At Bracken Ridge State School, the curriculum provides students with the foundations for successful, lifelong learning and the participation in Australian society. The school curriculum plan is informed by the Australian Curriculum, Reporting and Assessment Authority (ACARA), and the Prep to Year 12 Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Framework.
There are eight Learning Areas (LA) – English, Mathematics, Science, Humanities and Social Science (HASS), Technology, The Arts, Health and Physical Education and Languages (Japanese for Years 6-7). Teachers plan, teach, assess and report on these areas.
School Curriculum
The Australian Curriculum
The Australian Curriculum is designed to teach students what it takes to be confident and creative individuals and become active and informed citizens. It sets the goal for what all students should learn as they progress through their school life.
Learning Areas:
English
The Australian Curriculum: English Prep to Year 6 is organised into three interrelated strands that support students' growing understanding and use of Standard Australian English. Together the threes strands focus on developing students' knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking and writing. The three strands are:
- Language: knowing about English Language
- Literature: understanding, appreciating, responding to analysing and creating literature
- Literacy: expanding the repertoire of English usage
Mathematics
The Australian Curriculum: Mathematics Prep to Year 6 is organised around three content and four proficiency strands. The content strands are number and algebra, measurement and geometry. They describe what is to be taught and learnt. The proficiency strands are understanding, fluency, problem solving and reasoning. They describe how content is explored or developed, that is thinking and doing of mathematics. This approach has been adopted to ensure students' proficiency in mathematical skills develops throughout the curriculum and becomes increasingly sophisticated over the years of schooling.
Science
The Australian Curriculum: Science Prep to Year 6 has three interrelated strands: science understanding, science as human endeavour and science inquiry skills. Science understanding has four sub strands – biological science, chemical science, physical science and earth and space science. Together, the three strands of the science curriculum provide students with understanding, knowledge and skills through which they can develop a scientific view of the world. Students are challenged to explore science, its concepts, nature and uses through clearly describe inquiry processes.
Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS)
The Australian Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences or HASS Prep to Year 6 comprises five subjects. In all five subjects, the curriculum is organised into two broad interrelated strands: knowledge and understanding and inquiry and skills. History, geography, civics and citizenship and economics and business are presented as sub strands of the knowledge and understanding strand. Students are introduced to history and geography from Prep, civics and citizenship in Year 3 and economic and business in Year 5.
The Arts
The Australian Curriculum: The Arts Prep to Year 6 covers each of the five art subjects – Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Music and Visual Arts – across bands of year levels. Banded Learning Areas will be reported on over a two-year period, with not all subjects being reflected in a report card. The Arts are taught, assessed and reported on over a two-year period. For example: Cycle A (Even Years - 2020) – Drama, Visual Arts, Music and Cycle B (Odd Years- 2021) Dance, Media Arts and Music.
Technologies
The Australian Curriculum: Technologies Prep to Year 6 comprises two subjects:
- Design and Technologies
- Digital Technologies
The curriculum for each Technologies subject is written in band of year levels and each subject is presented through two related strands – knowledge and understanding and processes and production skills. This approach allows students to develop a comprehensive understanding of traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies.
Health and Physical Education
The Australian: Health and Physical Education Prep to Year 6 has two content strands: personal, social and community health and movement and physical activity, that are interrelated and inform and support each other. The curriculum is written in band of year levels. Students participate in physical activity on a weekly basis as a minimum part of the HPE curriculum.
Languages – Japanese (Years 4-6)
The Australian Curriculum: Languages is organised through two interrelated strands which are communicating and understanding. The strands reflect three important aspects of language learning:
- Communication
- Analysis of aspects of language and culture
- Reflection
The curriculum is written in band of year levels.
Learning Prep – Year 2
Priority in the Australian Curriculum is given to literacy and numeracy development because these are the foundations on which further learning is built. The foundation for the Literacy general capability is built primarily in English; and the foundation for the Numeracy general capability is built primarily though Mathematics. Both Literacy and Numeracy capabilities are reinforced and strengthened through learning in all areas of the curriculum.
The development of movement skills, social and emotional skills through physical play and the development of knowledge and skills to help keep students safe, healthy, and active are provided for in the Health and Physical education curriculum. Purposeful exploration in personal and familiar contexts provides an opportunity for student to harness their curiosity about people, places and how their world works, as they develop skills in inquiry and investigation in Science and Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS). In these early years, the development of sensory, cognitive and affective appreciation of the world is provided through exploratory, analytical and creative practices in The Arts and Technologies curricula.
Learning 3-6
The Australian Curriculum across Years 3–6 assists students to develop their ability to take positive action for well-being; relate and communicate well with others; pose questions and solve problems; make informed decisions and act responsibly. It engages students more purposefully with the discipline knowledge, understanding and skills of the eight learning areas of the Australian Curriculum.
Literacy and numeracy are again prioritised across these years of schooling. The curriculum further builds the essential knowledge and skills in literacy, consolidating 'learning to read and write' through English, as well as increasingly using literacy skills for 'reading and writing to learn' in other learning areas. Similarly, the curriculum continues to progress the development of specific mathematical skills and knowledge, and uses these skills in learning across the curriculum to both enrich the study of other learning areas and contribute to the development of broader and deeper numeracy skills. The development of Information and Communication Technology Capability is more apparent across the curriculum at this level.
Year or bands of years
Each learning area or subject of the Australian Curriculum is presented as a sequence of learning (content descriptions and achievement standards) over time. The organisation varies to reflect the particular learning area including the specificity of evidence-based teaching sequence, its priority for teaching time and the need for flexibility to assist schools in planning and programming.
English and Mathematics are specified at each year level from Prep to Year 6. Some aspects of Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Health and Physical Education are specified at a year level; and other aspects, at two- or three-year bands. The Arts, Technologies and Languages are specified at two- or three-year bands.
The Bands:
- Prep to Year 2 (three year band)
- Year 3 and 4 (two year band)
- Year 5 and 6 (two year band)