Curriculum
The curriculum from Years 3 to 6 is organised into the following Key Learning Areas:
• English
• Mathematics
• Science
• Society and Environment
• Languages other than English - Indonesian
• The Arts
• Health and Physical Education
• Design and Technology
• Values and Ethics at Pulteney
Literacy & Extended Curriculum offers support and extension across learning areas and Information Communications Technology is integrated into all Key Learning Areas.
Rationale
These Key Learning Areas correspond with the National Curriculum and the SACSA Framework for Learning. They represent the most complete and coherent modes of understanding society. They are seen as a set of rights - a means by which essential skills, knowledge and understanding can be transmitted. This structure facilitates the development of Pulteney’s identified Critical, Creative and Ethical Intelligence.
Critical Intelligence
involves the skills of language, mathematical and verbal reasoning, logic, memory and processing of information. These abilities are developed through a structured and focused academic curriculum, which supports and challenges all students.
Creative Intelligence
involves the abilities to think and act with fluency, innovation, flexibility and originality. These qualities are developed through a total curriculum that recognises each student’s special strengths and abilities.
Ethical Intelligence
involves the ability to think and act with moral insight. These qualities are developed through a total curriculum, which values a spiritual perspective on life within an Anglican context.
English
In the English Learning Area, students learn to understand and describe the world through language. They learn how language works and how people communicate, and that communication is not just what people say or write, but also how they say or write it.
Students learn English through communicating. They listen for pleasure and to find things out; they talk to others to share their ideas. They learn about themselves and others through books, magazines, films and the internet and they learn that writing and pictures can be used to tell stories, explore ideas and to explain what they have found out.
In English, students learn that there are different reasons why we write and speak. This makes a difference to the way we express ourselves and the words and pictures we use. Through English, students learn that language is a powerful tool and that understanding it and being able to use it well is important.
In South Australia, children learn English through three related strands:
Texts and contexts
‘Texts’ are all the many different places where language is used, for example, books, magazines, films, radio programs, songs, web sites and many, many more. The ‘context’ of a text includes why it has been made, for whom it has been made, when it was made, what it is about and where you might find it. Students learn, for example, why a personal letter is very different from a TV documentary.
Language
The language strand is about learning how language works in the different texts and contexts and how this affects the words and ‘rules’ we use. Students learn the workings of language so that they can understand others and be understood by them.
Strategies
In ‘Strategies’ students learn about the different ways in which language is used. They learn ways to note key phrases when listening and reading to help them to research. They learn ways to present talks and writing, such as structuring the beginning, middle and end, to make talks and writing easier to understand and more convincing. They learn how to recognise and correct their mistakes.
And through three different ‘modes’:
• listening and speaking
• reading and viewing
• writing
DEAR
(Drop Everything and Read)
“A program to support students’ reading.”
A 20 minute reading period is a feature of our day and English curriculum.
DEAR encourages interaction and responses to reading while promoting sound selection procedures in a variety of genres at appropriate levels. It provides students with the opportunity to develop their reading and concentration skills by giving them regular time to read in uninterrupted, sustained silence. It also allows the students to become involved in the book they are reading and maintain their interest.
Library
The Library functions as an integral part of the school and supports, complements, extends and enriches the classroom curriculum. The Library program caters for the students’ recreational and cultural needs and interests, as well as providing children with opportunities to develop comprehensive information literacy skills and a knowledge and love of literature.
All classes have regular Library lessons with our Librarian. Studies of text, different genres of literature, authors, illustrators, as well as the development of research skills are features of these lessons. Children have the opportunity to borrow books and listen to stories.
Literacy and Extended Curriculum
The Literacy and Extended Curriculum Programme at Pulteney provides support and teaching opportunities for nominated students as they strive to achieve their learning potential.
Literacy Support
Standardised tests in reading comprehension, spelling and mathematics are administered each school year. Results are forwarded to the Literacy and Extended Curriculum (L&EC) staff so that students at both ends of the educational spectrum are identified for special curriculum extension or Learning Assistance Programmes (LAP).
Staff from the Department of Literacy and Extended Curriculum meet with individual teachers to discuss the standardised testing results and then regularly throughout the year. These results together with information gained from teachers’ observations, informal tests, anecdotal records, recommendations from professionals outside the school and parental input are used to ensure individual learning needs are supported.
Programmes which support classroom activities and take into account the individual learning styles, strengths and weaknesses of those students involved are then developed and put in place.
The Extension Programme
The Coordinator of Literacy and Extended Curriculum oversees this programme, which is run in collaboration with classroom teachers within the classroom setting.
Once students are identified, classroom teachers discuss and organise programmes and resources appropriate to their needs with the Coordinator of L&EC. Activities that provide Extension and Enrichment are for all students and at Pulteney are provided for with the support of the Coordinator within the classroom environment. This support comes in the form of the Coordinator working collaboratively in the classroom with the teacher, or sometimes leading the class or working with a small group, as well as providing resources and mentorship as required.
Thinking and Questioning Skills are excellent tools to use in Extension and Enrichment and are embedded in a school wide programme. Extension ensures that each student is challenged as far as possible within his/her year level while Enrichment means that a student delves into the subject as deeply as possible.
Acceleration of students within a subject or to a higher class, Individual Education Plans to monitor student learning, school based and outside school activities, are other aspects of the Extension programme which are being developed.
The Learning Assistance Programme – LAP
The Learning Assistance Programme provides individual support to students in the areas of reading, spelling, writing and mathematics. Students are withdrawn from the classroom to work with volunteers who are trained to follow structured learning programmes written by staff from the Department of Literacy and Extended Curriculum in consultation with classroom teachers. Volunteers are supported by staff who also monitor student/volunteer interactions to ensure the success of the programme.
English as a Second Language - ESL
Students who are identified as needing support with English as a Second Language are placed on a programme which may include
• working one to one with the ESL teacher
• being placed on a Learning Assistance Programme
• a modified classroom programme.
Mathematics
Mathematics helps us to understand and describe our world. People need mathematics to solve problems and make predictions. Mathematics also develops our abstract reasoning, which encourages us to see things another way, making us more creative. Mathematics helps us to solve everyday problems, like calculating how long a journey will take and finding the right bus to catch. It helps us to make comparisons when we are shopping between the cost and weight of food or when calculating how much wood to buy if we want to make a backyard shed. It also helps us to understand much of the information we are given every day, and to work out what it means and whether it is fair and reasonable. For example, we may need to calculate how much more we would have to pay in loan repayments on a TV than if we bought it outright, or we may need to understand how superannuation works so that we can choose a plan that best suits us. Understanding mathematics helps us to make better decisions. In South Australia, students learn mathematics through the following strands:
• Exploring, analysing and modelling data
• Measurement
• Number
• Pattern and algebraic reasoning
• Spatial sense and geometric reasoning
Science
The Science Learning Area is organised into four conceptual strands, each with its characteristic knowledge and ideas. The strands are:
• Earth and Space
• Energy systems
• Life systems
• Matter
Design and Technology
The Design and Technology Learning Area is structured around three main strands of learning:
• critiquing
• designing
• making
These strands are designed to capture ways of ‘knowing, understanding and doing’ in design and technology. They are interrelated and of equal importance,
informing one another and providing different starting points for learning. Together, they constitute the essence of a quality design and technology education.
Through active engagement in practical design and technology experiences, learners develop creative and powerful ways of designing and making to meet identified needs. They also learn to examine critically existing and planned technologies through investigating and questioning the four phases of a technology lifespan: intention, design, making and use/misuse/abuse.
Health and Physical Education
Health and physical education is structured around three main strands of learning:
• physical activity and participation
• personal and social development
• health of individuals and communities
These strands encapsulate ways of knowing, understanding, valuing and behaving. Whilst being separate bodies of knowledge, they are interrelated and of equal importance. They complement one another and provide different starting points for health and physical education. Together, these strands constitute the essence of quality health and physical education.
The Physical Education program in the Prep School aims to:
• Provide an opportunity for students of all standards to develop skills and a healthy attitude towards Physical Education.
• Increase body awareness and movement through a Gross Motor Program, gymnastics and skill development of a variety of sporting activities.
• Provide an opportunity for students to learn the rules, team concepts and strategies of a variety of sports.
• Provide experiences for students through activities that develop team work, co-operation and comradeship.
• Increase fitness levels among students and their awareness of this component.
Students participate in 2 x 45 minute lessons per week, plus a team sport practice (1 to 1.5 hours) for students competing in organised interschool competitions.
The following sports and topics are covered from Years 3 to 6:
• Cricket
• T-ball/Softball
• Tennis
• Soccer
• Basketball
• Golf
• Volleyball
• Athletics
• Hockey
• Football
• Rugby union
• Dance
• Netball
• Gymnastics
• Soft Crosse
Fitness is an important component of the program and is highlighted by the school Sports Day, general fitness testing in the PE program and Cross Country Competitions.
Inter school Sports
Provide the opportunity for students in Years 3 to 6 to compete in a variety of sports in organised interschool competitions.
Years 3 & 4
| Basketball |
| | Football |
| | Cricket |
| | Netball |
| | Hockey |
| | Swimming |
| | Tennis |
| | |
Years 5 & 6
| Cricket |
| | Softball |
| | Tennis |
| | Basketball |
| | Hockey |
| | Football |
| | Soccer |
| | Swimming |
| | Netball |
Students may try out for SAPSASA and Independent Schools teams and be involved in elite training and Competitions.
The Arts
The arts Learning Area is structured around three main strands of learning:
• arts in contexts
• arts practice
• arts analysis and response
The Arts curriculum at Pulteney incorporates the belief that children are naturally curious and enjoy experiences that actively involves them in practical activities. The ultimate goal is to develop and strengthen enjoyment and understanding of dance, drama, media, music and visual arts through enjoyable, high-interest activities that are practical and hands-on. Students are encouraged to actively participate in a variety of experiences within the classroom as well as extra curricular experiences.
Activities are developed to challenge thinking, motivate and to enhance success. Learning experiences are carefully planned so that student awareness and understanding of skills and concepts are continuously developed through the stages of investigation, creation and performance.
Key learning experiences in the arts for students in the Prep School include:
Development and strengthening of musical concepts and skills through the use of tuned and un-tuned percussion instruments and recorder in music lessons, the string programme (Year 3) and wind/brass programme (Year 4).
- Experiences that involve individuals in ensemble, solo, small group and whole year level work, which promotes co-operation and to value shared experiences.
- A variety of extra-curricular activities to strengthen skills and knowledge introduced and developed during class instruction - percussion ensemble, recorder ensemble, string ensemble, band, choir, drama club.
- Developing an understanding of visual art works in the world around them and of the different styles and forms used by artists to express ideas and concepts.
- Developing a sense of time and place based on knowledge gained of the histories and traditions associated with the arts practice of artists/performers from a diversity of cultures from across the world.
- Exploring and creating different styles and forms of artworks.
- Exploring the use of media both traditional and contemporary.
- Examining content, format and visual presentation techniques used in a variety media.
- Investigating a wide range of media technologies.
- Experiences that encourage students to become active participants as real artists through performance and presentations to peers, parents and the Pulteney community. Students celebrate and demonstrate their artistic talents and experiences through a whole Prep school presentation and peer performances.
- The opportunity to express oneself through their own compositions, inventions and improvisations. Students creatively express and communicate through dance and movement, mime, improvisation, and musical creations.
- Group work that encourages positive social interactions, developing skills in co-operation, leadership, tolerance and respect.
The Society and Environment Learning Area
Learning through society and environment involves learners in developing knowledge, skills and values that enables them to participate, in a range of ways, as ethical, active and informed citizens in a democratic society within a global community.
The scope of learning in society and environment is described through four strands:
• Time, continuity and change
• Place, space and environment
• Societies and cultures
• Social systems
Languages Other Than English – Indonesian
Through the study of languages, children gain knowledge and skills that enable them to communicate and to make comparisons across languages and cultures. They extend their understanding of themselves and their own language, widen their network of interactions, and strengthen their literacy and numeracy skills.
The goals of the Indonesian Language Program at Pulteney are:
• Communication in Indonesian: That students develop the capacity to communicate effectively using the skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing in Indonesian.
• Understanding language as a system: That students reflect on the uses of language and develop an awareness of the structures and conventions of the Indonesian language in comparison to the English language.
• Understanding culture: That students develop an understanding of the interrelationship between language and culture, extend their capacity to move across cultures and appreciate cultural diversity.
• General knowledge: That students extend their knowledge of a range of ideas related to their interests, issues in their world and concepts drawn from other Learning Areas.
Values and Ethics at Pulteney
“Values are the priorities individuals and society attach to certain beliefs, experiences and objects in deciding how they will live and what they will treasure.”
Values are “The ideals that give significance to our lives, that are reflected through the priorities we choose and that we act on consistently and repeatedly” (Hill, 2004)
The teaching of values and ethics at Pulteney is fundamental to our whole school teaching programme. It is integrated across all curriculum areas and it is supported by a variety of programmes. In addition it is addressed in its own right through an explicit values and ethics education programme. Pulteney offers a comprehensive, universal programme covering a wide range of moral and ethical values. Through values education children acquire confidence and self-esteem and are equipped with
“the capacity to exercise judgement and a grasp of the principles of morality and justice.”( The Australian Education Council, National Goals for the School Curriculum.)
The values and ethics programme is presented in a safe and supportive learning environment in which students are encouraged to explore their own, their school’s and their community’s values.
Goals
The National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty First Century (1999) state that students when they leave school should:
“have qualities of self-confidence, optimism, high self-esteem, and a commitment to personal excellence as a basis for their potential roles as family, community and workforce members”(Goal 12) and
“have the capacity to exercise judgement and responsibility in matters of morality, ethics and social justice, and the capacity to make sense of their world, to think about how things got to be the way they are, to make rational and informed decisions about their own lives, and to accept responsibility for their own actions.” (Goals 1-3)
Thus the values and ethics programme compliments the explicit goal of schooling that promotes Australia’s democratic way of life and values the diversity in Australian schools.
The study of World Religions (Years 3- 9) aims to promote an understanding of belief structures in the various religions as a basis for students to develop religious tolerance.
Structure and Organisation
The Values and Ethics Programme in The Prep has 5 distinct elements:
Chapel and the Biblical Tradition. This element educates students in an appreciation of the Bible and knowledge of the Anglican tradition. Regular worship in the Chapel of St Augustine is provided and each student is encouraged to develop a serious moral and spiritual perspective on life.
The ‘Value of the Month’ Programme. This is a literature-based programme, which is supplemented by a focus on the value of the month, across all learning areas in Years 3 – Year 6. This programme is taught in the subject specific timetable slot previously known as RAVE. The programme explores explicit values and the ethical questions pertinent to those values. The value of the month, also, is clearly articulated in each Key Learning Area.
The Study of World Religions. This study is contained within the SOSE learning area and is documented in the SOSE curriculum statement. A unit of study considering one of the major world religions including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Aboriginal Spirituality, is undertaken at each year level from Year 3 to Year 6 inclusive. The study of World Religions complements the Studies of Asia Focus within SOSE.
Ethics Education lessons are lessons which focus on ethical questions that may be related (although not always) to the Value of the Month. Ethics focuses on the exploration of ethical dilemmas and incorporates some age appropriate exploration of the discipline of Philosophy. Questions are explored in whole class discussions and through age-appropriate group activities. Again often drawing on the content of children’s literature, students explore concepts of right and wrong, rights and responsibilities, justice and injustice, and tolerance and intolerance. Students are encouraged to think for themselves and arrive at their own view, accept responsibility for that view and to respect the views of others. Through these discussions students articulate their values and understand the values of the school.
Stillness. This element provides students with an appreciation of the value of silence and of an alternative perspective on life to materialism and busyness.
This course explicitly incorporates the nine values for Australian schooling within values framework for the school. The programme is taught by using a variety of different models, modes and strategies that meet the individual needs of students. (The Values and Ethics at Pulteney Programme complements the Pastoral Care Programme.)