Curriculum

Learning & Wellbeing

Truganina College places its learners at the centre of all that we do. The college caters for the educational and personal needs of each learner by providing an environment that inspires learning, provides individualised learning approaches, promotes positive relationships, security, a sense of belonging and a culture of respect and pride.

At Truganina College effective 21st century style approaches are used across all curriculum areas, with a specific focus of literacy and numeracy. Truganina College provides high quality programs ensuring breadth and depth in all curriculum areas. Staff cater to the individual learning needs of all students.

The school has a culture of high expectations and focuses on strong learning growth for every student.

The design of learning environments reflects the specific requirements of all disciplines and supports a diverse range of active, student centred approaches that are based around the idea of ‘learning to learn’, emphasising such cross-disciplinary skills as critical thinking, problem solving, communication, creativity and team work whilst using information technology to support the learning. The College has high quality teaching, best practice and the development of learning programs that are developmentally age, stage and ability appropriate. The programs enable collaborative interaction between students of different ages, genders and backgrounds.

Improved connections between spaces provide opportunities for collaboration between staff and the strategic observation of staff members in action. It also facilitates teamwork and the important work of professional learning teams.

The learning environment allows students to make decisions about their learning. Great learning environments create these opportunities by making learners responsible for their choices and empowering them with the spaces and options that can make those choices work. Student input into decision-making continues to occur.

Truganina College engages in partnerships, which support the learning and wellbeing needs of students at different developmental stages and the needs of families. Partnerships will involve maternal health centres, kindergartens, local schools, and tertiary providers. The school aims to build strong links with the community. The learning process is a joint effort between the school and the families. The language of learning is used in all interactions with the community.

What does effective 21st century learning look like?

  • Learning from each other
  • Explicit teaching
  • Sharing
  • Thinking about thinking and using a variety of thinking strategies
  • Reflections
  • A variety of learning styles and preferences
  • Asking questions
  • Developing individualised learning goals
  • Giving, receiving and acting on feedback
  • Developing responsibility
  • Using technology as a tool for learning
  • Developing solutions
  • Assessment
  • Great results
  • Exciting, engaging, and empowering

Curriculum Overviews

Term 1 2023

Foundation – Year 9 English Overview

2023 T2 F 9 English Overviews

Foundation – Year 9 Maths Overview

2023 T2 F 4 Maths Overviews

2023 T2 5 9 Maths Overviews

Foundation – Year 9 Humanities Overview

2023 T2 F 9 Humanities Overview

 

2023 Overviews

Health & Physical Education Overview

2023 F 9 Health & Physical Education Overviews

Year 7 – Year 9 Science Overview

2023 7 9 Science Overview

Year 7 – 9 Food Technology Overview

2023 7 9 Food Technology Overview

Foundation – Year 9 Spanish Overview

2023 F 9 Spanish Overview

Foundation – Year 6 STEM Overview

2023 F 6 STEM Overview

Year 6 – 9  Music Overview

2023 6 9 Music Overview

Foundation – Year 9  Visual Arts Overview

2023 F 9 Visual Art Overview

Art

Visual Art classes allow students to make and create artworks that are often linked to their Humanities Inquiry or their foci in English. Students are able to generate ideas for artworks through research into a particular topic, artist or art technique. Students use a variety of materials and have the opportunity to explore a range of different techniques to produce both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional art pieces.

Students are encouraged to explore and respond to art, by expressing their opinions about how effective their technique was to produce a piece of art, what challenges they faced completing the task and how they believe they could improve their artwork in the future. Students also critically evaluate other artists’ work and discuss its specific purpose and to what kind of audience it would appeal.

Some of the artwork that students have produced so far this year include a symmetrical sketch of themselves, research into their culture and the production of an artwork that best represents their culture and research into ancient Egyptian art and producing art pieces based on the research.

Technology

Technology enables students to explore present and future needs and design solutions to meet these needs. Students conduct research into the topic, make a design brief with the equipment that will be needed to produce their design and then make a product that they will then test and evaluate as to its success. Students can then make changes to their product to improve its suitability and ‘fine-tune’ their design. An example that the students at Truganina College have worked on is the research into a new school playground. Students had to research different types of playgrounds, look at suitable locations for the playground around the school, check for safety requirements and then develop a design brief to then produce a model of their proposed playground from basic materials. Students then evaluated and reflected upon their models and whether they were happy with the end product.

Technology also involves eLearning technologies, where students learn to manipulate and communicate using digital media. Students create and adapt design ideas and make considered decisions about communicating to an audience. At Truganina College, students have been involved in planning and developing a Claymation character and storyboard that was then used to make a short Claymation movie using the Stop Motion app on their iPads.

Music

The Year 7 Music program aims to provide students with materials, resources and activities that will encourage intellectual curiosity. Students will build the basis for a solid understanding of musical elements and theory concepts. They will demonstrate their skill and knowledge through practical work including vocal, percussive and ukulele performance, as well as composition and production tasks. Students are taught that all opinions are valuable and are encouraged to contribute through shared praxis.

Students will develop a skillset which will establish success for future music studies, and directly addresses the teleological scaffolding leading to VCE and beyond.

Spanish

In Spanish, students participate in various activities including role play, art, singing and focused Spanish vocabulary. Students have opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding through these activities. Year 7 students are able to explore and express their interest of Spanish culture.

Secondary Level Learning

Learning at the secondary level shares many of the features of the learning in place across the whole College. We continue to ensure that all learning is visible in classrooms and place an emphasis on the development of literacy in all subject areas. As with the primary levels, students are expected to complete homework each week and read for an hour every night.

At Year 7, students will no longer have one teacher responsible for their learning. Instead students learn from different teachers that are experts in their subject area. With this transition also comes an expectation that students become more independent in their learning. Students can expect homework from each of their subject areas and are expected to use their school planners to record these tasks.

Students at the secondary are offered the following subjects;

English

In English there is a focus on developing and extending Reading Comprehension skills. During Term 1 students studied and produced persuasive texts. Term 2 is focused on Reading and Creating. Students are studying the text ‘Tales from Outer Suburbia’ by Shaun Tan and applying his stylistic features in their own writing.

Mathematics

The structure of Maths classes at this level includes a starter activity, followed by explicit teaching and then an extended time to practice specific skills and carry out Mathematical investigations. Students can expect to develop the skills that will prepare them for senior Mathematics courses. An emphasis is also placed on developing critical thinking skills by integrating open ended tasks and investigations into the curriculum.

Students are expected to purchase the textbook; ‘Essential Mathematics for the Australian Curriculum-Gold’ published by Cambridge, through the school.

Humanities

During Term 1 the focus in Humanities was on Geography. In this unit, students developed basic Geography skills, such as mapping and collecting data. Students observed their local area and wrote a report based upon their observations and data collection.

Term 2 is focused on History – Investigating the Ancient World. Students are developing basic Historical Thinking Skills such as the ability to critically analyse a source.

Science

Science is all around us and at Truganina College; we look to fuel student’s curiosity about the world around them. Prompting an evidence based way of answering questions.

Students will become familiar with four different areas of Science covering Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth and Space.

With our new building including laboratories, there we will have a greater emphasis on experimentation.

Learning activities in Year 7 include; developing classification systems, testing and designing simple machines, investigating the properties of rocks, carrying out chemical reactions and investigating separation techniques.

Health and Physical Education

At Truganina College we are committed to encouraging students to remain active throughout their secondary school years. Students will experience a range of sports and activities to further develop their motor skills. This will include developing a greater knowledge of sports such as soccer, basketball, netball and more.

Students will also have an opportunity to explore topics such as fitness, nutrition, mental health and more during theory lessons.

We are also continuing to develop our presence in interschool sport competitions.

Art

Visual Art classes allow students to make and create artworks that are often linked to their Humanities Inquiry or their foci in English. Students are able to generate ideas for artworks through research into a particular topic, artist or art technique. Students use a variety of materials and have the opportunity to explore a range of different techniques to produce both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional art pieces.

Students are encouraged to explore and respond to art, by expressing their opinions about how effective their technique was to produce a piece of art, what challenges they faced completing the task and how they believe they could improve their artwork in the future. Students also critically evaluate other artists’ work and discuss its specific purpose and to what kind of audience it would appeal.

Some of the artwork that students have produced so far this year include a symmetrical sketch of themselves, research into their culture and the production of an artwork that best represents their culture and research into ancient Egyptian art and producing art pieces based on the research.

Technology

Technology enables students to explore present and future needs and design solutions to meet these needs. Students conduct research into the topic, make a design brief with the equipment that will be needed to produce their design and then make a product that they will then test and evaluate as to its success. Students can then make changes to their product to improve its suitability and ‘fine-tune’ their design. An example that the students at Truganina College have worked on is the research into a new school playground. Students had to research different types of playgrounds, look at suitable locations for the playground around the school, check for safety requirements and then develop a design brief to then produce a model of their proposed playground from basic materials. Students then evaluated and reflected upon their models and whether they were happy with the end product.

Technology also involves eLearning technologies, where students learn to manipulate and communicate using digital media. Students create and adapt design ideas and make considered decisions about communicating to an audience. At Truganina College, students have been involved in planning and developing a Claymation character and storyboard that was then used to make a short Claymation movie using the Stop Motion app on their iPads.

Music

The Year 7 Music program aims to provide students with materials, resources and activities that will encourage intellectual curiosity. Students will build the basis for a solid understanding of musical elements and theory concepts. They will demonstrate their skill and knowledge through practical work including vocal, percussive and ukulele performance, as well as composition and production tasks. Students are taught that all opinions are valuable and are encouraged to contribute through shared praxis.

Students will develop a skillset which will establish success for future music studies, and directly addresses the teleological scaffolding leading to VCE and beyond.

Spanish

In Spanish, students participate in various activities including role play, art, singing and focused Spanish vocabulary. Students have opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding through these activities. Year 7 students are able to explore and express their interest of Spanish culture.

Drama

In Drama students are working to create a cohesive ensemble and establish a safe drama space. Students are learning about the Elements of Drama, with a particular focus on the elements of Mime in Term 1 and Improvisation in Term 2.

In addition to these subjects, students are also given opportunities to develop the personal and interpersonal learning in Library sessions each week.

21st Century Learning

Truganina College is a one-to-one Apple iPad school. There is an expectation that all students have a personal iPad that is brought to school each day as students need to be able to fully access all of the ICT available at Truganina College. Student

iPads need to have a minimum requirement of iOS 7 (at least an Apple iPad 2).

iPads are an excellent tool for supporting the 21st Century Learning skills of Creativity, Critical thinking, Communication and Collaboration – know as the 4 Cs.

Please see below a current list of the iPad apps that students are expected to have downloaded on their iPad to make use of in class.

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