Our curriculum
Learning grounded in research, taught at the level your child is actually at
Strong literacy and numeracy underpinned by structured Inquiry and access to technology — with teachers who work as a Professional Learning Community and use data to decide what comes next.
Literacy
The longest block of the day, and the most structured
Literacy runs first thing, when children are freshest, and it runs long. Explicit teaching to the whole group opens the block; then the class splits, and the teacher works with small focus groups while everyone else gets on with reading and writing.
Your child has a reading goal they can tell you about, and a teacher who knows precisely where they are against it. That is what differentiation means here — personalised learning, goal setting, conferences and feedback — rather than the whole class moving at the pace of the middle.
Numeracy
The same big idea, entered where your child is
Numeracy at Kismet Park follows the Victorian Curriculum across number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability. What differs is the entry point: the class works on one idea, and each student meets it at their own level.
In the junior years that means materials in hands. In the senior years it means problems worth arguing about. Throughout it means teachers checking data rather than assuming, and extension or intervention support arriving when it is needed rather than at the end of the term.
Inquiry
The part of the day that runs on curiosity
A real question the class is genuinely chasing, investigated across weeks, with something built, written or presented at the end of it.
Structured Inquiry is where the reading and the maths go to work. Students investigate, plan, test and present — which builds the curiosity, problem solving and creativity our students are encouraged to bring to every challenge, and which no worksheet has ever produced.
1:1 iPad program
A device each — used to make things
Every student in the program has their own iPad. The point is creation rather than consumption: writing, filming, composing, building, publishing, and researching questions that came out of Inquiry.
It is paired with explicit cyber safety teaching, because a device in a nine-year-old’s hands is a responsibility before it is a tool. Students learn to use technology well, not just often.
Specialist programs
Five specialists. Every child, every week.
A language from Prep, a stage to stand on, a workshop to make something in, and a program that gets them moving.
01Visual ArtsEight media areas, from painting to textiles.
Based on the Victorian Curriculum and built around exploring and expressing ideas, visual arts practices, presenting and performing, and responding and interpreting. Students work in painting, printing, collage, construction, modelling, drawing, threads and textiles — as individual projects and as mixed media — and increasingly with graphic presentation on computer. They also learn to talk about art: what a work is for, who it was made for, and why it does or does not land.
02JapaneseWeekly, every student, Prep to Grade 6.
Language games, role play and cultural activities in a supportive room where students are encouraged to actually speak. From Grade 3 the focus turns to hiragana — the phonetic script used to write native Japanese words — built through interactive lessons and practice. Alongside the language, students learn Japanese customs, holidays and arts such as origami. Learning a language opens doors, and it teaches a child that the way they see the world is one way among many.
03STEMDesign it, build it, test it, improve it.
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics taught through hands-on challenges rather than worksheets. Students design a solution, build it, watch it fail, and work out why — which is where the persistence comes from.
04Physical EducationFundamental motor skills through to interschool sport.
Students begin by developing their Fundamental Motor Skills, then explore movement through games, exercises and sport — running, jumping, throwing, kicking. Sportsmanship, respect and co-operation are taught as deliberately as the skills, and senior students carry them into interschool competition. Every student participates, regardless of background or skill level.
05Performing ArtsDance, Drama and Music — and a stage to stand on.
A comprehensive program that nurtures student skills and interests across Dance, Drama and Music, and gives every child the experience of performing in front of people who are on their side.
Extension and intervention
Support at both ends, not just one
We believe all children can learn and achieve to high levels given the right time and support. Taken seriously, that belief cuts both ways: extension for students who are ready to go further, and intervention for students who need more time and a different approach.
Both are identified from data rather than impression, and both run as small-group or individual support alongside the classroom program.
Wellbeing
Respectful Relationships, and repairing rather than punishing
The Victorian Respectful Relationships curriculum is taught across the school, and it sits alongside restorative practice: when something goes wrong, students are supported to improve and repair the relationship rather than simply serve a consequence and carry the grudge into the yard.
We hold that high academic achievement carries equal weight to nurturing student wellbeing. Neither is the reward for the other.