Welcome to McLaren Vale Primary School, nestled between the rolling hills of the lower Mount Lofty Ranges, adjacent to some of South Australia’s best beaches and coastline and in the heart of the well renowned and beautiful McLaren Vale wine region. McLaren Vale Primary School is on Kaurna Land.
At McLaren Vale Primary School our vision is “a community of creative individuals and resilient learners who take responsibility for making a positive difference in the world.”
We have a passionate and committed school community with a student enrolment of approximately 520 students in 19 classes across reception to year 6.
Our students are provided with an engaging, diverse and rigorous teaching and learning program by a passionate, dedicated and exceptional staff team consisting of a leadership team of 4, a teaching staff of 32 and a school support team of 22.
The relationships we have with our students, our families and our community are at the very core of our work. We value respect, integrity and success. We enthusiastically promote and develop these values as part of our wellbeing programs to ensure that our students are provided with maximum opportunities to develop emotionally and socially, as well as academically and physically. We instill in our students a growth mindset and we lead our students not just to achieve their potential, but to exceed their potential.
We provide high quality teaching pedagogy across all areas of the curriculum. We aim to increase the percentage of students sustaining higher levels of achievements through evidence based, consistent and sequential approaches to daily, differentiated teaching and learning experiences. Teachers work in collaborative professional learning communities to use data to inform their teaching and learning programs, check in on student progress regularly and provide a targeted approach to meet the needs of every learner. We have rigorous processes to measure student growth and achievement. We celebrate success and we are dedicated to improvement.
Staff value student voice and view each child as competent and capable and this is highly visible in the way each teacher operates in their learning program. Student leadership opportunities include representation on Student Action teams, school leadership roles as well as throughout the day in each learning space.
To support our secondary feeder school’s Asian language programs, our students study Japanese. This is an engaging and fun learning program including a link with a sister school in Japan and an annual whole school Japanese cultural day.
Students are provided with engaging science lessons with a specialist teacher exploring all of the areas of the science curriculum, as well as a whole school science incursion each year.
Performing arts lessons are provided by a specialist teacher with a highly engaging program catering for music, media, dance and drama. Opportunities for senior students include Wakikirri and Primary Schools Music Festival Choir. Students work together in classes to develop and then perform a piece at the annual End of Year Concert for our families on stage on our school oval. Classroom teachers provide visual arts lessons. A private instrumental music teacher provides individual lessons at school, if requested by families.
Students are provided with a specialist physical education program with a focus on engagement and inclusion and multiple opportunities to participate in School Sport SA (formerly SAPSASA) events including athletics, cross country, basketball, football, netball, soccer and swimming. A whole school morning fitness program gives the entire school body of students and staff a wonderful start to the day with 10 minutes of rigorous dancing or exercise together and allows everyone to connect to one another. An after school basketball program is offered with school teams at Morphett Vale Stadium. Many clinics are offered during PE lessons by visiting organisations from gymnastics to softball, giving all students a great taste of a variety of sports. Lots of fun is had each year at our annual events including Sports Day and Colour Run.
We are a Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden School. Our years 3-5 students are involved in this fantastic learning program which gives our students opportunities to grow, harvest, prepare and share. Students love kitchen and garden classes because they are fun, engaging and authentic learning experiences. Pleasurable food education is about children experiencing the joy of digging in the garden, picking fresh veggies, smelling and tasting the food they prepare, and sharing the experience with their classmates and helpers. Students grow fresh, seasonal produce and use it to prepare nutritious, delicious food. Students are given all the skills, experiences and role modelling they need to learn to love their veggies and make healthier choices about what to cook and eat, for life.
We have a dynamic and driven staff team committed to ICT and the implementation of digital technologies. We have recently rolled out 1 to 1 Chromebooks for year 3 and 4 students who bring these devices to and from school. Our year 5 and 6 students have 1 to 1 access at school. Classes use the Google suite of tools (Classroom, Docs, Slides and Sites) to publish, create and submit learning tasks with their teacher. Our staff model the use of these tools in their own teams and develop their skills in these tools so that learning experiences can be enhanced for students. We are working towards our students being creators with technology rather than just consumers.
An Inclusive Education staff team provides support for children with additional needs, supporting staff to have everything they need to differentiate and support children in the classroom. The Department for Education Support Services team works closely with the school to provide advice, support and assessments as appropriate. 'Zones of regulation' is a whole school approach which supports students to manage and regulate their emotions. This evidence based approach is used by occupational therapists and is well researched. This teaches students how to identify, articulate and manage their emotions through the four ‘zones’ - blue, green, yellow and red. The ‘zones of regulation’ gives students the skills needed to self-regulate and manage their emotions and be in the ‘green zone’ where they are the most calm, ready to learn and play successfully with their friends. With this approach, students are taught that feeling emotions and being in any coloured ‘zone’ is okay. Through explicit teaching and modelling students are then able to identify and use their chosen ‘tools’ to self-regulate successfully and be in the ‘green zone’.
Our ATSI (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) staff team and year 6 cultural leaders support a strong Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) to ensure culturally appropriate education and awareness for all students and staff across the school.
A connection and commitment since 2019 with the Hutt Street Centre provides a strong vehicle for learning for our students around empathy and ‘walking a mile’ in the boots of a person experiencing homelessness. Each year students are engaged in learning programs, fundraising and a community morning event is offered at school, as well as an opportunity for parents and caregivers to join some of our staff to do the 50km long walk from Willunga to Hutt Street to raise awareness and funds for the Hutt Street Centre.
Our staff team works hard to foster a positive school culture for students, staff and families. Parental partnerships are aimed for and our committed Governing Council Committee parent members support a strong connection between staff and families through representation on special committees. The Fathering Project provides a connection for fathers and father figures of our school children through regular after school meetings and activities. The Wellbeing staff team are highly accessible and work to support children and families in any way needed to keep children ‘safe and happy’ at school and engaged in their learning and enjoying healthy relationships. A breakfast program is in place to support those who need it.
McLaren Vale Primary School have wonderful facilities including a beautiful green oval and ambient school grounds. We have 3 buildings containing our teaching and learning spaces as well as some transportable buildings; a school gym used for PE lessons and whole school events; a well resourced library led by our wonderful librarian; a Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program with spaces for cooking (4 kitchen bays) and gardening (a huge space with chickens and a garden classroom), a bush tucker garden, an OSHC (Out of School Hours Care - before and after school), large nature play space, double hard surface courts, 3 playgrounds (R-1 / 2-3 / 4-6) and a gorgeous outdoor classroom.
We look forward to meeting you and sharing with you our passion for providing our students with every opportunity to succeed academically, socially, physically and emotionally.
Leanne Lovett (Principal), Matt Millar (Deputy Principal) & Cate Schueller (Senior Leader)
