CURRICULUM - BERWICK CAMPUS

PHILOSOPHY

Student engagement and wellbeing have been identified as vital components of Middle Years reform. Curriculum and school-based activities need to provide opportunities, skills and understandings that encourage active and responsible citizenship in a safe, secure environment.

The following guiding principles are useful when tackling Middle Years reform in the area of student engagement and wellbeing.

1. Learner-centred: coherent curriculum is focussed on the identified needs, interests and concerns of students and emphasises self-directed and co-constructed learning.
2. Collaboratively organised: teams of teachers who know and understand their students well, and who employ pedagogical strategies to challenge and extend students within a supportive environment.
3. Outcome-based: progress and achievement are recorded continually in relation to explicit statements of what each student is expected to know and be able to do.
4. Flexibly constructed: arrangements are responsive to local needs and circumstances, and reflect creative uses of time, space and other resources.
5. Ethically aware: justice, care, respect and a concern for the needs of others are reflected in everyday practice of students and teachers.
6. Community-oriented: parents and representatives from community institutions and organisations beyond the school are involved in productive partnerships.

 
INTRODUCTION
Young people making the transition from primary to secondary schooling have a thirst for the excitement, challenge and ‘newness’ of secondary schooling. 

A unique curriculum that addresses many of these philosophical issues and also provides smooth transition for students moving from primary school to secondary school exists at the St Francis Xavier College Berwick Campus.

CURRICULUM
Students come from a wide variety of feeder Primary Schools and bring with them a range of educational experiences.  St Francis Xavier College believes in the importance of providing a caring and supportive environment in which students are gradually inducted into the demands of secondary school life.  A team of teachers works co-operatively in course planning, sharing resources and in evaluating learning and teaching practices.

Year 7 students are organised into Core Groups and remain together as a group, studying core subjects including Religious Education, English, Mathematics, LOTE (Japanese), Science, Humanities – History and Geography – (one per semester), and Health and Physical Education (HPE) for the whole year. They also study four rotation units (one per term) in The Arts which include Painting, Drawing, Drama and Music, and four similar rotations in Technology covering Food Technology, Textiles, Wood Technology and Information Technology (ICT).

This allows the students to develop skills and gain confidence within a small group of Year 7 classmates. They are able to continue relationships and extend their skills and knowledge in a relatively stable, known environment for a long period of time. It also gives the teachers who teach in cores more time to see a total development both as individuals and as a group over a whole year.

The College Education Support Department assists in developing a range of strategies, including Individual Learning Programs, modification of work and integration aides, to support students who experience a range of learning difficulties.  The more able students are motivated through enhancement, acceleration or extension strategies.

The College also offer the Hands On Learning initiative, which provides an incentive-based opportunity for students to engage in mainstream classroom learning, while enjoying one or two days per fortnight in HOL activities, such as gardening and building

As educators we know there are a number of areas which need to be taught as a continuum.  However, we also understand the importance of choice for students, so there are other areas where choice is available to them.

In organising the curriculum, the commonly used ‘Key Learning Areas/Disciplines or Domains’ have been adopted.

The nine Key Learning Areas at St Francis Xavier College are:

Religious Education

English

Mathematics

Humanities (History, Geography, Economics, Civics and Citizenship Education)

Science

Languages Other Than English (LOTE) (Japanese)

Health & Physical Education (Health Education, Personal Development, Physical Education)

Technology (Food, Textiles, Design Wood, Systems Technology, Information Technology)

The Arts (Art, Dance, Drama, Media, Music, Visual Communication)

DAILY ORGANISATION

The timetable operates on a 10 day cycle.  There are 5 periods per day (2 ‘long’ periods of 75 minutes each and 3 ‘short’ periods of 50 minutes each.

For information contact:

Mr. Malcolm Joseph (Deputy Principal: Mission)
mjoseph@sfx.vic.edu.au

Ms. Jo Prestia (Director of Learning)
jprestia@sfx.vic.edu.au