Year 9 Program
The Mount Clear College Year 9 program has been created with a focus on increased student engagement.
Students approaching Year 9 experience profound physical, social, emotional and intellectual changes associated with the gradual period of transition from childhood to adulthood. Historically, attendance and engagement at Year 9 has been a concern in schools throughout Australia.
The development of our Year 9 program is in response to this research and highlights the need for a different learning environment for young adolescents at Year 9 level. Student feedback about the Year 9 program to date has been very positive. The Mount Clear College Year 9 program for 2021 has been created with a focus on increased student engagement. The program links schooling with the students’ lives outside of the classroom and allows them to explore new ideas in cooperative learning groups. Furthermore, the program allows the students to interact with teachers who know them well and whose teaching is built on a sound knowledge of this age-group’s learning needs.
The program aims to enhance student awareness of local and world issues whilst also providing a learning environment that supports students to develop a sense of community and self.
2022 Program BrochureKey Learning Concepts
A major component of the program is to provide units of study with an emphasis on the connectedness between ideas and concepts across disciplines. At the core of the program is academic rigour delivered in a meaningful, purposeful manner, based upon the Victorian Curriculum.
Learning Strategies
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Students use, monitor, evaluate and redirect as necessary a range of learning strategies. Students evaluate personal characteristics, and design and evaluate strategies to complete challenging tasks. |
Identity
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Students critically analyse contextual factors that Influence their Identities, relationships, decisions and behaviours. They analyse the Impact of attitudes and beliefs about diversity on community connection and wellbeing. |
Collaboration
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Students critique their ability to devise and enact strategies for working in diverse teams, drawing on the skills and contributions of team members to complete complex casks. |
Emotional Management
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Students reflect critically on their emotional responses to challenging situations In a wide range of contexts. |
Empathy
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Students analyse the effects of actions Students access, synthesise and apply the expression of diverse views. |
Health & Wellbeing
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Students compare and contrast a range of actions that could be undertaken to enhance their own and others’ health, safety and wellbeing. |
Respectful Relationships
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Students evaluate personal characteristics, strategies and sources of support used to cope with stressful situations/life challenges. |
Resilience
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Students analyse factors that Influence different types of relationships. Students critique their abilities to devise and enact their abilities for working in diverse teams. |
Environments
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Students propose and evaluate interventions to Improve connection to communities and environments. |
Structure of the program
Year 9 students have one full day per week in the program to provide the flexibility required to work within the local community setting. Education outside the classroom is widely recognised as having significant benefits for students.
Schools throughout the world have developed opportunities for their students to be involved in new challenges and learning experiences that are very different to the classroom setting and we are committed to providing similar opportunities for our students.
Through this program, students are encouraged to take on greater responsibilities and independence in their learning. They have the opportunity to work in a range of groups, which will vary depending on the task/project/community work that they are undertaking. This allows students to form new friendships and to develop a range of collaborative skills to apply when working within a team.
The Year 9 Program has a separate focus each semester, ‘My Place in the Community’ and ‘Pathways and Future Endeavours’. Students rotate through 4 units each semester, along with a variety of activities such as the ‘Morrisby Career Profiling’, health promotion sessions and other relevant activities that occur during the year, all of which, are invaluable ways for students to broaden their horizons and take on new challenges and responsibilities.
Students reflect on their development of the Key Learning Concepts through regular reflection sessions built into the program, and create an online Learning Portfolio highlighting student growth across the year.
Our 2022 Programs
Our Y9P Programs are linked into the curriculum and have been created to enrich the development of each students' secondary school journey.
Trail Blazers
Trail Blazers allows students to spend time working within Woowookarung Regional Park. A variety of excursions give students the opportunity to discover the best the Park has to offer. Students will discover real-world problems associated with the Park by conducting research around Wildlife Protection Zones, Biosecurity, and Health and Wellbeing. In small groups, students are challenged to research, plan, and act on an issue within the Park. The findings are presented to relevant community groups.
STEM Design
This unit is a real-world STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics design thinking program. Students engage in excursions to both the Ballarat Tech School and the Earth Ed STEM Centre to learn the Design Thinking Process. Throughout the unit students work in small teams to design solutions to a variety of real-word problems. These experiences enable students to develop the skills required to successfully solve problems in an ever-changing world.
Big City Life
In this unit students have the opportunity to visit Melbourne on three separate occasions to explore the diversity of the city. Each trip is a day trip where students explore either the world-renowned artwork in the laneways, the history and celebration of Chinatown or the home of sport at the famous MCG. Students are required to reflect upon each of their experiences throughout the Big City Life rotation and demonstrate an awareness and understanding of the public transport system and of the wider community.
Pay It Forward
This program provides students the opportunity to volunteer at an organisation of their choice. They make phone contact with an organisation and complete required paperwork and Safe@Work online certificates.
Volunteering encourages students to step out of their comfort zone and ‘Pay it forward’ within their community. There are many areas for students to volunteer and they are encouraged to find an area of passion and interest. Organised students can volunteer on the second week of the unit and therefore have three days at the organisation which students will need to source their own transportation to. Completed paperwork is essential prior to volunteering.
Future Me
What do you want your future to look like?
What skills, personal qualities and strengths will you need?
What pathway can you take to get there?
The ‘Future Me’ unit in the Year 9 program will explore these questions and the changing nature of work in the 21st Century.
Life Skills
The aim of Life Skills is to develop resilience within the Year 9 cohort. Over the course of four weeks, students will start developing: emotional awareness of themselves and others; conflict management; cooperation and teamwork; respect for classmates, teachers, and members of the community. These skills are developed by a range of activities that give students the opportunity to practice being assertive in uncomfortable situations, develop language skills to express themselves, and develop strong relationships within classes and with peers. We focus on their role in the community and how they can support positive change.
Future Me
What do you want your future to look like?
What skills, personal qualities and strengths will you need?
What pathway can you take to get there?
The ‘Future Me’ unit in the Year 9 program will explore these questions and the changing nature of work in the 21st Century.
3350
In small groups, students research the themes of Recreation, Education and Economy, and Tourism within Ballarat. Working with their teachers, students develop an excursion plan that meets the requirements of this unit, before venturing into Ballarat to learn more about their specific topic. The plan includes the use of the Public Transport Victoria (PTV) website and app. Students will need a Myki card with minimal funds loaded as they only travel within the Ballarat area. 3350 is a student-centred and mostly hands-on unit where students learn to use mobile phones appropriately for group safety and photographic evidence of their adventures which are later used for assessment. To conclude this unit, students need to prepare a group presentation showcasing their research about locations visited and group photos as evidence of attendance to the set and agreed-upon locations.
$20 Boss
Students work in small groups to develop a business idea, create a business plan and then implement their plan. They are provided with $20 per group member with the aim of their business recouping the initial outlay, then donating any profits to an agreed upon charity. The program fosters an entrepreneurial mindset, enterprise skills and the importance of social enterprise.