Curriculum Outline
Primary Curriculum
The Primary School follows a school based curriculum which has been developed over a number of years and which is designed to meet the needs of our pupils. The curriculum content takes into consideration the material contained within the Victorian Essential Learning Standards.
The morning sessions mainly involve class, group and where appropriate individual teaching in the core subjects of Mathematics, Language, Reading, Spelling and French.
During the afternoon sessions the students are involved in the cultural subjects which include Studies of Society and Environment, Health and Physical Education, Science, The Arts and Technology.
(a) Daily Work Requirements
Each student is required to complete a set amount of work each day in each of the core subjects. If at the end of the school day expectations have not been achieved, the incomplete work is assigned as homework. In this event, parents are notified by a diary entry that the child takes home. Parents are asked to check that the homework has been done correctly and fully, and to sign their child’s diary and have it returned with the homework and all borrowed text books the following school day.
(b) Classroom Program
Within each classroom an endeavour is made to present work that is stimulating and challenging to the children and each child is encouraged to fully develop his/her abilities.
The needs of the individuals who have learning difficulties or who transfer into our College with “gaps” in their learning, will be catered for within the classroom program using materials appropriate to their individual needs or specifically chosen to “fill” the gaps that exist.
(c) Incentive Program
Emphasis is placed on praising academic achievement and sincere efforts by the students to present consistently neat bookwork.
A greater emphasis will be made to praise desirable character traits such as truthfulness, helpfulness and kindness.
Children are rewarded with credits (house points) for sincere efforts. Demerits which result in a loss of 5 house points will be given when a disturbance or rule violation is severe or repetitive. Three or more demerits in one day results in a detention as does five or more demerits in any school week. When detentions are given, parents will be notified using a detention slip and these should be acknowledged with a parent’s signature and returned to the class teacher the day following when it was issued.
(d) Assessment Program
Work covered in the areas of Maths, Spelling, Reading Comprehension and Grammar for pupils in years 2 - 6 and in areas of Maths, Spelling and Reading for year 1 pupils, will be assessed by testing each term and the results obtained will form the basis of the Honour Roll Awards. Work tested in each of these subjects will be the work covered at any time during the particular term.
A ‘Congratulations’ slip recording the child’s marks and where possible the group or class averages in each of the assessed subjects will be sent home after each bank of tests.
Parents will be requested to sign an ‘acknowledgement of receipt’ form and return it to the class teacher the following day. This will enable parents to keep abreast of their child’s progress or lack thereof.
(e) Student Record Books
The main function of this display folder is to keep parents informed of their child’s progress in the core areas of Mathematics, Grammar and Reading.
Each book will hold revision sheets for each of these subject areas and will be sent home periodically throughout each term.
Should parents wish to assist their children in areas they may find more challenging then this folder will convey to them the aspects of their child’s work requiring help.
Parents are requested to sign the folder acknowledging that they have viewed their child’s work and then return it to College the next school day.
Secondary Curriculum
The College accommodates one group of students at each secondary year level up to year 10.
Our optimum size for each group is twenty-five students with an upper limit ceiling of twenty-eight students.
The curriculum drawn up for each year level within the secondary school uses as a basis the Victoria Essential Learning Standards and is sensitive to the Christian philosophy of our College.
At years 7 and 8 level all subjects taught are compulsory and to enable better use of facilities and student-teacher ratios, some of the practical subjects are taught in half-groups. With the exception of Food Technology (year 8), Woodwork (year 7) and Textiles (years 7 & 8) which are semester subjects, all other subjects run for the full year.
Year 9 and 10 students have a choice of three of the subjects they do during their year 9 and/or year 10 years. These electives are chosen from groups of four to six different subjects and run for the full year.
Secondary Subjects
Years 7 and 8 (all subjects compulsory)
- English
- Mathematics
- Science
- SOSE
- Christian Living (including Chapel)
- Information Technology
- Art
- French
- Health
- Woodwork
- Music
- Textiles
- Food Technology
- Physical Education
Years 9 and 10 (Core subjects)
- English
- Mathematics
- Science
- SOSE
- Christian Living (including Chapel)
- Information Technology
- Art
- Economy & Society
- Sport
- Health
ELECTIVES - Year 9 & 10
Group 1
- Extension Science
- Outdoor Education
- Materials & Design
- Community Service
- Ministry Arts
Group 2
- Physical Education
- Food Technology
- Extension Maths
- Electronics / Inventions
- Community Service
- French
Group 3
- Woodwork
- Textiles
- Community Service
- IT / Media
Each student selects one elective from each of three groupings and undertakes each elective for one afternoon/two periods per week for the whole year.
Electives and grouping of electives may change slightly from one year to the next depending upon the availability of teaching staff, student demand and the need for an overall balance of the subjects taught.
Young Leaders Group
Secondary students are invited to join this leadership group which is responsible for a number of community and school projects.