Middle Years

The Middle Years’ curriculum at Ivanhoe Grammar School is based on sound Middle Years’ pedagogy and research-based practices

The aim is to engage students and foster an interest in learning and to be accessible for students with different:

• Skills and interests
• Learning Styles
• Levels of ability, offering multiple entry and exit points
• Language and cultural backgrounds
• Genders

The curriculum makes connections across traditional subject disciplines and with the real world. It offers a degree of choice in both content and procedures and builds upon prior learning. Students work in a blend of whole class, small group, partner and individual activities and this allows opportunities for students to engage in individual, small group and whole class learning.

Students are regularly assessed and expectations are high with both quality and effort being encouraged. Assessment is both formative (providing important feedback on the learning process) and summative (providing comparison of student achievement with standards and benchmarks).

The Middle Years curriculum consists of interwoven strands of:

• Subject discipline learning – content knowledge, terminology, skills, concepts
• Personal learning – health, interpersonal, civics
• Interdisciplinary learning (lifelong learning skills) – thinking skills, communication, creativity and design.

Support and enrichment programs are available to meet individual student needs in the lower secondary years and our Homework policy establishes sound study habits.  Students use the electronic eDiary to schedule their homework tasks so that they are manageable and achievable.

Please follow the links below to find out more about:

• Subject Disciplines
• Central Projects
• Year 9 Program
• Information Technology

Subject Disciplines

Subject disciplines have a basis in the Victorian Essential Learning Standards, although this is supplemented and informed by elements of spirituality and Christian education, Round Square pillars, and other forms of recognised best practice.

(P): Plenty Campus
(R) The Ridgeway Campus

Central Projects

Central projects are offered per semester in Years 7 and 8, as follows:

• Yr 7, Semester 1: Janus Project – Identity
• Yr 7, Semester 2: Legacies
• Yr 8, Semester 1: Decision Makers, Leaders and Servants
• Yr 8, Semester 2: Boundaries, Challenges & Perspectives.

A central project is a set of activities which may be undertaken in a range of different subject classes.  Each student will develop understandings which will enable him or her to answer a fertile question.  Individual students may take optional pathways throughout the project, and therefore, may arrive at different, yet equally relevant, answers to the fertile question.

Research skills and strategies are explicitly taught to assist students with their project work. Central projects help students in the middle years to:

• Make connections between personal experiences and what is learnt at school
• Make connections across a range of subject areas
• Develop thinking skills
• Understand themselves better
• Interpret the world in a range of ways similar to those of historians, scientists, and artists.
  

The Night of the Notables event is a significant feature of the Yr 8 Semester 1 central project

Year 9 Program

Year 9 offers opportunities for valuable out-of-classroom learning experiences.  We offer three physical and one virtual experience:

• La Trobe University – students research topical issues with the assistance of academics
• Urban Systems – students learn how Melbourne functions via a city-based experience
• Journey – students plan for and undertake a journey, travelling through a range of Victorian regions and using a variety of modes of transport
• Remote Online Project – students share ideas on issues of common interest with students in schools in distant places via an online environment
  

Each of the out-of-classroom experiences makes a strong connection with the classroom curriculum through the linking themes of Sustainability and Systems.

Academic rigour is maintained throughout the Year 9 program.  Core subject disciplines are studied in form groups.  Languages and arts electives are also available.

Year 9 students will undertake end-of-year examinations in a number of subjects.

Click here to view the 2010 Year 9 Curriculum Handbook

Information Technology

All students have personal notebook computers. These are used across the curriculum in order to enhance learning.

Middle years’ students have access to:

• An extensive, school-wide computer network which includes internet, email and printing capabilities
• A wide range of educational software applications
• Curriculum resources via MyIvanhoe, which is accessible from school and home
• Projection facilities and interactive whiteboards in classrooms
• An extensive library of educational video resources via Clickview.

Extensive use of digital voice recorders, still and video cameras during the Year 9 out-of-classroom activities presents rich opportunities to create multimedia.

The eDiary allows students to manage homework tasks, offering 24-hour access to related resources.