Year 1
YEAR 1 OVERVIEW
Year 1s learn to soar through a supportive and academically rigorous program, where they connect, create and challenge...
Year 1 overview
Students at St John’s Grammar Junior School learn to soar throughout their years at our School through a supportive and academically rigorous program, where they connect, create and challenge.
In Year 1, our single level classes and dedicated Home Group teachers promote independence, resilience and perseverance as our students continue their school journey. Smaller class sizes provide individual attention and support from Student Support Officers (SSO) ensure each child is working at their full potential as we follow our Reception to Year 2 focus of ‘connect’. Year 1 students buddy with Year 5s to connect and build relationships, while ensuring a safe and dynamic learning environment for all students.
Our highly qualified and experienced staff use explicit teaching techniques of literacy and numeracy concepts and offer differentiated programs to give students the best opportunities to achieve. Complemented by some interesting partnerships with Friends of Belair and Belair National Park, and a program of excursions to Adelaide Zoo, Old Tailem Town and the Light and Sound incursion, our Year 1s are presented with unique and interesting learning opportunities.
Throughout the year, we enjoy highlights such as the Junior Primary Fun Days at the end of Terms 1 and 3, Book Week, Grandparents Day, as well as co-curricular programs that help our families to connect with our wider community, such as netball, Auskick, dance, cricket, aerobics and gymnastics.
In Year 1, we focus on thinking skills and inquiry based learning, natural inquiry, and learning through Science and Technology with a practical approach. We use educational theories and practices such as Edward de Bono’s six hat thinking model, and we share student work and achievement through online technology platforms such as Seesaw. Our Year 1s at St John’s Grammar have opportunities to connect, create and be challenged, giving them the ability to become compassionate, resilient students who are learning to soar.
The core curriculum includes English, Mathematics, History, Geography, Science, Technology and Health Education, taught by classroom teachers. A specialist subject program is taught by specialist teachers in the areas of Music, the Arts, Physical Education and Indonesian.
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GUIDED INQUIRY
Guided Inquiry in Reception to Year 2 further provides the structure for students to learn through play...
Learning through play
Guided Inquiry in Reception to Year 2 further provides the structure for students to learn through play. Recognised as an important focus of the Early Years Learning Framework, there are four dedicated double lessons per week for Guided Inquiry. These sessions see numerous learning/inquiry zones set up within each classroom to focus on different learning areas.
As well as learning through play, Guided Inquiry allows students to shine at what interests them, develop relationships with other students and test their theories while providing early enterprise experience.
NATURAL INQUIRY
The opportunity to learn in Belair National Park adds a richness to our experience...
Structured, natural inquiry with Belair National Park
With our campus adjacent to Belair National Park, a structured natural inquiry program sees our Year 1s working with Friends of Belair National Park to help maintain and further create the maze. One session per week inside the Park allows students to explore and develop an appreciation for the natural environment of Belair National Park.
This opportunity to learn in the Park adds a richness to our learning by providing unparalleled opportunities for children to learn; not only from an Environmental Science perspective through observing seasons, lifecycles, landscapes and habitats but also opportunities for calculated risk taking and resilience as they play amongst the natural environment.
SIGNATURE EXPERIENCES
Our Year 1s have a number of unique programs and initiatives as part of their schooling experience...
Signature experience for Year 1 students
Our Year 1s have a number of unique programs and initiatives as part of their schooling experience.
The Year 1s have a special connection with Friends of Belair and visit Belair National Park on a weekly basis. To further this link, the Year 1s also take part in the Junior Primary Fun Day which sees the Year 1s converge on Belair National Park for a day of exploration, play and fun at the end of Terms 1 and 3.
An excursion to Old Tailem Town to learn about history and linking history learning to Grandparents Day provides unique and interesting real-world connections between the past and the present for our Year 1s.
LITERACY AND NUMERACY IN YEAR 1
The Junior Campus places great importance on the teaching of numeracy and literacy...
Literacy and numeracy focus in Year 1
The Junior Campus places great importance on the teaching of numeracy and literacy, and a dedicated Maths Support and Extension teacher is engaged to tutor smaller groups with individualised attention and guidance according to student needs.
In Year 1, differentiated programs and workshops based on ability help with the explicit teaching of foundational literacy and numeracy concepts. In practice, this involves our Year 1 students incorporating the Letter and Sounds component of the Spelling Teams program to identify common sounds for all letters and incorporate them in their writing. To aid in the development of writing skills, students are explicitly taught how to recount and structure narrative, how to report and to undertake descriptive writing through the Learning Teams program. The aim is to have students reading at level 18-20 by the end of the year.
Our goal for Numeracy, on the other hand, is for Year 1 students to be able to identify and use numbers to and from 100. Correct number formation, understanding place value and addition and subtraction up to 20 are all competencies that are developed in Year 1.
We achieve this through the use of the PR1ME Maths Program and the use of technology-based programs such Matific to teach core tenets of numeracy while providing real-time reporting back to teachers to further engage and personalise learning.
Our Year 1s also take part in our Maths Teams program. This is a weekly needs-based Maths differentiation program where students break into smaller teams to work on Maths problem solving. Class teachers support the mainstream learners, with students needing extra scaffolding supported by Student Support Officers (SSO) and students needing extension supported by specialist teachers.
All Maths programs have the ability for real-time assessment and reporting to individualise and support learning.
DIFFERENTIATED LEARNING
Across Reception to Year 6 we offer a Differentiated Learning program which is aimed at ensuring every child has the opportunity to soar...
Differentiated Learning
Across Reception to Year 6 we offer a Differentiated Learning program which is aimed at ensuring every child has the opportunity to soar.
Differentiated Learning provides small, targeted learning groups based on ability to help with the explicit teaching of foundational literacy and numeracy concepts. This approach allows class teachers support the mainstream learners, with extra scaffolding for students who need it to be provided by Student Support Officers (SSO) and specialist teachers able to provide extension for those students requiring it.
Creating a learning environment that is nurturing and contributes to the development of students’ self-esteem and enthusiasm for ongoing literacy and numeracy learning is the outcome of our Differentiated Learning framework.
Literacy
We have developed a unique and comprehensive genre-based literacy program called Learning Teams and a rigorous, synthetic phonics program called Spelling Teams.
Learning Teams is a small-group initiative that focuses specifically on the development of writing skills such as: planning, organising ideas when writing, applying grammar, self and peer editing, reflection and applying feedback. Specialised, student-friendly genre templates and rubrics help engage and demystify the assessment and feedback process.
The Spelling Team program explicitly teaches students how to segment and blend words. This program is underpinned by the Letters and Sounds Framework. Letters and Sounds is a systematic, high-quality phonics program based on best practice from international research. From Reception right through to Year 6, the Letters and Sounds Framework methodically teaches each sound in depth across every phase. The aim is to give enough time and practice to support your child to transfer their new spelling learning into their everyday writing.
Both programs provide targeted learning groups to allow class teachers support the mainstream learners, with extra scaffolding for students who need it to be provided by SSOs and specialist teachers able to provide extension for those students requiring it.
To further support literacy learning, our Phonemic Awareness Program helps students identify syllables, onset rime and phonemes. Developing such skills is a precursor for reading success and gives students extra advantage in developing and consolidating this fundamental literacy skill during their formative years. Lastly, Decodable Readers dovetail with our Phonemic Awareness Program and Letters and Sounds approach of teaching our students how to decode words for meaning.
Numeracy
Our approach to numeracy in the Junior School has been led by research into the highest-ranking countries for numeracy knowledge in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
Following best-practice education, we have introduced the PR1ME Maths program for our Year 1-6 students. This program has been modified to complement the content and outcomes of our Australian Mathematics Curriculum at each year level. It promotes a CPA (Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract) approach whereby students learn through the use of hands-on materials, then transfer that knowledge to pictures or images before cementing the concepts by recording in symbols. The sequenced curriculum also focuses on teaching concepts in the correct order for maximum understanding and retention.
Teachers continue to use traditional pencil and paper assessments, observation and group work to assess student capabilities as well as digital assessments to inform the personalisation of the programs and teaching.
The PR1ME program is complemented by the Matific program. Matific offers an interactive teaching and learning platform for Reception to Year 4 students. This learning resource engages students in games and activities in a fun way using digital technology with teachers able to differentiate the learning experience by assigning activities to suit the abilities of individual students.
The Maths Teams program also sees students undertake weekly problem solving challenges in targeted learning groups. Of the eight Numeracy lessons each week, two of those lessons are dedicated to Maths Teams problem solving and incorporate a growth mindset approach. The challenges are open-ended and are designed to develop and promote verbal and written reasoning of Maths.
Targeted learning groups see class teachers support the mainstream learners, with students needing extra scaffolding being supported by SSOs and students needing extension being supported by specialist teachers. Our smaller student-to-teacher ratio enables teachers to carefully monitor and assist each student with recording their thinking and sharing of their understanding.
WELLBEING & SUPPORT
A focus on individualised learning enables tailored student learning journeys...
Wellbeing & Support
An ELC to Year 12 Wellbeing Framework is further supported by our CARES program (courtesy, awareness, responsibility, empathy and service) and Program Achieve. Commencing with the Bright Beginnings wellbeing program during the first two weeks of term 1, students are set up to start school with their best foot forward and equipped with skills, knowledge and a positive attitude to be successful in all areas of School life.
The Wings program, which spearheads our Whole School Wellbeing Program, teaches age and stage appropriate social and emotional learning to enable students to better manage their relationships with themselves and others. The wellbeing concepts and strategies are taught by a specialist teacher.
We offer SSO supported individual and small, targeted group sessions for students needing extra scaffolding in their learning as well as many opportunities for high achievers to be extended. An overall focus on individualised learning for all ensures students have a tailored learning journey to build ability and confidence.
EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Year 1 students have access to a number of extra-curricular opportunities...
Extra Curricular Activities
Year 1s have access to a number of extra-curricular opportunities after school on our School grounds including netball skills, Auskick, Dance, Cricket and 22Too, a gymnastics and acrobatics program. Additionally, Year 1s are eligible to join the Junior Soarers choir.
A number of special lunch time special-interest clubs are available to all students, including a Lego club, gardening club, art club, coding club and more.
FACILITIES
Standing proud for 60 years, our Junior School comprises a variety of learning spaces...
Facilities at our Junior School
Standing proud for 60 years, St John’s Grammar Junior School is located in the Adelaide Hills, adjacent Belair National Park with picturesque views of the Mount Lofty Ranges.
Our well resourced Junior School Campus comprises individual classrooms catering for each year level, including a learning support/extension centre, a multi-purpose School activity hall, specialist Music and Language classrooms and our signature Centre for Creativity.
Students have access to a resource centre, which incorporates our award winning library, a dedicated art room, and a media room equipped with a green screen and an array of recording and media equipment. The centre also houses a multipurpose room that provides a myriad of additional uses and opportunities for collaborative learning, specialist presentations and workshops, co-curricular activities and ‘out of class’ learning experiences.
A purpose built all-weather sporting field and courts provide a useable surface for sporting activities and play all year round, and a variety of outdoor spaces include two well-equipped playgrounds, vegetable gardens, sand and mud pits, and a ‘Play Pod’.
Our Play Pod is an exciting initiative where students use a variety of materials to build, create, learn and have fun during recess and lunch as they play in a beautiful setting at the edge of Belair National Park, where they can enjoy regular access to the Park’s rich natural resources, amenities and sporting facilities.
The Enterprise precinct, Nature playscape and student designed and managed Scientific Garden feature prominently in the daily educational offering for our children.
