YEAR 7
GUIDING IDEA: LAUNCHPAD FROM HOME.
In this facility, a learning community will be established in which students will primarily build understanding together. To aide transition, there is s a high emphasis on territoriality for the group. This is expressed by some element of seclusion from both the main body of the school, and the exclusive use of some spaces. The pedagogical focus will be on the learning process. This means that learning spaces will have access to areas to: share thinking and ideas (visual, oral) to present thinking and ideas and to studios that allow students to construct/manipulate physical things as part of a learning process or as a demonstration of understanding. The curriculum focus is still very much on developing foundational skills, knowledge and learning attributes and attitudes.
YEAR 8
GUIDING IDEA: THE SOLUTIONS CENTRE.
In this learning community, the learning program is structured around identifying problems and solving them. A focus is placed on growing student autonomy and self-direction and that they begin to regularly apply knowledge, skills, attributes and attitudes in new and non-routine situations. Curriculum organization and learning programs will be divided overtly into learn and use. This community will be more physically connected to the rest of the school as these students begin to develop a strong and confident sense of their place within the school. A specific learning process will provide the underlying structure for many learning programs. This process can be summarized as:
- Think (problem identification/unfiltered solution generation)
- Design (plan/prepare for creating a solution and success measures for it)
- Do (build/create your solution that may be an artifact, essay, object presentation)
- Test (trial/practice/draft/revise)
- Refine (polish or fully realize solution against specific success criteria)
- Finish (publish/display/present/sell/gift or give).
Such a procedure may necessitate groups of students using a studio with little direct instructional capability, but high solution creating capability.
