Educational Philosophy

St Joseph’s School ‘s primary objective is to nurture independent, motivated, purposeful and lifelong learners through a warm, caring, secure and challenging environment directed to the development of the child in all areas of social responsibility and intellectual learning.

We are committed to providing a safe, supportive and inclusive environment for all students, staff and members of our community. Our school recognises the importance of the partnership between our school and parents and carers to support student learning, engagement and wellbeing. We share a commitment to, and a responsibility for, creating an inclusive and safe school environment for our students. The programs and teaching at St Joseph’s School support and promote the principles and practice of Australian democracy, including a commitment to:  elected government the rule of law, equal rights for all before the law, freedom of religion, freedom of speech and association, the values of openness and tolerance. 

Our school values every child as a learner. Learners learn in different ways, in different settings and at different rates. Learning is most effective when it involves active partnerships with parents and carers, peers, teachers, support staff and community members. For each child to reach their full potential, classrooms are organised to include individual, small group and whole class teaching and learning.

At St Joseph's we provide an innovative, high quality and progressive curriculum. We use the Victorian Curriculum which sets out the core knowledge, understanding, skills and general capabilities important for all students. The Victorian Curriculum describes the learning entitlement of students as a foundation for their future learning, growth and active participation in the community. It makes clear what all young people should learn as they progress through schooling. It is the foundation for high quality teaching to meet the needs of all students.

Our teachers recognise the importance of planning and implementing a learning program that meets the diverse needs of all students. Our aim is to ensure that all students are engaged and challenged so that they experience continual learning growth.

The starting point for this is for teachers to establish what the students already know. Using a range of assessment tools teachers can then identify the next stages for each child’s learning. Staff refer to the Victorian Curriculum when planning and report against the Standards laid out within this document.  Teachers plan in teams so that there is cohesion and consistency across and within year groups. Our key priorities are English, Mathematics and Religious Education. Whilst these areas are our priorities, we also provide a breadth of experiences as outlined in the Victorian Curriculum to discover students’ interests and passions. By using technology purposefully and accessing community connections, we are able to provide our students with opportunities within the areas of Humanities, Languages, The Arts and Physical Education to allow students to discover their strengths.

When taking part in lessons at St Joseph’s School, students are active participants who question, discuss and challenge each other. Learning tasks are designed to be collaborative and meaningful with a focus on developing new skills and understandings that can be applied in different contexts.

At St Joseph’s School, we value the importance of students developing knowledge and skills to support their social learning. We support the students in becoming confident and creative individuals, which enables them to take risks and thrive during experiences outside their comfort zone. We value the learner dispositions of students being reflective, risk-takers, thinkers and inquirers and consider ways to incorporate these into our lessons.

Students experience daily lessons in reading, writing and numeracy. These lessons involve the teacher providing a meaningful learning intention and students working individually and collaboratively on tasks at their ‘point of need’. Throughout a week, teachers also work alongside small groups of students to provide targeted teaching and feedback.