Curriculum

Sts Peter and Paul offers a unique curriculum that takes the excellence of a traditional primary education and blends it with innovative and flexible methods. The curriculum is woven together by a strong Christian ethos with an emphasis on values.

The curriculum is based on a staged series of exciting, substantial, holistic and challenging Rich Projects.

In these Rich Projects, traditional curriculum organisers (you may have called them subjects) have been redefined to create a more rational, effective and relevant learning context. Most aspects of the curriculum are addressed through these Rich projects but some parts of Mathematics, English and Religious Education are also addressed outside the Projects or supplemented by programs outside the Projects.

For Stage One (Years 1 and 2), Stage 2 (Years 3 and 4) and Stage Three (Years 5 and 6), a typical school day consists of Rich Project work plus work in certain programs outside the Project. The relative amount of time spent on these two aspects varies according to needs.

In Early Stage One (Kindergarten), the same curriculum organisers are used but, because of the special needs of children in their first year of school, a preparatory form of the Rich Project approach is used in order to develop the skills needed to start the Rich Project journey in Stage One.

Through careful design, our curriculum:
• focuses on the individual,
• aims for deep learning, and
• is designed to promote motivation, confidence, self-organisation and independence.

Information about the Sts Peter and Paul curriculum model is available on request and we offer regular information meetings about our approach. We seriously urge you to attend these because what we do here is different.

We strive to meet the needs of each child and this means we provide, as far as resources allow, special support for those needing it.
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Class Organisation

Today’s schools have accepted a new language when referring to classes. Instead of talking about Kindergarten, Year 1, Year 3, etc., it is becoming common to speak of Stages. There is an approximate link between the stages and the old system. Early Stage One is the new name for Kindergarten. Years 1 and 2 fit generally into Stage 2; years 3 and 4 make up Stage 2; and Years 5 and 6 make up Stage 3.

This new language reminds us that education is an on-going program, not a series of separate steps. There is a smooth flow between the various stages.

Various class structures operate in the school. At each year level there is a single age option and a multi-age option. All classes, whether single age or multi-age, provide multi-level education approximately defined by Stage.

Importantly, no child is academically limited by their class placement. The structures for each school year are determined on the basis of the perceived needs for that year. Parental input influences these decisions.

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