Literacy education is not just about mastering reading and writing skills; it’s about fostering a lifelong love for learning and communication. Students are equipped with the foundational skills needed to navigate the complexities of the written word with confidence and fluency. From phonics and decoding strategies to comprehension and critical analysis, our approach emphasises both the mechanics and the joy of literacy.

Reading

All students at Templestowe Valley Primary School participate in Reader’s Workshop every day. During these sessions students learn effective strategies for life-long reading.

What does a reading session at Templestowe Valley look like?

The reading session starts with the teacher identifying the learning intention and success criteria, followed by a mini-lesson where the teacher demonstrates important strategies for reading using a variety of rich texts; both fiction and non-fiction.

The reading strategies taught are derived from the CAFÉ Reading system. The students are taught specific strategies in; comprehension, accuracy, fluency and expanding vocabulary. A significant part of the Reader’s Workshop is devoted to the students reading independently and practising reading strategies with their self-selected just right books. Teachers conference with students. They work one to one with students to discuss and set reading goals. Students have an opportunity in Reader’s Workshop to respond to text read and think about the reading they have done.

Making successful readers at Templestowe Valley

Reading is more than just saying the words or getting from the beginning of the book to the end.

To be successful readers, children need to be able to comprehend text. Research shows that there are strategies we can demonstrate to children as we read that will help them gain more understanding during reading.

Throughout the year, teachers explicitly teach comprehension strategies to aid understanding. The school has adopted a whole school approach to the explicit teaching of comprehension strategies.

Information and tips in relation to comprehension strategies are often included in year level newsletters. The best education for students occurs when teachers and parents work together.

Writing

In Writing, students take part in daily Writer’s Workshop. This builds students’ fluency through continuous, repeated exposure to the process of writing.

What does a writing session at Templestowe Valley look like?

Similar to Reader’s Workshop, students take part in a mini-lesson at the beginning of each writing session where the teacher models the craft of writing using rich mentor texts, with a focus on one of the 6+1 Writing Traits. Students develop an understanding and work through the Stages of Writing used by successful writers: Planning, Composing, Recording, Revising, Editing and Publishing.

Following the explicit teaching, students are given opportunities for independent writing time, including the use of Writer’s Notebook as inspiration to guide their ‘free choice’ writing. During this time, the teacher conferences with individual or small groups of students to discuss and enhance their writing and set individual goals. Concluding the session, students share their work on the ‘Author’s Chair’ and seek feedback from their teacher and peers.

At school students learn to be authors and illustrators of many different types of writing, supporting this at home is vital. Writing is about taking risks, it doesn’t matter if you’re spelling or handwriting isn’t perfect. We are all on a journey! And as we say, “Mistakes are proof you’re learning!”

Spelling is taught from Prep to Year 6 with students taught the process of linking individual speech sounds (phonemes) to written symbols (grapheme). To begin with children are taught one way of writing down each of the phonemes, they are then gradually introduced to more spelling alternatives for each of 44 phonemes.

 

Speaking and Listening

In Speaking and Listening, students are given ample opportunities to take part in whole class discussions, small group work and oral presentations each term. This enables students to develop their oral language in a variety of situations.

At Templestowe Valley Primary School we want all children to be confident problem solvers and enthusiastic Mathematicians. Students are given lots of opportunities to explore and investigate Mathematics in their everyday lives. They also learn the ‘language’ of Mathematics and how it applies across other learning areas at school and in their lives more broadly.

Maths is very ‘hands-on’ in the classroom. During Mathematics lessons students use materials, such as blocks, dice, playing cards, counters, Lego, Play-Doh and many other things to help them solve mathematical problems and reinforce their skills and learning. Students are taught specific strategies and skills, which enable them to work confidently and independently to solve problems, work towards finding an appropriate strategy and actively participate in the language of Mathematics.

The three strands of learning taught throughout the school are Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability in line with the Victorian Curriculum. Teachers use The Mathematics Workshop to guide the planning and implementation of the maths lesson. They begin with an introduction to establish the learning intention and success criteria, set the scene for student learning activities designed to allow students to learn and develop their skills and knowledge, as well as participate in a variety of hands on tasks. Explicit teaching of skills and strategies including problem solving skills are an integral part of learning. Teachers are regularly assessing students’ skills and understandings both informally and formally. Lessons conclude with a reflection. It is at this time that the student reflects on the learning intention and success criteria and how they have worked towards achieving success or questioning areas of concern.

Our web based computer resources, Matrific, Mathletics and Problemo allow students the opportunity to reinforce their mathematical skills both at home and at school. These provide support for students needing additional assistance and enable extension for gifted students. Open-ended tasks and problem solving opportunities are provided to extend students as well as participation in programs such as ICAS, Math Olympiad and Maths Games.

All students have 1 hour lesson of Physical Education per week.

Students in Foundation – Year 2 focus on PMP and developing their Fundamental Motor Skills (run, jump, hop, skip, leap, one and two-handed strike) in fun and engaging games.

Students in Years 3-6 learn Sport Specific Skills; tactics, umpiring and rules of most sports.

All students participate in a 5 week Gymnastics Program delivered by BTYC Gymnastics in our school hall. Students use a variety of equipment, including parallel bars, single bar, beams, mini tramp, wedge mats and large crash mat for safe landing.

PE and Sport

At TVPS, students in Years 3-6 have the opportunity to compete in Swim Trials, Cross Country, Athletics Day and Hooptime Basketball. Students compete in the Doncaster District and progress through Division, Regional, State and even Pacific Championships.

All students in Years 5-6 compete in the Doncaster District Summer and Winter Sports. Students train with their team every Thursday and compete in 4 round-robin competition days in total. Students choose a sport from the following list:

Summer Sport

• Cricket
• Basketball
• Softball
• Hotshots Tennis
• Rounders

Winter Sports

• Netball
• AFL
• Soccer
• Tee Ball
• Volleyball

The Sport Program for Years 5-6 also provides opportunities for competitive Tennis (Term 1), Girls AFL (Term 2), T20 Cricket (Term 4). In Term 4, students participate in SEPEP (Sport Education for Physical Education Program). SEPEP is a student led sports competition whereby all students have a role in the competition. The roles include, umpire, coach, captain, first aid officer, sports board, tribunal officer, publicity officer, equipment manager and all students are players in their team. The competition usually consists of 8 weeks of competition and 2 weeks of finals.

The Visual Arts program is held in a large and spacious classroom attended by each grade for one hour per week.

The program consists of the various aspects of the curriculum including painting, drawing, collage, printing, modelling, construction, clay and textiles. The school has a modern updated kiln and has a designated kiln room where the students’ clay models can be fired.

Art is frequently related to topics held in the classrooms such as producing a teddy bear to tie into the Foundation theme of “Teddy Bears Picnic”. Literature is also connected to Art with a special emphasis before and during the annual Children’s Book Week. Visual Arts is valued at school with students’ work displayed about the buildings.

The Performing Arts program at Templestowe Valley Primary School provides students with a creative, engaging and encouraging environment where they learn, perform and develop skills in all aspects of performance.

Students undertake weekly one-hour specialist classes where the focus is on developing their skills and understanding in the three main elements of Performing Arts – Music, Dance and Drama. In these lessons, students are encouraged to take risks by trying new things.

Drama

Students are exposed to a range of dramatic styles to develop their performance skills including improvisation, mime, character work, puppetry, masks, role plays and script work. They use their imaginations to create original and scripted performances, as well as learning about stagecraft and design.

Music

Students learn about music theory and appreciation. Beginning in our Foundation year the skills of beat, pitch and rhythm are introduced, and these skills are continued through to our upper years where their knowledge is extended into the notes, more complex rhythmic patterns, as well as music history and appreciation. The students have multiple opportunities to play our musical percussion instruments to offer them a practical understanding of the skills they learn.

Dance

Students have the opportunity to explore and learn a variety of dance styles including Hip-Hop, Tap, Jazz, Rock ‘n’ Roll and Contemporary. They will develop their co-ordination through learning these different styles and have the opportunity to choreograph their own dance performances.

Through all aspects of the Performing Arts, students are encouraged to perform as often as possible, whether it is in front of the class or a larger audience. This gives the students an opportunity to build their confidence and performance skill.

We strive to promote a love of performance through fun and engaging sessions!

Extra Curricular Classes

Valley Voices offers students an opportunity to be part of a choir. Students rehearse weekly and have opportunities to perform at school events as well as throughout the community.

Our TVPS Rock Band brings together those students who learn a musical instrument. They rehearse one lunch time each week and have the opportunity to perform at a variety of school and wider community events.

Private music lessons are offered at TVPS through our Instrumental Music Program. Instruments offered include drums, keyboard, violin, guitar and singing.

At Templestowe Valley Primary School, the Mandarin Program provides learners with language skills, and also a cultural awareness of the Chinese speaking community.

Mandarin is delivered and practised through a variety of activities:

• Role-plays
• Practising their typing, speaking and listening skills with ICT tools
• Research projects
• Class discussions
• Real-life language texts analysis
• Language competitions
• Singing songs and dances
• Chants
• Stories
• Language games

This learning experience also introduces the metalinguistic skills and knowledge of how to learn an additional language.

At Templestowe Valley Primary School, our community is made up of energetic staff, students, parents and friends who have demonstrated a strong commitment to environmental education, sustainable living practices and empowering students to become future leaders.

We teach sustainability through classroom programs, daily practice and special events. Our integrated curriculum explores Biodiversity, Water, Energy & Waste across the year levels.

Parents, grandparents and extended family support the sustainability program in many ways at TVPS. We have parent assisted gardening, cooking and maintenance groups

Weekly lunchtime Gardening club with our teachers and parent volunteers allows the students to assist in the growth of our Sustainability area and the plants, fruit and vegetables we grow to share with our community.

Our Environment

Our school grounds are a valuable teaching and learning resource.

The Sustainability Area includes with fruit and olive orchard, working raised garden beds, a pond & a chook house. 

The Asian Garden forms a strong connection to our LOTE program.

And around the school you will find rain water tanks and native plants, with lorikeets and cockatoos frequenting them.

Environmental Captains

We have Foundation to Grade 6 environmental captains who monitor, initiate and promote sustainable practices.

Within this leadership role the students guide and support their classes in our weekly Nude Food day, liaise with our Sustainability Coordinator to assist and oversee our Sustainability area and make plans to action and improve our school environment.

Nude Food

What is Nude food you ask? It is simply food that is not wrapped in foil, plastic or commercial packaging. The best type of nude food consists mainly of fresh food, so that it is healthy and nutritious plus environmentally friendly.

On Tuesdays at TVPS we are completely Nude food, so that means we avoid foil, glad wrap and of course zip lock bags. The class with the least wrappers each week is announced at assembly and wins the golden lunchbox with special prizes to be won!

Garden to Plate

Using some of the produce from our Sustainability area and Asian Garden students are able to create their favourite healthy and nutritious recipes in our new Kitchen area.