Extended Experiences
Time to create, explore and develop passion and purpose.
Fridays at The Academy are dedicated to extended experiences where we embrace time for curiosity, extended projects, and building a culture of learning. Our schedule incorporates extracurricular activities, providing opportunities to expand learning beyond the confines of the classroom.
It also simply allows for time for students to explore their passions.
The extended experience time on Fridays allows us to have a broad curriculum where other subjects, life-skills and ideas are explored, without interrupting the weekly classroom routine. This is primarily where we will teach Citizenship, Outdoor Education and Relationships, Health and Sex Education.
These experiences extend students' learning and provide them with the opportunity to apply their knowledge to real-world contexts, and to explore other important subjects not covered in our core curriculum. Students will also have opportunities to work on larger-scale projects that are simply not possible within regular class periods.
The Academy will offer three main types of experiences through this programme:
1. Individual Projects
Individual projects will be assigned by subject teachers on a rotating roster. This is a collaboration with the student, factoring in their educational needs and interests. As well as giving students the opportunity to apply their knowledge, students will also be building a portfolio of quality, professional work.
These projects will include:
- Extended science experiments and reports
- Research essays
- Software applications
- Electronics projects
- Speeches
- Engineering/robotics tasks
- Preparing for national/international competitions
2. Cohort experiences
Cohort projects will involve a degree of collaboration with a student's peer group, but not necessarily limited to their year level. This is an opportunity for students to work together and learn from each other. This is also where students will engage with topics outside of The Academy's formal curriculum.
These experiences include:
- Debating
- Camps and overnight trips
- Biology fieldwork
- Physical education
- History and philosophy
- School-wide hackathons
- Accounting and business administration
- Health and well-being
- Collaborative software, electronics, and engineering tasks
3. External engagement
Students will have regular interactions with experts in various fields such as science, technology, and business. We will also have experts (some from our wonderful families) visit the school to share their skills and knowledge.
These experiences will include:
- Site visits to universities, businesses etc...
- First aid courses
- Pathways to medical study
- Welding
- Automotive engineering
- Business management and accounting
- Cooking
- IT security and network infrastructure