Within and in addition to the academic curriculum, whenever possible, students at St Aidan’s have the opportunity for enrichment and extension. St Aidan’s offers to specific students the opportunity for ‘acceleration’ and ‘enrichment’ as two very important arms of the Enrichment Program.
Acceleration
St Aidan’s has a policy of using acceleration in the Senior School as one of its strategies to assist students with particular talents and abilities to move through the academic curriculum. This form of acceleration moves students out of learning groups composed of their age-peers, placing them with students who are older. The strength of this form of acceleration is that it is subject-based, allowing students to maintain ties with same age peers while forging ahead in particular academic areas.
The purpose of subject based acecleration is that it facilitates learning for highly able students. These students have the opportunity to be exposed to the appropriate level of academic challenge. Limiting acceleration to subject areas, rather than whole grades, can take into account the fact that a student may not be ‘above their peers’ in all subjects: for example, they may be particularly advanced in their mathematical knowledge, but not in English.
This form of acceleration does not bring major changes to students’ lives and, in a sense, provides the best of both worlds for the able student. Students will continue to develop amongst their peers, who mirror their own levels of physical, emotional, and social development, and there is little disruption to patterns of experience and rites of passage that typically characterise those of the same biological age. In addition to this, subject area acceleration acknowledges intellectual readiness in a particular subject like a language or science and is a flexible approach to catering for the learner with particular talents.
Acceleration occurs in a variety of subject areas, but mainly in the areas of Lanuages (Chinese, French, German, and Japanese), Graphics, Music, Mathematics, and the Sciences.
In all Languages, for example, a student may be accelerated if they demonstrate a higher level of proficiency than is expected at her current level. This usually happens in Year 8 (when joining a Year 9 class), where they may have had prior learning and have already covered all parts of the Year 8 curriculum. It may also happen when a student demonstrates that she is progressing at a pace much faster than the rest of the year level. If the student continues with her Language into the Senior years, she effectively graduates from the Year 12 Language course at the end of Year 11. This then opens up opportunities for the student to enrol in another subject (such as an extension subject) or enrol in a university subject.
High achieving students have the opportunity to complete university study while still in their Senior years at school. This is not only limited to the Languages. St Aidan’s students have enrolled in University Accounting, Chemistry, and Mathematics.
In Years 11 and 12, the Queensland Studies Authority (QSA) subjects - Music Extension, German Extension, and English Extension - are offered. The English faculty also offers an Extension English subject to Year 10 students and the Sciences faculty offers elective Science units in Years 9 and 10.
Enrichment
In addition to the modification of student tasks that can occur by classroom teachers in a range of subjects, St Aidan’s has developed its own Enrichment Program for students in Years 4 to 9. At present, students in Years 4 to 9 are being withdrawn from classes to work with a teacher facilitator on a special program designed to further develop students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
This Enrichment Program offers an opportunity for students to experience aspects of the curriculum in more depth and to challenge or accelerate their learning. This initiative is designed to better meet the needs of our high
performing and able students through a form of curriculum differentiation. The aim of this targeted Enrichment Program is to provide specifically for the needs of academically able students, by offering an enrichment experience which challenges the students to think critically, solve problems and further develop their abilities and interests. The driving force of the Enrichment Program is the idea of negotiation, self management, and evaluation. In some subjects, such as Years 8 and 9 English, and Years 8 and 9 Science, students develop their own individual and group projects in consultation with their designated mentor. This program aims to allow the students to work independently on a project that fosters their own interests and, with the support of a mentor, encourages them to develop an increased control of their own learning.
In Mathematics in Years 6 to 9, students in the top 10% of the cohort in Mathematics are invited to participate in a range of activities and competitions. These activities involve challenging problem solving and an introduction to Senior Mathematics concepts. In Year 9, the students have a weekly lesson with the Enrichment Support teacher who acts as a facilitator.
In the Junior School, teachers work collaboratively across year levels to
provide a small group Enrichment Program. The focus of these small groups is multi-age, cross-grade student participation in open-ended investigations of student interests.
Students across the school, and within a wide range of subjects, are offered the opportunity to participate in a variety of competitions, Opti-minds and Days of Excellence which are promoted as enrichment activities. Real-life experiences through the effective use of excursions, field trips, guest speakers, workshop participation, university visits, tours, participation in community action and fundraising ventures, and artist-in-residence programs add to the variety of the Enrichment Program at St Aidan’s.
The variety of enrichment activities across a diverse range of subjects indicates St Aidan’s commitment to enrichment and to the needs of academically able students.