At Kinross PS, we offer Physical Education, Art, Music, Science and Italian (3-6) as specialist subjects.
Physical Education
Mrs Nat Kaminski is our PE specialist. Mrs Kaminski runs a Jogging Club every Tuesday morning where students run laps to earn medallions and complete half and full marathons as their hours build up throughout the year. Mrs Kaminski is also a talented Dance Teacher and utilises this skill to teach students who perform in the Crown Performance each year at Burswood. In 2021 we began a Dance Showcase at the Performing Arts Centre at Kinross College. Due to its’ success this will now become a two-yearly event.
Our students all participate in PE for one session each week and regularly participate in fitness activities and brain breaks with their classroom teachers. Students also participate in the Jump Jam Program and we have a designated Jump Jam Club. The JUMP JAM aerobic program is a ‘Kidz Aerobix’ resource kit for schools, created by 2x World Aerobic Champion Brett Fairweather, specifically for primary and intermediate students and teachers. Designed to challenge fundamental movement skills, increase fitness, develop student leadership & motivate students to move and enjoy exercise.
Our senior students participate in Senior Sport each week where they learn team games and train for the Summer and Winter Carnivals.
All students are involved in Cross Country and Athletics and selected students compete in interschool carnivals. Students also participate in swimming lessons at Joondalup Arena.
Art
Kinross PS provides a specialist Art Program for students in Years 1-6. Mrs Fiona Wilson is our art specialist.
The Arts have the capacity to engage, inspire and enrich all students, exciting the imagination and encouraging them to reach their creative and expressive potential. The term 'creativity' plays a critical role in all arts subjects.
Visual Arts incorporates all three fields of art, craft and design. Students create visual representations that communicate, challenge and express their own and others' ideas, both as artists and audience members. They develop perceptual and conceptual understanding, critical reasoning and practical skills through exploring and expanding their understanding of their world, and other worlds.
Visual Arts engages students in a journey of discovery, experimentation and problem-solving relevant to visual perception and visual language. Students undertake this journey by utilising visual techniques, technologies, practices and processes. Visual Arts supports students' ability to recognise and develop cultural appreciation of visual arts in the past and contemporary contexts through exploring and responding to artists and their artworks.
A Specialist Showcase takes place in Term 4 where student work is put on display. Students participate in various projects and competitions throughout the year. Mrs Wilson also integrates whole school themes and special days into her art program. For example, providing artwork for Harmony Week and ANZAC Day. Kinross PS has some very talented artists as you can see from the artwork below.
Music
At Kinross PS, we offer Music as a specialist subject. Mrs Emma Brierley is our experienced and talented music specialist who teaches the Music Curriculum, from Year 1 to Year 6 and runs extra-curricular programs such as Choir and DRUMBEAT.
We are very proud of our Kinross Primary Choir, which is one of the largest primary choirs in WA with numbers usually reaching almost 100 each year. Our choir performs in many events throughout the year including the One Big Voice Festival at the RAC Arena, The Massed Choir Festival at the Perth Concert Hall, Carols at Lakeside Shopping Centre, our school ANZAC ceremony, the annual Kinross PS Christmas Carol Night, assemblies and other special functions. Some of our current choir members have recently been selected to join the highly prestigious One Big Voice Studio Choir, which records vocals for songs and performs at live in events such as Telethon. The Kinross PS choir wears a school choir uniform when they perform.
The school also offers the School of Instrumental Music Program where selected Year 5 and 6 students are provided with an opportunity to learn a brass instrument or the guitar.
As part of the General Music Curriculum, our students all learn to play a variety of instruments. These are conducted as whole-class lessons where every student has their own instrument. The instruments offered include Ukulele, Recorder and Electronic Keyboard, as well as tuned and untuned classroom percussion instruments. When the students reach Year 6 they get to participate in a Brazilian Samba band!
Science
At Kinross Primary School, Science is taught explicitly by specialist teachers from Year 1 to Year 6, with Pre-Primary and Kindergarten taking part in weekly science curriculum lessons in their classrooms.
There are three interrelated strands in the Western Australian Science Curriculum:
Our teachers plan, teach and assess innovative and exciting science lessons which promote inquiry skills; develop their knowledge, understanding and encourage their natural curiosity about the world around them by integrating all three sub-strands and using a variety of research-based programs such as Primary Connections and Inquisitive.
The Western Australian Curriculum: Science aims to ensure that students develop:
Aims | The Australian Curriculum (Version 8.4)
Where possible, Science is also integrated with other learning areas, specifically Technologies and Mathematics to create lessons commonly referred to as STEM/STEAM in their classrooms through the development of integrated STEAM projects each term.
At Kinross PS, regular celebrations of Science are held throughout the year to continue to develop students’ scientific thinking and passion for learning. Each year, students enjoy participating in Science activities during National Science Week; students and staff regularly showcase integrated STEAM projects and incursions and excursions are planned to help consolidate student learning.
Languages (Italian)
Languages enables all students to communicate proficiently in a language other than English by providing students with essential communication skills in that language, an intercultural capability, and an understanding of the role of language and culture in human communication. At Kinross PS our students learn Italian. Mrs Mimi Palencia teaches Italian each Monday, Wednesday and Friday to all students in Years 3-6.
Language learning broadens students’ horizons to include the personal, social, and employment opportunities that an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world presents. The interdependence of countries means that people in all spheres of life have to be able to negotiate experiences and meanings across languages and cultures. It has also brought the realisation that, despite its status as a world language, a capability only in English is not sufficient, and a bilingual or plurilingual capability is the norm in most parts of the world.
The Western Australian Curriculum: Languages operates from the fundamental principle that for all students, learning to communicate in two or more languages is a rich, challenging experience of engaging with and participating in the linguistic and cultural diversity of our interconnected world. The curriculum builds upon students’ intercultural understanding and sense of identity as they are encouraged to explore and recognise their own linguistic, social, and cultural practices and identities as well as those associated with speakers of the language being learnt.
© Kinross Primary School