compassion and transformation of themselves and the world around them. Religious Education takes place through the formal curriculum and many other aspects of school life such as liturgy, prayer and our Catholic Education Week cluster. As part of our program students are given the opportunity to live out the Gospel values by participating in Social Justice events, Caritas programs, Harmony Day and Mission Day programs. Students also work with the elderly in the community via a range of activities.

  • Teachers as Co-Learners (TCL) is a contemporary pedagogical approach whereby all teachers and students are learners of Auslan and time is allocated every day to ensure frequent exposure to, and learning of, Auslan. Instead of a traditional specialist language program delivering language in an isolated time block, classroom teachers are responsible for providing language centred sessions every day for approximately 15 minutes. The core idea is that students and teachers are on the learning journey together and are co-learners of the language. Auslan delivery is broken up into units and the content is focused on language development through high frequency, functional classroom language instead of topic based learning.

  • Students have weekly fun opportunities to express themselves through Visual and Performing Arts, Music and Dance.

Assessing your child’s progress.

St. Patrick’s School, Nhill

Information for Parents:

Assessing and Reporting Your Child’s Progress

Statement Date: 2019 Review Date: 2020

Teachers will continually observe and assess your child’s learning in class. At different times an assessment task or test may be set to gain a clearer idea of how well your child is understanding what has been taught. This important assessment assists the teacher to fine-tune teaching strategies for the individual student.

Various opportunities are provided during the year to let you know your child’s progress. You will receive two comprehensive written reports each year, and arrangements will be made for at least one parent/teacher/student interview where you can discuss your child’s progress with the teacher. In addition, you can always contact the school to arrange a meeting with the teacher if you have concerns or wish to have an update on progress.

National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)

Students in Years 3 and 5 participate in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy(NAPLAN), which tests literacy – reading, writing and language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. The results of these tests, in conjunction with a range of data from other assessment strategies and data collections, give you information on how your child is progressing and where s/he could benefit from greater challenges or extra help. National assessment and reporting are the responsibility of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). In Victoria, NAPLAN is administered by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA).

For more information, see www.nap.edu.au, call 1300 895 563 (ACARA) or email info@acara.edu.au

Alternatively, see www.vcaa.vic.edu.au, call 1800 134 197 (VCAA) or email vcaa@edumail.vic.gov.au

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is responsible to all Australian Education Ministers for developing Australian curriculum, student assessment, including NAPLAN, and for reporting overall student and school performance. ACARA also manages the My School

website, which provides information on all Australian schools.

For more details on ACARA, see www.acara.edu.au. For more details on My School, see www.myschool.edu.au

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA)

The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) sets the guidelines for what students learn from Foundation to Year 12 in all Victorian schools. The VCAA is responsible for the administration in Victorian schools of the Victorian Curriculum and the National Assessment Program- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN).

For more information, see www.vcaa.vic.edu.au , call 1800 134 197 or email vcaa@edumail.vic.gov.au

.