Middle School
Introduction
The Middle Schooling Program at The Cathedral School represents an exciting and challenging opportunity for students, staff, the school, and wider community to deal more effectively with a broad range of issues confronting young adolescents in a dynamic and evolving modern world. While these issues are not necessarily new, traditionally, they have been addressed independently of one another and as a result the solutions and programs offered have been less effective.
Background to Middle Schooling
There is strong evidence that adolescence can be a traumatic time in a student’s life. Other than infancy, no stage of development squeezes more physical, social, intellectual and emotional development into so short a period of time as adolescence. In a mere span of three years or so, rapid physical changes can create significant discomfort and awkwardness; periods of fatigue are followed by sudden bursts of energy; and attitudes of indifference can give way to extreme sensitivity.
Social and cultural structures and understandings are rapidly changing and all members of society need to possess the skills to effectively handle and manage this process. The rate of change of our understanding of our world is accelerated by technological change. In the past, society has referred to the ‘generation gaps’ (the difference between the societies that children of today grow up in when compared to their parents). This rate of change has now reached a point where ‘generation gaps’ can now exist between siblings who differ in age by as much as five or six years.
Traditionally there have been distinct changes in educational philosophy and even pedagogy at the transitional stages of schooling, 7 into 8 and 10 into 11. Students can have considerable difficulty adjusting to these changes and as a result their learning may be severely affected. Schools develop strategies to deal with these transitional gaps which tend to be static and based upon more traditional ideas about schooling, thus they do not fully reflect the changing nature of the students they try to accommodate. As a consequence the issue of transitional gaps needs to be constantly readdressed.
When either of these gaps are not effectively dealt with students are more easily disengaged from learning. Research has shown the number of students at risk of disengaging is increasing as these gaps become greater. More and more students bring knowledge with them into the classroom that has been learned from outside sources. Schools have not recognised or valued this as much as they should, they have focussed too heavily on repeating the same knowledge at a stage when students may have already acquired it or are not ready for it. While modern society still values possession of knowledge, the more successful individuals are those who can acquire, manage and use it.
Research has also given us a much greater insight into the physiological changes that occur during adolescence. It has clearly identified significant differences in functioning and performance due to changes in how the brain operates and the changes to hormonal levels brought about by the onset of puberty. Schools have not possessed this knowledge in the past and have designed their curricula in a ‘cope and hope’ manner.
Middle Schooling at The Cathedral School
The middle years of schooling are likely to be more effective when they are based on a shared philosophy of fundamental values and beliefs. These years constitute a stage of education during which young adolescents can explore themselves and the world in which they live, in a context of ‘high expectations’. Middle Schooling should be founded on a commitment to advance the learning capacity of all students and the achievement of outcomes that are meaningful and beneficial to the student. At the same time, there is a need to provide opportunities and understanding that encourage active and responsible citizenship.
The curriculum of the Middle School at Cathedral is therefore constructed around a synthesis of effective middle schooling practices from the literature and school projects conducted throughout Australia and internationally. The practices have been grouped under the values underpinning middle schooling and are listed on the table below. These represent the starting point for all curriculum decision making and implementation.
The Essential Components of Middle Schooling
Learner-centred
Coherent curriculum is focused on the identified needs, interests and concerns of students, and with an emphasis on self-directed and co-constructed learning.
Collaboratively organised
Powerful pedagogy is employed by teams of teachers who know and understand their students very well, and who challenge and extend them in supportive environments.
Outcomes-based
Progress and achievement are recorded continuously in relation to explicit statements of what each student is expected to know and be able to do.
Flexibly constructed
Arrangements are responsive to local needs and circumstances, and reflect creative uses of time, space and other resources.
Ethically aware
Justice, care, respect and a concern for the needs of others are reflected in everyday practice of students, teachers and administrators.
Community-oriented
Parents, together with representatives from a diverse range of groups, institutions and organisations beyond the school, are involved in productive partnerships.
Adequately resourced
Experienced teachers and support staff, supported by ongoing professional development, high quality facilities, technology, equipment and materials, constitute essential requirements.
Strategically linked
A discrete phase of schooling is implemented as a stage within the Prep to Year 12 continuum and connected to the early and senior years.
The CathedralSchool’s Middle Schooling program is being implemented by an energetic and dedicated staff who are already making significant inroads in dealing with the issues confronting adolescents and their learning. Our past successes are being built upon and enhanced as we prepare our students for life in the 21st century.
