Our aim at Coorparoo State School aligns with the Department of Education and Training State Schools Strategy 2016-2020 – Every student succeeding. Collaborative Empowerment is the way forward. Coorparoo State School staff work together in a variety of ways toward a set of common goals to ensure every student succeeds, lifts their own performance and reaches their potential.
At Coorparoo State School, our pathway forward is Powerful Learning and Curiosity, which essentially encompasses 10 research based actions, to be embed in all facets of our school including; our visions, values, pedagogy and curriculum. The ‘how’ of education at Coorparoo is integral to our professional learning and development, our coaching, teaching and planning cycle for each Learning Area and Subject.
Australian Curriculum
The Australian Curriculum underpins all teaching, planning, assessment and reporting in English, Mathematics, Science, Geography and History in Prep to Year 6. The Australian Curriculum is designed to develop successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active informed citizens.
In each Learning Area content descriptors specify the learning, the achievement standard describes the depth of understanding and the intricacy of knowledge and the skill expected at the end of each year level or band. These descriptors are our core business in developing unit plans that provide opportunities for students to build this learning through curiosity and a gradual release of responsibility. The Achievement standards, as determined by ACARA, are fundamental to our assessment and reporting.
At Coorparoo State School we are actively working towards implementation of the Australian Curriculum in Health and Physical Education, The Arts, Technologies and Languages through professional learning and supported implementation of trial units as provided through C2C and or developed by teachers, coaches and Head of Curriculum. Implementation advice for these Australian Curriculum areas is being followed as released.
Cross-curriculum priorities
In the Australian Curriculum these have become priorities that provide students with the tools and language to engage with and better understand their world at a range of levels. Cross-curriculum priorities are addressed through learning areas and are identified wherever they are developed or applied in content descriptions.
The priorities enable the delivery of learning area content at the same time as developing knowledge, understanding and skills relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia or Sustainability. Incorporation of the priorities will encourage conversations between learning areas and between students, teachers and the wider community.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures priority provides the opportunity for all young Australians to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, deep knowledge traditions and holistic world views. This knowledge and understanding will enrich all learners’ ability to participate positively in the ongoing development of Australia through a deepening knowledge and connection with the world’s oldest continuous living cultures.
Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum in English and Mathematics
Our school has begun establishing a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum in English. The Australian Curriculum is extensive and describes a vast range of curriculum indicators at a mastery level. Australian schools have been challenged with ensuring that we teach the essentials for each education juncture. The over crowded curriculum is an educational challenge and one that Coorparoo like many schools, are addressing through establishing the guaranteed and viable curriculum in core subjects such as English and Math. This approach ensures that all students have a guaranteed curriculum for these essential building blocks to literacy and numeracy. Collaboratively teachers and leaders have identified and prioritised Australian Curriculum descriptors to narrow our focus and work towards mastery learning for all students in the identified areas.
Differentiated Curriculum
At a school level we plan and teach with a student centred approach to maximise learning and potential for all students at Coorparoo. Teachers are supported to differentiate the curriculum to ensure all students equally access the learning and assessments. Here at Coorparoo, we not only collect data, we analyse, collaborate with experts, identify and implement actions for student improvement and success. Our expert coaching staff work with teachers to refine their skills to both support and extend student learning.
Consistency
We know that reducing the variance between each classroom across the school is a powerful and effective strategy in our journey towards student improvement. Team meetings and collaboration are imperative to this consistency. At Coorparoo, teachers strive to achieve this day to day, week to week and term to term. Moderation processes occur termly in English and Maths to strengthen this consistency and comparability of judgements. Our whole school curriculum framework provides teachers and parents with the overviews for each unit for the year.
The Early years of schooling
In Prep to Year 2, the Australian Curriculum gives priority to establishing literacy and numeracy and the other critical aspects of learning and development in the early years — social and physical development and sensory, cognitive and affective appreciation of the world. These skills are taught as part of the learning areas.
In Prep, the first formal year of schooling, every student is recognised as a capable learner. Teachers build from each student’s diverse prior experience when planning to teach the required curriculum. They teach in ways known to engage young learners and to best support their learning and development.
From entry to Prep and throughout the early years, schools and teachers assess, monitor and respond to each student’s learning. This ongoing monitoring of student progress informs the differentiation of teaching. This is critical in the early years when student learning and development of social, physical and cognitive skills occurs at such a rapid and variable rate.
Across the early years, continuity of student learning and successful transitions are supported — from home or Kindergarten to Prep; from Prep into Year 1 and later into the upper years of primary.
Upper primary
In Years 3 to 6, the Australian Curriculum continues to prioritise English and literacy and Mathematics and numeracy, along with the opportunity for a broad education that includes eight learning areas. The Year 3 curriculum is linked with Year 4 rather than with the early years.Schools provide opportunities for students to deepen their learning in particular areas according to their interests and needs. Teachers take into account that students are expanding the scope of their interests and are typically moving from concrete to abstract thinking. Teachers promote links between aspects of learning to deepen students’ knowledge and understanding and to show the connectedness and relevance of their learning.
Digital Literacies
Digital literacies is an important part of the Australian Curriculum. Our students now learn using a range of digital devices, making use of these as a normal part of accessing the curriculum. Our teachers develop digital capabilities with students to ensure they develop across their schooling age appropriate skills and knowledge for working in a digital world.