Our Vision and Mission Statement

Vision

As a community, we are inspired by Christ, to pursue, provide and promote fullness of life for all.

Mission

To live the Christian message of love by:

• building positive relationships
• ensuring a safe, supportive and inclusive environment that promotes high outcomes and celebrates achievements
• providing relevant and purposeful opportunities for growth
• working in collaborative partnerships to provide high quality, stimulating and evidence informed learning
• empowering all to be responsible citizens of our world through caring for our common home 

Our BRICKS for living a Christian Life:

BE Respectful, Inclusive, Courageous, Kind

“A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

John 13: 34

Governance

St Mary's Primary School, Clarkes Hill, is a Catholic school that operates under the governance of the Diocese of Ballarat Catholic Education Limited (DOBCEL) with children from Foundation to Year Six.

The Diocese of Ballarat Catholic Education Limited (DOBCEL) is the company established by Bishop Paul Bird to become the governing body for schools in the Ballarat Diocese.  This includes St Mary's Primary School, Clarkes Hill.

Information

Learning and Teaching

In June 2024, Education Minister and Deputy Premier, Ben Carroll, announced that all Victorian government schools will be required to implement evidence-based Literacy teaching, including the use of a systematic phonics program from F-2 and a teaching method called 'explicit instruction'. 

At St Mary's Clarkes Hill, we have been meeting this requirement, and other recommendations of the Grattan Report 'The Reading Guarantee' since 2024. In line with the best-available evidence about how children learn to read and with the support of Catholic Education Ballarat, we are in the process of updating our approach to Literacy instruction. We are aiming to embed an effective and consistent Structured Literacy methodology from Foundation to Year Six.

This means that we teach all the elements of literacy, including phonics, in a systematic and explicit way, ensuring that all our students have the foundational knowledge and understandings they need to become successful readers and writers.  

You may notice some changes in the language we use to communicate student progress and you may notice some changes in practice. For example, our early readers will no longer bring home 'levelled readers', but will instead bring home 'decodable books', that have been chosen specifically to align with our teaching sequence. If you have any questions or concerns about these (or any other) changes, please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

Please be assured that these changes have been made after much careful consideration, consultation with world-leading experts and - of course - in the best interests of our children. 

A ‘structured literacy’ approach to teaching reading is best. It draws on decades of research evidence, including cognitive science, by explicitly and systematically teaching students the key sub-skills needed for reading and writing. (Grattan Report, February 2024)