Curriculum
Airly Primary School
Curriculum
Literacy
Literacy is involved in all aspects of the day, with a subject intensive two-hour block held every morning. Students are exposed to explicit phonics instruction through the Systematic Synthetic Phonics (SSP) approach. This starts with learning the 42 sounds in our language. Grammar is also introduced and practiced in this session.
The SSP approach teaches students to read and write those sounds as code. Decoding means sounding out the words, reading the text. Alongside this skill is reading comprehension. We use the workshop model for comprehension tasks. This involves teacher-led mini lessons, small group learning, partner work, independent learning opportunities and teacher conferencing at the students’ point of need.
The workshop model is also used in writing. Students are taught from a genre perspective, meaning they learn the elements of different types of writing (recount, persuasive, narrative, poetry etc). Within that, students are exposed to the Six Traits of Writing which are: voice, ideas, presentation, conventions, organization, word choice, and sentence fluency.
Students in the junior and middle grades are given lots of oral language practice through our kitchen garden program. This is then used in writing tasks.
Numeracy
We work to ensure our students have a positive attitude to maths. We use engaging and inclusive games or number talks as fluency practice before going on to a mini lesson on one of the curriculum areas of number, measurement & geometry and statistics & probability. Number is taught along the sequence of ‘Big Ideas’ that starts with Trusting the Count.
LOTE
Our language is AUSLAN. Students enjoy learning from a qualified speaker of AUSLAN who has a long link to Airly as a staff member in prior years.
PE
Our grounds are large and varietal offering students practice in a large range of sports. Students are challenged to have fun, develop confidence and resilience, and learn about the importance of team work and good sportsmanship. Our program also offers the opportunity to be involved in many exciting cluster events including athletics, cross-country and swimming carnivals. Sporting Schools grants assist us to run our annual swimming program.
Arts
Students create and critic with creative and expressive capacity. They use a range of materials and techniques from different cultures. We value sustainability in art and often use recycled materials in sessions. Drama is practiced heavily in term 4, as students are involved in everything to do with the end of year concert.
MARC Library
The Mobile Area Resource Centre, aka MARC Van, visits on a weekly basis. The van is a travelling library where students are able to borrow from an up to date catalogue. Students are also provided with a literacy based library lesson.
Kitchen Garden
We have a well resourced kitchen garden where students experience the cycle of planting, harvesting, and cooking on a weekly basis. Students also experience science and develop a broad vocabulary as part of this program. Food is also stored for our annual Harvest Lunch celebrations with the community.
Technology
We are a well resourced school with reliable Internet and 1:1 computers.
Values-Based Learning
We are a School Wide Positive Behaviour School with an embedded values based program. Students are given targetted support inline with individual needs. There is a focus on positive prevention through values based expectations where students are challenged to be ACE by showing respect, a can do attitude, cooperation and being interested in our environment.