At Lysterfield Primary School, we use evidence-based practices to deliver a rigorous and consistent curriculum.
The Science of Learning draws on research from cognitive psychology, neuroscience and education to understand the processes through which we learn. Explicit instruction involves teaching in a structured (or systematic) and direct way with teachers clearly showing students what to do and how to do it, rather than having students discover that information themselves. This approach to instruction aligns with what we know about how the human brain works (i.e., that learning happens most efficiently when teaching is clear, systematic and does not leave students to construct or discover information without any guidance).
At Lysterfield Primary School we design learning opportunities that consider:
Activating existing knowledge
Cognitive load
Practise, review and retrieval as essential components of learning
Checking for understanding
Effective feedback as essential to the learning process
Mastery and application
By exposing and teaching students rich knowledge and vocabulary we support our students’ curiosity, enrich their learning skills, and promote success. Through this framework, we have developed school-wide approaches to instructional practices in English and Mathematics.
Our teachers plan, resource, deliver & evaluate their programs as a team. This eliminates variation from classrooms and ensures all students have equal access to the same learning experiences and opportunities. Through this team approach, we utilise and develop the capacity of our staff.
At Lysterfield PS we have a whole school approach to classroom management, ‘The Pegasus Way’. All teachers create positive and secure learning environments, which promotes an environment that encourages learning above all else, allowing curiosity to flourish.
Research shows that students with a growth mindset are more interested in learning, more eager to take on challenges, and more academically successful. Through the use of engagement norms (eg. pair-share) LPS students are supported in developing a growth mindset to ensure they will ask more questions, seek out challenges that allow them to learn something new. Explicit Instruction and engagement norms ensure students put in the extra effort required to succeed and value learning the right way over the easy way.
Learning experiences are explicit, challenging, authentic and engaging and involve practical ‘hands-on’ activities and real world experiences whenever practicable. Problem solving and “being brave” is promoted, along with thinking skills, to ensure student learning.
Curriculum Design – Knowledge Rich
At Lysterfield Primary School, we aim to develop students who are curious about the world around them and both confident and creative in the application of their knowledge and skills. In a rapidly evolving world, we view the attainment of knowledge as pivotal to their future success. To achieve this, the school provides sequential and targeted teaching and learning programs.
At LPS we are committed to offering a thorough, sequential and comprehensive curriculum for our students based on the Victorian Curriculum 2.0. The Victorian Curriculum 2.0 is designed as a continuum of learning that is specifically focussed on individual student learning growth. All students have access to a curriculum program that comprehensively addresses the standards and capabilities of the Victorian Curriculum 2.0.
At LPS, our commitment to key learning areas includes daily explicit instruction, review and application in English and Mathematics. We place a strong emphasis on literacy and numeracy, as we believe this is an essential pathway to success.
Core Knowledge learning exposes students to rich knowledge and vocabulary and ensures students are actively engaged in their own learning.
Our Knowledge Rich lessons are ‘KNOWLEDGE RICH AND INSTRUCTIONALLY BULLETPROOF’. The key features of our Core Knowledge learning are:
Developing student expertise through Explicit Direct Instructional techniques
The modelling and facilitation of text comprehension and analysis
Explicit vocabulary instruction
Building depth and breadth of content/knowledge
Embedding of history, geography, and civics knowledge and skills
Explicitly linking to writing instruction
The acquisition of knowledge is key in helping students make sense of the world around them and involve themselves in the learning process. Children learn best when they experience explicit teaching, ask questions, review learning, create new knowledge, discuss their discoveries and solutions and reflect on new learning.
With this as our premise, staff design learning units based on the whole school scope and sequence, ensuring there is a progression of learning connections throughout their schooling and across subject areas.
Our students complete multiple Core Knowledge units per year that address the science, health and humanities learning areas of the curriculum. These include Science, Health, History, Geography, Civics & Citizenship, and Economics & Business. We also incorporate the capabilities of the Victorian Curriculum into the design of these learning opportunities: Critical and Creative Thinking, Ethical, Intercultural and Personal and Social.
These units are implemented across the whole school, with a clear progression of knowledge. We believe the key to the application of knowledge and skills, is the explicit teaching of them.
English
At Lysterfield Primary School, we are committed to delivering the English curriculum using evidence-based approaches. Our goal is to foster a love of reading and writing while building strong foundational literacy skills. We aim for our students to first "learn to read" in Prep to Year 2, so they can then "read to learn" from Years 3 to 6, ultimately becoming skilled readers, writers, and presenters.
Word Work
We use PhOrMeS to systematically and explicitly teach word reading and spelling. PhOrMeS helps students analyse word structures, enhancing their spelling abilities and understanding of word meanings. Students from Prep to Year 6 engage in daily Word Work, exploring the phonetic and morphological aspects of words, as well as their origins (etymology).
PhOrMeS focuses on:
- Phonology (sound-letter relationships)
- Orthography (spelling patterns)
- Morphology (parts of meaning)
- Etymology (word origins)
- Semantics (whole-word meanings)
Reading
Our Reading curriculum is grounded in the Science of Reading, incorporating models such as Scarborough’s Reading Rope and the Simple View of Reading.
In Prep to Year 2, we emphasise the "Big Six": oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Reading accuracy and fluency are promoted through the use of our Systematic Synthetic Phonics approach, alongside explicit teaching of accuracy strategies that are applied to decodable texts. Language comprehension is enhanced through rich literature, thoughtful questioning, and targeted teaching of comprehension strategies.
As students progress to Years 3 to 6, the focus shifts to expanding their background knowledge through literature units. Our teachers use high-quality literature and multisensory teaching techniques to increase students’ understanding of vocabulary and language, build their background knowledge about topics, learn expectations of genres, and practise using comprehension strategies. As students acquire more knowledge, their ability to comprehend text, understand new concepts and develop related skills improves.
Each student at LPS is allocated a Reading Goal that aligns to our developmental curriculum sequences. Each day our students participate either in a Strategy Group with their teacher, to learn a new skill or concept, or practise their goal. Our teachers administer ongoing assessments throughout the year to identify areas of mastery and areas of growth for each child.
Writing
Our Writing program aims to develop fluent and confident writers. We base our Writing program on the Hochman Method, a systematic and explicit approach, to help students recognise and construct clear and complex sentences, then progress to writing paragraphs and from there composition writing. By focusing initially on fundamental skills at the sentence level and advancing to composition writing, students learn to produce well-structured and organised writing that effectively communicates their ideas.
Speaking and Listening
At LPS, students have many varied opportunities to speak and listen to others throughout the day. This includes instructional routines such as ‘Turn and Talks’, reflective activities such as ‘Author’s Chair’, and participation in class discussions. In Grades 3 to 6, students participate in Literature studies where they learn communication skills related to active listening, respectful disagreement, elaboration, and keeping conversations engaging. In the Senior School, students engage in ‘Speech Club,’ where they prepare and deliver speeches for various purposes and practise attentive listening.
Maths
Lysterfield Primary School teaches Mathematics in line with the Victorian Curriculum F-10. The curriculum is comprised of three strands – Number & Algebra, Measurement & Geometry, and Statistics & Probability, as well as four proficiencies – Understanding, Fluency, Reasoning and Problem Solving. Students have every opportunity to learn and develop their potential, and teachers are committed to explicitly teaching Mathematics every day.
Mathematics lessons at LPS follow a structure that includes mathematical routines or ‘Hooks’ that promote whole class mathematical discussion and reasoning, and encourages students to see Mathematics as a flexible subject. Students are invited to prove, justify and make conjectures during Hooks, as well as experience multiple exposures to learnt skills as a way to support retrieval practise.
Number & Algebra is a key focus each week and students are taught skills and strategies at their point of need. For every unit of work, students complete a pre-assessment, which supports both students and teachers to ascertain an appropriate individual learning goal for each student. Students from Grades 3-6 are explicitly taught data literacy so they can make informed choices and have student voice in choosing their own learning goals based on their data.
After a learning goal has been set, students receive explicit teaching about their learning goal in small groups with the teacher, learn various ways to practise and work towards achieving that goal, and once achieved, work on the next goal in the sequence. All students across the school move through a developmental sequence of learning goals which ensures every student is being taught at their individual point of need, and learning progress is made clear, visible and achievable for each and every student.
Students also regularly engage in open-ended, problem-solving lessons. These rich tasks with a low floor and high ceiling, allow students to access the problem at their point of need. Strategies to develop problem-solving skills are explicitly taught and students work collaboratively to solve complex problems that require novel and critical thinking.
Mathematics learning is enhanced through Mathematical Investigations which see the explicit teaching and then investigation of the applied Mathematics strands Measurement & Geometry and Statistics & Probability. The Investigations allow students to see the use of Mathematics in real life, apply their skills in realistic and authentic ways, and learn the organisational skills of planning and maintaining an ongoing project.
Lysterfield Primary School is also proud to run the LPS Maths Masters Program. This program seeks to build fluency and automaticity with number concepts and number facts in our students. By increasing fluency, cognitive bandwidth is released to attend to more complex problem solving and critical thinking tasks. Through LPS Maths Masters, students practise a series of skills in short sessions across the week. When fluent in a group of skills, students receive a coloured belt award in recognition of their achievements. This whole school program consists of 9 coloured belts, so students practise skills at their point of need, and always have a belt they are striving to achieve – that is until they achieve Black Belt and become an LPS Maths Master!
STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths
At Lysterfield Primary School, students from Prep to Year 6 have access to a variety of learning opportunities across the area of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Our STEM program allows our students to dive into hands-on projects where they build, design and explore the world around them. Through the explicit teaching of fascinating science concepts including Chemical, Earth and Space, Biological and Physical Science, to coding robots and solving engineering challenges, every lesson is a new discovery. Our STEM classroom is a place where students are inspired to think critically, collaborate and tackle real-world problems. Through STEM learning, students gain valuable skills like problem-solving, teamwork, and resilience, which prepares them for success. In STEM, our students have the opportunity to look into the future where learning meets fun, and the possibilities are endless. Our dynamic and engaging curriculum-led program encourages our students to become curious innovators, turning their ideas into reality and discovering a world of limitless potential.
Some of our STEM learning highlights include:
Prep – Using our senses to explore and investigate different materials to identify their properties.
Junior School – Building a house to protect the ‘Three Little Pigs’ from the ‘Big Bad Wolf’ (a hairdryer.)
Middle School- Making ice cream to explore how liquid can be turned into solids.
Senior School – Engaging in the Lego Spike Essential program through coding and robotics challenges.