Berry Public School

Growing In Knowledge

Telephone02 4464 1158

Emailberry-p.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Teaching and learning

The school offers a balanced, varied and enriching curriculum in accordance with the Department of Education policies and the NSW Education Standards Authority Syllabus (NESA) requirements. Student engagement, high expectations and instilling a love of learning are our some of our teacher’s highest priorities.

Besides the outstanding quality teaching occurring daily in our classrooms we also assist in the promotion of these priorities through a variety of initiatives and special programs, of which, some are listed below.

Enrichment workshops

Each year teachers from the school offer special workshops targeting a variety of special skills to small groups of students. Workshops can run over sessions or several days. Some of those offered in the past include workshops on drama, poetry, engineering, photography, art and de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. We also offer UNSW International Competitions and Assessments for Schools and Tournament of Minds for our Stage 2 and 3 students.

Lessons in Phonemic Instruction Program

A systematic synthetic phonics program that runs across the Kindergarten to Year 2 classrooms. Students are grouped based on an assessment of their spelling knowledge and receive targeted lessons to improve word recognition, spelling, reading and comprehension.

Comprehension and Teachers Strategies

Comprehension and Teachers Strategies (CATS) is a Year 1 to 4 comprehension program that utilises interactive whiteboard technology focusing on how students connect with and understand texts.

Plant propagation

For over 20 years students in Year 3 have been able to learn about and grow plants in pots in a specially designated area of the school with two community members. Over 20,000 plants have been planted or donated to the community.