CURRICULUM OVERVIEW

At Tongala Primary School, we believe that every child can learn and reach their full potential. To do this we need a diverse, differentiated and dynamic curriculum. Our staff are ‘lifelong learners’ and are consistently updating their practise. We foster this mindset with our students as well.

At Tongala Primary School we follow the Victorian Curriculum for planning, assessment and reporting. Teachers are given a day to plan for the upcoming term and also given planning time weekly in their teams to develop a comprehensive curriculum that caters for all students and their learning styles and needs.

English

At Tongala Primary School, we are committed to ensuring all students develop strong reading and comprehension skills. To support this, we are moving away from the whole-language approach traditionally used in guided reading lessons. Instead, we are transitioning to an evidence-based, best-practice method for teaching foundational literacy skills known as Structured Literacy (SL). Structured Literacy provides systematic, explicit instruction in key areas such as:

·        Phonemic awareness

·        Phonics

·        Fluency

·        Vocabulary

·        Comprehension

This approach is supported by decades of research and is designed to benefit all students—particularly those with learning difficulties, such as dyslexia—by providing the essential building blocks of reading. Students that require intervention and support are well catered for with literacy intervention in all grades across the school.

Writing can be one of the most difficult ways for a child to express themselves. Skilled writers need to be able to master 2 key aspects; the mechanics of writing and the ability to think or ideate. At Tongala Primary School, the skill of writing is taught by:

Teaching the skills explicitly

Modelling how to write

Focusing on the sentence level

Building self-regulation and self-monitoring strategies into all writing tasks

Allowing time for practice, practice, practice!

Students undertake a range of writing genres in line with the Victorian Curriculum, which teacher’s track and moderate using BrightPath; an evidence-based formative assessment too.

Spelling is addressed through the PLD Program, an approach aligned with the Science of Reading and extends from junior to upper primary years, fostering a cohesive whole school approach.

We are proud of our students as public speakers, and you only have to attend an assembly, school run event or the Lions Club Speaking Competition to see that this is a real strength. Students at Tongala Primary School make a great audience and ask relevant questions. 

Mathematics 

Teachers use a differentiated approach model to structure lessons. Students are encouraged to have a deep understanding of number and teachers once again differentiate the curriculum to cater for all learners. We have adopted a range of varied resources, including online platforms, to assist our delivery of the mathematics curriculum. It is a comprehensive, challenging and thorough resource that assists our students to have a deep understanding of all areas of the mathematics curriculum.

Specialist / Integrated Curriculum

Students are offered Physical Education, Environmental Studies, Visual Arts, AUSLAN, Values and Library as part of their weekly program. We then integrate other areas of the curriculum, such as History, Geography and Science ‘themes’ or ‘integrated units’ into our weekly planning to ensure we are covering all aspects of the curriculum. Grades also participate in the Song Room.

Digital Technologies

Information and Communication Technologies are well supported through having Netbooks and iPads across all areas of the school and they are an important tool for learning. The implementation of the Grade 3-6 BYOD iPad program has further enhanced this.

Personal Development

At Tongala, we believe in developing the whole child and with programs catering for wellbeing and welfare such as Restorative Practices, Respectful Relationships, Mindfulness, Class Meetings, Values Education and a team of wellbeing professionals, we believe that we support every child to be able to learn.