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The Senior School at Villanova, consisting of Years Ten,
Eleven and Twelve, focuses on developing individual students as emerging adults.
A major aim of the Senior School experience is to encourage in students
Responsibility, Commitment and a Sense of Purpose.
  
The Senior
School at Villanova aims to provide a challenging and diverse experience of
schooling with programs that can be specifically tailored to the individual
needs of older students as they negotiate their pathways through Senior
Schooling and beyond. Our traditional Augustinian view of education as a search
for truth, not just a means to an end, means that we value a broad educational
experience rather than one tightly focussed on vocational interests.
Pastoral Care & Student Development
Our approach
in Pastoral Care and Discipline is to encourage students’ personal development
and the development of self-discipline through building strong, supportive
relationships between students, and between students and their teachers. This
relationship focus is central to the Augustinian ideal of a strong community and
is the basis for our
Restorative Practices approach to behaviour management. Restorative
Practices emphasise meeting the responsibilities that come from being a
member of a supportive community and provide a means for students to develop
personally, emotionally and socially in a safe environment.
Each Senior
School student is a member of a Pastoral Care group consisting of students from
Years Ten, Eleven and Twelve and their Pastoral Care Teacher. Students maintain
this connection with their Pastoral Care teacher throughout the three years of
the Senior School. Each of the Pastoral Care groups belong to one of the four
Houses within the broader College.
The Head of Senior School, the Year Level
Coordinators, and the College Counsellor and Pastoral Care Worker form the Pastoral Care Team for the Senior School. Working with
the twenty Pastoral Care Teachers and the Senior School classroom teachers, the
Pastoral Care Team aims to provide an environment in the Senior School which
best encourages the development of the boys as individuals as well as a member
of the community.
The Pastoral
Care team, in collaboration with the House Coordinators and specific
members of the College Leadership Team, provide for the boys in the Senior
School a developmental program of leadership and personal development that
continues the efforts of the Junior and Middle Schools.
Teaching and Learning
Our teaching
and learning approaches are based on an understanding of learning derived from
recent research in the fields of cognitive science and psychology, are informed
by our understanding of the specific learning needs of adolescent males and are
infused with an understanding and appreciation of an authentic Augustinian
pedagogy.
The specific
model of learning that we employ is based on the Dimensions of Learning
framework developed by researchers at the Mid-Continent Regional Education
Laboratory (McREL). This model adapts readily to enhance our understandings of a
particularly Augustinian approach to education.
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Our five
Dimensions of Learning are described as:
∙ Developing positive
attitudes and perceptions
∙ Acquiring and
integrating knowledge
∙ Extending and refining
knowledge
∙ Using knowledge
meaningfully
∙ Using productive
habits of mind and heart
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These
Dimensions and the many cognitive skills involved in them are developed in
all courses of study and allow for a skills-based integration across the
curriculum from Year Five through to Year Twelve.
Staff
The Head of School and
the Year
Level Coordinators have specific responsibility for the pastoral care of
boys within the school.
The
coordination of curriculum and teaching and learning in the Senior School is the
responsibility of the Senior School Curriculum Team, consisting of the Vice
Rector - Curriculum, the Curriculum Coordinator, the Vocational Education
Coordinator, and the Coordinators of the many subject areas. The Vice
Rector - Curriculum has collaborative responsibility for ensuring the
effective articulation of learning programs across the Junior, Middle and Senior
schools.
Teachers in
the Senior School plan and work collaboratively with the Pastoral Care Team and
the Curriculum Team to ensure coordinated programs and a common approach, within
the Guidelines and requirements of the Queensland Studies Authority.
The Senior School Precinct
The Senior
School precinct gives students a sense of ‘ownership,’ and includes the home
rooms dedicated to Years Ten, Eleven and Twelve.
In addition to
rooms in the specific Senior School precinct, students in the Senior School
share facilities across the school including the computer laboratories; theatre
auditorium; gymnasium; science laboratories; pool; art, drama and music
facilities; sports fields; and the two library sections.
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