Curriculum

The Australian Curriculum sets out the essential knowledge, understanding, skills, and quality of learning for each Australian student's first 11 years of schooling. 

The Curriculum is three-dimensional as it includes:

  •  learning areas
  •  general capabilities
  • and cross-curriculum priorities.

Together, the three dimensions set out essential knowledge, understanding and skills all young Australians need so they will be able to learn, contribute and shape their world now and in the future.

Eight Learning Areas and disciplines from which they are drawn provide the foundation of learning.

The Australian Curriculum identifies and organises the essential knowledge, understanding, and skills students should learn.

  • English
  • Maths
  • Science
  • Humanities and Social Science
  • The Arts
  • Technologies
  • Health and Physical Education
  • Languages

Seven General Capabilities equip young Australians with the knowledge, skills, behaviours, and dispositions to live and work successfully.

They support and deepen student engagement with learning area content and are developed within the context of the learning areas.

Three Cross Curriculum Priorities support the Australian Curriculum to be a relevant, contemporary and engaging curriculum that reflects national, regional and global contexts. 

They are incorporated through learning area content; they are not separate learning areas or subjects.

Please visit the Australian Curriculum website for more information.

Schooling in NSW is based on the mandatory NSW syllabuses for students from Kindergarten to Year 12. The syllabuses are developed and endorsed by the New South Wales Education Standards Authority (NESA). 

St Mary's Primary School follows the approved syllabuses with the exception of Religious Education, which is approved by the Bishop of Lismore.

Subjects are called Key Learning Areas (KLAs).

They are:

  • Mathematics
  • Science and Technology
  • English
  • Human Society and its Environments
  • Personal Development Health and Physical Education
  • Creative Arts
  • Religious Education

As a Catholic school, Religious Education is both a Key Learning Area and integral to our way of life.  

You can visit the NESA website for more information on the NSW syllabuses.

St Mary's Primary School provides students with a safe and supportive learning environment with innovative learning experiences. We foster within each student the ability to grow and develop the skills necessary to adapt to an ever-changing world underpinned by the Catholic ethos of leadership, responsibility, duty and dignity towards others.

You can view the Parents Guide to the NSW Primary Syllabus for examples of what your child may learn.

The staff at St Mary's Primary School provide innovative learning opportunities for each student to be engaged, imaginative and reflective in their learning. We promote a culture of inquiry-based learning, ensuring that all students gain the knowledge, skills and deep understanding required for future success. We are dedicated to quality teaching that nurtures lifelong learning, enabling our students to realise their true potential and empowering our students with the skills and attributes that will enable them to achieve the fullness of life.  

In our St Mary's Primary School learning community, we believe that a partnership between families, community and parish is vital in developing a supportive, holistic learning environment for our students. We foster in our students the values necessary to meet the challenges in this dynamic and ever-changing world, strengthened by their Christian values. This enables us to guide our students to develop and recognise their full potential, guided by the Gospel teachings of our Catholic tradition.

Our engaging and inclusive curriculum focuses on developing students' depth of understanding of key skills needed to be adaptive, transfer learning to new contexts and prepare for learning throughout life.

We offer a broad curriculum with a high priority given to literacy and numeracy.

Our Learning Areas:

  • The Arts (Dance, Drama, Music, Visual Arts)
  • English
  • Health and Physical Education
  • HSIE
  • Languages (Language taught)
  • Mathematics
  • Science
  • Technologies

We are committed to excellence and equality in the growth and development of all students as lifelong learners who are actively engaged with a passionate curiosity and wonder about the world. 

Acknowledgement of Country. We acknowledge the Gumbaynggirr people, the traditional custodians of the lands on which our school resides. We pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging, for they hold the memories, the traditions and culture of the Gumbaynggirr peoples.