Curriculum

St Angela of the Cross Primary School is committed to providing an education that develops the whole person. St Angela’s school provides a comprehensive curriculum that caters for the individual needs of students. We encourage all students to achieve excellence in all their endeavours. To achieve this, the school provides learning and teaching opportunities that deliver a comprehensive, differentiated and inclusive curriculum.

St Angela of the Cross understands the importance and value of The Victorian Curriculum as it is a curriculum which provides a single, coherent and comprehensive set of prescribed content and common achievement standards, which schools use to plan student learning programs, assess student progress and report to parents. The Victorian Curriculum assists teachers to understand what is essential for students to achieve from Foundation to Year 10, in Victorian schools.

Learning Areas and Capabilities

The Victorian Curriculum F–10 includes both knowledge and skills. These are defined by learning areas and capabilities. This curriculum design assumes that knowledge and skills are transferrable across the curriculum and therefore, are not duplicated. For example, where skills and knowledge such as asking questions, evaluating evidence and drawing conclusions are defined in Critical and Creative Thinking, these are not duplicated in other learning areas such as History or Health and Physical Education. It is expected that the skills and knowledge defined in the capabilities will be developed, practised, deployed and demonstrated by students in and through their learning across the curriculum.

Learning Areas

The Victorian Curriculum F–10 learning areas are a clear and deliberate reaffirmation of the importance of a discipline-based approach to learning, where learning areas are regarded as both enduring and dynamic.

Capabilities

The Victorian Curriculum F–10 includes capabilities, which are a set of discrete knowledge and skills that can and should be taught explicitly in and through the learning areas, but are not fully defined by any of the learning areas or disciplines. A key distinction between the Australian Curriculum F–10 and the Victorian Curriculum F–10  is the provision of content descriptions and achievement standards in the four capabilities.

The four capabilities in the Victorian Curriculum F–10 are:

• Critical and Creative Thinking
• Ethical
• Intercultural
• Personal and Social 

ENGLISH

The English curriculum aims to ensure that students:

• learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken and written texts across a growing range of contexts with accuracy, fluency and purpose;
• appreciate, enjoy and use the English language in all its variations and develop a sense of its richness and power to evoke feelings, convey information, form ideas, facilitate interaction with others, entertain, persuade and argue;
• understand how Standard Australian English works in its spoken and written forms and in combination with non-linguistic forms of communication to create meaning; and
• develop interest and skills in inquiring into the aesthetic aspects of texts, and develop an informed appreciation of literature.
• Victorian Curriculum- English

MATHEMATICS

The Mathematics curriculum aims to ensure that students:

• develop useful mathematical and numeracy skills for everyday life, work and as active and critical citizens in a technological world;
• see connections and apply mathematical concepts, skills and processes to pose and solve problems in mathematics and in other disciplines and contexts;
• acquire specialist knowledge and skills in mathematics that provide for further study in the discipline; and
• appreciate mathematics as a discipline – its history, ideas, problems and applications, aesthetics and philosophy.
• Victorian Curriculum-Mathematics

SCIENCE

The Science curriculum aims to ensure that students develop:

• an interest in science as a means of expanding their curiosity and willingness to explore, ask questions about and speculate on the changing world in which they live;
• an understanding of the vision that science provides of the nature of living things, of the Earth and its place in the cosmos, and of the physical and chemical processes that explain the behaviour of all material things;
• an understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry and the ability to use a range of scientific inquiry methods, including questioning, planning and conducting experiments and investigations based on ethical principles, collecting and analysing data, evaluating results, and drawing critical, evidence-based conclusions;
• an ability to communicate scientific understanding and findings to a range of audiences, to justify ideas on the basis of evidence, and to evaluate and debate scientific arguments and claims;
• an ability to solve problems and make informed, evidence-based decisions about current and future applications of science while taking into account ethical and social implications of decisions;
• an understanding of historical and cultural contributions to science as well as contemporary science issues and activities and an understanding of the diversity of careers related to science; and
• a solid foundation of knowledge of the biological, chemical, physical, Earth and space sciences, including being able to select and integrate the scientific knowledge and methods needed to explain and predict phenomena, to apply that understanding to new situations and events, and to appreciate the dynamic nature of science knowledge.
• Victorian Curriculum-Science

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

Digital Technologies curriculum aims to ensure that students can:

• design, create, manage and evaluate sustainable and innovative digital solutions to meet and redefine current and future needs;
• use computational thinking and the key concepts of abstraction; data collection, representation and interpretation; specification, algorithms and development to create digital solutions;
• apply systems thinking to monitor, analyse, predict and shape the interactions within and between information systems and the impact of these systems on individuals, societies, economies and environments;
• confidently use digital systems to efficiently and effectively automate the transformation of data into information and to creatively communicate ideas in a range of settings; and
• apply protocols and legal practices that support safe, ethical and respectful communications and collaboration with known and unknown audiences.
• Victorian Curriculum- Digital Technologies

HUMANITIES

The Humanities include Civics and Citizenship, Economics and Business, Geography and History.

The Humanities provide a framework for students to examine the complex processes that have shaped the modern world and to investigate responses to different challenges including people’s interconnections with the environment.

In Civics and Citizenship and Economics and Business, students explore the systems that shape society, with a specific focus on legal and economic systems.  Students learn about Australia’s role in global systems, and are encouraged to appreciate democratic principles and to contribute as active, informed and responsible citizens.

In History and Geography, students explore the processes that have shaped and which continue to shape different societies and cultures, to appreciate the common humanity shared across time and distance, and to evaluate the ways in which humans have faced and continue to face different challenges.

• Victorian Curriculum-Humanities

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

Design and Technologies aims to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to ensure that students:

• become critical users of technologies, and designers and producers of designed solutions;
• can investigate, generate and critique designed solutions for sustainable futures;
• use design and systems thinking to generate innovative and ethical design ideas, and communicate these to a range of audiences;
• create designed solutions suitable for a range of contexts by creatively selecting and safely manipulating a range of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment;
• learn how to transfer the knowledge and skills from design and technologies to new situations; and
• understand the roles and responsibilities of people in design and technology occupations, and how they contribute to society.
• Victorian Curriculum- Design Technologies

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

St Angela’s is proudly a Catholic School and our Catholic culture permeates in all that we do. Religious Education is taught daily within the classrooms and is based on the curriculum To Live in Christ Jesus as guided by the Diocese of Sale.

Developed to introduce students to, and help them realise the beauty and love of faith in Jesus Christ, the curriculum is a rich resource for the whole educational community. It is structurally aligned with the Victorian Curriculum. The curriculum is aimed to engage students with the Catholic worldview.

Students also have the opportunity to engage in prayer and liturgical sessions, and also attend Mass.