CURRICULUM SNAPSHOTS
Streamed Literacy:
At JESC, we prioritise a differentiated Literacy approach, allowing students to move between classrooms for customised literacy sessions that acter to their individual needs. Students participate in one of the following programs: Communication group, InitiaLit programs, or Cars and Stars.
Talk for writing:
At JESC, all students engage with Talk for Writing, however the learning tasks and expectations are differentiated between our 3 phases of writing: Foundational, Transitional and Conventional.
Writing Moderation:
At JESC, all students who have progressed beyond the ‘Foundational Skills Assessment’ complete an independent writing task, which is then moderated across the school. This process allows staff to determine each student’s current level on the writing scale, recognize their strengths, and identify areas for improvement. These insights are then used to inform and support the student’s individual education plan.
Foundations of comprehension:
'Foundations of Comprehension' is a literacy based, alternative conceptual approach to developing the pre-requisite foundational skills required to develop comprehension fluency. This program is broken down into four modules to scaffold the teaching of comprehension skills from a foundational skills level to text-based comprehension skills.
At JESC, we focus our teaching and assessment on developing solid number skills and understandings within the content strand of Number & Algebra, up to a Year 2 level, before progressing and assessing the other content strands of Measurement & Geometry and Statistics & Probability.
We have designed a Maths Assessment to assess, monitor and track our students progress within the WA Maths curriculum content strand of Number & Algebra that develops the understanding, fluency, problem solving and reasoning of mathematics.
Foundations of Number
This outlines the building blocks to teach number skills based on the Singapore Maths approach, with the Number Network forming the basis of the Foundations of Maths. It has been refined to suit our cohort and context whereby once the Number Network relations have been established, students can move onto the Maths curriculum in a meaningful way.
This is an assessment tool focusing on building students’ capacity to become effective learners by establishing a strong foundation of prerequisite skills necessary for engaging with curriculum content. It encompasses 36 key developmental skills, ranging from name recognition, gesture tracking and imitation, to more advanced capabilities including observational learning, attribute identification, and relational responding.
Upon identifying individual skill deficits, the tool is supported by comprehensive documentation, including a detailed scope and sequence to guide and enhance daily classroom instruction. Our staff implement evidence-based behaviour analytic teaching strategies including positive reinforcement, token economies, systematic data collection, and effective prompting techniques to explicitly teach these foundational skills.
This specialist subject incorporates environmental inquiry, Aboriginal cultural studies and learning through practical sustainable based projects. Community partnerships enhance the program enabling access to accredited programs, grants and joint projects. Partnerships have been built with Sustainable Schools WA, Waste Sorted Schools, Containers for Change, Kings Park Education Centre, Bunnings, Oz Harvest, Garden Club, Wangara Scouts and Perth Zoo.
Curriculum is project-based learning with a mixture of classroom and outdoor experiences. Examples of projects include the expansion of the Community Garden – incorporating a worm farm, chickens and garden beds for class use, bush tucker garden beds and native animal habitats. The FEAST program is incorporated for older students to understand the full food cycle. All year groups are taught the importance of a continued recycling awareness in closing the waste loop – paper, bottle tops, batteries, 10c containers, coffee pods & cups, dishwashing & dental products. An Aboriginal perspective is weaved into all projects.
Our sensory room program gives students an opportunity to learn new skills in a fun and engaging environment. The sensory rooms contain specialist equipment and is divided into an active space and a calming area.
To support our students with complex communication needs, our AAC Coordinator assists to create the environment with visual supports such as schedules, aided language displays to help support the students understanding and to give them the opportunity to make choices. These visuals are also replicated in classrooms, around the school, used by therapists and given to families, so students are familiar with them in all environments.
AAC is a priority at Joondalup ESC as we believe in giving our students with complex communication needs (CCN) access to language and by doing so, this gives them a “voice” to enable them to communicate. This gives them the opportunity to interact socially with others, to control their environment, to contribute to their learning, to reject and request, to offer opinions or make choices and to request information from others. Essentially this gives them the ability to actively contribute to all areas of their life.
We currently have a dedicated AAC coordinator who works to support the growing number of students using AAC devices through building staff capacity and providing in classroom support. In addition, the coordinator oversees our Sensory Room program, which focuses on fostering purposeful communication, social skills, and self-regulation.
The program is delivered by a specialist teacher in conjunction with a Physiotherapist. All students are diagnostically tested pre and post program annually so that IEP goals and programs can be tailored specifically for each student and cohort. Groups have a strong focus on fundamental movement skills progressing through to modified games and sports when applicable.
More complex students have specific programs that are written and delivered in consultation with the school physiotherapist and delivered alongside their peers. All students are integrated into the joint schools’ carnivals as well as being eligible for both mainstream and education support specific inter school events and activities.
The program is enhanced by the use of specialist coaches for onsite sessions, and excursions to facilities that help promote physical activity and engagement.
Joondalup ESC maintains multi-modal programs to incorporate The Arts curriculum. Students are exposed to music through drumming and visual arts. The drumming program is offered on a weekly basis to our students in PP to Year 2. Djembe drums and small hand-held instruments are used to explore sounds, beats and rhythms in a way that engages students to make music, interact and respond to music.
Through weekly Visual Arts lessons, students in Years 2 to 6 are invited to explore and experience artistic materials and create artworks through different techniques and processes. Students are introduced to the visual elements of shape, line, colour and texture to investigate and use in their own artwork.
The art room has been specifically designed to accommodate the range of learners in accessing materials and work spaces, all facilitated through a specialised Arts teacher.
OUR SCHOOL
FOR PARENTS
CURRICULUM PROGRAMS
QUALITY TEACHING STRATEGY
FOR EDUCATORS
Looking to Enrol
