The core purpose of St. Francis of Assisi Primary School is to provide an inclusive, rigorous learning environment that challenges and engages young people to grow as passionate learners. The school seeks to develop motivated, creative and independent learners who demonstrate strong social values and whose leadership, resilience and self-esteem is evident when interacting with the community.
St. Francis of Assisi Primary School provides a comprehensive curriculum with a strong focus on literacy and numeracy. The school is a ‘5 Star Sustainable’ school and won the Resource Smart award for bio diversity in 2015. In addition to the comprehensive classroom programs offered in literacy and numeracy, an integrated classroom curriculum program addresses the domains of Education for Sustainability, Science, Humanities/History, Design and Technology, Civics and Citizenship, and Health. These domains are also cross referenced with the literacy program to ensure sufficient time is allocated to address the content. Specialist teachers provide instruction in Language (French), and the Arts. Interdisciplinary, personal and social learning are addressed within these domains and supported by a range of Outdoor Education camps and excursion initiatives. The school is an active participant in district sport competitions as well as providing opportunities for students to participate in private music lessons.
The leadership group is focused on a two-year curriculum planning cycle and the continuous analysis of a range of data around school improvement. At this level there is an integration of long term planning around fiscal management, workforce planning and school structures. There is a high level of professional development and the promotion of professional autonomy in the context of participation in the school improvement and teaching and learning teams and consultancy support for key initiatives.
The school has developed a structured approach to curriculum planning that ensures a shared vision within the school on curriculum development, common documentation and common understanding of the whole-school curriculum by teachers and parents. The data analysed regularly by teachers in their curriculum planning includes a suite of year level assessments including NAPLAN and an analysis of school performance data including student, staff and parent surveys.
