Accelerated Learning Program
Lyndale Secondary College is a traditional, co-educational school with a commitment to academic excellence. The Accelerated Learning Program was developed to better address the needs of students who demonstrate above average abilities, high levels of task commitment and creativity. This program has become an integral element in the school's culture and community. |
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Acceleration permits students to commence a unit of work earlier, or to move through a program more quickly than others according to their academic capacities. Students reach higher levels of thought processes and performance and, in doing so, they benefit intellectually, socially and emotionally from the faster pace and the challenge involved. Integrating enrichment and acceleration allows abstract and complex concepts be taught and students proceed at a more rapid pace than that of the average learner. The Lyndale Secondary College Accelerated Learning Program aims to provide students with the opportunity to develop investigative, problem solving, analytical and creative thinking skills which will challenge and engage them in a very active style of learning. |
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Each May a comprehensive assessment procedure is used to select 26 gifted and talented Year 6 students to join the Program in the following year. Aptitude tests are used and information is sought from the applicants' classroom teachers and parents. Students in the Program are fully immersed in the life of the college. They may be found together with other Lyndale Secondary College students - playing in the college band, editing the college newsletter or magazine, acting in college plays or on the sporting field. Participants' families represent a cross section of socio-economic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Parents are strongly supportive of the program, reporting great satisfaction in their children's intellectual and social development. |
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Students enter the program in Year 7. Their curriculum in the first 3 years is accelerated across those key learning areas where higher cognitive skills allow rapid advancement. Approximately half the week's class work is undertaken in age peer (non-accelerated) studies which include, Technology, Personal Development, Studies of Society and the Environment, Arts, Languages and Sport. English, Mathematics and Science are accelerated subjects. Although accelerated the Lyndale Secondary College program is fully sequential with no grade skipping. It is comprehensive providing acceleration across a range of subjects. It provides each participant with a supportive peer group environment rather than offering acceleration through withdrawal from the classroom. As well as being accelerated, the curriculum is enriched by the inclusion of additional material. Students take extra VCE subjects, completing units even before they fully join the Year 11 VCE stream. The Accelerated Learning Program is intended to provide maximum flexibility in the senior school by allowing additional academic credits to be achieved through TAFE certification, first year university subjects and/or providing opportunities for students to increase the range and depth of their VCE studies. In those cases students' Tertiary Entrance Ranks (TER) should be enhanced by bonus points to provide opportunities for higher level acceptance to tertiary studies. Participating students benefit from working with children of similar ability, who have all been accelerated. They develop into well organised and happy young adults. Academically, the Accelerated Learning Program gives these children something more valuable than knowledge alone - it gives them an enthusiasm for learning. |
Application
forms and information about selection procedures are available from:
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