We know that students cannot access the school curriculum effectively if they do not have the appropriate reading and writing skills required of the task.  At St.Mary’s we continually revise and update best practice approaches to developing literacy skills in all our students.

Students at St Mary's will participate in a comprehensive numeracy program every day. We support and challenge our students to engage in the three Victorian Curriculum Mathematics strands of Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability.  

During numeracy sessions students participate in whole class focus sessions, develop mental computation strategies, experience small group rotation activities and teacher lead sessions and complete tasks tailored to their individual learning needs. Feedback is provided to students via processes of peer led discussions or teacher elaboration to consolidate the learning focus and to redress any misconceptions 

Flare is DOBCEL’s primary literacy improvement strategy, designed to support every primary school in the Diocese of Ballarat to deliver high-quality, evidence-informed literacy instruction. Through Flare, schools are supported to implement structured literacy practices, a reading and writing curriculum aligned with Victorian Curriculum 2.0, and an integrated knowledge-rich Literacy, Humanities and Science curriculum. The program brings together curriculum, professional learning, assessment, data and leadership support so that teachers can deliver consistent, explicit and responsive literacy instruction for all students.