Santa Clara School

Inspired by the Dominican tradition, Santa Clara school is founded on the Principle of Truth and the Christian way of living. We seek to nurture the individual qualities of each person within our school community in a caring and accepting atmosphere.

Santa Clara School is a single stream co-education Catholic primary school of approximately 183 students from Kindergarten to Year Six.

Evangelisation At Santa Clara School
At Santa Clara we have a commitment to a strong Catholic identity filled with the Dominican spirit. At our school the tradition of the Dominican Sisters takes place in the form of teaching. Daily lesson plans, prayers and activities engage and inform the hearts and minds of our students. It involves assisting them in acquiring knowledge of ‘Veritas’ the Truth. Staff and students deepen their knowledge of the Faith Story and Witness of the Dominican Order on a consistent basis.The lay faculty strive to teach our students through our active witness in order to help students acquire the knowledge of the source of truth and life. Our goal is to educate them in what will foster growth and maturity, helping them to acquire the skills necessary to become independent thinkers and gain a love for all that is truly human.

The school has an SES of 101, and an ICSEA of 1075.

The diversity of students in our classrooms is increasing. We have 17 different nationalities and the need to shape curriculum and instruction to maximize learning for ALL students has been more challenging and urgent than ever. Differentiated teaching has been the key to our purposeful engagements with our students. We continue to implement differentiated instruction to improve student learning outcomes.

It is our aim to facilitate a contemporary learning environment and teaching program. We have been working on creating an environment that allows student flexibility and creativity. There is more choice for working styles and students are presented with a variety of work settings throughout the day including teacher directed and student selected. Students are able to instantaneously access a wide range of resources and services. They are highly connected.

We have introduced iPads right across K-6 classrooms. Apple TVs are used throughout all classrooms and the library. In 2015 we introduced a 1:1 Chromebook program for our year 4 students, this is a parent funded, school based lease that will run from year 4 to year 6. Each class entering year 4 will be part of the 1:1 program.

The success of Professional Learning Community and the subsequent implementation of the Annual School Improvement Plan with a Literacy and Numeracy focus, under the LEAD Framework, has led to significant improvement in the students educational outcomes

The improvement in Methodology, Resourcing, Focus on Data Informed and Quality Teaching/Learning, has been carried out through our PLC time which has resulted in an improvement in staff attitude and aptitude towards the craft of teaching. The Professional Development Plan has been complimented by the redesigning of the Professional Learning Communities in order to focus on resolving teaching and method related challenges. All teachers are part of the decision making process for our Annual School Improvement Plan. Our new staff members are provided with support and encouragement through a mentoring and coaching process.

At Santa Clara school we have made adult learning a priority, set high expectations for performance and continue to create a culture of continuous learning for all staff. We are learning to expand our personal capacity to create the results we desire, and create an organisational environment which encourages all teachers, other staff, to develop themselves towards the goals and purpose they choose.

The culture of inquiry, exploration and innovation at our school takes place in many forms – formal to informal, in school to CEWA office, single one-off programs to ongoing enquiry, personal to whole school approach to manage the complexity of contemporary teaching and learning in the twenty-first century. This has come quite nauturally as our staff enjoy experimenting and innovating in their practice. They have always been encouraged to take risks and try new things. For example the Early Childhood staff wanted to experiment with the Kath Walker approach. They collectively researched it, trialled it, reflected upon it and found that it didn’t quite suit the students and our teaching pedagogy. From a leadership perspective, they were given every opportunity to give it a go, success or failure, so much learning was had.

There are many changes that occur, especially within the spectrum of Digital Technologies. It changes so rapidly and our staff have open minds to what changes may come. There are times of frustration, however collectively we break down any issues and work together to learn and grow. Our staff are very passionate and pride themselves on keeping up with the changing times even if it is done in baby steps.
The students are actively engaged in inquiry based learning through provocations, big picture questioning, genius hour, passion projects, solution fluency and problem based learning.

Santa Clara school is evolving as a learning organisation where all staff are committed to their own growth and development as professionals. It is growing out of our deep professional desire to continue to develop our knowledge and practice and to maximise opportunities for learning. Such a culture is central to effective, high quality teaching. It means that, as a staff we see ourselves, and are seen by others, as lifelong learners both of the languages and cultures we teach and of teaching itself.

As education is a changing field, we persevere to continue to keep up to date with new developments. Moreover, our professional drive is to continue to deepen and broaden our knowledge of our chosen field through ongoing learning throughout our careers and beyond.