“The Australian Curriculum defines a solid foundation in knowledge, understanding, skills and values for all Australian children. It recognises that children are different: they develop at different rates, have different learning preferences and areas of interest, and have different aspirations. The Australian Curriculum can be used flexibly by schools, according to jurisdictional and system policies and schedules, to develop programs that meet the educational needs of their students and that extend and challenge students.”

Source – The Australian Curriculum

Our curriculum is innovative and contemporary and is designed to respond to the needs and interests of our students. We begin by establishing their individual needs through well-designed assessments. We have surveyed our staff, students and parents to establish an understanding of student interest, passions and parent expectations for their children and use these to inform our classroom programs. We are then guided in our Learning and Teaching by the following:

Australian Curriculum
AITSL (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership) standards for Teachers

The Curriculum includes, but is not limited to:

• English
• Mathematics
• Religious Education
• Science
• Humanities and Social Sciences (History, Geography, Economics, Civics and Citizenship)
• Health & Physical Education
• The Arts: Dance, Drama, Music, Media and Visual Arts
• Physical Education
• Languages (Auslan)
• Technologies

Curriculum content is used as a means of developing children who are able to think deeply and critically and learn with and from others in an ever-changing world.

To further ensure that we are best meeting the needs of individual students, our staff members are constantly involved in Professional Development that is based on the latest research and contemporary approaches from around the world. Teachers plan in teams, supported by experts from within the school, Catholic Education Office and Education Department, assessing individual student needs, informed by assessment and observations, and devise ways to meet these within classrooms. There is a strong focus on the development of essential skills in Literacy and Numeracy to enable students to successfully access the rest of the curriculum.

The curriculum at St Mary’s immerses students in learning that will equip them with the necessary skills and dispositions to live and work within a world that demands high levels of ICT literacy, academic knowledge and understanding as well as personal and interpersonal skills to allow them to communicate, think critically, collaborate and create in a global world.