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Foster Primary School provides all students with a planned and structured curriculum to equip them with the knowledge, skills and attributes needed to complete their schooling and to make a successful transition from school to work, training or further education.
Foster Primary School is committed to offering a comprehensive curriculum based on the Victorian Curriculum F-10. The key points in this framework, and in line with the F–10 Revised Curriculum Planning and Reporting Guidelines, are a commitment to:
Foster Primary School is committed to educational excellence and providing children with the opportunity to learn to the best of their ability.
Foster Primary School implements it’s curriculum in line with DET expectations. The school delivers a comprehensive academic program that involves all curriculum areas that are set out by the VCAA. The school has specialist areas including music, physical education, visual arts and science.
At Foster Primary School, class time is structured into a weekly timetable, with 5 hours 10 minutes hours of learning per day, broken into 60 minute sessions. A breakdown of time allocated to each learning area is documented below:
Domain | Minutes Per Week |
|---|---|
English | 600 |
Mathematics | 300 |
Sciences | 60 |
The arts | 60 |
Health and physical education | 180 |
Languages | Exempt |
Humanities | 240 |
Information and communication technology, and design and technology | 60 |
Total |
1500 |
Foster Primary School is exempt from providing a language program due to issues sourcing an appropriately qualified person to deliver a program.
The pedagogical approach at Foster Primary School is that ”everyone can learn to learn”. At our school we value an inclusive education that values each and every child’s education regardless of race, gender, socio-economic background, sexuality and disability. Teachers at Foster Primary School are expected to deliver all areas of the Victorian Curriculum to provide our students with a breadth of experiences. Our staff are expected to follow our Instructional Model ’I Do, We Do, You Do’ which also supports our guaranteed and viable curriculum.
Our school has built a professional learning community to ensure sustainable growth in student outcomes and build teacher capacity. Data drives all student learning through our professional learning community (PLC) approach. Data is analysed regularly by teachers in their PLCs aligned with the Foster Primary School assessment schedule. A range of student assessments and reporting activities inform and support student learning. We analyse school performance data including student, staff and parent surveys and use this to reflect on and improve our school.
The school has developed a structured approach to curriculum planning within the school on curriculum development common documentation, common language and understanding of the whole school curriculum by teachers, parents and students.
In line with FISO 2.0 we have a focus on student wellbeing. Foster Primary School wellbeing initiatives include; a wellbeing team (SSS, in school wellbeing support, Occupational Therapist, Therapy Dog), Respectful Relationships program. School Values (Be Caring, Be Respectful, Be Safe, Be a Learner), Challenging Learning strategies, School Wide Positive Behaviour initiative, Breakfast Club, SPPIKE (Aboriginal initiative), Student voice initiatives (junior school council, early act) and commitment to Child Safety Standards. These support and build the wellbeing of our whole school community.
Foster Primary School assesses student progress in line with the Department’s Assessment of Student Achievement and Progress Foundation to 10 policy.
Students at Foster Primary School will have multiple and varied opportunities to demonstrate learning and achievement. Teachers use assessment tasks that cover multiple curriculum levels to ensure that evidence of learning and growth is captured for every student.
Foster Primary School uses a range of assessment strategies to determine student growth and future teaching opportunities. This includes pre and post testing, formative assessment DET directed assessment as well as a range of third party formative and summative assessments eg: essential assessments and PAT testing.
Teachers are expected to triangulate data in the platform SPA to ascertain learning growth and areas of intervention. This data is taken back to PLC for moderation and to find commonality. It is expected that teaching staff give feedback to students regularly and to parents through the Compass portal at least four times per semester. This information is also discussed in a formal three way conversation bi-annually. At Foster Primary School:
Foster Primary School reports student progress to parents in line with the Department’s Reporting Student Achievement and Progress Foundation to 10 policy. In addition, Foster Primary School ensures that there is continuous sharing of assessment information formally and informally with parents/carers throughout the term/semester, including through twice-annual formal reporting.
At Foster Primary School progress reports are issued to parents in both terms 2 and 4. Parent/Teacher interviews are conducted in terms 1 and 3 where parents are invited to discuss their child’s progress by making an appointment with their teacher.
The progress report will be in a written format easy for parents/carers to understand and will be accessible in digital form with the option to translate text from English to another language, to cater to our school community.
