History:
St Bernard’s school commenced under its current name in 1890 when a community of Sisters of St. Joseph arrived in Bacchus Marsh at the request of the then Parish Priest, Father Horan. Initially the nuns began teaching in Fisken Street Bacchus Marsh on the 14th April 1890 with 60 pupils. During 1890 the local congregation purchased land, which is the site of St Bernard’s present school. The school was moved there in October that year and has proudly served the community ever since.
Description:
Our school is a primary school, catering for Foundation students as one cohort for this first year of schooling. We then operate in multi-age class groups of 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6 groupings which we find to be most successful. The school is well recognised in the community for its vigorous and pastoral approach to education.
Features:
Our school has adopted an 'Independent Approach to Reading' from Foundation to Year 6. This approach begins with whole class teaching followed by small group and independent work. A key component is the weekly teacher directed focus group where students are grouped according to need. From Year 1 onward a weekly reading conference is added, this supports the sharing of reading material and completed tasks. Through close monitoring of students the teachers are able to individualise tasks and instructions and improve outcomes.
Our school also features a strong focus on student wellbeing. From Foundation to Year 6 students participate in the ‘BounceBack’ program, which is explicit social emotional learning which has a strong focus on building resilience and wellbeing. Teachers and those in Leadership work closely to plan for and support positive outcomes for all students socially, emotionally and academically.
Our school actively collects data on all students regularly according to an organised schedule. Children are tested in key areas, results are analysed and teachers then tailor their teaching to support all student learning.
Our school is fortunate to be able to offer extra support via extra staffing: teachers and learning support officers. This allows us to be flexible in offering expertise in particular subject areas, for example; Physical Education: this is above what is offered by the classroom teacher’s programming. Learning Support Officers support students in small groups and individually as required, directed by teaching staff.