Students are seldom confined to a single classroom. The introduction of vertical learning in some learning areas (learning via competency rather than age) enables students to transfer from one class to another with regularity meaning that high-performing students are not held back.
Being a Junior School within a Pre-Prep to Year 12 campus means there are opportunities for students to access teachers from other parts of the School who are subject matter experts. These experts help upskill staff but also enable greater depth of understanding in key subject areas or on specific projects that require extra expertise in certain areas such as Year 6 business projects where economics experts can engage the students more thoroughly on pricing structures and profit-and-loss.
There are more than 50 students from the Secondary School who regularly visit the Junior School to assist with targeted reading programs for certain students. This not only provides mentoring opportunities for the older students but also assist Junior students to upskill their literacy levels and to receive valuable pastoral care.
Via the School’s learning support structures, students are often assisted in specific short-term ways rather than being locked into an ongoing learning support model that keeps under-achievers behind their peers.
For example, if a student is struggling to keep up with their classmates in learning about fractions, this student can begin a 4-6 week learning support program that focuses on this area. Teachers are proactive in identifying such specific areas of required development and seek learning support immediately. This minimises long-term disruptions to a child’s learning while also helping them re-join their peers sooner than other learning support models.