Queen’s High School currently has Special Curriculum projects for Thinking, Literacy and Numeracy.
Thinking Strategies and Skills Programme
This programme is compulsory for one term for all year nine students
The course aims to develop the students’ ability to be a more effective and efficient learners in all their subject areas
The course covers:
- Strategies for generating and organising ideas
- Skills required for effective research, including time management
- Goal setting and goal achievement, including developing positive habits of mind and learning from mistakes
- Different ways and levels of thinking, including metacognitive questions and transferring learning to other contexts
- How the brain works and strategies for remembering
- Relating to others, including listening, communicating with clarity and recognising perspectives
School-wide literacy has been an ongoing focus at Queen’s for more than five years. There is a teacher who has responsibility for literacy in the school and this literacy coordinator has worked with departments and individual departments.
We are continuing to develop and use literacy strategies across the curriculum. Professional deveopment opportunities are offered during the year.
A sample of what has been achieved so far:
- Subject vocabulary lists and literacy strategies for effective and accurate text book reading
- Daily fifteen minute reading at the beginning of Period 2 in all Year 9 and Year 10 subjects
- Promotion of personal reading
- Sharing knowledge of good books at assemblies
- Volunteer adult tutors work with individual students
- Reading challenges
School-wide numeracy is a major focus for this year. There is a teacher who has responsibility for providing numeracy professional development to teachers.
Progress in 2007: At a full staff meeting in the second term staff members were challenged to use their numeracy strategies as an ideal way of understanding the current methodology used in mathematics classrooms.
Future directions: The teacher responsible for school-wide numeracy will work with teachers and departments providing assistance and strategies to use ‘common mathematics’ language across the curriculum.
Outcomes: We aim to have all of our students able to transfer their mathematics skills confidently and successfully across the curriculum.