Learning & Teaching

Learning Investigations

When learning is real, relevant and meaningful it means students are empowered to become independant, creative thinkers and problem solvers. Our teachers strategically plan for and implement student and curriculum data informed investigations that assist the children to make strong connections across all the learning areas they participate in daily.

These multi-sensory learing experiences in our junior school require our students to think, create, design, write, draw, calculate, measure, problem solve, negotiate, collaborate, forward plan and navigate feelings at times of comfortable floundering. Comfortable floundering is that powerful state essential to the learning of new skills and understandings where children are taaught to engage their growth mindset and positive learning dispositions. At St. Margearet Mary’s our learning investigations and inquiries assist our children to experience and develop multiple learning dispositions such as: persistence, managing impulsivity (Respect), listening to others (Compassion), thinking flexibly, thinking about our thinking (Metacognition) striving for accuracy and precision (Excellence) questioning (Integrity) and posing problems and applying past knowledge to new situations - (Consolidating, contextualising applying and extending the maths, english, sciences, humanities and other curriculums taught explicitly every day).

Lessons designed by our staff are suitable for each and every child in the class. The sky is literally the limit during investigations as children are encouraged to develop skills and understandings that relate to their explicit maths and literacy lessons.

Faith - Life Inquiry

Faith Life Inquiry is centred on broad understandings that require students to develop higher-level thinking and skills of inquiry.

The St Margaret Mary’s community works to inspire its students to be true disciples of Jesus, guided by Christ’s love and teachings.

The purpose of Religious Education at St Margaret Mary’s is to enrich students understanding of the Gospel and its relevance to their everyday lives. To provide enriching community experiences of prayer, liturgy, curriculum and faith experiences. To ignite student’s passion and understanding of their faith and actively involve them in their faith. To inspire and encourage students to be disciples and stewards of Jesus instilling in them a greater sense of responsibility and purpose.To prepare students for their Sacramental initiation into the Catholic faith.

Students are supported to consider and explore ‘Big Questions’ within the Essential Learning areas outlined in the Victorian Curriculum. This approach supports them to make connections between themselves, their faith and to their world, search for answers, develop deeper understanding of concepts, share learnings and bring them to life through the use of technology within the classrooms. This learning approach connects our Gospel values to bring optismism, compassion, integrity, respect and excellence to their view of the world, their learning and their resposibilities as Global citizens. Inquiry learning at St. Margaret Mary’s draws on positive dispositional skills.

Visible Learning

Visible learning is all about children taking ownership for their learning.

It is the result of the research undertaken by John Hattie to understand what provides the most success in learning. It is based on over 68,000 studies and 25 million students. John Hattie defines Visible Learners as students who can:

• Articulate what they are learning

• Explain the next steps in their learning

• Set learning goals

• See errors as opportunities for further learning

• Know what to do when they are stuck

• Seek feedback
  

Literacy

We recognise the fundamental role Literacy plays in a child’s learning. In the junior years, our Literacy program aims to develop the foundations of Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking, ensuring that students are supported to develop basic skills on which to build upon in later years. At SMM, our Literacy Practices are in line with Science of Learning research and practices. “The science of learning” refers to two related concepts: the study of how the brain learns, and evidenced informed methods for teaching literacy.

In Foundation, Years 1 + 2, the five specific reading sub-skills of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension are taught explicitly and systematically so that our children become capable readers. Years 3-6 continue to build on these strong foundations of literacy. At SMM students are taught to their point of need through the use of timely student data to inform their learning plan. Classroom and learning enhancement teachers meet weekly with our literacy leaders and Literacy Learning specialist to analyse student work samples to ascertain, “Where is each student now in the English progression of learning? Where to next? How can we optimise each child’s learning outcomes?”

In 2023 we launched the implementation of Spelling Mastery across our Year 1 -6 classes. Spelling Mastery provides explicit lessons to help efficiently and effectively teach the spelling skills students need to become proficient readers and writers.

In 2024 we introduced the esteemed Literacy education specialist, Margaret O’Connell into our teaching professional development and leadership team. Margaret will work with and alongside our newly appointed junior (Kate Flynn) and middle / senior (Fiona Parnell) literacy leaders to optimise student literacy ahievement from Foundation to year 6. Kate and Fiona are both highly skilled, experienced teachers who bring to their literacy leadership roles the added leadership “currency and credibility” of being classroom teachers at SMM.

Mathematics

We engage evidenced informed science of learning and teaching strategies in Mathematics. Our Numeracy program covers the requirements of the Victorian Curriculum through the explicit teaching of skills through the evidenced informed Learning Framework in Number, (LFIN). This means that the children are taught to their individual point of need. Numeracy lessons ensure students are instructed to extend existing knowledge and skills through lessons that focus on the next stage of the LFIN learning progression. Numeracy skills are also reinforced through daily revision and application of these skills through authentic learning experiences. Mathematics learning and teaching at St. Margaret Mary’s ensures individual students learning needs are met through the nuanced and agile combination of explicit teaching and applied learning tasks.

St. Margaret Mary’s Mathematics Learning and Teaching is expertly lead by Anne Ablinger alongside Lucy Kett, who together bring to this role extensive mathematics teaching and leadership experience. Anne and Lucy both come to us with specialised knowledge of LFIN, change leadership and curriculum design that is responsive to student data and aligned with evidenced informed practice. Anne, amongst may skills, is proficient in Multi-sensory learning, and Lucy joins us after 15 years of “teaching teachers” in mathematics at our department of MACS (Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools). Both Lucy and Anne work “shoulder to shoulder,’ in classrooms, at planning meetings and when facilitating professional learning with our Classroom and Learning Enhancement teachers.

Specialist Subject - AUSLAN

Our St. Margaret Mary’s teacher, Grant Tasca is our AUSLAN teacher. Grant has partnered with AUSLAN Education Services to learn and teach AUSLAN to all students from Foundation to year 6.
Learning Auslan offers numerous benefits, including:

• Unique neural and cognitive development through visual language

• Ability to communicate with Auslan-using peers, friends, and family

• Enhanced visual-gestural communication skills

• Intellectual stimulation and personal growth

• Cross-curricular integration, especially with ICT

• Access to diverse ways of expression and thinking

• Development of interpersonal skills and broader social networks

• Appreciation of inclusion and diversity

• Acquisition of a portable communication mode with cross-cultural applications

• Insight into language acquisition and learning processes

• Improved literacy development

• Accessibility for non-traditional learners, students with disabilities, and visual learners

Specialist Subject - S.T.E.M.

STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - are important skills for the world that our students live in as well as the future they will contribute to. The Digital Technologies Curriculum is a new but essential area of the Victorian Curriculum, with skills being developed from Foundation to year 6.

Scienceworks has partnered with St. Margaret Mary’s program that gives our students access to their latest learning experiences and the opportunity for our students to be a source of feedback and insight that assists Scienceworks in their learning designs. Our work with Scienceworks also empowers teachers to feel confident in planning and facilitating multi-disciplinary project based learning. The projects focus on Science Technology Engineering and Maths in real world contexts.

In 2024 we have been fortunate to engage Narelle Monteleone as out S.T.E.M. Specialist teacher. Natalie joins us as an experienced teacher who has taught in a variety of settings including the RCH. Narelle has a Masters of Educational leadership and brings a passion for teaching and learning to all aspects of her role. Every child from Foundation to year 6 particpate weekly in an hour lesson of STEM that is engaging and comfortably challenging.

Specialist Subjects

St Margaret Mary’s offers a comprehensive specialist teacher facilitated classes in Physical Education and Sports program, Science (S.T.E.M), Language Other Than English (AUSLAN) and Art.

Our specialist curriculum is based on broadening children’s areas of interest, teaching new skills and building their confidence to attempt new challenges.

Specialist classes are held throughout the week to broaden children’s education with our qualified discipline specialised SMM staff and at times external experts leading these lessons.

Our Physical Education program includes an annual school sports day which all students participate in, as well as divisional and regional sports carnivals, inter-school competitions and other scheduled team days.

Learning Enhancement Teachers

Learning enhancement and intervention are designed so that you and the school can track your child’s progress

At St Margaret Mary’s we value the individual learning journeys of each of our students. We recognise that learning is a developmental process and we recognise and celebrate each child’s learning growth. We welcome students of differing abilities at St Margaret Mary’s and work to implement individual learning plans for students require different supports to access learning, as well as, students who require extension of their academic talents. Our teachers work closely with our Learning Diversity Leader and parents to generate Personal Learning Plans that aim to prioritise and support the individual needs of a child.

We have literacy and numeracy intervention teachers and three learning enhancement teachers (LET). Our L.E.T. teachers are highly skilled teachers who work alongside classroom teachers to support the learning of all, with a particular focus on differentiated learning to facilitate scaffolded learning for those that need more support, focussed teaching methods to lift our “average” students and strategies to enhance and extend our more experienced learners. School resources prioritises the inclusion of these Learning Enhancement Teachers in weekly planning for learning collaborations with classroom teachers and curriculum leaders. These meeting involve the interrogation of timely and informative student data, work samples, and the subsequnt point of need planning for rich teaching and learning experiences at St. Margaret Mary’s.