Curriculum & Learning

Whole School Approach

At Nightcliff Primary School, we have a ‘Whole School Approach' to teaching and learning. 
The following four key points are the foundation statements  supporting our ‘Whole School Approach’ to further improve our curriculum and assessment models.

01

Focused teaching
Today this means our teaching must reflect our need to move every learner to a level of mastery that allows them to compete in this new global economy.

02

High Expectations 
The teacher provides timely, relevant and specific feedback about progress to students and their families to encourage their continued success.

03

Engaged learning
Engaged learning is the gateway to effective educational practices and student success. 

04

Intentionally Inviting Environment
Intentionally Inviting Environment: The aim of every classroom is to provide an educational environment where all students feel safe, wanted, valued, and successful.
At Nightcliff PS, we believe that all students will articulate their learning in relation to their learning intentions and success criteria. They will be able to describe what they are learning, how they are going and where they will go next in response to assessment results and feedback from others.

Age Appropriate Pedagogies

Age Appropriate Pedagogies operate in Early Years classes from Transition to Year 2. 

For more information, please click here

Australian Curriculum

At Nightcliff Primary, the Australian Curriculum is used as the basis of all teaching and learning programs for English, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography, Humanities and Social Sciences, The Arts, Health and Physical Education.

The Australian Curriculum General capabilities will assist students to live and work successfully in the twenty-first century. 

The Cross-curriculum priorities help equip students with the skills, knowledge and understanding that will enable them to engage effectively with and prosper in a globalised world.

The capabilities’ continuum can assist teachers to cater for student diversity and personalise learning. Students with disabilities, can inform the development of their Education Adjustment Plan to ensure that particular learning needs are being met.

NPS ACARA V9 Curriculum Map 2023 draft
An Overview for parents 
Information for Parents Years 1 & 2
Information for Parents Years 3 & 4
Information for Parents Years 5 & 6 

English

  • What is literacy?

    Literacy is the ability to read, view, write, design, speak and listen in a way that allows us to communicate effectively and to make sense of the world.

  • Why is literacy important?

    Literacy is vital to ensuring your child has the best chance to succeed in their schooling and everyday life. Literacy allows us to make sense of a range of written, visual and spoken texts including books, newspapers, magazines, timetables, television and radio programs, signs, maps, conversations and instructions.

  • Ways to support your child’s literacy development.

    Research has shown that children’s motivation and achievement improve when their parents or carers are involved in their education. There are many everyday things you can do to encourage literacy learning. These include:

    • valuing and encouraging your child’s efforts with literacy

    • sharing your knowledge and explaining how you use literacy in your everyday life

    • encouraging your child to read and view a variety of texts such as newspapers, novels comics, magazines, websites, email, timetables, instructions and recipes

    • encouraging your child to write and design for a variety of purposes using print and electronic resources — invitations, thank you notes, shopping lists, messages, journals and electronic slide shows

    • playing games that develop knowledge and enjoyment of words

  • Soundwaves

    The Sound Waves phonemic approach is recognised as one of the most effective ways to teach spelling and reading skills to students. When students use Sound Waves, they are employing the most powerful teaching pedagogies for the development of literacy attainment. The Sound Waves whole-school program means students have continuity and consistency as they develop spelling skills throughout their primary school years.

    With Sound Waves our students will gain a deeper understanding of how words are structured, by replacing rote learning with strategies for reading, writing and spelling. Sound Waves is not a text book, it’s a teaching program. The program is carefully designed to equip students with all the support and tools they need to become complete spellers.

  • Bump It Up Walls

    Empowering students to know what better looks like.


    Involves teachers sharing annotated work samples of different levels of quality on the classroom wall. Students review and self-assess their work against the samples to determine how they might improve the quality of their own work. It may assist with their own personalised goal setting.

Mathematics

In 2018 we introduced a new Maths program (Prime Maths) as a part of our Whole School Approach to Mathematics. Prime Maths is a world-class program based on top-performing Singapore, Republic of Korea and Hong Kong schools and is based on a pedagogical approach and instructional design that:
  • Teaches via problem solving

    Students progress through different types of problem sets including word problems, non-routine problems, problem posing tasks and mathematical modelling.

  • Develops metacognition and mathematical thinking

    Develops metacognition through mathematical communication, reasoning and justification.

  • Is effective, measurable and diagnostic

    The Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract approach enables students to make meaningful connections and makes mathematical understanding deep and long lasting.

  • Incorporates professional learning

    Comprehensive Coursework Manuals provide an overview of concepts and skills taught in each chapter and detailed lesson notes for each page of the Course books.

  • Uses technology to deliver innovative content.

    Use of STEM activities to engage students in hands on design and technology plans, integrated with digital technologies and devices such as; Ipads, Robots, 3D Printing, and Drones.

Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM)

Primary Connections and Inquisitive Science are innovative science programs that are fully aligned with the Australian Curriculum. Focus is on developing student's knowledge, understanding and skills in science and literacy, through an inquiry-based approach. 

Students learn about Technologies through Digital Technologies and Design and Technology subjects and have access to robotics (Lego Ev3 and Ozobots), coding, computer theory, plugged and unplugged activities, integrating with Science, Engineering and Mathematical concepts.

We are part of Education NT STEM Academy, working with Queensland and New Zealand Students through iSee virtual platform.

Languages 

Nightcliff Primary School offers Indonesian language studies to our students in Year 1 – Year 6. The Darwin Language Centre provides this service to our school 2 days per week.
Language Services for All Students
Language classes available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 4-6pm at DLC are:
  • Italian
  • Tagalog
  • Indonesian
  • Korean
  • German
All students can access the language centre programs. A free bus collection service with supervision is provided for Nightcliff Primary School students every Tuesday and Wednesday.

Please contact Carolyn at DLC on (08) 89977000 for further information or to register your child/children.

The Arts

Instrumental Music
Students in Year 4-6 can learn an instrument with teachers from the NT School of Music. Lessons run for half an hour, once a week during the day, on the proviso that there are spaces available. Students can elect to learn guitar, percussion, brass and woodwind. For more information and costs, refer to the NT Music School  on (08) 89635550 or www.ntms.net.au. 

Instrument hire for students is through our front office; once a student has enrolled online at https://www.ntms.net.au/enrolment-forms and confirmed that they are in the program, the parent can contact our office to have an instrument allocated for them to pick up.

Performing Arts
Nightcliff Primary has a specialist Art teacher across the school. Students participate in Performing Arts opportunities through dance, drama, media and music. Performance opportunities occur at assemblies and the annual extravaganza concert. Each year, students in the NT Music School BEAT Choir perform at the Darwin Entertainment Centre.
 
Visual Arts
Nightcliff Primary has a specialist Art teacher across the school.  All classes can also integrate the Visual Arts throughout their programs ,including Maths In Art. Nightcliff Primary School has a strong involvement with many talented artists through the Artists in Schools Program. 

Health and Physical Education

The Physical Education program is all-inclusive, collaborative and aligned with the Australian Curriculum, ACHPER (Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation), Sporting Schools, Darwin Region Schools Sport and NT School Sport. 

We offer a wide range of sporting activities: tennis, AFL, cricket, swimming, athletics, soccer, table tennis, volleyball and basketball.

Our NPS representative school teams compete annually in national, interstate and local Darwin Region Schools, AFLNT and Tennis NT competitions. 
They have historically been very successful and have accomplished many achievements. 

Swimming
Transition to Year 2 students can participate in the Royal Life Saving Society’s school swimming program, ‘Swim and Survive’. This is delivered by trained instructors to develop their swimming skills and water safety awareness.

Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS)

Geography, History, Civics and Citizenship, Business and Enterprise subjects make up the HASS learning area. ACARA (Australian Curriculum) provides work samples for each year level as examples of Achievement Standards in this learning area. NPS uses the Inquisitive units of work for HASS to deliver teaching programs aligned to the Australian Curriculum. Where possible locally relevant contexts are incorporated and excursions designed around enriching experiences for students to engage with HASS. 
For more information visit: https://www.inquisitive.com

Social Emotional Learning (SEL)

Nightcliff Primary School implements the Berry Street Educational and SEL NT Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships Program which has been sequentially designed to develop students’ social, emotional and positive relationship skills. This has been shown to improve health related outcomes and well-being. It also reduces antisocial behaviours including engagement in gender-related violence. The Life Education Program - Healthy Harold runs                  bi-annually and also supports these outcomes.