St Bernadette’s Learning & Teaching

Victorian Curriculum

The Victorian Curriculum guides the Learning & Teaching at St Bernadette’s. It is a learning continuum organised in levels with achievement standards. The Victorian Curriculum structure and content is available on the link below.

http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/

The Catholic Education Melbourne (CEM) has launched the new curriculum framework in 2017- the Horizons of Hope. This framework guides Catholic learning communities in what it means to be a Catholic school in contemporary times. It articulates and promotes that we are all lifelong learners in a vibrant learning community.

http://www.cem.edu.au/learning-teaching/

The Learning and Teaching pedagogy adopted at St Bernadette’s is student centred. Teachers design learning tasks based on student’s assessment.  Student learning is structured on a model of targeted focus teaching, where learning is designed in the learners ‘zone of proximal development’ (Vygotsky).

Student data drives learning. Teachers discuss student learning in the weekly facilitated planning sessions. During this time, teachers plan collaboratively with leaders to design learning opportunities.  Co- teachers support staff in facilitating student learning in the learning spaces allowing for smaller focused teaching groups.

Student assessment is ongoing and the formal reporting of student learning occurs at the end of Term 2 and Term 4 against the Victorian Curriculum Standards. The written student report is accompanied by a Student Portfolio to evidence the learning, demonstrating growth overtime. At the end of Term 2, Parent- Teacher – Student Learning Conversations occur to share, discuss and celebrate student’s learning.

At St Bernadette’s teachers use an inquiry mindset to design and plan all learning opportunities.  Teachers compose questions as Learning Intentions to engage student thinking as they inquire together. This promotes a thinking culture, as teachers and learners develop Success Criteria to support learning.  Students articulate their thinking by explaining a variety of strategies used and justifying their thoughts and opinions.

St Bernadette’s engages the expertise of Inquiry Education Consultant Kath Murdoch to build the capacity of all learners within the community. We promote and unpack with students the life skills in the Learning Assets of: self-manager, collaborator, researcher, thinker and communicator.  As well as building student’s knowledge of the Learning Assets, teachers create learning opportunities for students to learn about the dispositions of learners. We aspire for our learners to be: curious, courageous, resourceful, open-minded, flexible, persistent, empathic, compassionate, reliable, resilient, responsible, reflective, confident, responsive and respectful.

The flexible learning spaces at St Bernadette’s allows for a variety of learning opportunities in a contemporary environment. We involve students from different levels to collaborate together in the learning process, to learn from, and with, each other.  We value learning partnerships and invite and welcome all within our learning community to share their skills, talents and expertise with our students.   We extend a welcome to all within our learning community to attend our ‘Showcase of Learning’ to celebrate the learning and evidence student voice, in the learning process.

Teachers determine the Learning@Home tasks for students weekly. We encourage and promote the importance of students reading every-day.  We encourage parents/carers to involve students in authentic learning experiences, such as cooking and shopping.

For our Learning at Home Policy, please go to our Policy Page

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