Primary curriculum Illustrations of practice

Kalinda Primary School

Summary

Kalinda Primary School is a government school in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. At the time of filming there were 473 students enrolled, 27 teaching staff and 11 non-teaching staff. Kalinda has an energetic learning environment, and staff continually seek ways to further improve their programs. Kalinda Primary School began using the Australian Curriculum by reflecting on their students’ performance and backward-mapping to revive explicit instruction through a student focused challenge-based learning environment. Collaboration between teachers and mapping are key features in their story.

About this illustration

The school leadership team led change by establishing teams within each stage of primary schooling. The teams looked at the content of the Australian Curriculum and mapped the content that was different. Teachers within each team took responsibility to program and plan for each learning area in collaboration with others. The timetable was restructured so that teams of teachers could meet during the school day to share and discuss the teaching programs, learning intentions and differentiation for their students. Inquiry learning was refined and relaunched as challenge-based learning, using a whole school focus on a curriculum ‘Big Idea’ each term. 

The changes at Kalinda Primary School have made a positive impact on student achievement, boosted professional conversations amongst staff, and developed teacher experts in the new content. This provided a platform for reviewing assessment and reporting in the school.

School context

Kalinda Primary School is situated on the outskirts of Melbourne and has a diverse range of specialist programs and teachers, including those in music and performing arts, visual arts, physical education and sport, and Japanese. It is a learning community of students, teachers and parents founded upon quality relationships characterised by the school’s values. The school staff are committed to fostering a ‘lifelong love of learning’ in their students.

The arrival of the Australian Curriculum provided the staff with the opportunity to review the focus within the school. The students’ NAPLAN results were above state average; however, the teachers felt the students should be achieving at higher levels. The school had a strong belief in inquiry-based learning.

The students are engaged in a range of meaningful learning experiences. Through these experiences, the students construct understanding and acquire competency needed for further education, the workplace and the achievement of a quality lifestyle in a constantly changing society.

School details

Kalinda Primary School
39-49 Kalinda Road Ringwood VIC 3134 Australia

School type

Government

School sector

Primary

School location

Metropolitan

School size

400 - 600 students

Supporting documents

Individual Learning Plan

Specialist Timetable 2014

Copyright

These illustrations of personalised learning are not licensed under the creative commons license used for other material on the Australian Curriculum website. Instead, you may view, download, display, reproduce, and distribute these materials in unaltered form only for your personal, non-commercial educational purposes or for the non-commercial educational purposes of your organisation, provided that you retain this copyright notice. This means you cannot edit, modify or adapt any of these materials and you cannot sub-license any of these materials to others. Apart from any uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), and those explicitly granted above, all other rights are reserved by ACARA.