At Sunbury West Primary School, students from Prep to Year 6 participate in weekly Japanese classes. Students develop Japanese language skills through their participation in a range of language-rich activities such as games, songs, dance and the use of technology. Students are introduced to the Japanese script (Hiragana and Kanji) using mnemonics and learning through context. Students in Years 5 and 6 are encouraged to continue to recognise the Hiragana script using the Hiragana Belt system. Students also learn about cultural traditions, such as food, festivals, arts, music and national icons. Students have an opportunity to experience authentic traditional Japanese clothing, toys and games. They also learn about Japanese modern culture, such as technology, fashion and anime. Students learn to greet, introduce themselves, have simple conversations and use commonly used phrases to create role-plays.
Visual Arts
The Visual Art program at Sunbury West involves students making and responding to artworks, drawing on the world as a source of ideas. Students engage with and develop their knowledge of visual arts, skills, techniques and processes, and use materials as they explore a range of forms, styles and contexts. Through Visual Arts, students learn to reflect critically on their own experiences and responses to the work of artists.
Performing Arts
The Performing Art program encompasses music, drama and dance, it is designed to build student self-confidence in their creative ability. Students engage in activities that allow them to use their bodies to communicate through drama and dance. They learn to make music using the voice, body, instruments, technologies and other sources.
Students participate in Physical Education (PE) to help them acquire movement skills and concepts and strategies to enable students to confidently, competently and creatively participate in a range of physical activities. At Sunbury West, we want students to develop their ability to participate in physical activity, work to constantly improve their performance, and understand the importance of physical activity in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Students also complete one session a week of sport with their year level in Prep. This takes the form of the Perceptual Motor Skills program (PMP).
At Sunbury West the Students from F-6 participate in timetabled STEM classes. While the STEM teaching and learning program uses content knowledge and understandings from Mathematics, Science and Design and Technologies, it also aims to develop capabilities such as critical and creative thinking, collaboration and ethical decision making.
Each STEM class will have a focus on new and technical vocabulary, and a growth mindset approach (for instance we can try new things, we don’t know yet, let’s try Plan B). Our STEM classes place great importance on working with others and sharing our ideas. Recording our designs and ideas and thinking occurs in our STEM journals, or through videos and photos on our iPads.
F-6 Units of work may be linked to class INQUIRY topics to build upon and deepen student understanding of a particular topic. Our Units in STEM include What is STEM? Design Solutions, Home Among the Gum Trees (Biological Science), Mini-Beasts, Technology and Let’s Be Scientists (Chemical Science).
Sunbury West has a lovely big double classroom designated for the use of STEM classes and resourced with Lego We-Do kits, relevant information texts and tubs of resources to use in STEM investigations.
We love STEM at Sunbury West!
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