Supporting our students to feel empowered and engaged
The middle years of schooling are crucial in shaping the skills, values, beliefs and character required to successfully navigate the transition to Senior School and beyond.
In Years 7–9, an engaging curriculum is designed to empower, enrich and transform students. Educational experiences provide skills for life, a love of learning, and a strong academic foundation. Students learn ‘how’ to learn, not just ‘what’ to learn, and make practical and authentic connections between their studies and the real world through guided inquiry.
Learning in our Middle School
Caulfield Grammar School is authorised to deliver the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP). The MYP is a framework for how the disciplines and faculties work together to create a consistent language and experience for our students. It guides teaching and learning practices and delivers content specified by the Australian Curriculum, underpinned by a strong focus on Literacy and Numeracy.
Learning Mentor
Each class in Years 7 and 8 is supported by a Learning Mentor. This second qualified teacher works with the student and the subject teacher to ensure the most effective learning is taking place in each class. The Mentor accompanies the students throughout the range of learning experiences across the days and weeks of the year.
IB MYP Subject Groups
The middle years learning program comprises eight subject groups, providing a broad and balanced education for early adolescents. Students engage with big ideas, rather than simply memorising facts.
In an MYP learning space, students draw connections between subject disciplines that are explicitly linked to the world around them, contextualised and driven by each student’s understanding of concepts. MYP learning experiences examine global points of view wherever possible to promote understanding of other cultures, an awareness of the human condition, and an understanding that there is a commonality of human experience.
The Arts
Develops skills through creating, performing and presenting The Arts in ways that engage and convey feelings, experiences and ideas. Students have opportunities to function as artists, as well as learners of The Arts. Across their time in the Middle School, students undertake compulsory studies in Music, Visual Arts and Performing Arts.
Design
Provides students with the opportunity to apply the design cycle as a way of structuring their inquiries. Students apply practical and creative thinking skills to solve design problems and consider their responsibilities when making design decisions and taking action. Exploring the role of design in both historical and contemporary contexts, students focus on product and digital design as well as sustainability.
Individuals and Societies
Encourages learners to respect and understand the world around them and equips them with the necessary skills to inquire into historical, contemporary, geographical, political, social, economic, religious, technological and cultural factors that have an impact on individuals, societies and environments.
Language Acquisition
All Middle School students undertake a compulsory language – French, Chinese or German – from Years 7 to 9. Language is central to the development of critical thinking, which is essential for cultivating intercultural understanding. It is also integral to exploring personal development and cultural identity.
Language and Literature (English)
Enables students to interact with a range of texts, generating insight into moral, social, economic, political, cultural and environmental domains. Students develop their skills in reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and presenting. They continually grow in their abilities to form opinions, make decisions, and reason ethically.
Mathematics
Encompasses number, algebra, geometry and trigonometry, statistics and probability. Students learn how to represent information, to explore and model situations, and to find solutions to familiar and unfamiliar problems.
Physical and Health Education
Empowers students to understand and appreciate the value of being physically active and to develop the motivation for making healthy life choices. Physical and Health Education focuses on learning about, and learning through, physical activity.
Sciences
Students explore Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Earth Sciences, and are encouraged to investigate issues through research, observation and experimentation, working independently and collaboratively. It fosters critical and creative thinking about research and design, as well as the identification of assumptions and alternative explanations.
IB MYP Core
In addition to the IB Learner Profile and the Approaches To Learning (ATL), also at the core of the MYP are:
Global Contexts
Global Contexts direct learning towards independent and shared inquiry into our common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet. Teachers use these Global Contexts to guide exploration in every unit of study.
Service and Action
Engaging in developing an understanding of self, and our responsibilities as a member of a community, through taking action to build on the strengths and to address identified needs in the community.
Year 9 Community Project
Encourages students to find a cause that they are passionate about and take action within the broader community. Students develop and demonstrate a variety of approaches to learning skills. From care packs for cancer patients and stationery drives for ‘Backpacks 4 Vic Kids’ to ‘Donate a Device’ for hospital geriatric wards, this program develops international mindedness and a desire to make a difference in the world.
Year 9 Café Business Program
This unique two-week program gives an insight into running a small business, immersing students in the unique environment of purpose-built commercial café kitchens at Wheelers Hill and Caulfield campuses. Over two weeks our students apply for roles, create a culinary theme and menu for the week, learn profit and loss, food handling and hygiene, and then open the café to the School community to practice what they have learned.
Our Approach to Teaching & Learning
The MYP emphasises learning to learn. Teachers develop curriculum units so that they directly help students develop transferable Approaches To Learning (ATL) skills that will prepare them to perform well in a range of situations. When teachers plan units of work, they identify the specific skills that students will be taught and have the opportunity to practice in that unit, develop these skills to help them meet the subject group objectives important in that unit and beyond.
In the Middle School there is a strong emphasis on holistic educational experiences that develop students socially and emotionally. The curriculum offering focuses on engaging students with real world issues and through inquiry and problem solving they work together to build solutions which have benefit to society. It is an academically rigorous learning program preparing students for transition into the senior school and the VCE program to follow.
Read more about our integrated approach to the Secondary Learning Program.
Co-Curricular Experiences
Our co-curricular programs and experiences inspire and engage all Middle Years students to find their pathway through exploration of Sport, The Arts, cultural immersion and experiential learning. No matter your child’s passions and strengths, they will be supported to explore and find success, joy and fulfilment at school.
Middle School Sport
Our Middle Years Sport program is largely based around APS Competition Sport. While developing technical abilities and game-sense, the opportunity to represent Caulfield Grammar School at regular weekend APS fixtures creates a sense of pride and community.
There are also opportunities for students to participate in House sports, sports camps and tours in Australia and internationally, as well as experience a range of sports such as Human Powered Racing, Fencing, Golf and Snow Sports.
The Arts
Drawing on a variety of specialist talent and resources from each of our campuses, Caulfield Grammar School offers a broad and inclusive range of Middle School creative Arts experiences accommodated in our exceptional Creative & Performing Arts Centres.
Yarra Junction Education Outdoors
As part of the Education Outdoors program at our Yarra Junction Campus, Year 7 students are challenged to explore and appreciate the natural world and their effects on the environment during a 5-day camp. In Year 8, this program is extended to 11 days. Students are involved in a number of challenging, fun and adventurous activities such as tyre tubing, bike riding, canoeing, caving and bushwalking.
Kakadu Year 9 Program
Our Kakadu Year 9 Program is an immersive outdoor learning experience in the Northern Territory. Students learn first-hand about living in a remote community from the local people – cultural exchanges include Indigenous languages, arts and crafts, and ways of living and surviving on Country. This unique 24-day program provides students with a variety of environments and settings to take responsibility for their own learning and self-management. Students have the opportunity to explore the stories, culture, histories and peoples within a range of communities in the Northern Territory.
Middle School Life
