Middle School is a dynamic experience that supports student growth and responds to the well-researched developmental needs of our cohort.
Middle School at Brindabella Christian College covers Year 5 through to Year 8 and aims to achieve a developmentally responsive, challenging, exploratory, and equitable environment in which all students can immerse themselves in academic rigour, while developing positive relationships and personal responsibility to discover and engage with their Kingdom calling. We employ inspired educators, who are passionate about the Middle School years and understand the important role they play in students’ development academically, socially and spiritually.
Academic Rigour:
In Year 5 and 6, students continue to engage with the ACARA subjects of English, Mathematics, Science, Humanities and Social Science, Creative and Performing Arts, Digital and Design technologies, Languages (Mandarin) and Health and Physical Education. Our dedicated and caring pastoral teaching team alongside specialist teachers engage with our students allowing them to transition from the Junior School model of one teacher per class to multiple teachers. Through our online learning management, Schoolbox, students engage with their studies while continuing to develop their understanding and skills for formal digital and non-digital assessments. The subject of Biblical Living is formalised and considers the developmental changes experienced by our pre-teen students through the CSA framework of God’s Big Story.
The Year 7 program purposefully introduces students to a core teacher model where a pastoral teacher also teaches the subjects of HASS, English and Biblical Living maintaining our caring approach to building confidence and comfortability for students to what is traditionally a year of significant change in school structure. A variety of specialist teachers engage with students for the remaining subjects to promote academic rigour. Year 7 students spend the majority of their time in a ‘home base’ classroom and move around the school for practical subjects.
Year 8 students enter a more Senior School style of learning, with specialist teachers and multiple class structures across learning disciplines. The focus of Year 8 is to solidify the skills of learning and develop a deeper understanding of concepts to prepare for subject selection and career pathways in Senior School.
Middle School curriculum is based on the Australian Curriculum ACARA with these taught from a biblical, Christian worldview. Units of work engage with our Developing Powerful Learners framework allowing core foundational understandings and skills to be consolidated and applied across contexts into Senior School and beyond.
Positive Relationships:
Throughout Middle School (ages 10-14) students undergo a recognised and well-researched developmental leap. This personal development forms a basis of the Middle School approach. Students in this age group are forming their own identity and beginning to find their place in the world. This includes a joy for elements of academic, social and physical activities. As students navigate this stage of development, Brindabella Christian College engages a program titled, ‘PeaceWise’, aimed at supporting students to manage friendships, personal development and conflict.
Engagement with external agencies to support the understanding of puberty, online safety and personal development is a key part of students forming positive relationships with their peers.
Personal Responsibility:
As students move through the Middle School journey, the focus on personal responsibility forms our third focus. Alongside students’ academic learning, our program embeds organisational skills through building routines for lesson preparation, homework, study skills and work ethic. This extends to the use of lockers to assist with organisation, uniform and behaviour expectations. Students in Year 5 have their own device for the first time at Brindabella Chrisitan College and engage with the responsibilities that come with managing their online presence.
Extending from the three key elements of academic rigour, positive relationships and personal responsibility, we believe that every person has a God given purpose and can add value to culture, society and the workplace in their lifetime. Throughout the learning journey in Middle School students are encouraged to engage with, and explore their skillsets and passions through extra curricular opportunities, camps and school wide events. Students are also presented with opportunities to develop leadership skills through Middle School Council and various lunchtime and after school clubs and teams.
The Middle School curriculum is based on the Australian Curriculum and Learning Standards and taught from a biblical, Christian worldview.