The core business of Southern Cross Catholic College is learning. We aim to empower our learners to shape, change and enrich our world and give witness to the Gospel message. The curriculum of the College refers to all the experiences which occur within the school environment.
The formal, explicit curriculum is the planned, taught and assessed learning of students, while the informal or implicit curriculum is inherent in our relationships, interactions, practices, processes, systems and structures that surround learning.
Southern Cross Catholic College strives to provide all students with a seamless and coherent program of learning from Prep to Year 12. Such a curriculum builds on students' prior knowledge and experiences, becomes increasingly more complex and abstract and provides authentic contexts for learning as students journey through their schooling.
A relevant and meaningful curriculum is future-focused and attentive to the needs of today's youth and their world. It is based on the belief that all students are lifelong learners and all students can achieve success in their learning.
Learning and Teaching within the College community
Learning and teaching will embrace the spirit of Southern Cross Catholic College as expressed through the College's vision and mission statement and engage the aspirations of the residential community in which the College is situated.
The College follows the ACARA Australian Curriculum, Queensland statutory authority documents (QCAA) and the Brisbane Catholic Education Learning Framework.
Learning Framework
Our staff operate within a Pedagogical Framework that assists our students on their learning journey. It provides us with a language of, and for, learning. This allows all key stakeholders - teachers, students, parents and carers to talk collectively and purposefully about learning.
As our framework is unpacked, 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 places 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 Southern Cross Catholic College Pedagogical 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 Southern Cross Catholic College Pedagogical 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.
© Brisbane Catholic Education, Southern Cross Catholic College, 2022