LEARNING AND TEACHING WITHIN THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY
Learning and teaching will embrace the spirit of St Columban’s College as expressed through the school’s vision and mission statement and engage the aspirations of the residential community in which the school is situated.
The school will follow the Brisbane Catholic Education Learning Framework, Queensland statutory authority documents and the ACARA Australian Curriculum.
St Columban’s promotes the good news of the Gospel, the formation and development of the individual, and enhances the good of society. It is our strategic intent to improve learning outcomes for all students. The work of learning is promoted, facilitated and affected by teachers, supported by a network of ancillary staff members, in partnership with parents and an extensive community and parish network. Operating from a Connected Learning Model where all activities organised by the College contribute to supporting students in their journey of lifelong learning
Learning Framework
Our staff have developed a Learning Framework that will assist all of our students on their learning journey. It provides us with a language of, and for, learning. This allows all key stakeholders – teachers, students, parents & carers, to talk collectively and purposefully about learning.
The framework offers a point of consistency for our students, as they will be able to utilise this language across all subject areas and throughout all year levels to communicate with their teachers and peers. The Learning Spiral, as seen below, primarily highlights our 4C's of Commitment, Courage, Creativity and Compassion - essential in achieving success.
As we look towards the centre of the spiral, we see the fire, the energy, the spirit that drives our learning journey. From the centre, we follow the Cognitive Process, as developed by leading education practitioners, Marzano and Kendall (2007). This process underpins our curriculum, as each of the senior syllabus documents produced by the QCAA are shaped by their work.
In addition, this framework is underpinned and inspired by the 2019 Alice Springs Education Declaration which placed young Australians at the centre of education. Just as the Declaration is designed to provide a vision and framework for the education of all young Australians, so too does the St Columban's Learning Framework, aiming to support, inspire and deliver a strong educational vision for purposeful and meaningful educational engagement for all students at our College.
To quote from the Declaration,
“Our education system must... prepare young people to thrive in a time of rapid social and technological change, and complex environmental, social and economic challenges. Education plays a vital role in promoting the intellectual, physical, social, emotional, moral, spiritual and aesthetic development and wellbeing of young Australians. They need flexibility, resilience, creativity and the ability to drive and keep on learning throughout their lives" (The Alice Springs Education Declaration, pg. 3).
The St Columban's Learning Framework is designed to facilitate the learning growth and progress of all students. In the context of our broader connection to the Wellbeing Framework and Religious Life of the College Framework, we are confident that our College is working to bring the aspirations of the Declaration into reality for our students.