Policies 

Warrandyte High School Curriculum Framework

PURPOSE

The purpose of this framework is to outline Warrandyte High School’s organisation, implementation and review of curriculum and teaching practices and to ensure that, taken as a whole, all eight learning areas are substantially addressed, unless an exemption applies.

The framework shows, at a high level, how the school will deliver its curriculum, how the curriculum and teaching practice will be reviewed, how we assess student learning, how we 

record and monitor student performance, and when and how we report to parents.

This curriculum framework should be read alongside our whole school, curriculum area, year level and unit / lesson curriculum plans which are located on Compass and readily available 

upon request.

OVERVIEW

Warrandyte High School provides all students with a planned and structured curriculum to equip them with the knowledge, skills and attributes needed to complete their schooling and to make a successful transition from school to work, training, or further education.

Warrandyte High School is committed to offering a comprehensive curriculum based on the Victorian Curriculum F-10. The key points in this framework, and in line with the F–10 Revised Curriculum Planning and Reporting Guidelines, are a commitment to:

• A defined curriculum content that is the basis for student learning
• Curriculum planning that is based on two-year bands of schooling rather than each year level
• Developing and publishing a separate whole-school curriculum plan that documents our teaching and learning program
• Reporting student learning against the achievement standards in the curriculum
• Reporting student learning to students and parents in line with the Department’s Reporting Student Achievement and Progress Foundation to 10 policy.
• Complying with Departmental policies relating to curriculum provision, including:
  • Physical and Sport Education — Delivery Outcomes
  • Sexuality and Consent Education

  • Holocaust Education – Delivery Requirements

     

    Warrandyte High School is committed to ensuring we challenge every learner, every day, to thrive in a safe and supportive environment that is built upon academic foundations. 

    We encourage all students to challenge themselves academically,  socially and physically to pursue areas of individual interest and strength. Our innovative curriculum and culture of excellence provides a breadth of opportunity for all students through both our curriculum and extra-curricular programs, while ensuring personal wellbeing is at the forefront of all we do.

    IMPLEMENTATION

     

    Warrandyte High School implements its curriculum by following the Victorian Curriculum F-10 which sets out what every student should learn during their first eleven years of schooling. We ensure that we offer a breadth of opportunity through our focus on the core learning areas including: The Arts, English, Health & Physical Education, The Humanities, Languages, Mathematics, Science and Technologies. We supplement the curriculum in all eight of these learning areas by including the development of General Capabilities including: Critical & Creative Thinking, Ethical Capabilities, Intercultural Capabilities and Personal & Social Capabilities. 

     

    We offer an extensive Elective Program for all students in Year 9/10, which is run vertically, to provide all students the opportunity to study subjects of their choosing. We also run our ‘Trails of Discovery Program’ – which is also a vertically based program – for students in Year 7 -10 with a focus on seven core areas of interest: The Art Box, Lights Camera Action, Beyond the Classroom, Top of Your Game AFL, Top of Your Game Basketball, Tech Savvy and STEM. We also run an extensive VCE Program with a breadth of subjects, with smaller class sizes, to provide students the maximum opportunity to develop a VCE program that will set them up for future pathways. Alongside our VCE Program, we also offer the VCE Vocational Major program to all students in Year 11 and 12, as well as the Victorian Pathways Certificate for specific students at Year 11. 

     

    All students in Year 11/12 are also offered the opportunity to undertake a Vocational Education & Training (VET) subject as part of their VCE studies (this is compulsory for students in the VCE Vocational Major Program). We also offer the VET – Sport & Recreation subjects to our students on-site at Warrandyte High School as part of the VCE program. At Warrandyte High School, class time is structured into a weekly timetable, with five hours of learning per day, broken into 5 sixty-minute sessions.

     

  • Warrandyte High School adopts a weekly student program of one hour to provide students with opportunities for increased connectedness to their teachers and peers. This includes the delivery of health-related curriculum, Respectful Relationships curriculum and Careers Curriculum. This also involves Guest Speakers delivering on a range of Wellbeing and Health related initiatives including Consent Education and a range of other initiatives through the Schools Mental Health Fund Toolkit. At Year 7/8 this program is called the W.E.L.L. Program (Wellbeing, Engagement, Learning & Leadership), at Year 9/10 this is called the Explore Program and at VCE this is called the Strive Program. At VCE this program is tailored to provide students with time for private study, development of Study Skills and Guest Speakers delivering on a range of Wellbeing and Health related initiatives.

     

• Further information on how our school implements the curriculum, including the learning areas provided at each year level/band of schooling, and the capabilities that are developed by students across these learning areas and the approximate time allocations for each learning area, is provided in our whole school curriculum plans that include the Curriculum & Assessment Schedule, Scope & Sequence Document, Unit Plans, Resources, Common Learning Tasks and Lesson Plans – all of which is located on Compass.

• Language provision

• Warrandyte High School will deliver Italian as a Language, based on the qualifications of existing staff and Italian being the language offered by many of our feeder primary schools.

• Pedagogy

• The pedagogical approach at Warrandyte High School works in accordance with FISO 2.0 and the Victorian Teaching & Learning Model 2.0. We have also developed a student and staff-friendly ‘Instructional Model’ which provides a clear framework for a guaranteed and viable curriculum and a guaranteed and viable lesson development which includes the High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) which is used by all teachers across the school in all of their lessons. The development (and publishing on Compass) of Learning Intentions and Success Criteria ensures that all students know and understand the purpose of every lesson, every day.

   

• Assessment

• Warrandyte High School assesses student progress in line with the Department’s Assessment of Student Achievement and Progress Foundation to 10 policy.
• Students at Warrandyte High School will have multiple and varied opportunities to demonstrate learning and achievement. Teachers use assessment tasks that cover multiple curriculum levels to ensure that evidence of learning and growth is captured for every student.
• Teachers at Warrandyte High School use a combination of formative assessment for learning (to focus feedback and guide future learning) and summative assessment of learning (to

• determine what the student has learned at the end of a sequence of learning), alongside student self-assessment and reflection.

• Assessment is used in an ongoing way, to guide future lessons and learning, as well as to keep students and parents informed of student progress.

• Teachers will use a variety of assessment strategies to gather evidence about student achievement. The agreed assessment processes and tasks are documented in the Curriculum & Assessment Schedules as well as the Lesson Plans on Compass. The assessments may include, but are not limited to, tests and assignments, projects, portfolios, performances, discussions or student-teacher conferences.

• Assessment tasks are developed to support students to show their knowledge, skills and understandings and will include clear instructions, relevant supporting documents (scaffolds, planning documents, etc) and allow sufficient time for completion. Teachers will make modifications to the task to cater for students with additional learning needs.

• Warrandyte High School will develop Individual Education Plans (IEPs) for students who arepart of the Program for Students with a Disability (PSD), Koorie students and 

  students in ‘Out of Home’ care, in consultation with students, parents and where appropriate, with outside agencies.

• Teachers will assess the achievements of students with disabilities and impairments in the context of the Victorian Curriculum and the ‘Towards Foundation Level Victorian Curriculum’ where applicable.

• The English language proficiency of English as Additional Language EAL students will be assessed using the Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL.

• Where possible, staff will participate in cross marking of assessment tasks (moderation) involving assessment rubrics and work samples so that staff can apply consistent judgements of student progress against Victorian Curriculum Standards across the school.

   

• Reporting

• Warrandyte High School reports student progress to parents in line with the Department’s Reporting Student Achievement and Progress Foundation to 10 policy. In addition, Warrandyte High School ensures that there is continuous sharing of assessment information formally and informally with parents/carers throughout the term/semester, including through twice-annual formal reporting.

• At Warrandyte High School, we implement the Reporting Student Achievement and Progress Foundation to 10 policy, by reporting on student achievement twice a year, in all learning areas. Following Interim Reporting in Terms 1 and 3 we also provide the opportunity for parents/careres to attend our Parent/Student/Teacher Conferences where a students’ school report and academic progress can be discussed. Both the Semester Report and Interim Reports are written in a format that is easy for parents/carers to understand.

•  

• Warrandyte High School will report directly against the Victorian Curriculum F-10 achievement standards or, if reporting on students for whom English is an additional language, the Victorian Curriculum F-10 EAL achievement standards.

  Both student achievement and progress will be included in the report.

  An age-related five-point scale, where the quality of a student’s achievement

   against what is ‘expected’ for students of that year level at the time of reporting, will 

  be used for reporting against the achievement standards in English, Mathematics and

  Science (where applicable).

  Warrandyte High School will use either a learning goals scale or a learning dimensions

   scale for other areas of the curriculum.

  Opportunities will be provided for parents/carers and students to discuss the school report with teachers and/or school leaders.

  Parent-teacher interviews, conducted twice-yearly, enable the opportunity to discuss the students’ progress and how they can continue to be supported at home. Interpreting services will be made available where required.

   

• CURRICULUM AND TEACHING PRACTICE

•  REVIEW

• School curriculum and teaching practice is reviewed against the Framework for Improving of Student Outcomes (FISO 2.0). FISO and the FISO improvement cycle help identify focus areas for improvement and to evaluate the impact of introduced initiatives.

• Review of school curriculum

• Layer of review/planning	Process and dataused	Responsibility	Timeframe
  Whole school	Whole School curriculum planning is reviewed twice a year by the Director of Teaching and Learning and the Principal. Faculty Facilitators are responsible, in the first instance, to work with staff to ensure the wholeschool curriculum is planned and available on Compass	Director of Student Services     Faculty Facilitators     Principal	Twice a year: start of Term 1 and Term 3
  Curriculum Areas	Curriculum Area planning is completed on athree-weekly cycle in Key Learning Area (KLA) focus planning groups after school	All staff Faculty Facilitators	Three- weekly
  Year levels	This is completed at the end of the school year for the following year (S1) and then at the end of Term 2 for the following semester (S2)– Faculty Facilitators work in collaboration to complete a document that details the ‘Scope & Sequence Document’	Faculty Facilitators     All Staff	Twice a year
  Units and lessons	Unit & Lesson Planning is done either through individual teachers (single classes) or in collaboration during non face-to-face teaching time OR during KLA Planning time	Teaching Staff	Daily

   

• Review of teaching practice

• Warrandyte High School reviews teaching practice via:

• Professional Learning Communities, which link the learning needs of students with the professional learning and practice of teachers and provide an opportunity for teachers to collaboratively evaluate the effect of high impact teaching strategies; and

• the Performance Development cycle, which provides an opportunity to provide feedback to teaching staff on their performance to support ongoing learning and development, with a focus on how student learning can be improved through improving teaching practice.

• FURTHER INFORMATION AND RESOURCES
• Policy and Advisory Library:
  • Curriculum Programs Foundation to 10
  • Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (FISO 2.0)
  • Assessment of Student Achievement and Progress Foundation to 10
  • Digital Learning in Schools
  • Students with Disability
  • Koorie Education
  • Languages Education
  • Physical and Sport Education — Delivery Requirements
  • Holocaust Education
  • Reporting Student Achievement and Progress Foundation to 10
  • Sexuality and Consent Education
  • School Hours (including variation to hours)

• This policy should be read alongside

  • WHS Curriculum Handbooks (on our website)
  • WHS Curriculum & Assessment Schedule for each Faculty Area
  • Sequence of Lesson Plans on Compass

   

• COMMUNICATION

• This policy will be communicated to our school community in the following way:
• Included in staff induction processes and staff training
• Available publicly on our school’s website
• Included in staff handbook/manual
• Discussed at staff briefings/meetings as required
• Reminders in our school newsletter

• Hard copy available from school administration upon request

   

• POLICY REVIEW AND APPROVAL

   

• Policy last reviewed	September, 2024
  Consultation	School Council and Principal
  Approved by	Principal
  Next scheduled review date	September, 2027