Curriculum & Subjects
Our curriculum is aligned to the Victorian Curriculum. It is balanced across academic and personal growth, and is focused on engaging young learners to achieve success and to build confidence. Our composite class system allows children to participate in concepts at their level of understanding ie. related to their age and stage of development.
The Victorian Curriculum F-10 sets out what every student should learn during their first eleven years of schooling. The curriculum is the common set of knowledge and skills required by students for life-long learning, social development, and active and informed citizenship. The Victorian Curriculum F-10 incorporates the Australian Curriculum and reflects Victorian priorities and standards.
A strong emphasis is placed on the value of English and Maths throughout the curriculum. English and Maths is fully integrated into our termly Inquiry through-lines in which children are engaged.
We use an Inquiry Learning approach to allow children to develop all the life skills they need to prepare them for making positive contributions to society, and our teaching and learning practice encourages students to go deeper in their understanding and relate learning experiences to real-life situations.
Strong foundations in Science & Technology (STEM) are a priority through an innovative and hands-on STEM program.
The key areas of Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Indonesian, and Library are supported by specialist teachers.
Mathematics
The Mathematics curriculum focuses on Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, Statistics and Probability. We use open ended questioning and problem solving in order to develop and apply thinking and reasoning skills in areas such as number concepts, patterns, measurement, shapes and chance and data.
A large part of our Maths curriculum is taught through open-ended student investigations. These tasks often have more than one solution, or one solution with multiple ways to get there. These activities have many opportunities for students to take their learning further, individually or collaboratively. It is often after this investigation time when the students will be explicitly taught new skills. This teaching is primarily driven by high-quality questioning of students. All students are expected to have a go at answering teacher questions, rather than just the student who puts their hand up first. This is obtained by the teacher via multi-choice polling of the students. This teacher-driven polling helps each student to articulate their thinking, identify their own misconceptions through discussions, and then make changes through re-polling and the teaching and learning process.
English
At Deans Marsh Primary School our English Curriculum focusses on Reading and Viewing, Writing, Speaking and Listening. During each Reading lesson we have an explicit focus that is then explored by students through choosing from a selection of Daily 5 activities designed to reinforce newly learnt concepts. Students who benefit from additional support are included in our school tutoring program. Our Writing program incorporates VCOP (vocabulary, connectives, openers, and punctuation) along with fortnightly Big Write’s where students have the opportunity to work on their individual goals and showcase their skills. We use The Seven Steps program to structure our writing in unique and interesting ways. SoundWaves is our whole school approach to spelling. This ensures a consistent teaching and learning approach where each student can continue to build on and expand their phonological awareness in an adaptive and inclusive environment.
Healthy and Wellbeing
At Deans Marsh Primary School students participate in Health and Wellbeing sessions which focus on developing their personal and social skills, such as self-awareness, self management and the school values of resilience, responsibility and respect when dealing with challenges and developing strategies to enhance performance. This is supported by the Respectful Relationships program and The Resilience Project.
Students regularly participate in Physical Education sessions where they are able to improve their fine and gross motors skills through co-operative games and teaching skills sessions. During these sessions students also focus on communication, decision-making, problem solving, critical and creating thinking, co-operation, teamwork and fairness while enjoying these lessons.
Students also have the opportunity to represent Deans Marsh Primary School in a range of different sporting events from swimming, cross-country, athletics, football, netball, soccer, badminton, tennis and cricket at all different levels.
Inquiry
Our Inquiry Learning curriculum allows for student voice within a structured program, teaching STEM and Humanities. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and looks at solving real-world problems.
Our inquiry curriculum is based around a termly through-line, with students from Prep-6 working on the same theme, EG Sustainable Energy. There is scope within each theme for student voice and choice by taking learning in directions based on our own wonderings on the topic.
The Inquiry program aims to ensure that students develop an interest in topics whilst expanding their curiosity and willingness to explore, ask questions about and speculate on the changing world in which we live. Inquiry Learning also provides a framework for students to examine the complex processes that have shaped the modern world and to investigate responses to different challenges including people’s interconnections with the environment.
Students explore the processes that have shaped and which continue to shape different societies and cultures, to appreciate the common humanity shared across time and distance, and to evaluate the ways in which humans have faced and continue to face different challenges.
Community partnerships support our Inquiry Learning work and enable students to take their learning further and deeper.
Student Planetarium: As part of our term 2 Inquiry unit, our Year 2-3 Cockatoos each researched and created a planet. These were then displayed within our unique school planetarium that we created out of our climbing dome. Students then took tours of the solar system with groups of parents and students. Here is a sneak peak of what happened “under the DMPS dome”.
Visual Arts
Visual Arts includes Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design. In Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design, students explore the world of visual representation and expression.
Performing Arts
Performing Arts at Deans Marsh Primary School includes Dance, Drama, Media Arts and Music and takes place in a weekly 1 hr specialist timeslot. The main objective is to provide students with a range of interesting musical experiences in a fun and safe environment. We achieve this through 4 key areas: Inspire, Discover, Create & Share. Students have opportunities to showcase their musical skills, rehearsing for and performing at local festivals, including the Music & Movement festival in Geelong.
A school concert is held annually in term 4. This event provides students with the opportunity to explore the many facets of the arts. This is a big event on the school's calendar and our audience fill the community hall as we come together to celebrate all things Deans Marsh Primary School.
Language other than English (LOTE)
Our LOTE Bahasa Indonesian program provides a broad introduction to both the language and culture of Indonesia in visual, spoken and written form. Learning languages in addition to English extends student’s literacy repertoires and their capacity to communicate. It strengthens student’s understanding of the nature of language, culture, and the processes of communication. Each term’s program focuses on listening, speaking, reading and writing skills in the Indonesian language and a study of Indonesian culture.
