Educational Philosophy And Curriculum
Preamble
The role of Jubilee Christian College is to provide an education of excellence within the framework of Christian principles to the families of the Atherton Tableland and beyond. The challenge is to achieve that using the finance and resources available to the College from the community it serves.
In designing curriculum for the College, we recognize that whilst curriculum should meet the academic needs of students, it also must meet the needs of the community.
Rationale
Jubilee Christian College has successfully taken on the challenge of providing education to a wide range of age groups, Pre-Reading to Year 12. Through careful consideration of the educational materials and teaching practices available today, the staff of Jubilee Christian College have designed a curriculum that is God-honouring, aids the student in their worship of God, and meets not only the educational needs of students, but also the aspirations and needs of the local community.
Through the combining of individual self-paced learning, that provides a thorough grounding in the ‘basics’ of education, with the traditional use of class and small group teaching encouraging higher order thinking skills, Jubilee Christian College desires to see each child’s needs catered for. Individual children’s needs are catered for by the use of two levels of curriculum, Core Curriculum and Extension Curriculum.
Each student brings to the College different levels of abilities. It stands to reason that each student may also learn at a different rate. The College has therefore elected to use a ‘self-paced’ curriculum as the basis of its Core Curriculum. This allows more capable students to maximise their learning, whilst not having to wait for other students to ‘catch-up’. It also allows those students needing more time to master learning concepts to work at a slower level, yet still eventually cover all learning activities. The Extension Curriculum will allow those more capable students the opportunity to expand their understanding of topics of study and develop, or excel in, their critical thinking skills.
We fully expect that the combination of these two methods of learning will achieve a level of education based on the best of each method, whilst discarding the worst.
Core Curriculum
In order to meet the education needs of as many children as possible, (the Knowledge and Comprehension levels), Jubilee Christian College uses the School of Tomorrow curriculum distributed by Southern Cross Educational Enterprises. This provides the basic curriculum for all students from Pre-Reading to Year 12. In 1999, this began to include the core academic subjects of Math, English, Social Studies and Spelling.
The College’s Core Curriculum is approved by the Queensland Minister for Education and accepted by the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre.
In 1997, The College conducted extensive research into the incorporation of the Commonwealth Education Department’s National Curriculum Profiles into the College’s curriculum documents. It is intended to continue this implementation and to work with Southern Cross Educational Enterprises as our Core Curriculum is updated and improved.
Extension Curriculum
Extension curriculum will be designed to cater for those areas where the School of Tomorrow curriculum, at present, does not match up with National Curriculum Profiles. It will also incorporate those Key Learning Areas not intended to be covered with a self-paced programme: Technology, The Arts, Heath & Physical Education and Languages Other Than English.
Extension curriculum will be taught through a series of integrated studies. It is planned for integrated studies to incorporate:
Higher level thinking skills
Varieties of activities geared for the different strengths of students
Hands-on work
Group and individual activities
Research and Projects
Computer Technology
