CLASS GROUPINGS

CLASS GROUPINGS

FLEXIBLE ABILITY GROUPING

At Mount Carmel we implement an organisational process where we cluster groups of students in ability groups during Year 7-10. This is a broader concept than streaming because students are placed into groups by considering a number of measures of their academic performance and progress. The groups are flexible because we constantly monitor student progress and will move the learning environment appropriately.

We create homogenous groups of students grouped together based on identified learning needs. In these groups like-learners have the opportunity to learn together in an appropriate learning environment. Students are placed into an environment that will best support their learning needs so that they can achieve their full potential. This grouping practice also allows teachers to explicitly focus on addressing learning needs.

A focus on pedagogical design allows teachers to adjust the learning environment, teaching instruction and content organisation. Each of these explicit approaches should enable students to achieve in the full range of achievement in the Common Grade Scale.

TEACHERS ORGANISATION OF LEARNING - Differentiation

In any one year all students follow the same program of work, studying essential content and working towards the achievement of syllabus outcomes.

Teachers of classes will vary (differentiate) the learning activities to support students in learning content, and these activities will support the different learning needs of the Core, Structured and Extended learning groups. This will mean that periodically classes will engage in different activities in order to learn the same content.

PROCESS of GROUPING STUDENTS

  1. After enrolment and placement testing the Leaders of Learning - Curriculum and KLA Coordinators review diagnostic test data for individual students. This data provides information about the ways students learn and a snapshot of their learning achievement to date.
  2. Students are placed into a learning environment that will best support the identified student learning needs so that they achieve their potential. This is reviewed at two (2) points during the year.
  3. They will be clustered into three learning groups:
STUDENTS REQUIRING EXTENSION OR CHALLENGE in their LEARNING CORE LEARNING STUDENTS REQUIRING STRUCTURE in their LEARNING

Students working at or beyond the stage who suit a faster pace or complexity in learning. Included in this group would be the majority of students identified as gifted and/or highly capable learners.

Explicit teaching is focused on pre- assessment and subsequent curriculum compacting to allow extension and enrichment activities to occur, engaging with higher order thinking processes.

Students working successfully within the stage who require a steady pace of learning and some explicit metacognitive planning for complexity in learning.

This group has a stronger focus on the explicit teaching of language and communication skills.

Students working at or beyond the stage who suit a faster pace or complexity in learning. Included in this group would be the majority of students identified as gifted and/or highly capable learners.

Explicit teaching is focused on pre- assessment and subsequent curriculum compacting to allow extension and enrichment activities to occur, engaging with higher order thinking processes. Students working successfully within the stage who require a steady pace of learning and some explicit metacognitive planning for complexity in learning.


This group has a stronger focus on the explicit teaching of language and communication skills. Students working within or below the stage who require a slower paced and more explicit teaching model. The aim would be a structured approach to move towards complexity with more modeling and scaffolding.
This group would include the majority of students identified as having learning deficits. (Support from Diverse Learning Team)

Typically, the following conventions exist:

Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10
Extended E E E E
Core D, J, O, R, S, T D, J, O, R, S, T D, J, O, R, S, T D, J, O, R, S, T
Structured P P P P

However, there are some exceptions:
YEAR 9 and 10: CAT (Catholic Studies) - informed by grouping with Electives, classes not identified by Extension, Core, Structured conventions (Coded as D, E, J, O, P, R, S, T)
YEAR 8 : HSIE/TEC/VAR - Practical class size, max 24 students, classes not identified by Extension, Core, Structured conventions (Coded as D, E, J, O, Q, P, R, S, T)
YEAR 7 : CAT/TEC/PDH - Practical class size, max 24 students, classes not identified by Extension, Core, Structured conventions (Coded as D, E, J, O, Q, P, R, S, T)
MATHEMATICS: Due to the Pathway structure of Stage 5 Mathematics, the following groupings exist for Year 9 and 10: