Teaching and Learning

At St Patrick’s School, we present a diverse, interesting and comprehensive curriculum. Our main core areas of our school curriculum include literacy, numeracy, religious education, L.O.T.E and The Arts. 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.

Literacy

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.

Numeracy

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.

Religious Education

Religious Education is a vital and enriching element of the curriculum.

The Catholic Education Office's Awakenings program serves as the core document for this curriculum area. All students enrolled at St. Patrick's are required to participate in the Religious Education program.

This program provides an invitation, a structured approach, and an evaluative framework for teachers of Catholic Education. Our religious education aims to prepare students to contribute positively to the world by immersing them in the Christian tradition through reflective, intellectual, spiritual, and prayerful experiences. We hope that this immersion will help students develop an awareness of justice, compassion, and the potential for transformation within 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 have the opportunity to embody Gospel values by participating in events focused on social justice, Caritas programs, Harmony Day, and Mission Day. Additionally, students engage in various activities to support the elderly in the community.

AUSLAN

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.

• 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.

Support Programs

At St Patrick's we are 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.