Our Teaching Philosophy – Early Learning

At St Mary’s, we understand that children thrive in a structured and inspiring learning environment. That’s why we take a balanced approach to teaching, combining explicit instruction with rich, inquiry-based learning experiences.

This combination provides your daughter with the strong foundations she needs to succeed, while also encouraging her to think deeply, ask questions and develop a genuine love of learning.

Our teachers pride themselves on being lifelong learners, and as a school, we continually examine and adapt to best practices recommended by contemporary educational researchers.

What is Explicit Teaching?

Explicit teaching involves clear, direct instruction where teachers break down new concepts step-by-step. This pedagogical approach has a strong evidence base and ensures your daughter builds essential curriculum skills in a structured and supportive way. Teachers model strategies, guide students through practice, and provide feedback to help your daughter grow in confidence and understanding.

In the Junior School, we use research-aligned programs to support this approach, including:

• Little Learners Love Literacy (LLLL) – to build strong early reading and spelling skills in the Early Years.
• Heggerty Phonemic Awareness – to develop your daughter’s ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words, a key part of learning to read in the Early Years.
• Bond Blocks – supporting Early Years mathematical thinking through hands-on activities and structured learning sequences.
• Learning Through Doing – a hands-on mathematical teaching approach that sequences students through a spiral approach across curriculum topics.

These programs (amongst others) help create a solid foundation in the junior years of education, ensuring your daughter is equipped with the core skills needed to thrive.

What is Inquiry-Based Learning?

Inquiry-based learning is a student-centred approach that encourages curiosity, exploration and problem-solving. Once your daughter has developed key foundational skills through explicit teaching, she is taught and then guided to apply her knowledge in meaningful ways by investigating real-world questions, making connections across subjects and thinking critically about what she has learnt.

Why We Combine Both

Research shows that explicit teaching is the most effective way to learn new things, while inquiry-based learning helps students deepen their understanding and develop transferable skills on what they have already learned. We follow the inquiry model developed by education expert Kath Murdoch. She emphasises the importance of combining explicit teaching with inquiry learning to ensure a strong knowledge foundation while fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills. By combining these two approaches, we support your daughter in mastering the basics and learning how to ask questions, solve problems and think for herself as a flexible learner.

A Foundation for Lifelong Learning

At St Mary’s, we’re passionate about nurturing capable, curious and confident learners. By combining structure with creativity, we empower our students to build strong academic foundations and develop the skills they need to grow into thoughtful, engaged and independent learners—now and into the future.