Specialising in the Emerging Adolescent
As your child moves through the middle school years, life can be exciting and challenging for both them and you. This is a time of change in almost all aspects of their lives. While at intermediate school you can expect to see some of the following behaviours:
- Children will change physically and can be irritable as their hormones cause mood swings. Arguing will not help and can lead to situations escalating.
- They are transitioning from a dependent to a more socially independent state, where they can be significantly influenced by friends and peers. Sometimes, their friendships can be turbulent, causing them to worry and become emotional.
- Hormones and growth can cause fluctuations in their work habits and ability to accept consequences. Due to their rapidly changing world, physically, emotionally, and socially, they can become anxious and forgetful.
- They are moving towards self-motivation but still need short-term incentives.
- We work within the guidelines of our school's values and virtues to guide students through a range of situations as they arise, using restorative practices.
Where Emerging Adolescents Thrive
Our intermediate school environment is specifically created to meet the unique needs of emerging adolescents. We address these needs in the following ways:
- A homeroom where students spend most of their day with their teacher, developing a sense of belonging, teaching core academic subjects and providing pastoral care.
- High-quality teaching - supported by an intensive research-based professional learning programme.
- Intervention programmes to support academic, social and emotional growth.
- Specialist teaching in the Arts and Technology
- Regular communication, goal setting and reporting to parents.
- An extensive transition programme to help with settling into a new school.
- Regular access to digital devices as a tool for learning.
- An opportunity to develop healthy competition between peers within and across schools.
- Extensive opportunities to engage in actively supervised sporting, cultural and technological activities.
