Extension & Learning Support

A specialised, well qualified team of learning support teachers work with classroom teachers on a sustainable, dynamic, needs driven basis.

The learning support teachers:

• Plan collaboratively with classroom teachers, offering team teaching and working with small target groups where appropriate.

• Guide and support all teachers in inclusive practice including training in a range of practical learning and teaching strategies for differentiation within their programs.

• Analyse data with classroom teachers to identify students’ needs including: standardised tests, observation techniques and curriculum based assessments to track student progress and diagnose learning needs. Some students may be referred for further assessment by specialists such as psychologists, paediatricians, speech therapists and occupational therapists.

• Manage individual plans, subject specific acceleration and curriculum compaction or simplification for identified students.

A range of strategies ensure high potential learners are extended:

• Ability streaming is applied in some subject areas in the junior and senior years to develop extension programs appropriate for students’ intellectual ability. In the Junior School additional teachers, including the Head and Deputy of Junior School, join class teachers to teach literacy and numeracy across each grade. This extra resource means that the grade is organised into smaller, fluid groups for targeted teaching of specific literacy and numeracy skills. In Years 7 to 10 English, Mathematics and Science classes are grouped by ability to include extension and enrichment classes. HSC courses include a wide range of extension electives.

• Curriculum compaction allows high potential learners to proceed faster through curriculum content. Subject specific acceleration and grade acceleration is available to identified students following careful consideration on a case by case and subject by subject basis.

• Enquiry based independent learning projects extend a targeted, cross grade group of junior students. Learning units designed using the flipped classroom concept enable high potential learners to absorb content at their own pace and maximise their time with their teacher for higher order processes. 
   
• The HICES (Heads of Independent Coeducational Schools) Gifted and Talented Camp brings junior high potential learners from HICES schools together for a week of in depth learning in a core area of interest, plus optional activities.
   
• Junior Philosophy class offers students identified as big thinkers and good speakers to think more deeply about issues and ideas important to them, enhancing their cognitive, affective and social skills.

• Participation in external competitions and workshops allows high potential learners to benchmark their achievements and work with like-minded students. We continually select the best opportunities across the curriculum. These include: the Da Vinci Decathlon and the ICAS UNSW English, Mathematics, Science and Computer Skills competitions for both junior and senior students; the Newcastle Permanent Mathematics Competition and AST (Australian Mathematics Trust) Mathematics Olympiad and Challenge for junior students; and the Future Problem Solving Program, Tournament of Minds, the HICES Mathematics Challenge, the Mathematical Association of NSW Y11 Colin Doyle Memorial Prize, the University of Newcastle Science and Engineering Challenge, the Charles Sturt University Forensics Camp, the UNSW BRAGG Student Prize for Science Writing, the National Geographic Channel Australian Geography competition and the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry competition for senior students.

• ELEVATE is an exciting Association of Independent Schools project collaborating with a variety of leading schools to investigate ways to motivate and engage high potential learners. Our Elevate project focus is giving students a voice in their own assessment.
   
• A range of academic, music and all-rounder Scholarships are available for continuing and new students.

A range of strategies enrich the curriculum for students facing learning challenges:

• Ability streaming is applied in some subject areas in the Junior and Senior schools to develop support programs appropriate for students’ needs. In the Junior school additional teachers, including the Head and Deputy of Junior School, join class teachers to teach literacy and numeracy across each grade. This extra resource means that the grade is organised into smaller, fluid groups for targeted teaching of specific literacy and numeracy skills. Macquarie University’s MultiLit, an evidence based literacy intervention program, is used to support literacy progress. In Years 7 to 10 English, Mathematics and Science classes are grouped by ability to facilitate support.
   
• Professional development for our staff enhances the outcome for high potential learners with a number of teachers holding the Certificate of Gifted Education at the UNSW Gifted Education Research and Resource Centre. 
   
• Inclusive in class support is achieved across the K to 12 curriculum by ensuring support is driven by class and subject teachers on a needs basis, so it is ever present. The curriculum can be abridged and a variety of strategies can be used including repetition, visual cues and simplifying instructions.

• After school study support classes for senior students run everyday after school to support English, Maths and Science and to assist with homework. The library is open until 4.30pm Monday to Thursday, and 3.30pm on Friday for after school study.

• Achievement Assist offers Year 12 students one on one appointments with a librarian to assist with research.

• The Testing Support Program in Years 7 to 12 ensures that identified students are able to demonstrate their knowledge in examinations.

• The Learning in Motion (LIM) program teaches targeted junior students the physical skills that can assist academic learning, develop social coping skills, improve coordination and increase self-confidence.

• The iPad is an integral part of the Learning Support resource base. The phenomenal range of applications available make it a naturally motivating teaching tool.

• Partnerships with private allied health specialists and outside agencies such as the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC), The Shepherd Centre and the Cerebral Palsy (CP) Alliance assist teachers to provide comprehensive support programs.

• An English as Second Language (ESL) teacher is available to support students on a needs basis