North Ainslie Primary School aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who take positive action in the world. Our school uses evidence-based practices to improve educational outcomes and every student.
As an International Baccalaureate World School, we use an inquiry approach, as well as explicit teaching to support all learners. We use a Gradual Release of Responsibility Model (I do, we do, you do) and inquiry is led through structured, controlled, guided, and open inquiry.
Our staff use a range of assessments to support all learners and meet them at their point of need. Planning and teaching are differentiated, and our teachers use goal setting, feedback, and conferencing to support each learner to grow and extend.
Students are met at their point of need in all aspects of their learning and they regularly conference with their teacher, receive feedback, and set goals.
We teach literacy because it is a set of life skills which enable us to communicate effectively, express ourselves and successfully interpret and contribute to society in a meaningful way. We have a comprehensive literacy program, using the six key reading strategies (using the six key elements of reading: oral language, phonics, phonological awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension) which research tells us supports children to learn to read and write. Daily teaching of reading, writing, (including voice, choice, agency, authorial and secretarial aspects), and speaking and listening occurs in our classrooms.
We believe to function effectively in society, students need to confidently apply numeracy in everyday life. Explicit teaching of mathematics, including number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability, are taught daily using both hands-on materials and mental computational skills, linked to real world contexts.
Learning is made visible to students through explicit learning intentions, clear success criteria, ongoing formative assessment, and constructive feedback. Student’s set targeted learning goals and work with their teachers to set these goals, work towards these, and celebrate their achievement.