Students in grades Prep and One are immersed in the Italian language during LOTE classes.  Italian lessons are taken by a specialist teacher and held in students' classrooms.  Students play games, sing songs and communicate with each other in Italian.  Classroom teachers then reinforce what is learnt during Italian lessons throughout the school week.

All students from Prep to Grade 2 participate in a one hour Italian lesson each week.

The Italian program involves students in dynamic language learning through experiences that prompt social exchanges. The emphasis of the program is on the spoken language which is taught through a range of activities including role plays, games, songs and stories within a stimulating learning environment.

Students apply skills and knowledge from other key learning areas such as Arts, Numeracy and Literacy, while broadening their understanding of Italian culture, customs and language. 

Learning another language helps children to appreciate other cultures and encourages students to value the diversity of the wider community. Learning a language other than English helps to increase the student’s awareness of the multilingual and multicultural nature of the Australian society. It also reinforces the understanding children have of their own language.

The Italian program offered at THPS provides students with opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills through:

• repeating teacher-modelled language
• participating in classroom routines and games
• identifying the names of visible objects and items from visual cues
• introducing themselves, greeting and farewelling the teacher and other students
• following simple instructions
• recognising the sounds of the Italian alphabet
• identifying letter/sound relationships
• identifying some of the relationships between selected letters, sounds and tones of Italian language compared to English
• identifying Italian cultural icons, geographic features, famous buildings