Learning

Instructional Model

All teachers at Donnybrook Primary School are committed to high quality, explicit and responsive instruction. We work together to continually enhance our practice because we know that the quality of our teaching plays a huge role in securing student learning.

At Donnybrook Primary School, we define learning as a change in capability or knowledge over time. Learning is not instantaneous, rather is it a process which involves repetition, rehearsal and deep thinking. Whenever we learn something, we are building on what we already know; for this reason, connecting to and building on students’ prior knowledge is essential for learning that sticks.

Attention and cognitive engagement are the absolute drivers of learning. We cannot think about what we do not attend to, and we cannot learn what we have not thought about. For these reasons, it’s helpful to think of learning as the residue of thought. In lesson design and delivery a critical question for us is ‘What are the students thinking most about? To what extent is it central to the intended learning outcomes?’

All content in our teaching and learning is aligned with the Victorian Curriculum.

A language-and knowledge-rich curriculum

At Donnybrook Primary School, we teach a language- and knowledge-rich curriculum. This equips students with a comprehensive base of background knowledge which supports them to read and think well. We ensure that knowledge to be taught is carefully detailed in our planning, and that the curriculum develops cumulatively over time.

Instruction and differentiation

At Donnybrook Primary School, we take responsibility for the learning, progress and achievement of every student in our care, because their flourishing is our core work. We know that the quality of instruction and differentiation has the largest in-school impact on student achievement. To ensure rigour in our instruction, and differentiated support for all, we draw flexibly on a set of evidence-informed principles.

In every lesson, we need to elicit and respond to evidence of student thinking and learning. This sounds simple, but is complex in practice. At Donnybrook Primary School, we outline a range of techniques all teachers can use to monitor and respond to learning, as it unfolds in real time, in every classroom:

Turn and talk, to support students to share their thinking and rehearse responses to given prompts
Cold calling, to help teachers generate high accountability for thinking in every classroom
Mini whiteboards, to support teachers with guided practice, in which students generate responses and teachers check for accuracy in real time

This approach provides teachers with frequent opportunities to give high quality feedback that all students can use.

Literacy

Literacy is taught in a knowledge-, language-, and text-rich environment. Through the English curriculum, our focus is to develop students’ speaking, listening, reading, writing, and thinking skills.

Because literacy forms an essential foundation for all learning, we place a strong focus in the early years on explicit, systematic instruction in core literacy skills. These include word-level reading, word-level spelling, oral reading fluency, handwriting and sentence-level writing. As students progress through the year levels, they apply, develop and build on these essential skills in increasingly sophisticated ways. At Donnybrook Primary School, students engage in 10 hours of English instruction per week. Instruction focuses on developing essential literacy skills, knowledge of reading and writing, knowledge for reading and writing, and building a love of learning, language, and literature.

Numeracy

We support all students to achieve a high standard of proficiency in Mathematics. Our comprehensive curriculum is organised into three strands – Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability.

Lessons in Mathematics are carefully planned and sequenced, based on the best evidence for students’ developmental needs. Our teachers explain and model new concepts and skills before guiding students to practise new skills in an interactive and highly responsive environment. At Donnybrook Primary School, students engage in 5 hours of Mathematics instruction per week.

Physical Education

Our Physical Education (PE) program promotes student wellbeing, fitness and physical development while fostering enjoyment of physical activity, play and sport. We provide an inclusive environment that prioritises building confidence, developing physical skills, the development of social skills, and support for others.

We believe that Donnybrook students love competing, but they do so with great respect, empathy and compassion towards their teammates and opponents. Because of the explicit instruction, high expectations and warm, positive culture in our PE program, we ensure that everyone at Donnybrook Primary School knows and shows what it means to be a ‘good sport’.

PE at Donnybrook Primary School involves the explicit teaching of skills and strategies in a wide range of sporting contexts from athletics to gymnastics, from invasion games (football, soccer, netball, basketball, etc.) to net/wall games (tennis, volleyball, etc.) to batting and fielding games (cricket, softball, etc.) to target games (golf, bocce, etc.).

Physical Education involves the Perceptual Motor Program (in line with the Victorian Curriculum) for our Foundation (Prep) students. This is a movement-based program which provides opportunities for students to:

Develop a range of fundamental movement skills, providing the foundation for a range of physical activities including locomotor and non-locomotor skills, such as crawling, balancing and hopping.
Practise hand-eye coordination skills, locomotion skills, eye-tracking skills, balancing skills and fitness skills.
Build and practise location and physical activity vocabulary such as forwards, backwards and along, showing these movements using equipment.

In years 5 and 6 our students compete against other schools in interschool sports competition every Friday morning, as well as competing (from years 4-6) in district carnivals for athletics, cross country and swimming. Our senior students also have the opportunity to represent our school in gala days for various sports (e.g. Australian rules football, basketball, etc.).

Performing Arts

The Performing Arts program at Donnybrook Primary School gives students practical opportunities to respond to their world and engage with historical, social and cultural perspectives.

Our Performing Arts program is centred on drama through techniques, games, improvisation and performance, whilst also including elements of dance and singing. Performing Arts provides students with ways to communicate ideas through performance. Students are encouraged to become risk takers when sharing their work with others and reflective learners when learning new skills and techniques. Drama explores how we express ourselves physically and vocally. Students explore the use of facial expressions, gestures, movement, posture and vocal technique to convey emotional or cultural meaning to characters and stories. Dance brings people and communities together. Students are given opportunities to become familiar with the rhythm of music and explore coordinated and improvised dance and other movements. Performing Arts involves learning to use the voice in many different ways, with students given opportunities to sing to help them to develop techniques in characterisation, storytelling and performance. Performing Arts provides students the challenges and stimulation to express themselves creatively

Science

Science enables students at Donnybrook Primary School to gain the understanding, knowledge and skills through which they can develop a scientific view of the world. The lessons are held in our school’s purpose built Science specialty classroom, designed for our students to be ‘mini scientists’.

The Victorian Science curriculum has two interrelated strands: ‘Science Understanding’ and ‘Science Inquiry Skills’. These strands complement each other, to support students to gain a deeper level of understanding and appreciation of how scientific ideas and concepts impact us during every day of our lives.

Our Science program has been planned around 4 areas:
• Biological Sciences
• Earth and Space Sciences
• Chemical Sciences
• Physical Sciences

The Science teaching and learning program has been designed with experimental thinking and the use of technologies to enhance students’ abilities to be analytical thinkers and develop ‘persistent curiosity’.

Students often work in teams and collaborate to conduct experiments and investigations and to make observations in every lesson. Targeted questioning and thinking prompts are also used to elevate the prior knowledge of students so that misconceptions are challenged and addressed, and deep scientific knowledge and understanding is developed.

Visual Art

At Donnybrook Primary School our students have authentic opportunities to develop confidence in creativity, problem solving, expressing themselves, visual communication and to develop an appreciation and understanding of the Arts.

Our program highlights the importance of understanding the elements of Art, whilst ensuring opportunities for trans-disciplinary learning. Students investigate many forms of Visual Art, ranging from 2D activities exploring drawing and painting techniques through to 3D forms of art making, from collage to sculpture and weaving.

Students develop a strong base of fine motor skills before progressing to complex artistic techniques across a range of mediums. Our program encourages students to be curious, to take risks and to enjoy the journey of developing technical skills as they create their own art works. Students learn how to express themselves and communicate through art.

Learning Technologies

At Donnybrook Primary School we understand that learning technologies are an exciting and powerful tool that can support our students to:

Collaborate
Create
Communicate

We give our students multiple, ongoing opportunities to use technology to enhance their learning. This includes:

Interactive TVs (with wireless connectivity to both Apple and Windows devices) in every classroom and specialist classroom.
Class sets of iPads available to all classes from Foundation to Year Six
Class sets of Laptops available to all classes from Foundation to Year Six

At Donnybrook Primary School we also recognise that the high levels of engagement, interactivity and absorption that come with using devices does not always lead to improved learning for students. We understand that earning technology is not a panacea to improve learning outcomes.

At Donnybrook Primary School we are not a 1:1 or a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) school. We supply devices to your child’s classroom that your child needs to learn. However, students won’t be using a device every lesson, or even every day.

Our classroom teachers select when and how students use iPads or laptops with clear learning outcomes in mind. We use learning technologies extremely judiciously. This is because we know that all of our students need time to learn that is not reliant on technology. This includes opportunities for writing and note-taking by hand, and reading books (rather than on a screen) every lesson, every day. Reading from a book and note-taking and writing by hand lead to better encoding of knowledge into long-term memory, and therefore better reading comprehension and stronger learning outcomes for students.