Middle School
The Middle Phase of Learning is seen as a very important phase for students entering the high school world. The goal of the middle phase of learning at Wynnum State High is for students to gain knowledge, skills and understandings needed to make informed decisions for their futures. We believe they will achieve this by:
- Providing a seamless transition of learning engagement from Year 7 to Year 8
- Accepting responsibility for their own learning
- Participating in all learning activities offered to them
- Completing all set tasks, both class work and assignments, to develop their knowledge, skills and understandings
The Queensland school curriculum is designed to assist students to become lifelong learners. The common curriculum operates across years 1–10 in Queensland. The Wynnum State High School Middle School Curriculum is based on an outcomes approach to education and as of Janaury 2008 planning and implementation using the QCARF (Queensland Curriculum Assessment Reporting Framework) Essential Learnings will begin. The key learning areas provide a useful way of categorising outcomes that describe what students should know and be able to do with what they know. The eight key learning areas are:
- English
- Mathematics
- Studies of Society and Environment
- Health and Physical Education
- Technology
- The Arts
- Science
- Languages other than English
The overall learning outcomes of the curriculum contain elements common to all key learning areas and collectively describe the valued attributes of a lifelong learner:
A lifelong learner is:
- A knowledgeable person with deep understanding
- A complex thinker
- A creative person
- An active investigator
- An effective communicator
- A participant in an interdependent world
- A reflective and self-directed learner.
Middle Phase of Learning
The Middle Phase of Learning is seen as a very important phase for students entering the high school world. The goal of the Middle Phase of Learning at Wynnum State High is for students to gain knowledge, skills and understandings needed to make informed decisions for their futures. We believe they will achieve this by
- Providing a seamless transition of learning engagement from Year 7 to Year 8
- Accepting responsibility for their own learning
- Participating in all learning activities offered to them
- Completing all set tasks, both class work and assignments, to develop their knowledge, skills and understandings
Each key learning area is arranged in strands and levels. Most students progress through levels 1 – 6 in ten years of schooling. Usually students coming into Year 8 are demonstrating knowledge and skill outcomes at level 4. In Year 8 and Year 9 students will continue to progress through core learning outcomes at levels 5 and 6.
Syllabuses have been developed for each of the key learning areas. Where required, additional subject area and subject syllabuses have been developed within a key learning area or across a number of key learning areas.
What is the nature of the eight key learning areas?
In the English key learning area students are provided with opportunities to develop confidence and skill in effective language use, enjoy and develop critical understanding of literature, and explore aspects of our cultural heritage. It also plays a key role in contributing to the development and demonstration of basic literacy skills that are fundamental to learning in other key learning areas and that enable students to actively participate in modern society.
In the Health and Physical Education key learning area students are provided with opportunities to develop the knowledge, processes, skills and attitudes necessary to make informed decisions related to promoting the health of individuals and communities, developing concepts and skills for physical activity and enhancing personal development.
In the Languages other than English key learning area students are provided with opportunities to develop knowledge, processes, skills and attitudes that allow them to communicate effectively and appropriately in another language. It also enables them to gain access to societies beyond their own and prepares them for the challenges of participating in a global community. Wynnum State High offers French as our language.
In the Mathematics key learning area students are provided with opportunities to observe and investigate patterns and relationships in the social and physical worlds. Students come to understand that ways of thinking are influenced by mathematics and that mathematics is a universal means of communication about the world.
In the Science key learning area students are provided with opportunities to develop and demonstrate the knowledge, practices and dispositions of working scientifically. They use this knowledge to explain, predict and reconstruct their understandings of the physical and biological worlds. Students come to understand that science as a ‘way of knowing’ recognises the tentative nature of scientific knowledge and the importance of human endeavour in its pursuit.
In the Studies of Society and Environment key learning area students are provided with opportunities to develop and demonstrate knowledge about particular social, cultural, political, legal, economic and environmental relationships that characterise communities at particular times and places. Values, concepts, skills and processes are drawn from disciplines such as history, geography, economics, politics, sociology, anthropology, law, psychology and ethics. The Studies of Society and Environment key learning area centres on human fascination with the way people interact with each other and with their environments. The key learning area also encompasses other cultural studies, and studies in futures, the environment, global and rural issues, peace and gender.
In the Technology key learning area students are provided with opportunities to develop innovative and practical solutions that meet needs, utilise opportunities and extend human capabilities. It engages students in various real-life and lifelike contexts, where they apply their knowledge and understandings of material, information, systems and technology processes to create practical solutions that meet identifiable human needs. Students develop an understanding of technology processes and the ability to apply these across a range of current and future technological fields.
In The Arts key learning area students are provided with opportunities to develop and demonstrate alternative ways of constructing meaning and understanding in the five separate and distinct area of dance, drama, media, music and visual arts. Learning in The Arts involves students in a variety of creative means of expression and communication. They are introduced to the language, techniques, and convention of the arts areas. Through engagement in learning, students develop skills in making, presenting and performing with aesthetic awareness and sensitivity in a range of contexts and for a range of audiences. Through reflection on arts experiences, learners acquire the ability to value, challenge, and evaluate their own work and the work of others. They develop understandings of the social, cultural, historical and economic contexts that shape each arts area. As learners engage in and reflect on arts experiences, they develop their appreciation of culturally shared aesthetic values as well as a personal aesthetic.
