Australian Curriculum

The Melbourne Declaration guides the development of the Australian Curriculum on Educational Goals for Young Australians, adopted by the council of state and territory education ministers in December 2008. The Melbourne Declaration emphasises the importance of knowledge, understanding and skills of learning areas, general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities as the basis for a curriculum designed to support contemporary learning.

The Australian Curriculum describes a learning entitlement for each Australian student that provides a foundation for successful, lifelong learning and participation in the Australian community. It acknowledges that the needs and interests of students will vary and that schools and teachers will plan from the curriculum in ways that respond to those needs and interests. The Australian Curriculum acknowledges the changing ways in which young people will learn and the challenges that will continue to shape their learning in the future.

The Australian Curriculum will eventually be developed for all learning areas, and subjects set out in the Melbourne Declaration: initially for English, mathematics, science and history; followed by geography, languages, the arts, economics, business, civics and citizenship, health and physical education, and information and communication technology and design and technology.

NSW Curriculum

Schooling in NSW is based on the mandatory NSW syllabuses for students from Kindergarten to Year 12. The syllabuses are developed and endorsed by NESA. 

St Finbarr's Primary follows the approved syllabuses with the exception of Religious Education, which is approved by the Bishop.

Please visit the New South Wales Education for more information on the NSW syllabuses: Standards Authority (NESA) website

Subjects are called Key Learning Areas (KLAs).

They are:

• Mathematics
• Science and Technology
• English
• HSIE
• Personal Development Health and Physical Education
• Creative Arts
• Religious Education

As a Catholic school, Religious Education is both a Key Learning Area and integral to our way of life.  

As a school of the 21st century, St Finbarr's Primary provides students with learning environments that encourage investigation, exploration, and creativity. Students are provided with opportunities to develop technological information and higher-order thinking skills as they develop an understanding of how they learn. Through reflection and evaluation, the children are empowered to independently extend their learning.

Parents Guide to the NSW Primary Syllabus.

Learning and Teaching Framework

At St Finbarr's Primary, we are committed to excellence and equity in the growth and development of all students as lifelong learners who are actively engaged with a passionate curiosity and wonder about the world. At its heart, education equips students with the attributes, knowledge, skills and confidence they need to live fulfilling, productive and responsible lives. Students engage with a range of people, places, and disciplines to grow as critical and creative problem-solvers who embrace society in all its diversity.

Learners in our school are empowered to become co-responsible for their learning as they explore an increasingly interconnected and complex world through:

• a rich curriculum that engages;

• pedagogy that empowers;

• environments that enable;

• a powerful culture of learning for continual growth.

These four dimensions are at the heart of learning and teaching, inspiring, challenging, empowering, and developing students’ love of learning. We draw on the Catholic tradition, providing direction and meaning for students as they engage with their lives' religious and spiritual dimensions.

Highly skilled teachers, and those who support them, have a central role in the learning process as they use their expert knowledge, skills and dispositions to engage in learning and feedback in partnership with students. They build learning communities that inspire, engage and challenge students as they seek to make sense of their world and their role in it. They model lifelong learning through intentional collaborative practise, feedback and reflection. Through deep thinking and meaningful engagement, they challenge themselves and their students to co-construct and apply new knowledge in a range of contexts.

Teaching is a vocation that calls for recognition that we recognise that we are walking on the 'sacred ground of the other' (Evangelii Gaudium, 169).

Play-Based Learning

'Play is the work of the child' - Maria Montessori. 

In our Early Years classrooms, we value the importance of letting our children belittle and meeting their needs. Young children are naturally wired to do the very best thing to help them learn and grow. We believe a child’s impulse to play comes from their natural desire to understand the world. Our Kindergarten and Year 1 teachers set up inviting and creative play spaces where children can actively and imaginatively engage with each other, objects and the environment.  

Each morning in the classroom, when children are playing, they may be organising, constructing, manipulating, pretending, exploring, investigating, creating, interacting, imagining, negotiating and making sense of their worlds. The teacher’s role in the play is pivotal. As we interact with children, we support a broad range of Literacy and Numeracy skills. We value the child’s voice and choice and develop inclusive learning environments that promote the holistic development of a child (physical, social, emotional, cognitive and creative).