In 2014 CPS was awarded the “LabelFrancÉducation” seal, becoming one of the few schools in Australia to have been recognised by the French government for excellence in French language. CPS is also a member of the Australian Association for French English Bilingual Schools which brings together both bi-national schools (delivering the French and Australian curricula) and bilingual schools (delivering the Australian or in our case, the Victorian curriculum). Through these associations, CPS shares excellence in practice and resources with other schools to ensure the best quality bilingual education for our students.

Our aim is to provide learning to respond to the students’ individual needs in a rich, engaging environment to empower students to become active global citizens, keen to make a difference in their community and beyond. With a strong emphasis on developing students’ skills in French and English literacy, numeracy and ICT, CPS also delivers a rich specialist program including Art, Performing Arts, Science and Physical Education.

At CPS, we believe that wellbeing and engagement are a priority, as they provide the foundation for academic achievement. CPS incorporates the tenets of positive psychology in all learning with a focus on developing one’s character strengths and a growth mindset, resilience and empathy. We endorsed a School Wide Positive Behaviour Support framework that brings together our school community to develop a positive, safe, supportive learning culture and assists us to improve social, emotional, behavioural and academic outcomes for our students. Students are also explicitly taught personal and interpersonal skills through programs such as the Zones of Regulation, Play as the Way and The Resilience Project.

2: Vision, Mission and Values

• Our Mission

  Our mission is to provide each single one of our students with a love of learning and equip them with the skills and knowledge to enable them to flourish as healthy and engaged members of society.

• Our Vision

  Our learning community is inclusive, collaborative and stimulating.

   

  We support and challenge our students to be the best they can be. Our students are enthusiastic and motivated learners who learn the value of being active local and global citizens. They are critical, creative thinkers who question and challenge the norms for the benefit of their own and others’ learning. We support their intellectual risk-taking and empower them to face challenges with empathy and integrity.

   

  We provide an innovative, bilingual education, which is internationally recognised as a model of excellence. Furthermore, we embrace the latest research to provide a holistic approach to learning where student achievement continually improves with a focus on growth mindset, social, emotional and mental wellbeing.

• Our School Values

  The core values that underpin our actions and behaviours are:
  
  

  - Be Respectful	for ourselves, others and the environment
  - Be Kind	and generous to others, doing good deeds for others
  - Be Perseverant	believe in what we do and be able to face future challenges
  - Be Collaborative	working together, we can achieve far more than we can on our own

Finally, Camberwell Primary School is proud to be committed to including a sustainability / environmental focus through Integrated Units across all year levels and as part of daily classroom practices. Our curriculum is designed with the intention of creating teaching and learning opportunities that reflect important environmental issues in the areas of Waste, Energy, Water and Biodiversity. Students are encouraged to be responsible and respectful citizens who make informed decisions to reduce the impact on their environment.

3: Our Bilingual Model

Bilingual education has a research based positive impact. Learning another language enhances a learner’s capabilities:

• It requires constant problem-solving

• It adds a supplementary cognitive challenge on a daily basis - making meaning out of what the teacher is saying, what the text means

• And, all importantly, it teaches us how to become a risk-taker to communicate your thinking in the target language.

At Camberwell Primary School, children have the opportunity to learn in the most extensive bilingual program in Victoria. Our goal is to provide an authentic learning environment in the second language where French-speaking teachers always model, repeat and encourage the children to respond appropriately in their second language.

CPS offers every student the opportunity to learn in the most extensive French/English bilingual program in Victoria. Your child will spend from 50% to 80% of each day immersed and being taught in the target language (French).

Curriculum areas are identified for their suitability to second language learning. At Camberwell Primary School, Mathematics, Language and Science as well as some aspects of the Integrated Unit are taught in French.

What does that look like?

At CPS, we continually strive to improve the model of education to respond to our students' needs. We want to ensure that:

• students are able to thrive in the target language

• students are provided with the necessary tools to become more confident as highly proficient bilingual learners.

There are different models in place:

• Most classes follow a “50:50” model, where the two teachers (one English speaking and one French speaking) share the teaching and learning of two classes. In this context, the two-paired teachers work in their own classrooms and are responsible for the teaching of certain curriculum subjects over two classes of students. They are mutually responsible for all aspects of the students’ education and welfare.

• Increased immersion:

  • Some classes have a teacher who teaches both the English and French curriculum, with more time spent being taught in French.

  • Some classes will have a French teacher for the majority of the week and an English-speaking teacher for the rest of the week.

In our increased immersion model, where Foundation students are taught four days a week in French and one day in English, their teacher will either teach both French and English or share with an English teacher who will provide instruction for the English lessons.

By increasing the exposure to French language in Foundation, students will:

• develop a stronger base in the target language

• be more confident to start talking in French earlier.

We believe that it is our duty to provide our students with the best authentic, safe and inclusive bilingual learning environment possible.

4: Our Community

Our community is rich and diverse, caring and supportive, engaged and involved. We are proud to promote and nurture a strong home-school partnership for the benefit of our students. CPS encourages parents to become parent helpers in the classroom as we believe, and research shows that there is a positive effect on children’ attitudes, learning and behaviour when parents are actively involved in their child’s education.

5: Enrolments

To enrol at Camberwell Primary School, your permanent residence needs to be within our School Zone. The Find My School website provides guidance on which school zone a student’s permanent residence is located within.

In circumstances when CPS can consider applications from outside our neighbourhood zone, the school will determine enrolment requests based on the following priority order of placement:

1. students for whom the school is the designated neighbourhood school
2. students with a sibling at the same permanent address who are attending the school at the same time
3. where the Regional Director has restricted the enrolment, students who reside nearest the school
4. students seeking enrolment on specific curriculum grounds
5. all other students in order of closeness of their home to the school

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