How We Teach at Bayswater Primary School
Our approach to teaching is aligned with the Victorian Department of Education's Victorian Teaching and Learning Model (VTLM 2.0) and informed by research from the Learning Sciences.
VTLM 2.0 places learning and wellbeing at the centre of teaching and emphasises the importance of evidence-informed teaching practices that support all students to learn successfully.
At Bayswater Primary School, this is reflected in a consistent approach to teaching across the curriculum. We explicitly teach new knowledge and skills, provide purposeful practice to build fluency, and create rich opportunities for students to apply their learning independently, flexibly and creatively.
Our teaching follows a simple progression:
Learn it
When knowledge or a skill is new, we explicitly teach it.
Teachers break new learning into manageable steps, clearly explain and model what students need to know and do, and use worked examples to make new ideas clear.
Students are provided with many opportunities to participate and respond during lessons. Teachers guide practice, provide prompts where needed, check understanding and give immediate feedback so that students experience high levels of success while they are learning.
Practise it
Being able to do something once does not mean it has been fully learned.
Once students can perform a skill accurately, they are provided with purposeful and repeated practice to build fluency.
As important knowledge and skills become increasingly fluent and automatic, students can complete them with greater accuracy, efficiency and confidence. This also frees their attention to focus on more complex thinking, understanding and problem solving.
Use it
Ultimately, we want students to be able to use what they have learned independently, flexibly and creatively. Students at Bayswater Primary School are given rich opportunities to apply their knowledge and skills in new and meaningful ways. This includes inquiry and project-based learning, creative tasks, collaborative challenges and real-world problems that connect learning across different subjects and contexts.
As their knowledge and expertise grow, students are increasingly able to make connections, generate ideas, make choices, explain their thinking and creatively apply what they know to solve new and increasingly complex problems.
Teaching That Responds to Every Learner
A key principle underpinning our approach is that student learning provides important feedback about our teaching.
We regularly assess all students to understand what they have learned, identify what they are ready to learn next, and recognise early when additional support may be needed.
Teachers use this information to adjust instruction, provide additional practice or support, and extend learning when students are ready. When students require more targeted or intensive support, this is provided through our Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS).
By regularly assessing, teaching and responding to student progress, we aim to ensure that every student receives the right teaching and support, at the right time.
