Creative Arts gives students experiences in the visual arts, music, drama and dance.
Through our Amadeus Music Education Program, every student will receive quality instruction from a specialist classroom music teacher. From 2024, children in Years 3–6 will receive tuition in weekly small-group lessons on an orchestral instrument, as well as ensemble lessons. For more information, please visit the Amadeus Music Education Program page on the Sydney Catholic Schools website.
Religious Education is at the heart of Catholic education. It informs all aspects of school life and supports the evangelising and catechising mission of the Catholic Church. Through Religious Education, young people come to know and love the person of Jesus Christ.
All students are expected to participate in the religious life of the school. This includes their participation in Religious Education classes, their study of the Archdiocesan curriculum and their use of the To Know, Worship and Love textbooks and resources.
St Declans’s Catholic Primary School Penshurst works in partnership with the St Declan’s Parish community. Sacraments, such as Reconciliation, Holy Communion and Confirmation are prepared and take place in collaboration with the wider parish community.
In English, in the early years, students build strong foundational literacy skills to speak, listen, view, read and write with increasing fluency and accuracy. As they progress through school, they learn that language has the power to shape our understanding of the world and ourselves, continuing to build on the foundational skills developed in the first few years of school. They engage with a wide range of quality literature, including: stories, poetry, plays and multimedia, for enjoyment and to learn about themselves, their community and the world. They learn to appreciate, reflect on, and build knowledge about how language works. They learn to make meaning when reading and viewing texts, and to create texts in ways that are imaginative, creative, interpretative, critical and powerful.
The following guides, produced by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), contain more information about the English courses available:
By studying Mathematics, students develop essential numeracy knowledge and skills and develop an understanding of concepts in Number and Algebra, Measurement and Space, Statistics and Probability. Students develop understanding of and fluency in Mathematics through exploring and connecting mathematical concepts, choosing and applying mathematical techniques to solve problems to communicate their thinking, and reasoning both coherently and clearly. The following guides, produced by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), contain more information about the Mathematics courses available in Primary:
The Science syllabus covers Science and Technology for Kindergarten to Year 6 students.
Science and Technology ‘fosters in students a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world around them. Students are encouraged to embrace new concepts and to learn through trialling, testing and refining ideas. They are supported to participate responsibly in developing innovative ideas and solutions in response to questions and opportunities relevant to them and the world around them.’ – NSW Education Standards Authority, Parent Guide to the NSW Primary Syllabuses.
History provides opportunities for students to explore the past and the present through personal, family and local community histories; British colonisation and Indigenous peoples; the Australian democracy; and new topics, such as migration. The curriculum will focus on the sources of history and the question, ‘How do we know?’ as well as historical concepts such as ‘cause and effect’ and ‘change and continuity’ and on historical skills, such as sequencing time, source analysis and historical perspectives.
Geography provides students with opportunities to investigate environments and communities across local and global scales and undertake inquiry-based learning to explore and understand the world. Students will learn about the natural and human features of places, the reasons places change and identify the active role of citizens in the care of places. The curriculum will focus on contemporary geographical concepts such as place and sustainability and on geographical skills and tools such as spatial technologies with an emphasis on the role of fieldwork in geographical inquiry.
‘Through Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) students develop self management, interpersonal and movement skills to help them become empowered, self-confident and socially responsible citizens. The learning experiences in PDHPE provide students with a foundation to actively contribute to, and advocate for the health, safety and wellbeing of themselves and others in the community and beyond school. Students are provided with opportunities to participate in physical activity to develop movement skills and recognise the impact of physical activity on health and wellbeing.’ – NSW Education Standards Authority, Parent Guide to the NSW Primary Syllabuses.