What your child can learn and how it is taught?
Student learning is at the heart of everything we do. This is underpinned by our commitment to the following principles:
- A constant focus on State and National quality and standards
- Equity and access for all students
- Accountability
- Partnerships
The Australian Curriculum guides the curriculum offered at Salisbury Park Primary School and includes the following 8 areas of learning.
- English
- Mathematics
- Technologies
- Science
- Humanities and Social Sciences
- The Arts
- Health and Physical Education
- Languages
We are also in the process of applying for a number of grants in Environmental Education and Youth Development Programs. We are also in the process of establishing significant curriculum links with our feeder high schools.
English
Reading and Viewing, Writing, Spelling, Listening, Speaking, Handwriting and Oral Language.
Through our whole school English policy we have developed and are committed to whole site agreements about how, when and why we teach and assess literacy across the school.
Our Reception and Year 1, 2 and 3 teachers will send sounds, words and levelled readers home for your child to practise. However, any child across the school who does not have a Running Record Level of 26 may have readers sent home, including students in the older year levels. Our teachers use multiple strategies to engage children to read, also choosing to supplement reading level books with others from a wide variety of books in our modern school library. When a student brings home a book it is to share with you. You should read it together. This sharing needs to be very positive if you want your student to have a positive view of reading and books. Pressure to read every word correctly is likely to destroy a keenness for books.
Literacy Intervention
Since 2014, the Literacy Intervention Program ‘Making Up Lost Time in Literacy’ (M.U.L.T.I.L.I.T) has been used in the school to provide Literacy Intervention to those students who are not meeting state benchmarks for reading and writing. Students sit a placement test and are withdrawn from class four times per week to practise their sound and letter awareness strategies using a structured model of intervention based on extensive research from Macquarie University. The students are responding very positively to the intervention.
Mathematics
Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability
As a school we have a focus on mathematics as numeracy and literacy is essential for our everyday lives. We continue to emphasise the essential skills of number work, such as computation, as well as on mental maths whilst at the same time focussing on the process of mathematical inquiry and problem solving through Natural Maths strategies introduced into our school by our Mathematician In Residence – Ann Baker.
STEM
STEM is the integrated learning of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Salisbury Park is part of the STEM works initiative by the State Government. We received an upgrade to our facilities to have an open and collaborative space specifically for STEM learning. Working with robotics, green screen technology and animation are just some of the activities students are involved in which will help prepare them for future jobs in a range of industries.
Technologies
Students learn to make choices based on knowledge, judgement and problem solving skills. It involves imagination and creativity. They also create products, processes and systems using a wide variety of techniques. Computing knowledge and skills is an important facet of all classes andall classes have access to laptops and iPads. Wireless Technology is in place across the site. This was of considerable expense however it is important that the students at Salisbury Park have access to the latest learning technologies available to twenty first century learners.
Science
All Students at Salisbury Park have a double lesson each week with a Specialist Science teacher.
Humanities and Social Sciences
Aboriginal Studies, Social Living Skills, Environmental Conservation, Media Studies
Included is an examination of various cultures, their structures, systems and beliefs. This curriculum area also provides learning and instruction opportunities in what many parents would remember as Social Studies.
The Arts - Music, Drama, Dance, Art, Craft
All classroom teachers use their artistic skills to cover each of the visual and performing arts.
Music
Group and individual instruction is available for Guitar by a specialist outside agency when there is a viable number of interested students.
Health and Physical Education
Physical Education, Daily Fitness, Sport and Nutrition, Personal Development, Interschool and Intra-school Sport)
The importance of this area of study is recognised through the appointment of a specialist Physical Education teacher who provides games skills lessons weekly for each class. Class teachers ensure regular daily fitness is enjoyed by all students.
Our school is committed to teaching the Child Protection Curriculum in all classrooms every year throughout the school and all teachers have been formally trained to teach the CPC in South Australia.
Swimming Lessons
Students from Years R-5 participate in swimming lessons annually. Year 6/7 students are involved with aquatic lessons annually.
Interschool Sports
All Upper Primary School students have the opportunity to be involved in SAPSASA District Summer and Winter Carnivals and in specific individual sports if selected for teams.
Learning a language
Most Primary Schools and Secondary schools around us and throughout South Australia offer an Asian Language, either Chinese or Japanese. The students at Salisbury Park learn Japanese through a Specialist teacher.
Specialised Programmes
In addition to the areas of study above, there are a number of Specialised Programmes.
Special Education Support
Students who are identified with a learning disability (after referral and assessment by Department Guidance officers) are reviewed regularly and each child has an individual learning plan (One Plan) to cater for their specialised learning needs. In 2012 a Student Review Team was set up to case manage Students with a One Plan , Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Students (ATSI) and English as an additional language or dialect (EALD) learners. In 2012 an Aboriginal Community Education Officer was appointed to liaise with families in support of our ATSI students.
Once per term the school Student Review Team meets with regional district service providers (Speech, Guidance, Behaviour, Attendance, Hearing, and District Disabilities) to case manage and review our students in an ongoing collaborative fashion.