Primary School

Our Lower, Middle and Upper Primary are housed in comfortable and inviting classrooms each with a multi-aged group which caters for ratios of 26 students led by a teaching team of two, comprising a qualified teacher and an intern.The teams work to develop close and respectful relationships with the students.

Time and Space to Learn

Classes follow a ‘flow of the day’, including class meetings, skill and project-based lessons, morning tea and lunch breaks, and specialist teaching. The specialists working with the primary students vary and they include physical education (Bluearth), performing and visual arts, outdoor and natural sciences, Italian culture and language for years 3 to 6, and digital and design technologies. Days are not governed by bells or sirens and learning is, therefore, more responsive to and respectful of students’ learning, so that if the class is engaged and wish to continue on a project or task they have the freedom to do so. The Primary spaces include:

• a Library with collections housed across the school
• Ateliers for textile, drawing, media work and project development
• a ‘Multi-Function’ space dedicated to the arts which includes media and publishing areas
• Kitchen Garden areas with quails, chickens and gardens which are purposefully planted and harvested with the students
• a Performance Arts building
• Outdoor classrooms (Wildspaces) where children learn to investigate, collaborate, negotiate, take risks, play and work safely out of doors.

Integrated Curriculum through Social Constructivism

Learning is facilitated through a combination of integrated projects and specific skill-based or ‘crafting’ experiences. Learning in a socially constructive way is collaborative in nature, where students share, learn from and cooperate with each other as they work. Interdisciplinary research and investigation are supported by the learning and practice of specific and targeted skills, for example, an investigation into the species of trees found within our school might be supported by the specific teaching of observational drawing, mapping and tabling skills.

• Bold Park Community School acknowledges that all students learn differently, and we use a variety of strategies to engage and challenge them when acquiring literacy and numeracy understandings. Teaching Teams blend all aspects of literacy and numeracy using a balance of:

• synthetic phonics instruction
• comprehension skill development
• number talks and hands on activities
• authentic literature
• visiting authors
• web-based programs
• games and problem solving
• purposeful investigations
• word study
• and reflection on personal thinking and strategies (meta-cognition).

Place and Nature Based Learning

We understand the importance of utilising the communities and places outside of school to support and inspire learning (Place Based Education). Projects can incorporate the relevant history, culture, economy, literature and art of the people and places around us – local, national and international depending on the age of the students. Our commitment to valuing the natural environment (Nature Based Education) means that we also use the outside spaces in and around our school to read, journal, research, photograph, map and play.

100 Languages

Students are encouraged to use many different ‘languages’ to learn and to express their ideas, such as dance, role-plays, interviews, written and digital stories, cartoon creations, sculpture or maps. Students of Middle to Upper Primary age have two half days per week with the BPCS Arts Program, incorporating Drama, Dance, Design Technologies, Visual Arts, Outdoor curriculum connections, Media and Music. One of the half days is for the development of class project work where an art’s specialist is embedded to innovate alongside the class teachers. Lower Primary classes have art’s specialists who work alongside them each week in much the same embedded fashion, offering opportunities which are designed to invite students to express themselves, learn and record their discoveries in many different ways.

Reporting and Monitoring

As part of the Bold Park Community School’s commitment to building relationships with families and making the student’s learning more visible, teaching staff encourage regular communication with and report to parents through:

• Meetings and parent events
• Educa (online story sharing),
• ‘Snapshot’ reports (Australian and Western Australian Curriculum)
• Communication Books
• Parent/teaching team interviews

We gather information about our students’ achievements and attitudes using diverse and authentic methods (state and national exemplars, discussion, checklists, video, work samples, etc). Students also participate in the National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) every two years from the age of 8 and we also carry out school testing, such as our online tool, Essential Assessments which support our own observations.

Want to hear some stories from our Primary School program? Please visit our “On the Ground” page!

BPCS Handbook

More information regarding the structure of our Primary program can be found in the 2022 BPCS HANDBOOK.