PRIMARY

The first years of school life are very important for a child’s development. In these years, your child’s values, habits, and character traits are shaped and the foundations are laid for future learning. The Primary School at Heritage provides our students with a warm and nurturing spiritual environment that allows our students to build the skills necessary to be successful learners throughout their lives.

At Heritage, our high-quality educational programs focus on literacy, numeracy, the development of social skills, health and well-being, and spiritual development. Structured, evidence-based approaches to learning ensure the Australian Curriculum is covered and enhanced while intentionally differentiating to support the needs of each student.

The character development of each student is embedded in bible-based studies and complemented by our Heritage Learner Profile (HeLP). The HeLP provides a developmental focus on building our students as believers and respectful, responsible, resilient, and reflective learners. 

TEACHING AND LEARNING HIGHLIGHTS

All of our students study English, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography, Art and Design, and technologies with their class teacher. This is enhanced by lessons with specialist teachers in Language (German), Music (including instrumental instruction and choir), and Physical Education and Health. Students access additional learning experiences through many incursions and excursions, including a camp in Year 6.

In the early years, all students participate in our Read Write Inc program. This structured and systematic literacy program helps all children to read fluently so they can focus on developing skills in comprehension, vocabulary, and spelling. Students are grouped according to regular monitoring and assessment, so they are able to be with like ability peers, receiving targeted instruction for their level.

The middle and upper Primary years build on the foundational phonics and reading skills developed in Read Write Inc. Students participate in Soundwaves, a logical and thorough program that teaches spelling and vocabulary concepts through explicit teaching and targeted practice. Students enhance and develop their skills as confident readers, writers, and communicators each week in partnership with their teacher and peers through guided reading exercises, novel and literature studies, and writing workshops.  

Mathematics for all year levels is taught through iMaths, an investigation-based series that covers all national curriculum content and proficiency strands. iMaths provides a diverse program of explicit teaching, guided and independent practice, assessment, differentiation across levels, and opportunities for students to apply what they have learned in real-life Maths investigations. Complimenting iMaths is a rigorous and scaffolded mental computation program that provides students with the building blocks for more advanced problem solving and computation thinking.

Each day of teaching and learning is implemented with the modern classroom in mind, allowing our teachers and students to employ a combination of traditional and digital resources. Students in Primary have access to iPads which are used for a wide range of purposes to both enhance learning and stimulate creativity and problem solving across subjects.

All of our high-quality, research-based programs incorporate best practices established through research. These programs help our students to reach English and Mathematics achievements that are consistently above state and national averages, as assessed by the national assessment authority (ACARA).

CO-CURRICULAR HIGHLIGHTS

Our co-curricular offerings are an integral part of the Heritage College learning experience. In the Primary years, each student has varied opportunities to participate in and belong to a range of clubs including coding, gardening, recycling, crafts, and chess. Middle and Upper primary students can embrace many of the leadership opportunities available including Student Representative Council and Sports Captains. A Primary musical is the highlight of the calendar every second year, and students have the opportunity to perform in the arts through various special events and assemblies. Sporting opportunities include supervised training clubs after school on Fridays such as soccer and participation in school-endorsed sports teams that include cricket, netball, basketball, and squash.

Through participation in both their class and co-curricular learning, Heritage Primary students are able to discover and develop their spiritual character after the example of Jesus, while also growing academically, emotionally, socially, and physically, preparing them to step successfully into Secondary school and beyond.