About Whyalla Stuart Primary School R-6
Whyalla Stuart Primary School is a small school with a strong sense of community connection.
Student Literacy development is actively underpinned by targeted literacy groups involving all students and staff. Our Junior Primary classes participate in daily explicit literacy lessons based on the InitiaLit program. It is an evidence-based whole-class literacy program providing all children with the essential core knowledge and strong foundations to become successful readers and writers through the explicit and systematic teaching of phonics.
Students in all year levels participate in daily Heggarty sessions to develop their phonological and phonemic awareness. Heggarty provides students with consistent and repeated instruction, and this transfers to developing a student’s decoding and encoding skills.
Students who are identified as not making progress with their reading have the opportunity to be part of the MiniLit Reading Program. Students have four sessions per week lasting for 45 minutes each session. They work in a group, with no more than four students per group.
Spelling Mastery is implemented with all students 3-6 facilitated by all available adults who each supervise a small group.
All students participate in writing moderation tasks once a term to track progress in a particular genre and provide explicit feedback on how they can improve their writing.
Teachers begin their Numeracy lessons with a warm up, aimed at developing a student’s automaticity using number. This is supported through regular assessments focusing on the Big Ideas in Number.
We also provide additional assistance and support through the use of small group instruction on targeted areas for improvement.
Further consolidation of skills is enhanced through computer programs including Reading Eggs, Fast Phonics, Mathseeds and Mathletics.
Science and Technology is currently provided by a specialist teacher as a NIT subject. All other subjects are taught by the classroom teacher. At this stage we are unable to offer a language at the school. School Services Officer (SSO) support is provided in every classroom, to assist students with disabilities and to support Literacy and Numeracy programmes.
‘Play is the Way’ is incorporated across the school with students participating in daily activities to learn the concepts of social and emotional literacy. Our school Behaviour Education Plan is based on ‘Play is the Way’ key concepts and principles. We have a dedicated ‘Chill Zone’ where students can choose to attend to assist with self-regulation.
We follow the Berry Street Education Model of trauma informed practice and have whole school agreements around Morning Welcome Circles, Unconditional Positive Regard, Check in Scales, Ready to Learn Plans and Brain Breaks.
To engage and encourage learning across the curriculum, we provide Smartboards, and a range of technology tools, which are available for all classrooms. In addition, we have a well-equipped Computer Room, which is accessed by all classes as well as laptops and IPADs for classes to use. We have a dedicated Art Room for Visual Arts lessons and Music Room for instrumental music and Choir. We also have a new library and teacher resource centre which is expected to be open by the end of Term 3 2023.
Being a small school, we ensure students still have opportunities to compete in Whyalla Interschool sporting events, as well as Festival of Music Choir performances. We are also represented in the schools’ section of the Whyalla Show. Students participate in swimming instruction, aquatics and coaching clinics in various sports, are attended throughout the year as well as participation in visiting performances.
Lunchtime soccer is very popular with students Reception to Year 6, as are our ‘Library Lovers’ and ‘Book Week’ Celebrations.
We encourage parents and community members to be actively involved in our school. We plan and celebrate special days with breakfasts, BBQ’s and open times. Reconciliation Week as well as NAIDOC celebrations and Harmony Day are all featured.
We hold regular assemblies and our Sports Day and End of Year Concerts are particular highlights in our calendar.
