Our Learning
Our Vision | Creating a community of learning where Catholic values are paramount. |
Our Values | We live by the teachings and spiritual values of the Catholic Church and those upheld by St Brendan: |
| Love | Faith | Respect | Humility | Joy |
Our Beliefs | |
| * | Effective education involves a partnership between family, school and the Catholic Church |
| * | Quality teaching staff is critical to student development |
| * | Effective education provides students with a strong foundation and an ongoing desire for learning |
| * | Literacy and Numeracy underpin academic success |
| * | To create positive citizens, the school needs to develop the spiritual, academic, emotional and physical dimensions of each child |
| * | Children will flourish in a safe, happy and welcoming environment |
Our Curriculum Philosophy
“By learning you will teach, by teaching you will learn.” Latin Proverb
Professor John Hattie’s research shows that the greatest impact on student achievement is teacher practice. Students are more likely to achieve when teachers set high expectations, provide timely, quality feedback and empower student’s to take responsibility for their own learning.
Our teaching and learning programmes aim to clearly set high expectations and engage pupils in formulating and analyzing their performance against, specific learning criteria. We support students in identifying their next learning steps and report these on a regular basis to our parents through Student lead conferences.
We recognize that it takes a community to develop a whole child and feedback and support are regularly sought to develop, implement and refine teaching and learning programmes. The Catholic ethos of our school community determines how we act and interact.
Our teaching and learning programmes are based on self-review data including community feedback and achievement data and aim to teach according to student needs. Priority is given to Religious Education, Literacy and Numeracy.
In creating a community of learning, teachers are also encouraged and supported in their own ongoing learning journey. This helps them to refine their practice and better meet the needs of students.
Our learning community strives to:
- - act and interact in a way consistent with our Values
- - work collaboratively towards common goals
- - learn from each other
- - solve problems and innovate
Behaviour Management
The aim of St Brendan’s Behaviour Management System is to create a safe and respectful learning environment where we can shape our children, our future navigators, so that they Nuture, Atone, Value, Inquire, Grow, Accept, Trust, Own and Resolve.
Anti-Bullying
We take a strong anti-bullying position in the school. Any child can become a victim of bullying and it can take place anytime, anywhere. Our Keeping Kids Bully Free pamphlet provides tips or parents to help their child resolve bullying problems.
Antibullying information can also be found at the following sites:
www.nobully.org.nz/guidelines.htm
www.police.govt.nz/service/yes/nobully/whats_bullying.htm
www.teamup.co.nz/Child/KeepingKidsSafe/Bullying/WhatIsBullying.aspx
www.nzfamilies.org.nz/parenting/bullying.php
Netsafe for cyber and text bullying
Foundation Skills for Learning
Library
