Academics

Literacy

Every child at Barmera Primary School has individual learning goals for literacy and numeracy. These are created through teacher and student conversations to ensure teachers tailor their teaching to target specific learning needs of all students and provide opportunities for extension as required. Our collaborative approach to delivering an extensive curriculum, under pinned by evidence based strategies ensures every student reaches their potential. Intense focus on reading and number supports our Site Improvement Plan, ensuring students are engaged in these lessons daily.

Students are engaged in daily literacy sessions across the school to ensure learning is uninterrupted. Junior primary students are provided with a solid foundation to literacy with the deliberate use of evidence based programs such as InitiaLit. This consistent and targeted approach across all junior primary classes, along with targeted intervention for individuals and use of programs such as Reading Eggs, has resulted in our school achieving the highest reading results in the Riverland region. As students progress through year levels, we develop and extend their literacy skills by exposing them to a range of resources and texts to support them to become confident and involved learners. Throughout learning tasks, students are assessed in a variety of ways and the incorporation of a digital program (Essential Assessment), ensures students are assessed and graded accurately against the Australian Curriculum.

We have an onsite Library from which children may borrow books to take home . They can change books as often as they like, but can keep a book for up to two weeks at a time. We encourage and promote reading at home as part of our literacy program.

Numeracy

Daily mathematics lessons incorporate a wide range of activities to ensure all students access learning at their individual abilities. The use of hands on materials, technology, mental routines and being able to relate tasks to real life situations, all contribute to creating engaging mathematics tasks for all students. We continually provide tasks which are open-ended and require students to use higher order thinking skills to problem solve and transfer their knowledge and apply strategies to new contexts. The use of intervention programs in the classroom such as Quicksmart, Maths for Learning Inclusion, Maths Seeds and Essential Assessment ensures all students receive targeted support and all learning needs are catered for.

Health and PE

Students across the school are exposed to a variety of skills and techniques across a range of sports taught by a specialist PE / Health teacher. Our extensive range of sporting equipment and facilities, such as gymnasium, full sized grass oval, table tennis tables, asphalted outdoor courts and gymnastics equipment ensures our students have opportunities to experience a range of sports. Upper primary students are provided with opportunities to participate in a range of regional and state School Sport activities throughout the year.

Science and STEM

Students are exposed to a range of technology and experiences in every classroom to support them to become ICT literate and equipped for 21st Century learning. With access to laptops in every classroom and interactive whiteboards, learning is personalised and engaging for every child. Students participate in a range of activities to support them to become critical and creative thinkers in every lesson. Our Science classroom is equipped with an extensive range of equipment to support the science curriculum from Foundation to Year 6. A specialist teacher in this learning area ensures the curriculum is delivered in a concise and accurate way.

Spanish

The Spanish curriculum is taught across the school from Foundation to Year 6. Junior Primary classes are exposed to basic language by their class teacher. As students move into middle primary, they are taught online via Open Access College, ensuring they are exposed to explicit language and accurate pronunciation.