Learning & Teaching

Curriculum Information: Building the Capacity of All Students

At St Margaret’s School, teaching and learning are driven by our Catholic context and the fundamental belief that every student and teacher can succeed when provided with the right conditions and support. We use the Victorian Curriculum as our roadmap, ensuring that our high expectations are matched by high-quality, evidence-based instruction.

Evidence-Based Pedagogy: The Science of Learning

We believe that learning is a change in long-term memory. To achieve this, our teaching staff draws upon the Science of Learning—integrating cognitive science to understand how students process, store, and retrieve information. By managing cognitive load and utilizing spaced practice and retrieval, we ensure that new knowledge sticks and translates into deep understanding.

Our Instructional Approach: Direct and Explicit

At St Margaret’s, we don’t leave learning to chance. We employ Direct and Explicit Instruction to provide students with a clear, structured path to mastery. This includes:

Clear Learning Intentions: Students know exactly what they are learning and why.
I Do, We Do, You Do: Teachers model new concepts explicitly, provide guided practice with immediate feedback, and only move to independent application once students have the confidence and skills to succeed.
Strengths-Based Progression: We value what our students already know and use that as a foundation to bridge the gap to new, challenging content.

A Community of Growth and Values

St Margaret’s takes pride in welcoming all who enter our school. We know that a safe, open environment is the essential base for productive learning. Our community is built on commitment, service, respect, and compassion, with our decisions and actions reflecting the values of Jesus.

We foster a collaborative culture where students and staff work together to solve problems and become positive, active citizens. While we prioritize rigorous foundational skills, we also ensure learning is authentic and connected to real-world issues, preparing students for life beyond the classroom.

Commitment to Professional Excellence

Guided by leadership, the staff at St Margaret’s are lifelong learners. We invest heavily in professional learning to refine our teaching qualities. By integrating contemporary digital tools with time-tested, research-proven methods, we maximize learning success for every child. Our understanding of diverse needs allows us to support all students, creating passionate learners who are ready for the future.

Literacy

Literacy is a core pillar of the Victorian Curriculum and a vital tool for social justice. At St Margaret’s, we believe that mastering literacy empowers every child with the participation, equity, and access needed to realise their diverse life goals.

Our Evidence-Based Framework

Our teaching practices are anchored in The Science of Reading, a comprehensive body of evidence-based research into how the brain develops reading and writing proficiency. We move away from guesswork by using systematic and explicit instruction, ensuring that no element of literacy is left to chance.

The Structured Literacy Block

Every day, students engage in a dedicated two-hour literacy block. This data-informed instructional time focuses on the “Big Six” essentials:

Oral Language: Building the foundation for all communication.
Phonemic Awareness & Phonics: Mastering the sounds and codes of the English language.
Fluency: Developing the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and expression.
Vocabulary & Comprehension: Connecting deeply with the meaning and nuance of texts.

Spelling Mastery

Spelling at St Margaret’s is taught as a functional skill, not just a memory exercise. Through our Spelling Mastery approach, students are explicitly taught how to encode words by understanding the relationship between sounds (phonology), letter patterns (orthography), and word meanings or origins (morphology). This systematic method ensures students develop a deep, transferable understanding of English that persists long after a weekly test.

Writing & Transcription Automaticity

Our writing program follows a “knowledge-rich” sequence using Ochre Education units. We guide students through a structured progression from words to sentences, and eventually to full paragraphs and diverse texts.

To support this, students across all year levels participate in teacher-directed handwriting and typing lessons. We focus on transcription automaticity—the point where the physical act of writing or typing becomes effortless. By removing this “mental friction,” we reduce the cognitive load on students, freeing up their working memory to focus on high-level composition, planning, and creative expression.

Consistency & Real-Time Response

We use school-wide engagement routines to provide a predictable environment that reduces distractions. By checking for understanding in real-time, our teachers can “pivot” their instruction instantly, responding to the specific needs of every student in the room.

Numeracy

At St Margaret’s, we strive to equip students with the mathematical skills and confidence required to navigate the challenges of daily life. Numeracy reaches into every corner of our world—from financial decisions to measurement and geometry—and our goal is to ensure every student can respond to both familiar and unfamiliar situations with informed reasoning and fluency.

Our Instructional Model: Explicit & Systematic

We believe that the most effective way to master mathematics is through Explicit Instruction. Our teaching is guided by the Gradual Release of Responsibility model:

I Do: The teacher models new concepts and thinking processes using precise mathematical vocabulary.
We Do: The teacher and students work through examples together, using “check for understanding” techniques like mini-whiteboards and “turn-and-talk” to ensure no student is left behind.
You Do: Students move into independent practice to apply their new knowledge, while the teacher provides targeted support or extension activities.

Lesson Structure & Ochre Education

Our curriculum follows the evidence-based scope and sequence provided by Ochre Education. Each lesson is carefully structured to move information from a student’s working memory into their long-term memory, thereby reducing cognitive load and preventing “learning plateaus.”

Daily Reviews (10-15 mins): Every lesson begins with a “perky” paced review. This strategically planned cycle of revision helps students retrieve previously learned knowledge from the current week, past months, and earlier in the year (interleaving) to prevent forgetting.
New Content Delivery: We activate prior learning and introduce new concepts through a Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) sequence. This means students begin with hands-on materials before moving to pictorial models and, finally, abstract mathematical symbols.

Developing Mental Strategies & Fluency

In collaboration with Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS), St Margaret’s implements a deliberate program for teaching mental strategies. These dedicated 10-minute sessions—held four days a week outside of the main math block—focus on building “number sense” in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Currently implemented from Year 1 through Year 4, this program ensures that mental calculation becomes automatic, allowing students to dedicate their mental energy to solving more complex, multi-step problems as they progress through school.

Education in Faith

Our faith in God is key to all we do at St. Margaret’s. Our identity and mission as a Catholic school is founded in the teachings of Jesus Christ. The school has a visible Catholic culture, featuring active sacramental and liturgical practices, daily prayer, events that commemorate and celebrate our rich tradition and a commitment to social justice action. We take inspiration from our namesake Saint Margaret of Scotland and emulate her dedication to education, prayer, compassion for others and acting for justice.

The religious education curriculum aims to complement the family in developing the whole child in a life of faith. It encompasses the following content areas:

Scripture and Jesus
Church and Community
Prayer, Liturgy and Sacraments
Morality and Justice
God, Religion and Life

Each of these areas is developed across the school through a range of experiences and learning opportunities designed to allow students to grow in:

Knowledge and Understanding
Reasoning and Responding
Personal and Communal Engagement

Students participate in school-based Sacramental programs in readiness for the celebration of Sacraments:

Reconciliation (Year 3)
First Eucharist (Year 4)
Confirmation (Year 6)

We strengthen the integration of faith, life and culture, inviting students to discover God’s presence in their daily lives and engaging them in Catholic teaching. In this way students may grow in understanding of themselves and their world in light of the Gospel. We encourage students to contribute their gifts as responsible, confident, happy, kind and active members of the community.

Integrated Studies

At St Margaret’s School, we strive to support our students to become citizens who will be able to make informed decisions, considering local and global needs, about their lifestyle and the environment. Our teaching of the integrated curriculum focuses on the areas of Science, Health, History, Geography and Civics & Citizenship. It supports our desire to make sense of the world through exploration. Students will develop their understanding through learning about the discoveries of those that went before them and participating in hands-on investigations.

We teach Integrated Studies using a Design Thinking pedagogy with phases of Immersion, Synthesis, Ideation, Prototyping and Feedback. These phases lead students to create actions that are designed to solve problems.

Our Integrated Curriculum is taught across a two year cycle with our understandings based on those provided by the Victorian Curriculum and the current needs of our local, national and global communities. When planning our units, our learning areas are guided by a ‘Big Idea’ and ‘Throughlines’ which have been developed in accordance with the curriculum as below.

Specialist Subjects

Visual Arts

At St Margaret’s School we offer an engaging Visual Arts program that allows students to display their creativity and imagination whilst appreciating our world. Students are given a wealth of knowledge in visual arts skills, techniques and processes. They explore a range of materials and styles and are given the opportunity to reflect critically on their learning and give their context to all pieces of artwork. Students at St Margaret’s are given the opportunity to share their work through our biennial art show.

Language other than English

At St Margaret’s, we foster an engaging inquiry approach to our language program. Through our learning, we investigate Italian people, their way of thinking and their culture. Students develop improved literacy skills, critical thinking and problem solving skills through their understanding of how other languages work. They take part in engaging play based learning, games and creative tasks which give them the skills to form basic and complex sentences.

Physical Education

The Physical Education programme at St Margaret’s develops fundamental movement skills and understandings that gives students the foundations to participate in physical activities with confidence and enjoyment. They develop skills, strategy and teamwork which forms the basis for lifelong health & wellbeing. Our programs incorporate a range of outsourced coaches that specialise various sports to best support our children in developing their skills. Students at St Margaret’s are given the opportunity to compete in a range of opportunities at a district, division, regional and state level.

These include;

Winter Lightning premierships – Australian Rule Football, Netball and Softball
Athletics and Cross Country
Soccer and Basketball competitions
Swimming programs
T20 Blast Cricket
Tennis

Performing Arts - Drama

Students explore Drama through an inquiry and play based approach. They explore different ways to use voice, expressions and movement to allow students to showcase their imagination and creativity. The opportunity to perform in front of audiences gives students the confidence and willingness to present in front of classmates during other curriculum areas.

Performing Arts - Dance

In Dance, students respond to structured dance sequences and have the opportunity to make their own improvised and choreographed performances. They also explore a range of choreographed songs for performances and exhibit their own creativity through dance productions in both their year level and whole school situations. Our biennial school dance concert allows students to share their learning with friends and family.

Performing Arts - Music

Students at St Margaret’s are given the skills to be able to sing, play instruments and dance from memory through a range of traditional singing games, chants and actions. They perform, listen to, and analyze the great art music of the world and make connections to various cultures globally. Performance opportunities give our students the confidence to share their learning with their peers and families through class productions, assemblies and our biennial school music concert.

Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR) program

The Eight Core Pillars of Learning

Our students engage with age-appropriate content across eight key topics:

Emotional Literacy: Understanding and managing personal emotions.
Personal Strengths: Identifying and building on individual character traits.
Positive Coping: Developing strategies to handle life’s challenges.
Problem Solving: Learning constructive ways to resolve conflict.
Stress Management: Building techniques to maintain mental calm.
Help Seeking: Knowing when and how to ask for support.
Gender and Identity: Exploring respect, equality, and diverse identities.
Positive Gender Relationships: Building healthy, non-violent, and equal relationships.

Why We Teach It (Mandates and Benefits)

Respectful Relationships education is a mandated core component of the Victorian Curriculum (within Health and Physical Education and Personal and Social Capability). While mandatory for all government schools, St Margaret’s embraces this program as a vital part of our Catholic mission to uphold the dignity of every human person.

Key Benefits for Our Students:

Improved Academic Outcomes: Students who feel safe and emotionally regulated are better prepared to learn.
Enhanced Wellbeing: Reduced instances of bullying and improved mental health.
Future Readiness: Students graduate with the “soft skills” needed to navigate complex adult relationships and workplaces with empathy and respect.

Knowledge-Rich Curriculum

In 2026, St Margaret’s is embarking on a transformative journey by transitioning to a knowledge-rich curriculum. This shift is driven by a deep commitment to closing the “knowledge gap”—the divide that occurs when students lack the specific background knowledge required to understand complex information. Research highlights that reading comprehension is not a generic skill that can be practised in a vacuum; rather, it is fundamentally dependent on the knowledge a student brings to a text. Without a robust foundation of facts and vocabulary, students can face barriers to achievement. By moving away from a “skills-only” model and toward a curriculum that prioritises the systematic building of content, we ensure that every student at St Margaret’s has the “mental Velcro” needed to make new information stick.

Our transition is anchored in the principle that literacy is fuelled by what a child knows about the world. When a student possesses a deep “mental bank” of vocabulary and facts in history, science, and the arts, they can navigate and understand sophisticated texts with ease. By adopting an evidence-based, low-variance curriculum, we are bringing the latest cognitive science into every classroom. This approach follows the principle that “knowledge is sticky”—the more a child knows, the easier it is for them to learn more. This coherent, school-wide vision takes the “lottery” out of learning, ensuring that all students, regardless of their starting point, are immersed in a rigorous environment where core subjects provide the essential context for advanced literacy.

At St Margaret’s, this knowledge-rich approach focuses on the vital areas of Science, Health, History, Geography, and Civics & Citizenship. We strive to support our students to become informed global citizens who can make thoughtful decisions about their lifestyle and the environment. This approach provides an equitable education that transforms our students into expert readers and deep thinkers who are ready to engage with their local and global communities with confidence and curiosity.