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Our Learning
St. John Vianney's Primary School Parkdale
St. John Vianney's School promotes a secure, respectful and positive learning environment where students feel confident to take risks and are encouraged and validated as individual learners.
Our school is committed to providing for the individual needs of each student through explicit, targeted and focused teaching, informed by student assessment data.
Through our Inquiry Approach students are challenged to become more aware of, and responsible to the wider community.
Education in Faith
In Religious Education, children learn through dialogue, connection, prayer, inquiry and a deeper understanding of Catholic traditions, rituals, scriptures and sacraments. Students are invited to express their wonderings about faith and its context in today’s world. Religious Education is integral to other curriculum areas, particularly Inquiry-based Learning and Wellbeing programs.
We foster the faith development of all in our community, to be living examples of Gospel values in their lives. The principles of Catholic Social Teaching are embedded in student’s learning experiences across the curriculum and underpin all we do.
English
At St. John Vianney’s, the teaching of English is an integral component of the broader curriculum. Through language we come to understand, interpret and respond to the world around us. Literacy skills are explicitly taught and modelled through the three modes of the English curriculum - Reading and Viewing, Writing and Speaking and Listening. Students have the opportunity to learn during whole class and small group sessions. They are immersed in a wide range of literature and texts to foster a love of reading and viewing. They have the opportunity to develop public speaking skills and communication strategies. They are given the freedom to express ideas and opinions through writing for different purposes.
Mathematics
At St. John Vianney’s we create opportunities for students to feel empowered and educated to take on any mathematics task. We believe that the teaching of Mathematics equips students with the necessary skills and efficient strategies that they can apply to successfully navigate their day to day lives. In line with the Victorian Curriculum, students' numeracy skills are developed through exposure to concepts from the three strands of Mathematics: Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability. The students are empowered to think logically, and fluently with an emphasis on problem solving and developing relational thinking in all areas of Mathematics.
Inquiry
Inquiry Based Learning at St. John Vianney’s is an approach that engages and challenges the thinking minds of our students. We provide rich and authentic learning experiences where the students become informed and active global citizens. The focus is topic based and developed around inquiry based learning principles where the child constructs much of their understanding of the natural and human-designed world in which we live.
STEM Technology
At St. John Vianney’s, the Digital Technologies curriculum enables students to incorporate the world of technology into their learning. Students become confident and creative developers of digital solutions through the application of information systems, and specific ways of thinking about problem solving. Our aim is to embed digital learning into the curriculum seamlessly to keep up with the ever changing digital world.
Physical Education
At St. John Vianney’s, we run a comprehensive Health and Physical Education program that aims to develop lifelong appreciation for movement. SJV participates regularly in the ‘Sporting Schools’ initiative which provides the opportunity for all year levels to focus on and benefit from specialist training in a range of sports. Throughout the year students also have the opportunity to participate in a variety of clinics that include sports such as cricket, AFL and athletics.
Students in Prep to Year 4 enjoy an intensive swimming program to develop water safety skills and to learn to swim in Term Four.
Students in Years 5 & 6 complete a Beach Safety program at the Mordialloc Surf Lifesaving Club.
Performing Arts
The Performing Arts curriculum at St. John Vianney’s includes drama, musicality and movement. Students learn to think, move, speak and act with confidence. Throughout the Performing Arts curriculum they learn how to be focused, innovative, resourceful, collaborative, resilient and take on responsibilities for drama presentations. Students are exposed to a wide variety of performance styles and genres and participate in activities to enhance and develop these skills. Every second year the students present a whole school musical to the wider community using the skills taught.
Visual Arts
Our Art curriculum gives students the opportunity to learn, explore, create and respond to various art elements and mediums. Students learn how artworks can represent the world and their own ideas. They share their artworks with peers and experience being an audience to respond to others’ art making. The students draw on artworks from a range of cultures, times and locations. Every second year the students present a visual arts show to the wider community incorporating the skills taught.
Library
At SJV we offer formal Library lessons as part of the curriculum. A specialist Library Teacher takes classes, encourages library borrowing and fosters a love of reading. We endeavour to make the library and engaging and interactive learning space.
Cultural Immersion
The Cultural Immersion program at SJV provides opportunities for students to explore a wide range of traditions and customs from other countries around the world. Students develop new ways of seeing and being in the world, and understand more about themselves through deepened connections with other languages and cultures.
Music Program
Orange Tree Music is an external organisation that provides music lessons for any St. John Vianney’s student who wishes to be enrolled in the program. They offer Piano, Violin, Guitar, Keyboard, Ukulele, Flute and Singing.
Lessons are conducted either before, during or after school hours and all instruments are available for hire, for students to use at home for practice between lessons