CURRICULUM
As a school, our guiding purpose is to provide each new generation with a progressive education and the character and skills they need to thrive as adaptable, creative thinkers in an ever-changing world.
Our core curriculum is designed as a developmental sequence from ELC – Year 10, preparing students for their chosen study pathway and the rigours of VCE in Years 11 & 12.
In each subject area, we cultivate disciplinary knowledge combined with the technical skills required to create a solid foundation, followed by more advanced learning as each course progresses.
Our teachers are learners too – working in Teacher Learning Communities, they research high-impact teaching strategies collaboratively and bring these to their classroom to ensure that each student’s learning and thinking is visible.
Lessons are underpinned by the gradual release of responsibility, with periods of explicit instruction accompanied by opportunities for shared and independent practice.
This is complemented by the use of inquiry, experiential and project-based learning, as well as the application of the design thinking process.
Learning & Teaching Framework
The Mentone Grammar Learning and Teaching Framework 2024 – 2027 aligns our learning and teaching practices within a framework of common beliefs and values about why learning matters and how it specifically happens at Mentone Grammar. The Framework is based on five interwoven principles that sit at the core of our approach designed to create the best possible learning and teaching environment for our students.
Our goal is to equip students with the knowledge, values, skills and competencies to thrive in an ever-changing world. We will support each new generation of students to develop the personal values, self-worth and sense of individual identity necessary to enter the world, not just to passively observe but to feel empowered to interpret, create and shape it in an ethical and positive way.
Formative Assessment
One of the many reasons our students achieve impressive academic results is our use of embedded Formative Assessment – a framework of strategies developed by renowned educationalist, Dylan Wiliam.
Using this framework, our teachers seek to increase student engagement and make their teaching more responsive to their students’ needs by continuously gathering evidence of learning and using it to make judgments about the next steps. Wiliam’s strategies also encourage students to engage with feedback and to work collaboratively and independently to own their own learning.
Wiliam’s work has had a profound impact on our classrooms and underpinned our continued growth in academic achievement.
VCE Vocational Major (VCE VM)
To support students who are looking for an applied pathway we offer the VCE Vocational Major (VCE VM) (formerly VCAL). This program runs for two years and is a vocational and applied learning program that prepares students for successful transitions into apprenticeships, traineeships, further education, and training, or directly into employment.
For students enrolled in the VCE VM, most will complete three days each week of coursework at school, one day at TAFE and one day of Structured Workplace Learning.
