Curriculum- Teaching and Learning

School Wide Teaching and Learning

In each edition of our school newsletter, we share with our community an insight into the curriculum being taught within our classrooms. This reflects our school's strong focus upon continuous improvement. 

Each edition covers a different area of the curriculum, and is supported by our school-wide approaches to teaching and learning. 

In this edition we provide you with information on our Mathematics Curriculum.  

Teaching and Learning Programs across USPS are delivered through direct-explicit instruction, and are facilitated through our school-wide instructional model, the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR). 

The academic curriculum is supported by a strong social-emotional learning culture, which is based upon the BSEM and SWPBL. 

Core curriculum subjects are complemented by extensive extra-curricular programming and specialist classes consisting of the following disciplines: Visual Arts (60 mins per week), Performing Arts/Music (60 mins per week), Health/Physical Education (60mins per week), Japanese (40 minutes per fortnight).

ChildSafe- a shared responsibility

The Child Safe Standards (the Standards) are compulsory minimum standards for all Victorian schools to ensure they are well prepared to keep children and young people safe and protect them from abuse. Ministerial Order 1359 – Implementing the Child Safe Standards – Managing the risk of child abuse in schools (PDF) provides the framework for child safety in schools.

New standards were recently introduced in Victorian schools (July 1st 2022), and provide the opportunity for schools to continue to build on their existing child safety strategies, policies and practices to strengthen their culture of child safety and protect children and young people from abuse.

The Child Safe Standards include requirements to keep children, young people and students safe, including:

• involvement of families and students in child safety
• schools’ focus on safety for Aboriginal students
• better management of child abuse risks in online environments
• governance, systems and processes for keeping students safe.

The Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority is responsible for regulating the compliance of schools with the Standards. Schools are required to comply with the Standards as part of the prescribed minimum standards for registration.

There are 11 Child Safe Standards:

• Standard 1: Culturally safe environments – Establish a culturally safe environment in which the diverse and unique identities and experiences of Aboriginal children and young people are respected and valued.
• Standard 2: Leadership, governance and culture – Ensure that child safety and wellbeing are embedded in school leadership, governance and culture.
• Standard 3: Child and student empowerment – Children and young people are empowered about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.
• Standard 4: Family engagement – Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.
• Standard 5: Diversity and equity – Equity is upheld and diverse needs are respected in policy and practice.
• Standard 6: Suitable staff and volunteers – People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.
• Standard 7: Child-focused complaints processes – Ensure that processes for complaints and concerns are child focused.
• Standard 8: Child safety knowledge, skills and awareness – Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children and young people safe through ongoing education and training.
• Standard 9: Physical and online environments – Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed.
• Standard 10: Review of child safety practices - Implementation of the Child Safe Standards is regularly reviewed and improved.
• Standard 11: Implementation of child safety practices – Policies and procedures that document how schools are safe for children, young people and students.

All staff, school council members, and volunteers are required to undergo training which specifically addresses each of the above standards. As a school, this training is undertaken in-person with the School Principal as the facilitator. 

Should you be interested in volunteering with our school in the future (eg: school excursions, in-class helper) then please refer to the attached slideshow below- which forms part of our volunteer induction process. 

Please also refer to the following documents, which can be found on the 'School Policies' page of our website: 

• Child Safety Action Plan
• Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy
• Child Safety Code of Conduct
• Child Safety Reporting Obligations and Responding Procedures

Let’s TALK Program

At the commencement of 2022, USPS's strong reputation as an SWPBL school was recognised through the school qualifying to join the Let'sTALK Mental Health pilot program (http://letstalkprogram.org/ ). 

This program is supported through WorkSafe, Inspire Health and Medical (formerly Yarra Ranges Psychology) and the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, Melbourne University. USPS applied for this pilot program to complement the school's SWPBL Framework and to increase student connections returning from Remote Learning. 

Let's TALK provides staff and student leaders with mental health toolkit to hold supportive conversations with the aim of increasing connections, engagement and mental health support across the school. 

Rather than us tell you about it with ‘educational speak’ we have taken an extract from the speeches which were delivered by our 2022 SWPBL Leaders at the launch of the program.