Subjects Offered:
Students attend 4 hours of specialist subjects a week taught by a specialised teacher. They have 1 hour of each of the following subjects:
- Performing Arts
- Visual Arts
- Languages- Italian
- Health and Physical Education (Smart Play)
Learning from the following key learning areas happens with their class teacher:
- Religious Education
- English*
- The Humanities*
- Mathematics*
- Science*
(*Denotes an Australian Curriculum domain)
Excursions:
St Augustine’s College offers an extensive and developmental camps and immersion program for students that begins in Foundation. These experiences support the delivery of our curriculum along with the development of social and emotional skills and interpersonal learning.
| Foundation | After school play |
| Grade 1 | After school stay |
| Grade 2 | Sleep over at school |
Throughout the year students have an opportunity to participate in a variety of excursions that enhance their learning.
Extra Curricular Activities:
Students have an opportunity to participate in many extra curricula programs. These include:
- Public speaking
- Maths competitions
- Science competitions
- Literacy competitions
Transition:
Through our pastoral wellbeing focus St. Augustine’s College endeavours to provide an enjoyable and smooth transition both for new students and for those transitioning into new grade levels. The transition for students entering Foundation begins with the children visiting the school with their kinder group in early Term 3. There are three transition visits involving activities in the Foundation rooms. Playgroup and Bookworm sessions are offered in Term 4 for any pre-schoolers to attend. An interview with the prospective Foundation child and their parents, is conducted early in Term 4 and Orientation Day is when each child spends a day with their peers and teacher. Other opportunities are provided for familiarisation with the school and teachers if there is a particular need.
For Years 2 and 4 there is an opportunity for students to experience the environment of Years 3 and 5 prior to the beginning of the new year.
Structure Of The Day:
| 8:50-9:00 | Reading In The Classroom |
| 9:00-11:00 | Period 1 & 2 |
| 11:00-11:30 | Recess Break Outside |
| 11:30-12:30 | Period 3 |
| 12:30-12:40 | Fruit Break |
| 12:40-1:30 | Period 4 |
| 1:30-1:40 | Eat Lunch In The Classroom |
| 1:40-2:20 | Lunch Break Outside |
| 2:20-3:20 | Period 5 |
Reporting:
Each semester the teachers complete a rubric on the following areas; reading, writing, speaking and listening, numeracy, religious education, personal development, Smart Play, visual arts, performing arts and Languages. These rubrics are accompanied by progression points in Literacy, Numeracy, Science (1-4), Humanities (3-4), Health and physical Education and The Arts.
Students from Foundation - 4 have their class teacher as a TA.Students have a TA each term. In Foundation the first TA is replaced with a ‘Home Visit’, where the teacher visits the student and their family at home. These ‘Home Visits’ give teachers an opportunity to get to know children in their environment and to make connections.
“It gives us an insight into their interests and how we can foster these in the classroom. We can talk to children in the classroom about their home visit and make connections to their learning. It gives a real, authentic, purposeful opportunity for children to talk and develop oral language the day after their visit when they talk about their visit using photos taken.”
Lisa Corso - Foundation Teacher.
Learning Spaces:
The Foundation and Year 1-2 learning spaces are Inviting learning spaces with opportunity for collaboration.
The Year 3-4 learning space is a flexible learning spaces. There are areas within the flexible learning space for individual work, group work or whole class. Rooms, and dividers, can be opened or closed, depending on the needs of our learners for that particular time and furniture is arranged to suit individual learning or larger group work. Being able to work independently or collaboratively are both important skills, so the need for flexibility in our spaces are required to optimise learning.
eLearning:
From Foundation to Year 4 our teachers use a range of digital technologies to complement and enhance learning. We use iPods, iPads and MacBooks to ensure digital learning occurs across all learning areas and domains. We encompass a range of practices including game-based learning, accessing digital content and using technology to connect, collaborate and create.
Support Programs:
Partners In Effective Schools (PIES): The PIES program is implemented for Foundation children who need extra assistance with their fine motor control and scissor skills. Each week fun activities are provided to enhance these skills. This is in consultation with an Occupational Therapist. Parents of the children involved are asked and encouraged to come along and assist with the sessions.
Playing and Learning to Socialise (PALS): The PALS program is implemented for Foundation children who need extra assistance with social skills. A different topic is covered each week to provide support and strategies for the children to be able to take away and use within and outside of school. Puppets, activities and different scenarios are used to increase the participation within the group.
Reading Recovery: Reading Recovery is an intervention program for students in Year 1 having difficulty learning to read and write. Reading Recovery enables these students to become active and independent readers and writers, better able to join the daily literacy activities in the classroom. It is a highly effective, accelerative, short term intervention of one-to-one tutoring and is used as a supplement to good classroom teaching.