The Curriculum - general

The curriculum is designed to enable students to experience a wide range of educational experiences. It involves all the arrangements the College makes for the students' learning and development.

The proclamation of the Gospel is the raison d'etre of the College.

Our aim is to lead students to a knowledge of God and of the Church as a community of believers by nurturing faith. (cf earlier comment under school organization and curriculum).

Subjects must be taught by their own particular methods. However, their aim is not merely the attainment of knowledge and skills (although this is important), but also the acquisition of values and the discovery of truth.

Our standards need to be fair, demanding and thought provoking. Achieving excellence is largely a question of attitude. Students should be encouraged to give of their best at all times.

Both for behaviour and work, it is our responsibility to set standards - standards that while reasonable and demanding, are challenging. It is not unreasonable to ask students to repeat work that is not up to standard.

In order to allow all students to reach their full potential, provision is made within the curriculum for students who have special educational needs.

The Curriculum - in detail

YEAR 7 LEVEL

Students study the following subjects:

Religious Education Mathematics

Art Music

English Physical Education

Geography Science

Graphics Sport

History

Year 7 camp - all students will attend an orientation camp in February.

Satisfactory completion of Year 7

To satisfactorily complete Year 7, students must obtain a grade of "D", or better, in two units of R.E., English and Maths, and nine other units in each semester. Where a student fails to attain these grades, promotion to the following level is unlikely.

YEAR 8 LEVEL

Students study the following subjects:

Religious Education Metalwork

Art Music

English Physical Education

Geography Science

Graphics Sport

History Woodwork

Maths

Year 8 Camp : a camp introducing students to outdoor educational experience will be held in the fourth term.

Satisfactory completion of Year 8

To satisfactorily complete Year 8, students must obtain a grade of "D", or better, in two units of R.E., English and maths, and in eleven other units in each semester. Where a student fails to attain these grades, promotion to the following level is unlikely.

A system of compulsory subjects and electives operates at the Middle School.

YEAR 9

All students undertake studies in the following subjects:

Religious Education Maths

English Physical Education

Geography Science

History Sport

Information Technology

Students will also undertake five of the following subjects over two semesters:

Art Metalwork

Electronics Music

Graphics Woodwork

Italian

Satisfactory completion of Year 9

To satisfactorily complete Year 9, students must obtain a grade of "D", or better, in two units of R.E., English and Maths, plus two other compulsory units and two elective units each semester. Where students fail to attain these grades, promotion to the following level is unlikely.

Outward Bound

This programme is a compulsory part of the Year 9 curriculum.

Outward Bound Schools' Programmes are designed to meet the growing need for today's young people to come into contact with learning experiences that encourage the development of a sense of responsibility, extend the limits of their personal understandings and increase their knowledge of their physical and social environment.

YEAR 10

Semester 1

TERM 1 TERM 2

Subjects Periods Subjects Periods

per week per week

Religious Education 3 Religious Education 3

English 4 English 4

Mathematics 5 Mathematics 5

Science 4 Science 4

History or Geography 4 History or Geography 4

Commerce 3 Commerce 3

Community Service 2 English Literature 2

Media Studies 2 Health Studies 2

Sport 2 Sport 2

Students will also have a choice of TWO of the following each term (3 periods each):

Art Graphics Electronics Information Technology Woodwork Metalwork

Music Italian Building Studies Physical Education

Italian and Music would normally be taken in both terms.

Semester 2

Second semester is treated as a whole and provides students with a greater degree of choice. All students will study the following:

Religious Education English Mathematics

In addition, students will select five other subjects as follows: at least one, but not more than two, from Group A; at least one from Group B and three others, which may or may not, include subjects from Group C. The range of units may include:

Details will be finalised following discussion with student and after they have had time to consider their choices. This will be in term one of Year 10.

** Exams: Each semester unit will finish with a 1.5 hour exam at the end of the semester.

Satisfactory completion of Year 10

To satisfactorily complete Year 10, a student must:

Semester 1:

(a) Obtain a grade of "D" or better in:

Religious Education

English

Mathematics or Science

plus TWO Semester units

(b) Satisfactorily complete five term units.

Semester 2:

(a) Obtain a grade of "D" or better in:

Religious Education

English

Mathematics or Science

Plus FOUR other units.

V.C.E.

All Year 11 and 12 subjects are conducted under auspices of V.B.O.S. - Victorian Board of Studies.

From 1994, a student's two year programme must include:

(a) Four units of English

(b) At least four units of study drawn from the Arts/Humanities groupings.

(c) At least four units of study drawn from the Maths/Science technology groupings.

To be awarded the Victorian Certificate of Education, students must satisfactorily complete sixteen units of study including:

(a) at least three units of English

(b) at least three sequences of semester 3 and 4 level units of studies other than English

Each unit of study has work requirements which are set out by V.B.O.S. These are descriptions of the work and activities that must be completed in order to gain a satisfactory completion for the unit.

At units 3 and 4, as well as meeting the work requirements, students will be required to undertake C.A.Ts - Common Assessment Tasks (eg, as common project or a common test on some aspect of the study).

These will be graded A-E according to the V.B.O.S. specified criteria and will form the basis for tertiary selection.

Subject Selection

All students are required to study a Religious Education Unit and English. Students are required to select a further four subjects in addition to Religious Education and English.

Subject Restrictions

Chemistry and Physics cannot be taken without a Mathematics.

Not all subjects will be freely available. Timetable constraints may mean that students will have to make a choice between subjects. The availability of subjects will also be dependent upon number wishing to study that subject.

Tertiary Entrance Requirements

Entrance into Tertiary Institutions is dependent upon results obtained in V.C.E. A student's score is arrived at by adding the four best marks together and 10% of the marks achieved in the fifth subject, providing more than 40% has been attained in that subject.

Some tertiary courses also have pre-requisite subjects. That means you must obtain a grade of "D", or better, in the pre-requisite subjects before you are considered for a place in that course. Generally, however, pre-requisites are required only in the Science areas and most other courses do not require you to study particular subjects in V.C.E.

It is important to remember that the higher your overall score, the better your chances of gaining a place. Therefore, it is important to choose subjects that will maximise your total scores.

V.C.E. Subjects

GROUP A SUBJECTS

Accounting 2 L.O.T.E. Italian 1

Accounting 2 L.O.T.E. Italian 2

Accounting 3 L.O.T.E. Italian 3

Accounting 4 L.O.T.E. Italian 4

Business Management 1 (A variety of languages are

Business Management 2 offered by correspondence

Business Management 3 through Vic. School of Language

Business Management 4 as well as Distance Language

Economics 1 Centre)

Economics 2 Media 1

Economics 3 Media 2

Economics 4 Music Craft 1

English (E.S.L.) 3 Music Craft 2

English (E.S.L.) 4 Music Craft - Solo Performance 3

English 1 Music Craft - Solo Performance 4

English 2 Physical Education 1

English 3 Physical Education 2

English 4 Physical Education 3

Geography 1 Physical Education 4

Geography 2 Political Studies 1

Geography 3 Political Studies 2

Geography 4 Political Studies 3

Geography 5 Political Studies 4

Graphic Communication 1 Studio Arts 1

Graphic Communication 2 Studio Arts 2

Graphic Communication 3 Studio Arts 3

Graphic Communication 4 Studio Arts 4

History: 20th Century (1900-1945) 1

History: 20th Century (Post 1945) 2

History: Australian 3

History: Australian 4

History: Revolutions 3

History: Revolutions 4

Legal Studies 1

Legal Studies 2

Legal Studies 3

Legal Studies 4

GROUP B SUBJECTS

Biology 1 Maths: Methods 1

Biology 2 Maths: Methods 2

Biology 3 Maths: Methods 3

Biology 4 Maths: Methods 4

Chemistry 1 Maths: Specialist 3

Chemistry 2 Maths: Specialist 4

Chemistry 3 Physics 1

Chemistry 4 Physics 2

Information Technology 1 Physics 3

Information Technology 2 Physics 4

Information Processing & Management 3 Science 1

Information Processing & Management 4 Science 2

Literature 3 Science 3

Literature 4 Science 4

Materials & Technology 1 Systems & Technology 1

Materials & Technology 2 Systems & Technology 2

Materials & Technology 3 Systems & Technology 3

Materials & Technology 4 Systems & Technology 4

Maths: Business Maths 1 Technology, Design & Development 1

Maths: Business Maths 2 Technology, Design & Development 2

Maths: General Maths 1 Technology, Design & Development 3

Maths: General Maths 2 Technology, Design & Development 4

Maths: Further Maths 3

Maths: Further Maths 4