Buckley Park College curriculum is centred around a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum. A Guaranteed and Viable curriculum (GVC) ensures that all students have an equal opportunity to learn. Each student will have access to a highly effective teacher, and access the same content, knowledge and skills in each unit. For further information refer to the Curriculum policy.
The GVC will include:
- Yearly unit outline per subject - what we want ALL students to learn during the unit.
- Proficiency Scales - a set of levelled statements describing the skills and knowledge students need to demonstrate in order to be deemed 'proficient'.
- Pacing Guide - when we expect students will have learnt the content.
- Common Formative Assessment - tools that allow teachers to track level of progress and areas for future development, informing differentiated teaching and learning.
- Common Learning Task - Summative Assessment and associated Rubric.
Our agreed Lesson Structure provides the framework for effective Teaching and Learning. It is embedded across our Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC) and is displayed in every classroom. Our students have come to expect the Lesson Structure and it is the expectation that teachers apply to every class.
Feedback to students is ongoing and occurs throughout each unit to provide students with sufficient opportunity to use the feedback for improving subsequent performance. The style of feedback links to the style of assessment. At Buckley Park College, we use ‘Timely Reporting’.
Timely reporting at Buckley Park College aims to provide grades and feedback to students and parents in an on-going manner. Feedback aims to be concise and provides a comment on the work completed (where the students are currently) and an area of improvement (where they need to get to). Teachers work from the Buckley Park College ‘Timely Reporting Guidelines’ which outlines the approach to Common Learning Tasks.
Letter grades are given for the quality of work on a range of assessment tasks, assessed against specific criteria.
Progress Reports:
Progress reports are completed by teachers every 6 weeks and provide students and parents with a snapshot of progress. It captures the elements of Work Completion, Work Quality and Learning Behaviour
Semester Reports:
Semester reports are provided to families twice a year. The semester reports include an explanation of Common Learning Tasks and a collation of results complied through the Timely reporting process. The semester reports also provides teacher judgements on the progression or learning as defined by the Victorian Curriculum and a summary of Learning behaviours.
In addition to their English class, students will have a class specifically designed to develop essential literacy skills. This subject is intended to enhance students’ ability to interpret and engage with various texts, express their ideas effectively, and master the mechanics of writing.
Students will explore diverse genres and forms, honing their ability to understand and analyse texts. They will develop strategies to identify main ideas, make inferences, and recognise literary devices.
Through analytical and creative approaches, students will practice articulating their interpretations through writing, activities and discussion. Focus is also placed on crafting clear and effective sentences as the basis for all good writing.
Students will develop the skills of activating prior knowledge, questioning, predicting, identifying the main ideas and summarising, synthesising and inferring over the course of Year 7 and 8.
In addition to their Mathematics class, students will have a class specifically designed to develop essential numeracy skills. This subject is intended to enhance students’ ability to apply mathematical thinking to solve problems.
Students will explore problems designed to enhance conceptual understanding and improve reasoning. They will work collaboratively to tackle problems and justify their solutions.
Students will be allocated to the most appropriate numeracy group to suit their point of need. Student groups may change term to term to ensure all students are challenged at their level.