Knowledge
LEARNING FOR LIFE
Visitors to our school sometimes ask if we teach ‘the normal’ curriculum. The answer is YES! Our students’ learning is based upon the Western Australian Curriculum and the Early Years Learning Framework.
It is HOW we deliver this curriculum that sets us apart from other schools. We teach the core curriculum subjects within a meaningful, content-rich and purposeful program.
It Starts with Play
Early Childhood experts all agree that a play-based start to learning sets children up to become life-long learners who carry their enthusiasm for the world and all its wonders right through to adulthood.
At Kwoorabup we also believe that a strong emphasis on social and emotional skill building in the context of a literacy and numeracy rich environment is the best possible start to schooling.
Research scientists of the future
Our inquiry-based teaching style positions the children as researchers right from the beginning of their learning journey.
Instead of being rote taught facts, they are taught how to ask questions, think critically and design experiments to test their ideas.
Our teachers act as facilitators and co-learners, provoking questions and supporting students to carry their curiosity into new realms.
Learning by doing
Our students are a key part of organising and running our community events and festivals and we specifically plan to integrate key elements of the curriculum such as numeracy and literacy into these hands on experiences.
For example we are proud to produce students who are financially competent and enthusiastic about mathematics when they leave Primary School.
Why use a printed worksheet when you can run a cake stall instead?
Cooperative team work
Starting from Year 3 students are given access to range of technological tools such as stop motion animation, coding, robotics and more.
Our STEAM and digital technologies program provides a hands on opportunity to integrate our environmental focus into project based learning in teams.
Working together is a really important skill for our children to learn however it does take work to get it right. By explicitly teaching how a team works and the different roles we all play in getting a project together we are setting them up with a toolkit for life.
EVIDENCE BASED explicit teaching
Because of our small class sizes our exceptional teachers and assistants are able to provide frequent one on one support to ensure that all the elements of the curriculum are covered and understood by our students. We use evidence based approaches to teach literacy and numeracy and back up our teaching with regular assessment which allows our staff to create a collaborative data wall that tracks each student’s progress over time.
