Middle School
Years 7-9 students have an increased awareness of their place in the world and we enhance this understanding through a variety of subject choices to align with our students’ interests and passions. Our semesterised MPI subjects continue to be offered and by the time students are in Year 9 they can choose a broader range of subjects to study over the next two years. Acceleration for our talented students is encouraged so that students are able to strive for academic excellence in a supportive environment. Small class sizes mean that students are able to reach their potential no matter their level of ability.
Through a clear pathway to developing responsibility and leadership, our students can prepare for their future by building resilience and independence. A program of work experience creates not only experience in the workplace but also opportunities to develop relationships with businesses that support our Internship program. Being a member of the Coffs Clarence Independent Schools Careers Hub (CCISCH) enable us to extend our reach to businesses outside our beautiful Clarence Valley to provide a wider range of opportunities for our students.
The Math Pathways program continues to support students through an individualised program, allowing students to develop mathematical skills at their own pace and providing an accelerated program for those students who have a passionate understanding of Mathematics.
What Is Maths Pathway?
Maths Pathway is a Learning and Teaching Model that is tailored to cater for individual learning needs. It combines a range of evidence-based teaching methods and classroom practices with an online learning environment that supports teachers to provide personalised learning for each student and implement high-impact teaching strategies.
This includes developing their problem solving, independent learning, and group work skills, and helping students develop a growth mindset towards their mathematics learning.
The model combines whole class, small group and individual learning.
Students begin by completing a diagnostic assessment that provides data on each student. This data forms a learning profile detailing what each student has mastered, what they are ready to learn next and what gaps exist. Students will then spend time in class individually working on curriculum mapped content that’s just right for them. These are called modules. Students are then regularly tested on the modules that they have completed.Students will be given feedback about their effort, accuracy and growth. Effort reflects the number of modules a student actually completes against the number of modules the teacher assigned to them. Accuracy is a measure of how many modules your child masters on the test compared to how many modules they completed. Growth combines the effort and accuracy shows the rate that the student is mastering new modules.
In the above example, the wide range of levels creates an extremely challenging situation in the classroom. Maths Pathway enables teachers to personalise the learning experience for every student in the classroom. Students access the content they are ready for based on their diagnosed level. Teachers are able to support student learning through targeted instruction, challenging high achieving students to excel while supporting students at and below the level to continuously grow.
The average classroom has an eight year spread of ability. Maths Pathway gives students the curriculum mapped content they are ready to learn. This ensures students are being challenged enough to remain engaged but given plenty of opportunity to experience success.
Targeted explicit teaching will often be with smaller groups of students who are ready to work on the same concept. These small group lessons involve hands-on materials, discussion, development of vocabulary and collaboration. Teachers have closer contact with students in a small group and gain greater insight into their learning compared with teaching the whole class at the same time. Students are able to gain a deeper understanding of the maths they learn when it is targeted to their point of need.
Hear what other Maths teachers say about Maths Pathway.