In Years 3-6 at Northern Bay College, our students are delivered a curriculum that is not only challenging but supportive of their interests and ideas where each child’s contribution is valued and encourages maximum growth.
The focus of the Years 3-6 is continuing to provide opportunities for our students in as many different ways as possible including the regular use of technology. The curriculum continues its strong focus on literacy and numeracy and is enriched with visual arts, performing arts, LOTE- Indonesian and Physical Education. Students become true agents of their learning in Years 3-6, where Student Voice is valued and central to the planning and delivery of the curriculum.
Our learning communities are well resourced attractive spaces that enable flexible learning which support students learning needs. To support an easy and meaningful transition into the middle years, our Year 6 learning community is adjacent to the Year 7/8 learning community which helps to build confidence, bridge the progression to formative high school and allow for a smoother and more relaxed transition for our students.
The program at Northern Bay College aims to develop students' ability gain emotional health and personal resilience as well as strengthening relationships with members of the community beyond peers. We look for them to question and problem solve, take responsibility for actions and support good, informed decision making.
Literacy and numeracy continue to be a focus across these years of schooling. increasingly, literacy skills are central to other learning areas. Development of specific mathematical skills and knowledge continues and is applied in other curriculum areas.
Grammar and language, more complex punctuation, clause and sentence structures, textual purposes and patterns are introduced during this stage of schooling, as are skills for classifying word, sentence and text structure. Students engage with different forms (narrative, prose, plays and film) and purposes of written and spoken language to increase their creativity and comprehension.
Number, patterns and relationships, measurement and geometry, and statistics also has the introduction of fractions and decimals. While active and concrete learning is still important there is, there is an increasing use of models, pictures and symbols to represent and communicate mathematical ideas.
Science becomes an area of learning through investigations and the Humanities draw on students’ growing experience of community and further understanding of the wider world looking also at past as well as present events.
We move into areas of more specialised movement skills, structured games, fitness and challenge and adventure activities in Health and Physical Education curriculum. This also helps understanding of and valuing diversity, challenging stereotypes, managing change and negotiating roles and responsibilities.
The Arts curriculum across dance, drama, media arts, music and visual arts now looks towards specific skills and techniques, and uses these in the production of artworks, including performance. The Arts in the these years encourages links with local artworks and performance opportunities.
Years 3–5 Design and Technologies becomes important and includes concepts such as sustainability and future use. In Digital Technologies, we increase understanding of data, digital systems and their interactions; and computational thinking skills.
Through classes in Indonesian students begin to translate and interpret familiar and unfamiliar texts, to analyse how a language works and to understand the dynamic relationship that exists between communication, culture and context.
