Student experiences in the Middle School (Years 5 to 8) at All Hallows’ School are underpinned by the Australian Curriculum and the All Hallows’ Curriculum and Learning Framework. This framework challenges our girls to reach their potential to serve the wider community and to understand that education empowers individuals and is an instigator of change. Each student is supported to develop the skills that she needs to be a resilient, active, informed and confident learner who is prepared for the next phase of schooling.
The Years 5 and 6 program aims to build and maintain strong academic foundations as well as developing each student’s self-management and self-advocacy skills. The developmental needs of this age group guides strategies that challenge the girls as learners fostering their growth as independent and responsive members of the school community. Students engage in core subjects (Religious Education, Fit for Life, English, Mathematics, Social Science) for much of each day with the same Class Teacher who, as the primary pastoral care teacher, gets to know each class member individually and is the first point of contact for most School-related matters. Specialist subject teachers take responsibility for subjects such as Science, Health and Physical Education, Music, Visual Arts, Drama and Italian. As well as the classroom program, the Year 5 and 6 girls have the opportunity to experience learning in real life contexts through year level camps including retreats, the five day Year 6 Canberra Trip, excursions and incursions. These experiences support and enhance the classroom program as well as build peer-peer and peer-teacher relationships.
The Years 7 and 8 Program provides a structured transition to a more traditional secondary school model, in which students explore and extend themselves in their learning for both academic and life outcomes. At this stage, students become more mobile and self-reliant as they attend specialist lessons in different locations around the school. They also join the House-based, vertical (Years 7-12) Pastoral Care system, where each day begins with Home Groups coming together for valuable time with each other and their Home Group Teacher. In this phase of their Middle Schooling, students will be challenged to become independent and robust learners further developing their self-esteem, healthy risk-taking and goal setting through traditional subjects such as Religious Education, Fit for Life, English, Mathematics, Social Science, Science, The Arts, Languages and Health and Physical Education.
Complementing this program, our girls participate in a Transdisciplinary Innovations class which challenges them to connect their learning and to work as a member of a team to solve real life problems. This project based and multi-disciplinary subject enables all girls to develop essential learning skills and sets them up to be futures-focussed. There are also targeted opportunities to experience learning in real life contexts through excursions, incursions and retreats to support and enhance the academic program.