Face to Face Learning

Face to Face Learning (F2FL) with a teacher in a classroom is fundamental to educational achievement. Future Facing will in no way impact the quality of F2FL students receive at Chevalier College. In fact, F2FL will be enhanced by a learning cycle that allows for better preparedness for lessons, fewer interruptions, and greater opportunities for deeper learning.

At Chev, we pride ourselves on educational excellence, highly skilled teachers and offering an exceptionally varied curriculum. Our teaching staff are fully committed to our new approach and invested in its success.

Best Use of Time

Best Use of Time (BUoT) refers to a transformative educational concept that sets out to ensure students get the most out of every week by reducing disruptions to learning. Through addressing disruptions and rethinking the traditional timetable, BUoT can deliver:

• Fewer disruptions to F2FL – by ensuring that events, retreats and externally run programs that would normally take students out of class are scheduled for Monday. Outcome: students are not impacted by missed lessons and teachers are able to deliver quality F2FL without interruption.
• Foster independence – by working on complex competencies such as Learner Agency, with an emphasis on self-regulation, personal development and time management. Outcome: students develop skills to prepare them for post school life, taking charge of their learning process, managing time, monitoring progress and collaborating as needed
• Flexible HSC pathways – through offering early commencement of selected HSC subjects, students can tailor their educational experience and gain more flexibility in their Year 11 & 12 timetable. Outcome: the HSC experience can be tailored to the strengths of the individual. By completing some courses early, students gain opportunities for deeper learning, and greater ability to manage time and commitments effectively Stage 6
• Engagement and discovery – through new interest-based electives and passion projects linked to real world learning, students will have the opportunity to inspire curiosity and explore their passions and interests. Outcome: purpose and meaning, collaboration and creativity
• Stronger connections and relationships – in Stage 4 and 5 students will have access to specific wellbeing programs twice per week.
• Self-development – students develop a clear understanding of self by interrogating their Strengths, Interests and Motivations via a new subject called SIM. Outcome: by developing an understanding of who they are, what they can do and what problems they can solve, their purpose starts to emerge.

Flipped Learning

Flipped Learning refers to students working individually outside a traditional classroom structure. This may be preparing for F2FL by completing pre-reading texts, watching a video or accessing planning resources. The outcome of completing this surface level learning before F2FL is that classroom time can be dedicated to interactive, hands-on activities and deeper, personalised learning and collaboration.

Flipped Mondays at Chevalier College will assist students to:

1. Take responsibility for their own learning, absorbing surface level content ‘pre class’, arriving ready for deeper learning in the classroom.
2. Learn more deeply through early engagement with tasks and concepts before interacting with their teacher and peers.
3. Become more active participants in class as students collaborate and discuss.
4. Maximise time through accessing content earlier and reviewing at their own pace, absorbing the information, and preparing for meaningful classroom interactions.

Wellbeing

Future Facing will support and enhance our wellbeing program. Starting in 2024, Chevalier will integrate wellbeing lessons every week for students in Years 7-10. This tailored program will emphasise specific wellbeing areas and strategies relevant to each year group, occasionally sharing common modules differentiated for each year group.

This program will directly connect with ‘SIM’, a positive psychology approach for each individual student to more deeply know and apply their strengths, interests and motivations and therefore enhance their overall wellbeing. The aim of this new initiative for wellbeing is to better use time for students to acquire the knowledge and skills to flourish as they navigate the challenges and opportunities of living in a rapidly changing world.

Knowledge

Achieving Educational Excellence

Our goal is that every student at Chevalier College can achieve their potential. Students develop knowledge through the core curriculum of English, Maths, Science, Religious Education, HSIE, PDHPE, Creative and Performing Arts and Technology. Chev ‘Future Facing’ complements excellence in the core curriculum by developing students with complex capabilities and an innate sense of self to help them succeed.

By reducing interruptions, we know that our students will have consistent access to their teachers for their face to face deeper learning. We also know that, historically, many of our highest performing students managed their time well by accelerating in some courses, allowing them extra time to focus on other courses in the HSC. As a result of the two factors above, and by broadening the concept of early commencement for all (link to accordion graphic), rather than just some students, we believe academic performance measured via the ATAR will be maintained, if not enhanced.

We know that once students leave school, they need competencies and capabilities that cannot be learnt by just studying for a test. The new model, while enhancing academic performance, will also allow students to build complex capabilities and their sense of self; skills they need as they enter life beyond school.

Capabilities

Developing Complex Competencies

In 2023 we partnered with the University of Melbourne Assessment community.

Melbourne Assessment has developed new ways to assess and credential the complex competencies that learners need to thrive now and in the future.

Melbourne Assessment supports educators to confidently teach, assess, report on and credential the complex competencies learners need to thrive at school and beyond.

Part of the partnership is to measure and recognise a growing range of complex competencies essential for success in the modern world.  Over the course of the partnership, we will begin to develop student skills and capabilities in the areas shown below with our focus for 2024 being ‘Learner Agency’ (also referred to as ‘Agency in Learning’).  Over coming years, students will graduate from Chev with an ATAR/HSC along with a portfolio of assessed complex competencies.

Learner Agency

Learner Agency is the first of a series of complex competencies we will focus on at Chevalier College.  We see the development of skills in this area as integral to our students taking full advantage of ‘Chev Future Facing’ in 2024.

Learner Agency is knowing what to learn, how to learn it and who to learn it from. Self-regulated learning encourages students take charge of their learning process, setting goals, managing their time, and monitoring their progress. Flipped learning is where students engage with ‘pre-class’, surface level content and arrive to class ready for deeper learning activities. Flipped learning is one strategy which encourages self-regulated learning.

Work on Learner Agency is already underway via the following programs and activities.

• Trial – PDHPE & English – our English and PDHPE faculties are working with the University of Melbourne New Metrics project to assess learner agency in students in the class room during semester 2, 2023 and and into 2024.
• To truly master learner agency, our students need to have the space and place to learn how to self regulate their learning. Commencing Term 4, 2023, students will have the opportunity to achieve the Chevalier Self Regulated Flipped Learning Micro Credential. This is a rigorous, evidence based credential. Once achieved, a student has built and demonstrated the skills to manage their learning, something that will set them up for life.
• Flipped Learning on Mondays – 2024 will see a trial of flipped learning with Years 7, 8 & 9 onsite at school and Years 10 – 12 having the option of working at home (once they completed the necessary steps and parents have been engaged). This is how students will exercise and continue to develop Learner Agency.

Self-development

A fundamental sense of self

By embedding positive psychology and wellbeing subjects directly into the timetable, we emphasise the importance of engagement, choice, and mental and emotional health. Students develop an innate sense of who they are and what’s important to them through interest electives, passion projects, SIM (Strengths, Interests & Motivations) and the Chev Wellbeing curriculum. The outcome of making time for self-development is resilience, a deeper engagement in their educational journey and an emerging sense of purpose.

“What is it you plan to do with your wild and precious life?” – Mary Oliver

Learn more about the content around My Design and SIM that Years 7-10 will have timetabled from 2024.