Ballarat Clarendon College
Summary
Ballarat Clarendon College (BCC) is a regional independent school. At the time of filming there were approximately 450 students in the Early Learning – Year 4 campus. The identification and implementation of evidenced-based teaching approaches are proven to be the most effective in improving student learning outcomes, and this is a feature of the pedagogy at the school. Teachers specialise in subject areas, programming, planning and teaching their subject across a year level. From Prep to Year 4 there are three classes at each year level. A unique feature of BCC is that all subjects from Year 1 are taught by specialist teachers. The school believes that this facilitates the very deep learning, aligned practice, team collaboration and detailed curriculum documentation development.
The Wiggins and McTighe model adopted by the school contains a backward by design process, including:
• identifying desired results
• determining acceptable evidence
• planning the student learning experiences and instruction.
A continuum of learning for each subject is developed based on the Australian Curriculum, and with robust internal assessments, planning is done for the whole cohort, the class and the individual. Teachers meet weekly and collaboratively plan and share. A data wall for literacy enables the benchmarking for individual students along the developmental continuum. Data from students’ assessment are recorded and so that individual planning can be undertaken and students’ progress can be monitored. The teachers’ specialisation in learning areas has helped them develop a deep knowledge of the curriculum, which in turn has increased the students’ enjoyment of their learning.
Ballarat Clarendon College is a co-educational day and boarding school, enrolling students from Early Learning to Year 12. Ballarat Clarendon College values learning as the key attribute of developed individuals and communities. The college helps students discover who they are, who they want to be and how to get there. The curriculum provides outstanding educational opportunities in literacy, numeracy and communication skills that will help each student reach their potential. An essential element to the school is ongoing assessment to ensure that the curriculum, both content and instruction, is developmentally appropriate for individual students. The Wiggins and McTighe ‘Understanding by Design’ model provided a consistent framework when implementing the Australian Curriculum. Teachers track and meet individual learning needs by providing young learners with sufficient scaffolds for building knowledge that is carefully selected and sequenced.
Ballarat Clarendon College
Ballarat VIC 3350 Australia
School type
Non-government
School sector
Primary
School location
Provincial
School size
250 - 400 students
Copyright
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