SCHOOL PROFILE
Excellence in Education:
Gisborne Primary School is situated in the picturesque country town of Gisborne, 53km from Melbourne. The school has a current enrolment of approximately 520 students with approximately 50 staff. The school's facilities provide a stimulating and safe learning environment for children, where they are supported in their pursuit of excellence and in the realisation of their maximum potential. School facilities include a library, gymnasium, canteen, STEM, visual arts and music rooms and diverse play spaces.
The School's Philosophy:
The school's philosophy is based on the belief that every student has the ability to learn and that this occurs best in a safe, happy and positive environment. These values also tie in with our motto ‘caring’ and is featured on the school’s uniform. Our teachers differentiate the curriculum to suit the learning needs of all students.
Our Vision & Values:
Our school vision is to develop respectful, resilient, responsible and inquiring students who are inclusive, caring community members that embrace diversity. All students are empowered to learn and achieve their personal best, experiencing high quality teaching practice and the best conditions for learning which equip them with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to be lifelong learners. We value family input into their child’s education and encourage a positive and open home/school partnership.
We aim to support students to:
Our values:
Caring - We display kindness and concern for others.
Respect - We treat everyone in a considerate and courteous manner.
Resilience - We can recover quickly from difficulties.
Responsibility - We make good choices and can be trusted to do the right thing at all times.
Personal Best - We work hard and strive to achieve our best in everything we do.
Our motto:
Through collaboration with the school community, Gisborne Primary School has developed a motto to represent our school values and beliefs:
Caring Hearts, Caring Minds, Caring Actions
School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS):
SWPBS is a framework that brings together school communities to develop positive, safe, supportive learning cultures. It assists schools to improve social, emotional, behavioural and academic outcomes for children and young people. When SWPBS is implemented well, teachers and students have more time to focus on relationships and classroom instruction. Benefits include increased respectful and positive behaviour amongst students and staff, improved social-emotional wellbeing, as well as a more predictable learning environment with improved perceptions of safety and increased attendance.
Wellbeing Program:
Gisborne Primary School incorporate many wellbeing initiatives across the school including the Respectful Relationships Curriculum. Promoting and modelling respect, positive attitudes and behaviors teaches our children how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence. This links with our school values of Caring, Respect, Responsibility, Resilience and Personal Best. School Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) is a framework we use across the school with a focus on the expected behaviours of staff, students, families and visitors. Our main focus is to ensure all students have the opportunity to learn in a calm and engaging classroom. Bully Stoppers supports leadership, teachers, parents and students in working together to help put a stop to bullying including cyber safety. We have many wellbeing approaches such as Open Parachute and Kimochis that support our students in navigating the world.
We have a qualified Wellbeing Officer. She supports groups and individual students as well as their teachers and links families with community allied health services as needed.
Intervention Program:
Gisborne Primary School has a strong intervention program which operates from Foundation to Year 6. The Disability Inclusion approach builds capacity of our staff to support students with implementing adjustments in the classroom and across the school. We have a partnership with an Occupational Therapist and Speech Pathologist who work with staff to develop strategies for the classroom. For those students who require extra assistance, we have multiple tutors as well as a research based reading intervention program. Our Education Support Staff work in classrooms to support students with their teaching and learning needs. To complement our Social, Emotional Learning approaches, they also take small groups of students to develop strategies in this area.
Home/School Partnership:
We value the home school partnership and have an extensive wellbeing program. Research shows there is a very strong link between a family’s positive attitude to school and education and a child’s learning outcomes and feelings of social integration in school. Every class has weekly Personal and Social capability sessions. We teach children to be resilient and persistent, to manage their emotions, to have high aspirations and be responsible for their leaning and themselves. We highly value ‘Respect’ of each other and the school property and promote respectful relationships between parents and teachers. We hold school tours in Term 2 and welcome families to book in and start building a home-school partnership at this time.
Purpose, Pedagogy and Curriculum:
High value is placed on minimal disruption to the daily two-hour Literacy and one-hour Numeracy sessions. Teacher learning is undertaken in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), with teachers learning from each other focusing on refinements using High Impact Teaching Strategies, goal setting based on student needs and monitoring of student learning. Click here for more information about our spelling and reading program.
The school culture nurtures creativity and imagination through Literature and the Arts. There are intervention and enhancement programs at all levels for English and Maths as well as additional supports for Social and Emotional Learning. Our specialists programs include Physical Education, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), LOTE (Italian) and The Arts (including Visual Arts, Music and Performing Arts). Other learning areas include Humanities and Health with the Victorian Curriculum Capabilities (Critical and Creative Thinking, Ethical, Intercultural and Personal and Social) incorporated into key learning areas across the curriculum. Digital technologies enhance learning in all curriculum areas. Through parent contributions, devices are provided for students to access at school and use as a learning tool.
Specialist Programs:
Extra-curricular programs in 2023 include our Kitchen Garden Program, Sustainability Program and lunch time activities such as gardening group and weekly choir. We have visiting specialist music teachers (keyboard, guitar, piano and percussion) as well as our Sporting Program. These programs, in addition to Physical Education/Health, Personal and Social Capabilities contribute to the school’s commitment to the ‘Healthy Schools Achievement Program’, which guides the health and well-being of students, increases engagement and decreases absences.
Professional Learning Communities (PLC) LINK Initiative:
Gisborne Primary School was identified as a PLC Link School in 2019, for our excellence in building Professional Learning Communities through a strong culture of collaboration and consistently using data to focus and drive improvement in student learning. This continued in the following years and will continue in 2023. As part of our role as a PLC Link school, we support various schools within our region to improve their practice, through observation of meetings, collaborative planning sessions, and Learning Walks focused on feedback, and questioning. We will continue to improve how we use data at Gisborne Primary School to better target students at their individual point of need and to master our High Impact Teaching Strategies.
Student Leadership:
Students at Gisborne Primary School are encouraged to build agency and their ‘voice’ in their everyday learning and through the many leadership opportunities offered. Our School Captains lead school events, assemblies and represent the school at community events such as Anzac Day. Other leadership initiatives include: Class Captains, Peer Support, Student Leaders and House Captains.
Our School Council sets high expectations for student learning and teaching practices. Our parents are shared partners in student learning; we value their input and encourage them to contribute through both formal and informal avenues.
Excellence in Education:
Gisborne Primary School is situated in the picturesque country town of Gisborne, 53km from Melbourne. The school has a current enrolment of approximately 520 students with approximately 50 staff. The school's facilities provide a stimulating and safe learning environment for children, where they are supported in their pursuit of excellence and in the realisation of their maximum potential. School facilities include a library, gymnasium, canteen, STEM, visual arts and music rooms and diverse play spaces.
The School's Philosophy:
The school's philosophy is based on the belief that every student has the ability to learn and that this occurs best in a safe, happy and positive environment. These values also tie in with our motto ‘caring’ and is featured on the school’s uniform. Our teachers differentiate the curriculum to suit the learning needs of all students.
Our Vision & Values:
Our school vision is to develop respectful, resilient, responsible and inquiring students who are inclusive, caring community members that embrace diversity. All students are empowered to learn and achieve their personal best, experiencing high quality teaching practice and the best conditions for learning which equip them with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to be lifelong learners. We value family input into their child’s education and encourage a positive and open home/school partnership.
We aim to support students to:
- develop a love of learning
- build and demonstrate positive relationships
- demonstrate the school ethos of ‘Caring’
- develop the use of their imagination and creative self-expression
- understand the important elements of physical and mental health and wellbeing
- build self-confidence, a sense of worth and respect and consideration for others
- embrace a set of personal and social values
- cultivate decision making and problem solving skills
- develop the ability to think reflectively, critically and creatively
Our values:
Caring - We display kindness and concern for others.
Respect - We treat everyone in a considerate and courteous manner.
Resilience - We can recover quickly from difficulties.
Responsibility - We make good choices and can be trusted to do the right thing at all times.
Personal Best - We work hard and strive to achieve our best in everything we do.
Our motto:
Through collaboration with the school community, Gisborne Primary School has developed a motto to represent our school values and beliefs:
Caring Hearts, Caring Minds, Caring Actions
School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS):
SWPBS is a framework that brings together school communities to develop positive, safe, supportive learning cultures. It assists schools to improve social, emotional, behavioural and academic outcomes for children and young people. When SWPBS is implemented well, teachers and students have more time to focus on relationships and classroom instruction. Benefits include increased respectful and positive behaviour amongst students and staff, improved social-emotional wellbeing, as well as a more predictable learning environment with improved perceptions of safety and increased attendance.
Wellbeing Program:
Gisborne Primary School incorporate many wellbeing initiatives across the school including the Respectful Relationships Curriculum. Promoting and modelling respect, positive attitudes and behaviors teaches our children how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence. This links with our school values of Caring, Respect, Responsibility, Resilience and Personal Best. School Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) is a framework we use across the school with a focus on the expected behaviours of staff, students, families and visitors. Our main focus is to ensure all students have the opportunity to learn in a calm and engaging classroom. Bully Stoppers supports leadership, teachers, parents and students in working together to help put a stop to bullying including cyber safety. We have many wellbeing approaches such as Open Parachute and Kimochis that support our students in navigating the world.
We have a qualified Wellbeing Officer. She supports groups and individual students as well as their teachers and links families with community allied health services as needed.
Intervention Program:
Gisborne Primary School has a strong intervention program which operates from Foundation to Year 6. The Disability Inclusion approach builds capacity of our staff to support students with implementing adjustments in the classroom and across the school. We have a partnership with an Occupational Therapist and Speech Pathologist who work with staff to develop strategies for the classroom. For those students who require extra assistance, we have multiple tutors as well as a research based reading intervention program. Our Education Support Staff work in classrooms to support students with their teaching and learning needs. To complement our Social, Emotional Learning approaches, they also take small groups of students to develop strategies in this area.
Home/School Partnership:
We value the home school partnership and have an extensive wellbeing program. Research shows there is a very strong link between a family’s positive attitude to school and education and a child’s learning outcomes and feelings of social integration in school. Every class has weekly Personal and Social capability sessions. We teach children to be resilient and persistent, to manage their emotions, to have high aspirations and be responsible for their leaning and themselves. We highly value ‘Respect’ of each other and the school property and promote respectful relationships between parents and teachers. We hold school tours in Term 2 and welcome families to book in and start building a home-school partnership at this time.
Purpose, Pedagogy and Curriculum:
High value is placed on minimal disruption to the daily two-hour Literacy and one-hour Numeracy sessions. Teacher learning is undertaken in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), with teachers learning from each other focusing on refinements using High Impact Teaching Strategies, goal setting based on student needs and monitoring of student learning. Click here for more information about our spelling and reading program.
The school culture nurtures creativity and imagination through Literature and the Arts. There are intervention and enhancement programs at all levels for English and Maths as well as additional supports for Social and Emotional Learning. Our specialists programs include Physical Education, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), LOTE (Italian) and The Arts (including Visual Arts, Music and Performing Arts). Other learning areas include Humanities and Health with the Victorian Curriculum Capabilities (Critical and Creative Thinking, Ethical, Intercultural and Personal and Social) incorporated into key learning areas across the curriculum. Digital technologies enhance learning in all curriculum areas. Through parent contributions, devices are provided for students to access at school and use as a learning tool.
Specialist Programs:
Extra-curricular programs in 2023 include our Kitchen Garden Program, Sustainability Program and lunch time activities such as gardening group and weekly choir. We have visiting specialist music teachers (keyboard, guitar, piano and percussion) as well as our Sporting Program. These programs, in addition to Physical Education/Health, Personal and Social Capabilities contribute to the school’s commitment to the ‘Healthy Schools Achievement Program’, which guides the health and well-being of students, increases engagement and decreases absences.
Professional Learning Communities (PLC) LINK Initiative:
Gisborne Primary School was identified as a PLC Link School in 2019, for our excellence in building Professional Learning Communities through a strong culture of collaboration and consistently using data to focus and drive improvement in student learning. This continued in the following years and will continue in 2023. As part of our role as a PLC Link school, we support various schools within our region to improve their practice, through observation of meetings, collaborative planning sessions, and Learning Walks focused on feedback, and questioning. We will continue to improve how we use data at Gisborne Primary School to better target students at their individual point of need and to master our High Impact Teaching Strategies.
Student Leadership:
Students at Gisborne Primary School are encouraged to build agency and their ‘voice’ in their everyday learning and through the many leadership opportunities offered. Our School Captains lead school events, assemblies and represent the school at community events such as Anzac Day. Other leadership initiatives include: Class Captains, Peer Support, Student Leaders and House Captains.
Our School Council sets high expectations for student learning and teaching practices. Our parents are shared partners in student learning; we value their input and encourage them to contribute through both formal and informal avenues.
