Every stage of learning is equally important at Coral Park, from Foundation to Grade 6. Learning embraces both explicit instruction and student-centred approaches; it responds to the different learning styles of students and to requirements reflecting their age, interests and potential.

The individual needs of students are paramount to effective learning. The school uses the Victorian Curriculum as its framework and more detailed information is available via: http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/

There is an emphasis on how teaching relates to the child, with an explicit instruction approach to Literacy and Numeracy throughout the whole school, supported by High Impact Teaching Strategies. These include Setting Goals, Structuring Lessons, Worked Examples, Collaborative Learning, Multiple Exposures, Questioning, Feedback, Metacognitive Strategies and Differentiated Teaching. Teachers are continually upskilled via personal development plans, mentoring and observing others within our professional learning community.

We incorporate programs such as VCOP in writing, CAFÉ and Reader’s Workshop in reading, Essential Assessment and the Big Ideas in Maths, Indonesian, Digital technologies and S.T.E.A.M.. We also offer additional support to students through programs such as our English as an Additional Language program and Reading Recovery.  

We also have a number of specialists including Arts, Science, Physical Education and Music.

Art

At our school students have the opportunity to experience all the elements of The Arts which includes dance, drama, media, music and visual arts through themed unit topics such as ‘Feelings and Resilience’, ‘Somewhere I Belong’, ‘Make Believe’ and ‘A World of Art’. Each lesson incorporates at least three aspects of The Arts.

Students are involved in a variety of activities including;

• Drama- engaging in drama games, dramatic role-play, character development and developing special awareness
• Dance-imitating or creating their own dances
• Media- identifying characters, setting, story development and creating their own comic book strips and iMovies through the use of devices
• Music- experimenting with different instrumental and body sounds and music appreciation discussions
• Visual Arts- creating a variety of art pieces inspired through discussions about various artists and using a huge variety of mediums.

Many of the pieces can be seen throughout the corridors.

Health and Physical Education

Health and Physical Education are part of the curriculum from Foundation to Grade 6.

The breadth of sports offered to students is very wide, with nearly 30 sports touched on throughout the year including football, cricket, soccer, scoop ball, four square and athletics.

Our senior students also participate in the Interschool Sport program with other local schools, where they have the opportunity to form teams and play against students from other schools at home or away.

All students participate in our school House Sports and Cross Country each year, and in the Junior and Middle school, students are also encouraged to participate in our annual Swimming Program.

Science

Science plays an important role in the Victorian Curriculum and at Coral Park Primary School, we endeavour to cover six important strands:

Biological Sciences

Chemical Sciences

Earth and Space Sciences

Physical Sciences

Science as a Human Endeavour

Science Inquiry Skills

Students are encouraged to identify and construct questions, propose hypotheses and suggest possible outcomes to a wide range of scientific problems.

During science lessons students plan and conduct experiments and investigate the possible outcomes. They also represent their findings in meaningful ways by using appropriate scientific representations.

Some engaging activities this semester for our habitat topic include:

• STEM – Create a boat that collects garbage while it floats.

• Tinkertable

• Microscopes – exploring living and non-living

• Sand Habitats

• STEM – Newspaper forts

• Living and non-living scavenger hunt

• Habitat drawing and labelling

• Living and non-living sorting trays

• Plank enclosure for camel and donkey

• Playdough Coral reef

• STEM – Nest Building

• STEM – Animal creations

• Mini Beast Exploring

• Sea Life floor puzzle.

• Ocean Felt display

• Habitat Game

Music

An exceptional Instrumental Program underpins Music at Coral Park Primary School. We offer individual and group tuition (3-4 in a group) in all orchestral elements, including guitar/base guitar, drums, keyboard and singing. Students gain experience performing in front of the school at during our fortnightly assembly and are recognised for their outstanding commitment and efforts with the program. Community members are always welcome to join assemblies and watch our bands!