Curriculum

Early Years and Primary

Casa Mia Montessori School has permission granted by the Schools’ Curriculum and Standards Authority to deliver the Montessori Australia Curriculum.

The Montessori Curriculum is mapped to the Early Years Learning Framework and the West Australian Curriculum.

The curriculum addresses 8 learning areas which are taught in both a discrete and interdisciplinary manner.

English
Mathematics
Science
Humanities and Social Science
The Arts
Technologies
Health and Physical Education
French

As a primary school, the curriculum in the primary section has a strong emphasis on literacy and numeracy and what is termed ‘Cosmic Education’. The word ‘cosmic’ in this context means limitless or boundless paying heed to the interconnectedness of everything in our universe. Cosmic education has integrated units known as the ‘Great Stories’ that develop deep learning, higher order thinking, community consciousness and an awareness for responsibilities for the environment.

The children’s exposure to geography, history and nature is central to the cosmic education at Casa Mia. This innovative programme demonstrates to the children their place in the world with their rights and responsibilities.

As a small community school, Casa Mia is committed to providing a quality, structured education in an open, joyous, flexible and supportive learning environment. Casa Mia nurtures each individual child’s emotional, social, cultural, physical and academic development.

Multi-aged learning is part of the Casa Mia educational approach affording the children the opportunity to learn at their own pace and have many social and emotional experiences. The staff are well qualified and selected through merit procedures. On going professional learning is a high priority at the school.

Assessment

At Casa Mia we use a range of assessment strategies for children to demonstrate their achievement of outcomes. Assessment is both formal and informal. Assessment strategies include observations, checklists and standardised testing. We believe that assessment of a child’s learning must be a non-threatening and enlightening process that informs teaching, learning and goal setting. Student assessment focuses on what a student can do, what they know and how they are progressing against a set of standards and learning benchmarks.

All students at Casa Mia in years 3 and 5 take part in the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), which is an assessment of all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 across Australia. The tests assess reading, writing, language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy.

Reporting

The Child – Teacher- Family relationship is highly valued at Casa Mia. For this reason, the School has chosen to report the children’s progress against the Western Australian Curriculum to help parents understand the progress in the terminology of the state. Written reports are prepared at the end of each semester and are sent out with an outline of the state expectations for each child’s year group.

Parent/ teacher consultations occur in the alternate terms and parents are invited to spend time sharing their child’s work in the classrooms once a term.

For more information on opportunities for parents to inform themselves of their child’s progress click on Making the most of communication opportunities at Casa Mia.