All students in Prep to Year 10 at Mitchelton Special School are entitled to access all eight learning areas of the Australian Curriculum.
• English
• Mathematics
• Science
• Health and Physical Education
• The Arts
• Technologies
• Humanities and Social Sciences
• Languages
Students in Years 11 and Year 12 have learning goals drawn from the Guidelines for Individual Learning (GIL) within the context of the Queensland Certificate of Individual Achievement (QCIA) in the following learning areas/subjects:
• Communication and Technologies
• Community, Citizenship and the Environment
• Leisure and Recreation
• Personal and Living Dimensions
• Vocational and Transition Activities
Students in Years 11 and 12 may also participate in Vocational Education and Training (VET) if this has been identified as being part of their SET plan.
Students’ achievements in Year 11 and 12 are reported against learning goals created in their curriculum plan. On exiting Year 12, students are awarded their Queensland Certificate of Individual Achievement (QCIA) from the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA). They may also receive a certificate/s in Vocational Education and Training (VET).
Mitchelton Special School fosters Equity and Excellence and caters to students through Four Stages of Learning:
• Junior School – Starting Strong Prep to Year 2
o Strengthening protective factors in the early years to improve outcomes and make a positive impact on young people’s lives.
• Middle School – Building on Foundations Year 3 to Year 6
o Consolidating strong foundations for lifelong learning and nurturing confidence of students to thrive in their future schooling years.
• Junior Secondary – On Track for Success Year 7 to Year 10
o Recognising changing needs and supporting every student to stay on track with positive transitions from upper primary through junior secondary.
• Senior School – Ready for the Future Year 11 and Year 12
o Preparing every student for their future and supporting positive transitions from school onto their next steps into further education and employment.
Individual Curriculum Plans (ICPs)
At Mitchelton Special School all students from Prep to Year 10 have an Individual Curriculum Plan (ICP). An ICP enables assessment and reporting against an achievement standard one or more years above or below the student’s enrolled year level, or adjusted learning focuses for students with a highly individualised curriculum plan (HICP).
• An ICP enables students to access the curriculum alongside their similar aged peers while having the learning focus adjusted to an appropriate level of challenge.
• ICPs are developed for each semester reporting period.
• Decisions about an ICP are made in consultation with parents/carers during ICP meetings held in Terms 1 & 3 each year
• There are two types of ICPs to support student learning:
- Highly Individualised Curriculum Plan (HICP)
- Different Year Level - Partial (DYL-P)
Highly Individualised Curriculum Plans (HICP)
• Provided when the assessment of a student’s current learning indicates they are not yet demonstrating the expectations of the Prep curriculum.
• The adjusted learning focus is drawn from the earlier levels of the literacy, numeracy and personal & social general capabilities in the Australian Curriculum.
• Learning focus is on developing skills within the general capabilities framework:
o Informal communication moving towards conventional communication
o Exploring the general capabilities within real-world contexts through the eight learning areas
o Learning focuses are chosen for individual academic and communication needs
Different Year Level – Partial (DYL-P)
• Provided when students identified, based on their learning progress and assessment results, as needing to access a different year level of the Australian curriculum other than the year they are enrolled in.
• These students will be assessed and reported against the achievement standard for the identified year level of curriculum, as determined by a range of assessments and their pervious learning achievements, for example, Prep, Year 1, Year 2, etc.
• Students on a DYL-P ICP will take more than one year to progress through a Year level to the next Year level. Teachers track and monitor student progress to determine when a student is ready to move to the next year level of curriculum.