Junior Years Learning at St Francis Catholic College embraces a traditional primary school model that aligns with the core goals of the NSW Curriculum Reform, ensuring that our youngest students build strong foundations for lifelong learning. Our students benefit from a 'home-base' classroom where the majority of subjects are taught by a consistent classroom teacher. This consistency fosters a secure environment that allows our teachers to deeply understand each child’s unique learning profile, ensuring every student is known, valued and cared for.
We have three streams of classes from Kindergarten to Year 4, where the physical environment is purposefully designed to mirror the developmental stage of the child. The setup of furniture and resources changes as students progress, with each space providing a flexible learning environment to encourage increasing independence, collaborative opportunities and student agency.
In line with the reform’s focus on explicit instruction and essential content, we prioritise evidence-based instruction to ensure every student develops proficiency in core skills. Our Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 classes implement Initialit, an evidence-based whole-class literacy program which will provide all children with the essential core knowledge and strong foundations to become successful readers and writers. The foundational years are further supported by dedicated Mathematics blocks that utilise data-informed strategies to build the flexible mathematical thinking required by the curriculum.
All classes have access to a comprehensive fleet of iPads to assist them with their learning.
While classroom teachers lead the core curriculum to maintain instructional continuity, students also work with specialist teachers for Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) and Creative Arts. During this time, the class teacher is released from face-to-face teaching to meet with their grade team for Professional Planning Time (PPT). This structure supports our collaborative culture, where collaborative planning is driven by an ongoing analysis of student data to design and implement high-impact teaching strategies that meet the specific needs of every learner.
To prepare students for an increasingly digital world, all classes have access to a comprehensive fleet of iPads to support their learning. This technology is integrated purposefully across the curriculum, moving from foundational digital literacy in the early years to more complex tasks as students progress.
We deeply value community involvement and welcome parent helpers to assist with classroom activities, such as small-group reading and mathematics, typically commencing from Term 2. This partnership between school and home is further supported by our termly Curriculum Overviews. Delivered via Compass, these overviews provide transparency into the Key Learning Areas and ensure families are active participants in their child’s educational journey.
We have three streams of classes in Kindergarten as well as three streams of classes in Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4. Each class receives a Curriculum Overview per term which outlines what is being covered in the Key Learning Areas for that term and what day they will visit the Library.
Our Curriculum Overviews are designed to provide parents and carers with a clear window into the classroom, detailing the specific units, learning goals, and specialist teachers for each term.
