Educational Special Programs

Spearwood Primary School runs specialist programs in the Learning areas of:

• Health and Physical Education
• Science
• Languages – Italian
• Art – Visual Arts
• Arts – Music and Instrumental Music School Services: Guitar

For more information on these programs look under Teaching and Learning on this website.

Spearwood Primary School is also a:  Water Wise, Asthma Friendly Sun Safe and Waste Sorted school.

Highway Heroes and Little Highway Heroes

Spearwood Primary School is implementing a Social and Emotional life skills program throughout the school.

Highway Heroes and Little Highway Heroes are programs developed by:

• Claire Orange, Science Speech & Hearing (Hons), Prof. Counsellor, Accredited Resilience Trainer and
• Helen Davidson OT, Masters Social Science (Counselling), Dip. Family Therapy

The Highway Heroes curriculum provides structured and fully resourced lessons in each of the Social and Emotional Learning areas that have been identified by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) – the international body in children’s wellbeing.  The school has been successfully running this life skills program for several years.

Student Leadership

Senior students at Spearwood are provided with many leadership opportunities to develop and display leadership qualities.  The formal leadership opportunities include:  Prefects, Head Students, Faction Captains and Vice Captains.  Students in these roles are issued with badges with their name and title.  This enables students, staff and visitors to clearly identify which students are on our leadership team and who will be able to assist them.

Students Leaders have many responsibilities and opportunities throughout the year.  They run assemblies, take leadership roles in the environmental school programs including recycling, help out around the school with all sorts of tasks and each year choose a charity and raise funds to help those in need.

Learning Support

Learning Support Coordinator (s) support classroom teachers to develop, implement and monitor learning plans for individual and groups of students with disabilities or learning difficulties and support the needs of students where academic extension is necessary.

At Spearwood Primary School, the role of the Learning Support Coordinator is to co-ordinate access for staff and parents to a range of services so that all students can reach their potential and be included in the learning programs the school provides.

We have a strong partnership with the Centre for Inclusive Schooling who support teachers, education assistants and parents who are working with students who may have difficulties ranging from hearing loss to autism, mental health issues, intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities, learning difficulties or for whom English is an additional language. The Learning Support Co-ordinator also works closely with the Aboriginal and Islander Education Officer in the school to ensure Aboriginal students’ educational needs are being addressed.

The Deputy and Learning Support Coordinator works closely with teachers and the school psychologist to develop Individual Education, Behaviour Management Plans, and or Special Education Needs plans so that the needs of individual students can be met.

Our skilled classroom teachers differentiate the curriculum to meet the needs of our students.  As an additional support, we also have a targeted intervention support program that runs two days per week with a focus on developing specific Literacy and Numeracy skills.

With an emphasis on collaboration, the focus of the Learning Support Team at Spearwood is to ensure that through early intervention and ongoing support, the social, emotional, mental, physical, and intellectual needs of students are pro-actively met on a day-to-day basis.

Parents with concerns about their child’s performance should, in the first instance, speak with their child’s class teacher. The class teacher may then suggest the involvement of our Learning Support Coordinator, Ms Joanne Harper.

Chaplain

Our School Chaplain, Mrs Coral Atkins, started at Spearwood in July 2016. She works at Spearwood three days per fortnight every Wednesday and on alternate Thursdays.  Coral works with teachers in class developing resilience with programs such as Aussie Optimism.

She meets with individuals to help with:

• Peer skills, communication skills and problem solving
• Self-esteem, self-regulation, resiliency, and self-care
• Separation, grief, and loss.

Coral is also able to meet with parents to discuss any matters of concern.

If you would like more information regarding the School Chaplain service or would like to contact Coral, please leave a message with the front office or email

coral.atkins@youthcare.org.au