Learning
Our Learning.
At Black Rock Primary School, we follow the State-wide Victorian Curriculum. The school incorporates various learning dimensions across all teaching levels, all of which align with the curriculum requirements and provide students the greatest possible learning environment.
Our skilled teachers, who are always on the pulse of best practice, foster an inclusive environment so that each primary school student enjoys the best start to their education possible.
English
The English program at BRPS is structured to ensure Reading and Viewing, Writing and Speaking and Listening outcomes from the Victorian Curriculum are met.
At Black Rock Primary School, we are committed to ensuring every student becomes a confident and capable reader and writer. Our Literacy program is evidence-based and designed to build strong foundational skills while fostering a genuine love of language and learning.
From Foundation to Year Six, students engage in explicit, systematic instruction across Reading and Viewing, Writing, Spelling, and Speaking and Listening. Our approach draws on The Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0 to provide a consistent, high-impact teaching framework across all classrooms.
In the early years, our Foundation to Year Two students build essential decoding and phonemic awareness skills through a variety of evidence-based programs including Heggerty. Heggerty Phonemic Awareness is an evidence-based program designed to develop students’ ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. Teachers conduct short, lessons that strengthen students’ phonological and phonemic awareness—essential foundations for successful reading and spelling instruction. We also utilise Little Learners Love Literacy where students are taught reading and spelling through a systematic synthetic phonics program that explicitly teaches the relationships between sounds and letters, building strong decoding and encoding skills.
Our older students extend their spelling and vocabulary knowledge through Spelling Mastery. Writing instruction is carefully sequenced through our whole-school Writing Scope and Sequence, supported by novel studies which inspire rich discussion, deep comprehension, and purposeful writing.
Across all year levels, students are explicitly taught sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation, with regular opportunities to apply these skills through authentic reading and writing experiences.
At Black Rock Primary School, Literacy is more than a subject—it’s the foundation for lifelong learning, critical thinking, and communication.
Maths
Mathematics teaches students how to make sense of the world around them through developing their ability to calculate, reason and problem solve. It enables students to understand relationships and patterns in both number and space.
As a result of learning mathematics at Black Rock Primary School all children will be encouraged and assisted to:
- develop a positive attitude towards mathematics and an awareness of the relevance of mathematics in the real world
- develop competence and confidence in mathematical knowledge, concepts and skills
- develop an ability to solve problems, to reason, to think logically and to work systematically and accurately.
- develop accuracy in computational skills consistent with their age and stages of development.
- understand and use mathematical language
- develop an ability to work both independently and in cooperation with others
- develop a range of strategies to become mathematical problem solvers.
- be risk-takers.
- develop knowledge and skills to develop mathematical understanding
- develop skills in presenting and interpreting mathematical data.
At Black Rock Primary School, a maths lesson begins with a ‘Tune In’ to engage the students and to introduce the topic, followed by a Whole Class Model, before either individual whole class work or three fluid groups (topic dependent). We use websites such as Mathletics and Essential Assessment to help assist us with our teaching and to provide opportunities for pre and post assessment tasks to determine students understanding of topics.
Science & The Humanities
Black Rock Primary School has a dynamic, motivating and challenging Science program aimed at encouraging children to explore the world around them.
Our goal is that all children from Prep to Year 6 are immersed in science and provided with opportunities to develop a love and understanding of scientific concepts through collaborative and hands-on experiences.
Black Rock Primary School aims to provide opportunities to:
- apply scientific understanding/knowledge to real life experiences
- learn through self-discovery
- learn about the world
- investigate and challenge ideas
- engage children in hands-on experiences, encouraging them to make predictions and observations.
- collect, record, interpret data in a variety of ways.
- use science in daily lives
- develop an inquiring mind
ABOVE ALL…MAKE SCIENCE FUN!
Languages; Chinese Mandarin
Modern Standard Chinese – Mandarin (Putonghua or Hanyu) is the standard form of the Chinese language being taught in line with the Victorian Curriculum at Black Rock Primary School.
Students are encouraged to use Chinese as much as possible for classroom routines, social interactions, structured learning tasks, and language experimentation and practice.
Wellbeing
Our school recognises the importance of kindness, inclusion and strong social connections. We celebrate diversity and care within our school community.
This whole-school approach recognises that schools are a place of learning, a workplace, and a community hub. In the classroom, children will learn problem-solving skills, to develop empathy, support their own well-being and build healthy relationships with others. Our teachers use the Department of Education’s Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships teaching and learning resource to teach age-appropriate and evidence-based lessons. These aim to develop student’s social and emotional capabilities to promote positive, healthy and respectful relationships.
When children build positive relationships with their teachers and peers they feel safer and happier at school, are more resilient and have positive social attitudes. Positive relationships also increase a child’s sense of social connectedness and belonging which can result in better health and academic outcomes.
Physical Education
Health and Physical Education focuses on students enhancing their own and others’ health, safety, wellbeing and physical activity participation in varied and changing contexts. Health and Physical Education offers students an experiential curriculum that is contemporary, relevant, challenging, enjoyable and physically active.
Students participate in a variety of physical activities in a range of environments (indoor, outdoor and aquatic). Students explore different actions of the body and begin to understand how these actions affect movement efficiency.
Students practice developing their basic motor skills in a range of activities such as running, hopping, jumping, skipping, catching, throwing, kicking, rolling, balancing, twisting and turning. They are also introduced to more complex skills such as leaping, dodging, over-arm throw, dribbling and striking balls, cartwheeling and handstands. Some of the sports used to achieve this are Soccer, Australian Rules Football, Athletics, Gymnastics, Dance, Basketball, Netball, Rugby, Baseball, Cricket and Tennis.
In the upper years, students begin to compete in more advanced competitions and events. These competitions and events include House and District Swimming, House and District Cross Country, House and District Athletics and Interschool Sports. In the instance of a team being successful at District sports, they have the ability of the competition going through to State level via the SSV program.
Visual Arts
“The main object of Art education consists of helping in the emotional, intellectual and social growth of each child.” Charles d. Gaitskell.
Visual Arts give students the opportunity to freely express, explore and experiment with a range of materials, tools and techniques, which will enrich their knowledge and understanding of the world around them.
Students will have the opportunity to explore the art areas of drawing, collage, painting, printmaking, construction, modelling and threads and textiles. Students will develop and incorporate the art elements of, colour and value, line, space, form, texture and shape within the making of these art areas. The Visual Arts program incorporates the study of various artists, art theory and link into topics and integrated studies of work throughout the school.
Performing Arts
Performing Arts gives students a chance to display their flair for performance in solo, group or class settings. Taught in line with the Victorian Curriculum, it is a place for singing, dancing, acting, performing, playing and exploring the possibilities of the Performance Arts.
At our school, we hold a school wide concert every two years.
Sustainability
At Black Rock Primary School we are committed to working as a school to both be more environmentally friendly and teach students about sustainability from Foundation to Year Six.
Black Rock Primary School has been a ResourceSmart School since 2014. ResourceSmart Schools is an award-winning Victorian Government program, managed by Sustainability Victoria, that assists schools to embed sustainability in everything they do.
Library
Packed with the latest reads, it’s a hub for students and teachers alike.
Digital Technology
Digital devices are used in moderation to enhance learning. We have a firm belief that in the primary school setting devices should be supplied by the school. Our Foundation and Year 1 students have access to school-managed iPads that are used to supplement the learning program while our Year 2-6’s use Chromebooks. We collaborate with experts for digital safety and wellbeing.
Cyber Safety Project
At Black Rock Primary School, we follow the Curriculum Map provided by the Cyber Safety Project team. These sessions begin at the start of each year with a whole year level presentation by Trent and Sam from the Cyber Safety Project, the sessions are supplemented by parent and teacher webinars that help with extra resources for the home and classroom.
Each year level partakes in 16 lessons throughout the year (4 per term) which cover the themes of Responsibility, Empathy, Integrity and Strength.
For more information visit Cyber Safety Project website.
