The Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education is organised into two content strands: personal, social and community health and movement and physical activity. Each strand contains content descriptions which are organised under three sub-strands.

Personal, social and community health Movement and physical activity

Sub-strands and threads Being healthy, safe and active

• Identities
• Changes and transitions
• Help-seeking
• Making healthy and safe choices Moving our body
• Refining movement skills
• Developing movement concepts and strategies

Communicating and interacting for health and wellbeing

• Interacting with others
• Understanding emotions
• Health literacy Understanding movement
• Fitness and physical activity
• Elements of movement
• Cultural significance of physical activity

Contributing to healthy and active communities

• Community health promotion
• Connecting to the environment
• Valuing diversity Learning through movement
• Teamwork and leadership
• Critical and creative thinking in movement
• Ethical behaviour in movement settings

Areas of focus can include drug and alcohol education, food and nutrition, relationships and sexuality, safety, active play and minor games, fundamental movement skills, games and sport. Students will gain knowledge, understandings, attitudes and skills to help them achieve healthy behaviour and address health related issues.

Physical Education

In Physical Education, students work towards developing new skills and coordination; with and without equipment; an understanding of teamwork, and the importance of being active.
In addition to physical education lessons and daily fitness activities run by classroom teachers, there is opportunity for children to participate in additional sporting activities throughout the year, such as sport clinics or join out of school hours sporting teams including cricket, soccer, netball.

Swimming/Aquatics

Year 6/7 students have aquatic lessons at Port Noarlunga Aquatic Centre in Term 1 or 4.
Year R-5 students have a week of swimming lessons at Noarlunga Leisure Centre during the year.

SAPSASA (South Australian Primary Schools Athletics Sports Association)

We actively encourage older students (Year 5-7) to become involved in the SAPSASA program. The school provides opportunities for students to represent the school in individual sports such as cross country. They also have opportunities to try out for various district teams such as soccer and netball.

Health

Students have the opportunity to learn about and to participate in making healthy choices, every day including:

• ‘Brain Food’ – healthy snack time with fresh fruit and vegetables
• Sunsmart policy – wearing of hats when outdoors
• Water bottles at school
• Play is the Way Social Skills program
• Anti- bullying and other social skill programs such as Cybersafety
• Guest speakers eg dieticians, athletes
• Support of local services in delivering programs eg Marion Council
• Participation in growing and cultivating vegetables in school garden
• Cooking healthy foods

All students will also progress through the 4 strands of the Child Protection Curriculum relevant to their year level. Topics to be covered include:

• The right to be SAFE
• Relationships
• Recognising and Reporting Abuse
• Protective Strategies

In the Australian Curriculum: HASS students develop knowledge and understanding of the following key ideas:

• Who we are, who came before us, and traditions and values that have shaped societies
• Australia’s heritage and cultural diversity, traditions and Australia’s identity as a nation in the world.
• How societies and economies operate and how they are changing over time
• Students learn about Australian society and other societies in the world, both past and present; and how they function socially, culturally, economically and politically.
• The ways people, places, ideas and events are perceived and connected

Students develop an understanding of the interdependent nature of the world and the interrelationships within and between the natural environment, human communities and economies.

How people exercise their responsibilities, participate in society and make informed decisions

Students examine how individuals and groups have participated in and contributed to society past and present. They examine the rights and responsibilities of individuals and groups over time and in different contexts.

History and Geography are the main components of the primary curriculum with Civics and Citizenship and Business and Economics introduced in the upper primary Years.

History

The Australian Curriculum: History is organised into two interrelated strands: Historical Knowledge and Understanding and Historical Skills.

Historical Knowledge and Understanding

This strand includes personal, family, local, state or territory, national, regional and world history. The emphasis is on Australian history in its world history context. It enables students to develop an understanding of the past and present experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their identity and the continuing value of their culture. It also helps students to appreciate Australia’s distinctive path of social, economic and political development, its position in the Asia-Pacific region, and its global interrelationships.

Historical Skills

This strand promotes skills used in the process of historical inquiry: chronology, terms and concepts; historical questions and research; the analysis and use of sources; perspectives and interpretations; explanation and communication.

Geography

The Australian Curriculum: Geography is organized in two related strands: Geographical Knowledge and Understanding, and Geographical Inquiry and Skills.

Geographical Knowledge and Understanding

Geographical Knowledge refers to the facts, generalisations, principles, theories and models developed in geography.

Geographical Inquiry and Skills

Geographical Inquiry is a process by which students learn about and deepen their understanding of geography.

The stages of an investigation are:

• Observing, questioning and planning: Identifying an issue or problem and developing geographical questions to investigate the issue or find an answer to the problem such as global warming, natural disasters.
• Collecting, recording, evaluating and representing : Collecting information from primary and/or secondary sources, recording the information, evaluating it for reliability and bias, and representing it in a variety of forms such as tables and maps.
• Interpreting analysing and concluding : Making sense of information gathered by identifying trends, patterns, anomalies, generalisations and cause-and-effect relationships. It also involves interpreting the results of this analysis and developing conclusions.
• Communicating: Communicating the results of investigations using combinations of methods (written, oral, audio, graphical, visual and mapping) appropriate to the subject matter, purpose and audience.
• Reflecting and responding : Reflecting on the findings of the investigation; what has been learned; the process and effectiveness of the inquiry; and proposing actions that consider environmental, economic and social factors.

The Resource Centre (Library) provides support for teachers and students where skills in Resource Based Learning can be developed. Information Technology is also used widely in this area for research and presentation of work.

History and Geography is also often embedded and integrated with other curriculum areas such as Science, The Arts and Technology. Topics and themes can cover a diverse range of topics including Australia’s Past and Present, Systems of Government, Transport, Endangered Animals, Rules and Laws, Inventions, Studies of other Cultures, Religions, Coastal and Desert Environments and Human Rights.

Topics are also often closely related to significant and current local and global events such as natural disasters, Commonwealth and Olympic Games, International Years (eg Year of Astronomy) and Global Conflicts.

Each class participates in two Japanese lessons each week. The students are involved in activities that encompass Japanese language and culture relevant to their year level.

The aim is for students to learn not only another language but to also learn about and appreciate a culture different from their own. They will explore aspects of culture such as climate, food, animals, clothing, schooling and leisure activities. Japanese culture influences many areas of contemporary Australian society, including the arts, design, technology, fashion, popular culture and cuisine. Games, songs, cooking, mask making and origami are excellent ways of immersing students into Japanese language and culture.
Students may learn greetings, the names for common objects, numbers, names of body parts, and the hiragana writing system. Students in the older classes will learn how to ask questions and have conversations and can extend their knowledge of the other script systems katakana and kanji.

Japanese festivals such as Kite and Cherry Blossom Festivals will also be celebrated, often as whole school events.

The Australian Curriculum: Mathematics is organised around three content strands and four proficiency strands.
The content strands are Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability.
The proficiency strands are Understanding, Fluency, Problem Solving, and Reasoning.

Content strands

Number and Algebra

Students apply number sense and strategies for counting and representing numbers. They apply a range of strategies for computation and understand the connections between operations. They recognise patterns and build on their understanding of the number system to describe relationships and formulate generalisations. They recognise equivalence and solve equations and inequalities. This strand includes topics such place value, addition, subtraction, multiplicative thinking, fractions, decimals and money.

Measurement and Geometry

Students develop an understanding of size, shape, relative position and movement of two-dimensional and three-dimensional objects. They make meaningful measurements of quantities, choosing appropriate metric units of measurement. They build an understanding of the connections between units and calculate measures such as perimeter, area, volume and speed.

Statistics and Probability

Students recognise and analyse data and draw inferences. They represent, summarise and interpret data and undertake purposeful investigations involving the collection and interpretation of data. They assess likelihood and assign probabilities.

Proficiency strands

Understanding

Students build a robust knowledge of adaptable and transferable mathematical concepts. They make connections between related concepts and progressively apply the familiar to develop new ideas.

Fluency

Students are fluent when they can calculate answers efficiently, when they recognise ways of answering questions, when they choose appropriate methods and approximations, when they recall definitions and regularly use facts, and when they can manipulate expressions and equations to find solutions.

Problem Solving

Students develop the ability to make choices, interpret, formulate, model and investigate problem situations, and communicate solutions effectively.

Reasoning

Students are reasoning mathematically when they explain their thinking, when they deduce and justify strategies used and conclusions reached, when they adapt the known to the unknown, when they transfer learning from one context to another, when they prove that something is true or false and when they explain their choices.

The Australian Curriculum: Science has three interrelated strands:
Science Understanding, Science as a Human Endeavour and Science Inquiry Skills.

Students are challenged to explore science, its concepts, nature and uses
through clear inquiry processes.

Science Understanding

The Science Understanding strand comprises four sub-strands:

Biological sciences

The biological sciences are concerned with understanding living things. Students investigate living things, including animals, plants, and micro-organisms, and their interdependence and interactions within ecosystems. They explore their life cycles, body systems, structural adaptations and behaviours and how these features aid survival.

Chemical sciences

The chemical sciences is concerned with understanding the composition and behaviour of substances. Students classify substances based on their properties, such as solids, liquids and gases, or their composition, such as elements, compounds and mixtures.

Earth and space sciences

The Earth and space sciences is concerned with Earth’s dynamic structure and its place in the cosmos. Students view Earth as part of a solar system, which is part of a galaxy, which is one of many in the universe and explore the immense scales associated with space. They explore how changes on Earth, such as day and night and the seasons relate to Earth’s rotation and its orbit around the sun.

Physical sciences

The physical sciences is concerned with understanding the nature of forces and motion, and matter and energy. Students gain an understanding of how an object’s motion (direction, speed and acceleration) is influenced by a range of contact and non-contact forces such as friction, magnetism, gravity and electrostatic forces. They develop an understanding of the concept of energy and how energy transfer is associated with phenomena involving motion, heat, sound, light and electricity.

Science as a Human Endeavour

Through science, humans seek to improve their understanding and explanations of the natural world. Science involves the construction of explanations based on evidence and science knowledge can be changed as new evidence becomes available.

Science Inquiry Skills

There are five Science Inquiry Skills. These are:

• Questioning and predicting: Identifying and constructing questions, proposing hypotheses and suggesting possible outcomes.
• Planning and conducting: Making decisions regarding how to investigate or solve a problem and carrying out an investigation, including the collection of data.
• Processing and analysing data and information: Representing data in meaningful and useful ways; identifying trends, patterns and relationships in data, and using this evidence to justify conclusions.
• Evaluating: Considering the quality of available evidence and the merit or significance of a claim, proposition or conclusion with reference to that evidence.
• Communicating: Conveying information or ideas to others through appropriate representations, text types and modes such as graphs and tables.

The Australian Curriculum: Technologies describes two distinct but related subjects:

• Design and Technologies, in which students use design thinking and technologies to generate and produce designed solutions for authentic needs and opportunities
• Digital Technologies, in which students use computational thinking and information systems to define, design and implement digital solutions.

The Australian Curriculum: Technologies ensures that all students benefit from learning about and working with traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies that shape the world in which we live. By applying their knowledge and practical skills and processes when using technologies and other resources to create innovative solutions, independently and collaboratively, they develop knowledge, understanding and skills to respond creatively to current and future needs.

The practical nature of the Technologies learning area engages students in critical and creative thinking, including understanding interrelationships in systems when solving complex problems. A systematic approach to experimentation, problem-solving, prototyping and evaluation instils in students the value of planning and reviewing processes to realise ideas.

Technologies are often integrated into other curriculum areas and could be covered through:

• Making dioramas and models from natural and manmade materials to specifications
• Use of construction kits such as Polydrons, Lego, Lego Technics, building blocks, Knex
• Using a variety of IT software and programs including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Apps, Scratch, Edmodo, Scootle
• Use of digital and video cameras and associated software
• Using programs for robotics, animation etc

Computers are available in each teaching unit to support ICT, as well as mobile devices including Ipads and Ipods. All students and staff have Internet and Email access. Each main teaching classroom has an interactive whiteboard for staff and student use.

The Arts is a broad Curriculum area encompassing the 5 major art forms – Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts. The Arts areas are inter-related but each has specific techniques, characteristics and concepts and all make a unique contribution to children’s learning.

Through active involvement in the Arts, children of all abilities are given the opportunity to develop a variety of ways to express themselves, to entertain, create and develop a critical appreciation of the various arts forms. Art activities and experiences are generally delivered by the class or specialist teachers but may also be covered through workshops and visiting performances.

Drama

Drama is an area where children can react to real and imagined events through role play, play making and performance. It gives them the opportunity to explore and represent their ideas and feelings in a dramatic form. Aspects covered can include characterisation, audience skills, mime, improvisation, script writing, body gestures, mask making, puppetry and costuming.

Music

Music is the aural representation of ideas as sounds and silences. They can be represented using the voice, body, found sounds, acoustic and electronic instruments or equipment.
Students are exposed to a variety of mediums including, rhythm, melody, harmony, beat, composition, tempo, pitch, learning about different instruments, music notations and the history of music.
Interested students may also have the opportunity to learn an instrument with a private music instructor or join the Primary Choir. Recorder is offered to Year 2 and 3 students.

Dance

In dance, children learn to express themselves through movement and in the process develop coordination, body awareness, team work and positive self esteem. The techniques and mediums which may be covered include balance, body position, choreography, rhythm, symmetry, levels in space and movement sequences. A 5 week Professional dance program is also offered to all students.

Visual Arts

Visual Arts is the exploration and expression of ideas using a broad range of approaches and techniques, including drawing and painting, patterning, printmaking, collage, construction and sculpture in experimental and conceptual forms. It involves the use of a variety of materials, tools and mediums such as ceramics, clay, textured materials, fabrics, charcoal, crayon, ink, paints, brushes and rollers.

Media Arts

Media Arts is a topic that encompasses areas such as animation, video games, movies, television, film making, newspapers, advertising and radio. Students can be involved in activities such as analysing media, script writing, filming, editing and producing.