Curriculum+and+Rationale

= Apocrypha Secondary College Curriculum = = =
 * Preface: ** High School Apocrypha recognises that students learn in a variety of ways that do not necessarily correlate to traditional subject divisions. We understand how students learn best and have accordingly implemented a curriculum that is based around the concept of Key Knowledge Areas. This curriculum program is run from year 7-10. Year 11 and 12 follow the VCE or VCAL program more closely, however the school's philosophy rings true throughout these years.


 * Year 7 - 10:**

We have identified nine key knowledge areas that we believe cover all the major elements essential to a well rounded education for our students. These areas are; scientific, mathematical, socio-cultural, moral/ philosophical, artistic/aesthetic, linguistic, technological and physical. Each key knowledge area is compromised of a core of essential ideas and skills that are surrounded by a periphery of related concepts and competencies that connect with the other knowledge areas. The delivery of content in each knowledge area is designed to develop appreciation and understanding of the core ideas and familiarity and proficiency with the core abilities. This is achieved by adopting an approach that is focused on connections. Connections between students and their areas of study and connections between knowledge areas combine to produce an integrated web of understanding that equips students.
 * Key Knowledge Areas: (KKA’s) **


 * KKA Delivery: ** 150 minutes per week is allotted to each of the 9 KKA's. A further 150 minutes is allotted to homeroom. Each day will be broken into quarters lasting 75 minutes each. Some of the more engaging KKA's (ICT, Scientific, Sports, Artistic/Aesthetic & Technology) will run over two consecutive quarters. This allows for more in depth activities to take place. The more dense KKA's, will be split across two quarters on separate days, as this allows students to be re-invigorated for their next class. These classes will be streamed by ability from second semester of year 7. This ensures everyone in the class is theoretically around the same level.

Different topic areas of each KKA will be delivered by a 'learning leader', who is a teacher in the faculty. They will be assisted in the classes by a fellow member of the faculty. These two teachers will team teach throughout the year. Year 11 students may also be invited to help out during various times throughout the year. Both the teachers and students benefit greatly from this approach. Firstly, the students will be exposed to different teachers throughout the year, each one with a different area of expertise. The students should aim to draw on the combined experience of all the teachers throughout the year. The teachers benefit as their workload is decreased, and each teacher will generally have one day free of classes every week. This reduces the risk of teacher burnout. Each topic area will be intrinsically linked to the core concept of that KKA for each year. These core concept will be outlined in further detail later on in this document.
 * Sample Timetable.**
 * Year 7 || || || || || ||
 * || Mon || Tues || Wed || Thu || Fri ||
 * Qtr 1 || Homeroom || Scientific || moral || Sports || Socio-Cultural ||
 * Break (15 mins) || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 2 || Mathematical || Scientific || Socio-Cultural || Sports || Homeroom ||
 * Lunch (40 mins) || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 3 || Artistic/ Aesthetic || Linguistic || ICT || Moral || Technology ||
 * Break (15 mins) || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 4 || Artistic/ Aesthetic || Mathematical || ICT || Linguistic || Technology ||
 * Year 8 || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 1 || Homeroom || moral || Sports || Socio-Cultural || Mathematical ||
 * Break (15 mins) || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 2 || Socio-Cultural || Mathematical || Sports || Linguistic || Homeroom ||
 * Lunch (40 mins) || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 3 || Scientific || ICT || Moral || Technology || Artistic/ Aesthetic ||
 * Break (15 mins) || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 4 || Scientific || ICT || Linguistic || Technology || Artistic/ Aesthetic ||
 * Year 9 || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 1 || Homeroom || Sports || Socio-Cultural || Mathematical || Moral ||
 * Break (15 mins) || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 2 || Linguistic || Sports || Linguistic || moral || Homeroom ||
 * Lunch (40 mins) || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 3 || ICT || Socio-Cultural || Technology || Artistic/ Aesthetic || Scientific ||
 * Break (15 mins) || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 4 || ICT || Socio-Cultural || Technology || Artistic/ Aesthetic || Scientific ||
 * Year 10 || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 1 || Homeroom || Socio-Cultural || Sports || Scientific || Linguistic ||
 * Break (15 mins) || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 2 || Moral || Mathematical || Sports || Scientific || Homeroom ||
 * Lunch (40 mins) || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 3 || Technology || Artistic/ Aesthetic || Socio-Cultural || Linguistic || ICT ||
 * Break (15 mins) || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 4 || Technology || Artistic/ Aesthetic || moral || Socio-Cultural || ICT ||
 * Qtr 3 || Technology || Artistic/ Aesthetic || Socio-Cultural || Linguistic || ICT ||
 * Break (15 mins) || || || || || ||
 * Qtr 4 || Technology || Artistic/ Aesthetic || moral || Socio-Cultural || ICT ||


 * Co Curricular Integration.**

Year 7: Orienteering in New Zealand Year 8: Snorkeling in Hamilton Island Year 9: California Adventure including Theme Parks and Celebrity Tours Year 10: Pilot Training with RAAF.
 * One week per term is to be set aside for external co curricular activities (camps) in each year level, shown below. In addition to this, various other days (eg. sport days, school performance) will be set by the co curricular coordinator. The purpose of the activities is to instill a sense of pride and belonging among the students. The camps will be scheduled during consecutive weeks, beginning with year 7 at week 2, ending with year 10 in week 5. Also, there are opportunities afforded to students at the school's expense to initiate co curricular activities during weeks 6-9. These activities are to be negotiated with the co curricular coordinator in accordance with the policies and procedures and are subject to approval.
 * Camps:**

**Web of Knowledge:** The diagram below is known as the "High School Apocrypha Web of Knowledge". Each circle represents one KKA. Each is linked with all of the other KKA's. This sum's up the curriculum philosophy o High School Apocrypha; we believe each knowledge area is connected with each other, and that while each KKA has its own specific knowledge and skill set, there are skills and knowledge that can be shared across all of the KKA's
 * KKA and VELS: ** All of the key knowledge areas comply with VELS standards; however each key knowledge area does not necessarily comply with a single VELS strand. One knowledge area will likely correspond with multiple VELS strands and multiple knowledge areas will cover the content of individual VELS strands. This results in VELS standards being not only covered but comprehensively covered and reinforced from a variety of perspectives. For example, one of the English writing progression points at level 4.5 is: //composition of print and electronic texts in a wide range of forms, including narratives, reports, explanations, procedures and points of view//. This can be covered in the scientific knowledge area as a written report on a current science related topic. It can also be covered in the socio-cultural knowledge area as a series of journal entries written as a historical figure; Genghis Khan for example.



Year 7: Core concept: The World Around us. This year's work is based on giving students a good grounding in many of the concepts of the world around us. Students will go on excursions and use enquiry based and investigative techniques to discover and explore the world around them.
 * Description of KKA’s: **
 * Scientific: **

Year 8 Core concept: Life on Earth. Students will explore characteristics of different forms of life on Earth. This includes, but is not restricted to, the Human Body, Flora & Fauna, Microorganisms and an introduction into cells and molecules.

Year 9 Core concept: Saving the planet. Students are introduced to the greenhouse effect and global warming. Throughout the year students will discover the impact that we are having on our planet. Students will visit various industries, who will share their knowledge on how they are trying to prevent climate change. Students will do studies on water qualities in the Yarra River, Maribyrnong River, as well as various locations around Port Phillip Bay. They will also have a year long community project where they will assist businesses in the community to become more "green".

Year 10 Core Concept: Building blocks. This year's work is based upon the building blocks of everything we see; the atom. Students will be able to conceptualise the atomic model of chemistry, and be able to apply it to further areas of study. Just as atoms are the building blocks of chemistry, cells are the building blocks of life. Great debate has raged over the years over whether light is a particle or a wave. All of these ideas will be discussed in reference to what they mean to the world. Using groundbreaking technology, students will be able to see an atom, be able to see the effect of photons and be able to see how cells intertwine. This year also includes an excursion to the Melbourne Synchotron, to see what happens when particles collide.

Year 7 core concept: Base knowledge. This year is designed to give students a good grounding in the basic concepts of mathematics. This ranges from basic mathematical operations to measurement and chance and data. Students will complete a number of lengthy explorative activities based around ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece. Students are to put their new found knowledge to good use to try and solve themed puzzles, all of which will assist in finding the person who killed King Tutankhamen, Julius Caesar and Hercules.
 * Mathematical:**

Year 8 core concept: Letters as numbers. This year level will be based on algebra and its functions. students will first learn how to use and manipulate letters within an equation. After this, the focus will move towards creating equations using letters as the variable component. This concept can be put to use in many every day applications and is a great skill for students to be able to use.

Year 9 core concept: Visualising maths. During this year, students will look in depth at how to use graphing techniques to display mathematical functions in an artistic manner. Students will learn how to draw bar, column, line and scatter plot graphs to present data, as well as learning how to represent linear, quadratic and cubic functions as a graph, and discovering how this is useful in industry, using them as prediction models.

Year 10 core concept: Computers for mathematics. Students will become familiar with Microsoft Excel, a very powerful spreadsheet. They will learn how to graph data using Excel. As well as this, students will learn how to manipulate the cells in Excel to allow them to be able to work out complex data equations in the blink of an eye. Students will also be trained in the use of graphic calculators, how to create and apply matrices and how to use the calculator to solve complex statistical data problems. Students will work in accordance with Champion Data and will assist in keeping and formulation statistics on a number of clients; from the AFL statistics all the way to sales data from Myer and David Jones. Year 7 Core Concept: Major events that have shaped the modern world. Students will research major events through history and explore how they have impacted upon the modern world. Students will study topics from the Spartan war all the way to September 11 and even the Global Financial Crisis. Students will study relevant movies as text throughout the year and as such will gain different perspectives on each event.
 * Socio-cultural:**

Year 8 Core Concept: World Cultures. Students will explore different worldwide cultures. They will look at how the geography and the climate of the land has helped to shape the culture, as well as the flora and fauna that has had an impact. Students will explore both first world and third world cultures, and should be able to compare and contrast them.

Year 9 Core Concept: Australia. Once students have explored other world cultures, they will be better able to understand our own culture and land. Not only will the students look at Australia as a whole, but they will do extensive research on Melbourne, culminating in a presentation to the Victorian Government on why Melbourne is infact "The Place To Be". Throughout the year, students will work in soup vans in the Melbourne CBD to get a better grasp on some of the issues that face Melbournians.

Year 10 Core Concept: Wars of the 20th century. Students will investigate wars of the 20th century, and the impact they made on the world. They will look at it from an economic perspective and from an industrial perspective. How did the wars effect the economy? What inventions came about as a result of the wars? What was the political backlash from the wars?

Year 7 Core concept: Finding yourself. This year focus on finding out who you are as a student. Students will do a number of activities based on self reflection and self assessment. By the end of the year, students should have a better understanding of who they are, and what they can achieve.
 * Moral/Philosophical:**

Year 8 Core Concept: Community work: Students will be given the opportunity to partake in community work organised by the school. This will include charity work and educational work. Students will be taught how about upholding the rights of others, and will also create a set of values that they feel they can use to guide them through school.

Year 9 Core Concept: The Meaning of Life. Students will undertake a series of activities that give a number of perspectives on the meaning of life. By the end of the year, students will make a presentation to the class on what they think the meaning of life is, and whether it is infact possible to fully grasp the meaning of life.

Year 10 Core Concept: Preparation for the real world. Students will learn skills that are required once they leave school. This includes writing a professional curriculum vitae, and learning about rights and responsibilities in the workplace. Year 7 Core Concept: Appreciation of work. This core concept focuses on students looking at work done by other people, whether it be a painting, media presentation, song or a recipe. Students learn to appreciate the work of others.
 * Artistic/Aesthetic:**

Year 8 Core Concept: Analysing ideas: Students will learn to analyse concept of creations. By analysing creations, students will be able to gain an insight into where their individual creative abilities lie. While each creation is deeply personal, students are encouraged to draw on other ideas to help them create their final piece of work.

Year 9 Core Concept: Express yourself!: This Core concept will assist students in putting together a creation. Students will work through all of the major steps in thinking creatively and expanding on their original concepts and ideas. This also includes a time management program, which can be useful in any walk of life.

Year 10 Core concept: Creating and Synthesizing: This unit focuses on students putting together one major creation. This can be anything from the field of hospitality, music, art, graphic design, media or drama. This task is expected to take a majority of the year, so students need to have plenty of substance in their creations. The staff members of the faculty will be able to lend their assistance in all of the design concepts.

Year 7:Interpret, respond, produce and plan.Students formulate questions about texts and view them from a variety of perspectives.Students develop personal responses to a range of texts. Students produce a wide range of texts in a wide range of forms.Students plan organise and revise their production of texts. Year 8. Ideas and information.Students explore challenging topics, themes and issues. Students set up and maintain a literary blog via a website on the internet. They will share and compare their writing about life in Australia with students from various parts of the world. Year 9. Me? How do texts and language relate to my own life? Students produce a major autobiographical narrative that examines and comments upon their time at Apocrypha College thus far. Year 10. Read, view, analyse, critique and reflect. Identifying the cultural specificity and multi-purpose nature of texts. Students as a group undertake a major reworking of a play of their choice and give it an apochryphal slant before their peers at an end of year performance.
 * Linguistic:** Texts and language. At the beginning of each term, students are given an option of four books to read. Throughout the term, students will keep an online account of where they are up to in the book, and other students reading the same book are able to read and comment on the account, as well as share their experiences. This interactivity is designed to allow students to express themselves in both an educational and a safe environment. The linguistic key knowledge area also includes the LOTE component of curriculum.

Year 7. Safety and basic skills. Before students are able to use tools and instruments associated with woodwork, electronic and auto mech, they will need to be taught all the necessary safety procedures and precautions. Once an introductory course into safety procedures has been satisfactorily completed, students will then be able to use the tools and instruments and learn basic skills needed to further their technological education.
 * Technology** :

Year 8: Further skills and concepts. Students will further the basic knowledge and skill sets acquired in Year 7. Students will investigate the best techniques required to do certain tasks and learn the order of procedures required to complete those tasks.

Year 9: Manipulating Ideas: Students will learn how to manipulate current ideas to formulate their own. Students will be assisted in completing a set of tasks whereby they take one current technological idea and morph it into their own.

Year 10: Creation. Students will be tasked to create something of their choice. Their creation is aimed to be of community benefit, and will be built from scratch. Students can use teachers in the faculty and also industry contacts to assist them in planning and creating their design. Year 7: ICT for Exploration and Communication. Now more than ever, ICT is being used to gather information and communicate with people. While students of today may already know some of these skills, the aim of this year is to guide and build their skills so they can gather current and correct information, and then communicate with peers.
 * ICT:**

Year 8: ICT for Formulating. Computers are being used to formulate ideas and are becoming more and more powerful. This year, students will work with programs such as MS Office and Adobe Creative Suite to learn how to formulate these ideas into a coherent and flowing design.

Year 9: ICT for Creating: Students will delve further into Adobe Creative Suite and use it, and other software, to create different types of multimedia presentations. Students will be taught basic Java applications and also how to make basic iPhone applications.

Year 10: ICT for Programming and Solving: Students will be taught further programming techniques. Their final task is to solve a set of puzzles using all of the techniques they have gained over the years. Students will be asked to present their findings as a multimedia presentation.

Year 7: Skills and Rules. Students are taught the basic skills and rules from a various number of team sports, such as AFL, Soccer, Netball and Volleyball. Students will learn the importance of teamwork and the joys of competitive activity.
 * Physical:**

Year 8: Team Play and Tactics. Students further explore the subtleties of team play and develop their skills. They will also discover some of the tactics used in elite sports and how these tactics can be manipulated into real life situations.

Year 9: Fit for Purpose and Fair Play. Students will understand that fitness is an important aspect of a healthy lifestyle. Students will learn how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Students will also gain a sense of fair play, both in sport and in life.

Year 10: Health and Human Development: Students will delve further into keeping fit for a purpose. They will explore muscle and joint functions and learn exercises and stretches that can keep these functions at their peak ability. Students will partake in Yoga and Pilates as a way of keeping fit and enhancing well being. There will be an emphasis on nutrition and a program developed to educate students on healthy eating habits.


 * Homegroup:** Homegroup is a program run from year 7-10 where students from different age groups are able to freely interact with each other. Once placed in a homegroup at the beginning of year 7, students say in the same groups until the end of year 10. The homegroup program aims to facilitate interactions between different age levels and to allow students to become actively involved in each others education.

During year 11 and 12, Students have a wide range of options. They can participate in the mainstream VCE programme, VCAL, and they also have the option of completing various VET units.
 * Year 11 and 12. **

Year 11: Students are to pick 5 VCE or VET subjects from the list of subjects provided by the school, and must also complete VCE English in accordance with VCAA guidelines. The delivery of the subjects is similar to that of year 7 - 10, however student will undertake 3 quarters per subject per week. In the remaining time, students are allocated free quarters, which should be used to further their education by meeting up with their teachers, or otherwise working towards any upcoming outcomes. Students may be asked by Year 7-10 learning leaders to assist them in junior or middle school KKA classes.
 * VCE:**

Year 12: Students are to pick 4 VCE or VET subjects from the list of subjects provided by the school, and must also complete VCE English in accordance with VCAA guidelines. The delivery of the subjects is similar to that of year 7 - 10, however student will undertake 3 quarters per subject per week. In the remaining time, students are allocated free quarters, which should be used to further their education by meeting up with their teachers, or otherwise working towards any upcoming outcomes. Teachers are encouraged to organise meetings and tutorials with their students. These will not be compulsory for the students to attend, however it would be highly beneficial for students if they did attend.

VCE Units: English, Maths Methods, Further Maths, Specialist Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Psychology, Business Management, Accounting, History Revolutions, Arabic, Mandarin, French, Economics, Music Solo, Drama, Art, Information Technology Applications, and Media.

VET units: Applied Fashion Design and Technology, Automotive, Building and Construction, Community Service, Dance, Desktop Publishing and Printing, Furnishing, Hospitality, Interactive Digital Media, Music Industry, Retail and Sport and Recreation. VET units can be undertaken as part of both the VCE and VCAL programme. They are designed to give student more industry based skills and hands on training.

VCAL is also offered to students. VCAL is a course that gives students groundings in Literacy and Numeracy, while focusing heavily on industry based training. VCAL often includes an apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship placement, which is organised by the school. The school provides full support to its students by sourcing industry based experts to come into the school and integrate with the teaching staff and the VCAL classes.
 * VCAL:**

Our VCAL program follows the VCAL guidelines set by VCAA. any of the units offered by VCAA will be offered at Apocrypha Secondary College upon negotiation.

=**Apocrypha Secondary College Curriculum Rationale.**=

The Apocrypha High curriculum design is based on interdisciplinary learning. This allows for the curriculum to be more balanced than a subject based curriculum, and allows the students to be educated in social, moral and vocational values, as well as the more intellectual areas, thus providing a “whole child education”. (Best 1996, McLaughlin et al 1999). The “Forms of Knowledge Thesis” (Hirst 1974) discussed the key knowledge areas. Our curriculum draws on these knowledge areas to act as the framework of the curriculum. The demographic of the students at the school (Moreland City Council website, Aug 2009) dictates that there will be a strong vocation education component in our curriculum. As such, each knowledge area will have links with vocational education and also incorporate community based programs.

“Education is simply one of the functions of schooling - any school curriculum has a responsibility to equip young people with knowledge, capacities, qualities, skills and dispositions that reach beyond the purely intellectual or the cognitive to the social, moral, emotional and practical.” (Carr 2003)

We have decided to include a year 7-10 homeroom structure. This is designed to foster multi-aged friendships where students can use each other as learning resources. Studies have shown the benefits of multi-aged classes in school systems. Robert R. Hoen’s 1972 study showed that while the academic results might be equivalent in multi-aged classes compared to same aged classes, the social implications were enormous. Hoen discovered that individualisation of learning towards students helped to improve the students’ self concepts and attitudes towards schooling (Hoen 1972). Jean-Pol Martin has discussed the effectiveness of learning by teaching, and his research is backed up by the experience of Jody Skinner (Martin 1985, Skinner 1994) Skinner has witnessed the success of Learning by teaching (known as the LdL method)at schools such as St. John’s College, Maryland, and has written about his experiences with reference to Martin’s Previous work. Skinner notes that the LdL method turns “listless, disinterested students into enthusiastic members of the school community.” There is a stream of schools called Sudbury Schools, which follow this practice. The Sudbury School system was started at Sudbury Valley School, Framington, Massachusetts in 1968. In Sudbury schools, the students are not segregated by age. This age mixing approach allows the students to better interact and learn from each other. (Greenberg 1987)

The school is streamed into 7 different streams, (A à G). Students entering the school will be required to sit a basic entry exam which tests basic literacy, numeracy and logic skills. This test determines which stream they are put in; A for high achievers through to G for those less able. Harford talks about different types of peer influences in his article in Undercover Economist, Jan 3rd 2009. He surmises that the “boutique” model of peer influence is the best model. This model allows for all members of the class to be at the same ability so that everyone in the class is satisfied by the lesson (Harford 2009). There have been studies conducted that show that streaming has a positive effect in student results. (Duflo et al 2008, Yii 2008, Niehart 2007)

Similarly, there have been studies undertaken that show that physical activity can increase the learning ability and concentration of students (Bailey et al 2009) As such, Apocrypha High school has dedicated as much time to physical education as it has to other subjects.

**References:**
Bailey. R, Armour. K, Kirk. D, Jess. M, Pickup. I, Sandford. R, //The Educational Benefits Claimed for Physical Education and School Sport : An Academic Review,// Routledge, 2009

Best. R, //Education, Spirituality and the Whole Child,// London, Cassell, 1996

Carr. D, //Making Sense of Education: An introduction to the philosophy and theory of education and teaching,// London, RoutledgeFalmer, 2003

** Duflo. E, Dupas. P, Kremer. M, //Peer Effects and the Impact of Tracking: Evidence from a Randomized Evaluation in Kenya,// National Bureau of Economic Research, 2008 ** ** Greenberg. D, //Age Mixing, Free at Last - The Sudbury Valley School. 1987// **

Harford. T, //What Lessons can be Learned from Streaming by Ability,// retrieved from [] 27/8/09.

Hirst, P.H, //Knowledge and the Curriculum,// London, Routledge and Keegan Paul, 1974.

Hoen, R.R, //An Evaluation of multi-age classesat Carnavon School, 1971-1972.// Vancouver Board of School Trustees, 1972.

McLauglin, T.H and Halstead, J.M, //Education in Morality//, London, Routledge, 1999.

Martin, JP, //Zum Aufbau didaktischer Teilkompetenzen beim Schüler: Fremdsprachenunterricht auf der lerntheoretischen Basis des Informationsverarbeitungsansatzes//, Tubingen: Narr.1985

Niehart M, //The Socioaffective Impact of Acceleration and Ability Grouping: Recommendations for Best Practice, SAGE Publications, 2007//

Skinner. J, //The Koblenz Model within Anglo-American Cultural Studies at German Universities, [],// accessed 27/8/09.

Smart. N, T//he Phenomenon of Religion,// London, Macmillan, 1973

Yii C H, //The impact of on learning environments in mathematics classrooms in Malaysia.//Curtin University of Technology, 2008.

Moreland City Countil website. Accessed 27/8/09. []
 * Websites:**

VRQA website, accessed 27/8/09. []