Physical Education
Physical Education covers the strands of Personal, Social and Community Health and Movement and Physical Activity. At Lysterfield, our PE lessons focus on developing confidence, strength and knowledge in the fundamentals of the body and movement. Students are engaged in high quality, meaningful activities that also promote curiosity and fun.
Our Junior School program focuses on developing the fundamental motor skills to enable students to participate in games and sport. Our middle and senior programs extend on the fundamental skills to develop game skills and team behaviours.
We complement the PE program with school wide activities such as House Athletics, Cross Country, Perceptual Motor Program and Lunchtime Sports Clubs.
Our students also engage in a sport program that begins in the Middle School with coaching and training. In the Senior School, students put these skills to use in interschool sports competitions.
Lysterfield Sport representatives are a reflection of our school community. Students under the Lysterfield Sport banner have gone on to achieve amazing results in all levels of competitions in a wide range of sports, all while being commended for their outstanding attitude, approach to competition and respect for the community.
Visual Arts
In the art room at Lysterfield Primary School we aim to create a stimulating environment where students feel excited to try new things, explore new ideas and - at times - make a mess!
Our lessons are structured around explicit learning intentions and success criteria that are aligned with the Victorian Curriculum.
During their art sessions, students from Prep to Year 6 are provided with opportunities to explore and express their creativity through experimenting with a diverse range of resources and learning tasks. They are exposed to, discuss and take inspiration from, various art styles and artists’ work.
The artworks produced by students during formal art lessons - as well as during lunchtime art club - are displayed throughout our school, creating an ever-evolving gallery space.
Throughout the year, students, either as individuals or collaborators, have the opportunity for their work to be entered in competitions or displayed in community settings, such as exhibitions and festivals.
Students come to art to enjoy creative experiences and leave feeling pride in what they achieve.
Performing Arts
At Lysterfield Primary School, students from Prep to Year 6 have access to a variety of learning opportunities across the areas of Music, Dance and Drama. Children have the opportunity to perform in front of their peers throughout the year and be part of a whole school performance in our bi-annual production.
Performing Arts in the junior school classes focus on a broad appreciation of music, dance and drama. During classes, students create performance pieces that tie all the musical elements of beat, pitch, dynamics and tempo together. They work as soloists and in groups, learning how to be performers and audience members.
Dance and drama are incredibly powerful and engaging tools for children to express their feelings and be creative. They learn to use their voices, facial expressions, movement and space to imagine and improvise characters and situations.
As students develop their musical appreciation and knowledge of key musical elements, instruments are introduced to practice and extend their learning. Recorders are introduced in Year 3 and in Year 4 children focus on the xylophones, glockenspiels and marimbas. Year 3 and 4 students continue to use drama and are introduced to producing simple plays to explore roles, characters and improvisation.
Senior school students utilise their knowledge of musical elements to create, compose and compare musical genres. The introduction of Theatre Sports helps develop skills like improvisation, quick thinking, imagination, role playing, voice development and acting skills. Students explore the elements of dance including skills and technique, culminating in a whole school performance.
Languages – Mandarin
At Lysterfield Primary School, we are aware of how significantly learning a second language extends students’ capacity to communicate and widens their international perspective. It strengthens student’s understanding of cultural diversity and fosters new ways of thinking.
The Mandarin Program is timetabled for 50-minute sessions each week throughout all the year levels. The aim of our Mandarin program is to provide students with opportunities to develop their communication skills in Mandarin and explore Chinese culture. Students are immersed in a culturally inclusive learning environment and develop their language skills and cultural understanding through participating in a wide range of activities such as singing, dancing, role-plays, art and craft. Students and staff are also very excited to celebrate our Chinese Cultural Day every year, as they are involved in many fun activities, dress up in Chinese costumes and enjoy a special Chinese lunch.
We are currently investigating a Sister School partnership. This international partnership will allow our students to broaden their perspectives and enhance their language learning. We strongly believe that sister school partnerships will be an excellent mechanism for building intercultural understanding and a sense of global citizenship in our students and staff.
Literacy Support
Reading is the cornerstone to all future learning. Without the development of good reading skills and comprehension, students can be at risk of academic failure. At Lysterfield PS, we use The Levelled Literacy Intervention Program (Fountas & Pinnell) to identify and assist children that are at-risk of not meeting reading expectations. The objective of the program is to assist children to experience better outcomes in all areas of their education by improving their reading.
The program provides small group instruction for 30 minutes each day, 4 days a week. The students are withdrawn to a quiet study area to work on a combination of daily reading, writing and word work activities with an emphasis on teaching comprehension strategies and a love of reading. These lessons are in addition to the regular reading instruction taught in the classroom.
Challengers Program
The Lysterfield Primary School Challengers Program offers selected students support to extend their individual potential and ability. The program runs once a week for 50 minutes.
Through a variety of challenging and creative opportunities, we cater for individual student differences. Children work alongside like-minded peers on an open-ended project that is driven by choice and negotiation. During this time, students further develop their higher order processing skills and in-depth investigation skills.
Cumulatively, these dimensions of the program develop important attributes and skills that foster individual learning, the development of confidence, critical thinking, higher-level conceptual ability, communication skills and problem solving abilities. These are pivotal to developing the dynamic, flexible and creative thinking that will contribute to success in education and define our future leaders.