Teaching & Learning

Jackson School is a collaborative learning community for all. We aim to develop independence through safety, respect and responsibility.

We aspire to offer authentic, quality educational experiences that develop futures, create opportunities and inspire student potential; enabling our students to be valued and contributing members of the wider community. We share and celebrate our successes and achievements. Our core purpose is to provide an inclusive, rigorous learning environment that challenges and engages our whole learning community to achieve their full potential as life-long learners.

Teaching & Learning at Jackson School is proudly based on the Victorian Curriculum. The curriculum is the common set of knowledge and skills required by students for life-long learning, social development and active and informed citizenship. The school provides a rich and deep curriculum with a strong focus on literacy and numeracy. In addition to the comprehensive classroom programs offered in literacy and numeracy, an integrated inquiry curriculum program addresses the domains of Humanities and Sciences.

Specialist teachers provide instruction in Physical Education, STEM and Design Technology, Visual and Performing Arts. Digital Technologies are an integral part of 21st Century learning for our students. An Independence Curriculum incorporates the four General Capabilities of the Victorian Curriculum alongside continua for Occupational Therapy and Speech Pathology. Interdisciplinary, personal and social learning are addressed within these domains and supported by a range of Outdoor Education camps and excursions, including Travel Education.

In line with DET guidelines there are 320 Hours per year (8 Hours / Week) of English and 200 Hours per year (5 Hours / Week) of Mathematics. Literacy consists of reading and viewing; writing and speaking and listening. Our students’ individual learning plan (ILP) goals in English are linked to our curriculum. We value the importance of developing good communication skills (both verbal and non-verbal) to build the foundations of reading and writing. Numeracy consists of number and algebra; measurement and geometry; and statistics and probability. Our students’ individual learning plan (ILP) goals in Mathematics are linked to our curriculum.

Our Foundation (Prep-Year 2) Curriculum follows a child-centred play-based learning approach inspired by Reggio Emilia and the Victorian Early Year Learning Development Framework (VEYLDF). This supported learning environment is strongly focused on providing children with a strong foundation of essential literacy and numeracy skills through utilising a child’s natural propensity to learn independently and collaboratively through play. In Lower Primary, Upper Primary and Lower Secondary (Years 3-8), children gradually move to an “inquiry-based” curriculum and then onto more collaborative project-based learning in Upper Secondary (Year 9&10). In Senior Secondary (Year 11&12) we also offer two differentiated pathways, including: Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) at Foundation Level and ASDAN.

Our Imaginative Play Program aims to develop to develop students’ oral language skills, together with social and cognitive (thinking) skills through imaginative play. Our program is adapted through Dr Karen Stagniti’s “Learn to Play” program, designed for therapists and educators to work with children who have developmental delays. The Gross Motor Program aims to develop students’ perceptions and understandings of their world through movement and motor experiences. The program gives students’ a variety of experiences in seeing, hearing, touching, processing, making perceptual judgements and reacting through carefully sequenced activities.