English

In this key learning area students are provided with opportunities to study texts, language as a meaning-making system, and literacy as a social practice. The focus on texts involves students in the study of a wide range of written, spoken, visual and multimodal texts for personal, social, cultural and cognitive purposes, and the ways in which texts represent knowledge, values and practices of individuals and groups. The focus on language involves students in the study of the elements of discourses, purposes, text types, subject matter, roles and relationships, mode and medium, and textual resources and the ways in which members of cultural groups make selections from these elements to make and share meanings in diverse cultural contexts and social situations. The focus on literacy as a social practice involves students in the study of a range of context-specific ways of reading and writing, integrated with speaking and listening, viewing and shaping in order to be active agents in their school and community lives.

 

Mathematics

In this key learning area students are provided with opportunities to explain and quantify the environment. They are also provided with opportunities to observe and investigate patterns and relationships in the social and physical worlds. Its unique symbolic language is shared and understood among many people and cultures, and allows clear and concise communication of sometimes complex information. Mathematics provides a framework for problem analysis, interpretation and translation into symbolic forms. Students learn different ways of thinking and reasoning and they learn how to quantify information. Technology supports students’ mathematical investigations and enables them to offer reasonable responses when problem solving. It encourages them to be inventive and creative when exploring, analysing and comparing alternative solutions.

Science

In this key learning area students are provided with opportunities to develop and demonstrate the knowledge, practice and dispositions of ‘working scientifically’. They use this knowledge to explain, predict and construct their understandings of the physical and biological worlds.

Students come to understand that science, as a ‘way of knowing’, recognises the tentative nature of scientific knowledge and the importance of human endeavour in its pursuit.

Health and Physical Education

In this key learning area students are provided with opportunities to develop the knowledge, processes, skills and attitudes necessary to make informed decisions related to promoting the health of individuals and communities, developing concepts and skills for physical activity and enhancing personal development. The health component is taught by the classroom teachers and physical education component is taught by a specialist Physical Education Teacher.

Students at The Gap State School have two 30 minute PE lessons each week. Lessons in Terms 1 and 4 are held in our own swimming pool where the emphasis is on learning to swim and survival skills. At the end of each year the children work towards attaining a Royal Life Saving Certificate.

Terms 2 and 3 include a variety of activities. The younger year levels concentrate on Gross Motor Programs and skill development. The middle and upper year levels look at a variety of different sports and the skills and strategies associated with them. Children also do lots of athletics training for Sports Day and skipping for Jump Rope for Heart Day which are annual events at our school.

The Arts

In this key learning area students are provided with opportunities to develop and demonstrate alternative ways of constructing meaning and understanding in the five distinct areas of dance, drama, media, music and visual arts. Learning in The Arts involves students in varied types of expression and communication. They are introduced to the language, techniques and conventions of the arts areas. Students develop skills in making, presenting and performing with aesthetic awareness and sensitivity in a range of contexts and for a range of audiences. Through reflection on arts experiences, learners evaluate their own work and the work of others. They develop understandings of the social, cultural, historical and economic contexts that shape each arts area. Learners develop their appreciation of culturally shared aesthetic values as well as a personal aesthetic.

 

 

Languages Other than English (LOTE)

In this key learning area students are provided with opportunities to develop knowledge, processes, skills and attitudes that allow them to communicate effectively and appropriately in another language. It also enables students to gain access to societies beyond their own and prepares them for the challenges of participating in a global community. The LOTE language at The Gap State School is Mandarin Chinese.

 

Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE)

In this key learning area students are provided with opportunities to develop and demonstrate knowledge about particular social, cultural, political, legal, economic and environmental relationships that characterise communities at particular times and places.

Values, concepts, skills and processes are drawn from disciplines such as history, geography, economics, politics, sociology, anthropology, law, psychology and ethics. The Studies of Society and Environment key learning area centres on the way people interact with each other and with environments. The key learning area also encompasses Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Asian and other cultural studies, studies in futures, the environment, global and rural issues, and peace and gender.

Technology

In this key learning area students are provided with opportunities to develop innovative and practical solutions that meet human needs and wants, capitalise on opportunities and extend human capabilities. When ‘working technologically’, students engage in various real-life and lifelike contexts with materials, information, systems and technology practice to create practical solutions that meet identifiable human needs.