Skylark Federation

Through living our Christian values of Faith, Hope and Love we aspire to provide exceptional educational and environmental foundations enabling our students to flourish, becoming fully rounded citizens, equipped with a lifelong love of learning and the resilience to meet the many challenges of our ever-changing world, while continuing to thrive.

As educators we will continue to innovate and develop our practices such that we become renowned and sought after, able to provide outreach and training to others based on our expertise.

Our curriculum principles...

...are based on the work of Ron Berger and EL Education

https://eleducation.org/

The Primacy of Self-Discovery

Learning happens best with emotion, challenge, and the requisite support. People discover their abilities, values, passions, and responsibilities in situations that offer adventure and the unexpected. In our schools, students undertake tasks that require perseverance, fitness, craftsmanship, imagination, self-discipline, and significant achievement.

A teacher’s primary task is to help students overcome their fears and discover they can do more than they think they can.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

The Having of wonderful ideas

Teaching in our schools fosters curiosity about the world by creating learning situations that provide something important to think about, time to experiment, and time to make sense of what is observed.

Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash

The Responsibility for Learning

Learning is both a personal process of discovery and a social activity. Everyone learns both individually and as part of a group. Every aspect of our schools encourages both children and adults to become increasingly responsible for directing their own personal and collective learning.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Empathy and Caring

Learning is fostered best in communities where students’ and teachers’ ideas are respected and where there is mutual trust. Caring adults look after the progress and act as an advocate for each child. Older students mentor younger ones, and students feel physically and emotionally safe.

Photo by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash

Success and Failure

All students need to be successful if they are to build the confidence and capacity to take risks and meet increasingly difficult challenges. But it is also important for students to learn from their failures, to persevere when things are hard, and to learn to turn disabilities into opportunities.

Photo by Samuel Clara on Unsplash

Collaboration and Competition

Individual development and group development are integrated so that the value of friendship, trust, and group action is clear. Students are encouraged to compete, not against each other, but with their own personal best and with rigorous standards of excellence.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Diversity and Inclusion

Both diversity and inclusion increase the richness of ideas, creative power, problem-solving ability, and respect for others. In our schools, students investigate and value their different histories and talents as well as those of other communities and cultures. Our learning groups are heterogeneous.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

The Natural World

A direct and respectful relationship with the natural world refreshes the human spirit and teaches the important ideas of recurring cycles and cause and effect. Students learn to become stewards of the earth and of future generations.

Photo by Nick Page on Unsplash

Solitude and Reflection

Students and teachers need time alone to explore their own thoughts, make their own connections, and create their own ideas. They also need to exchange their reflections with other students and with adults.

Photo by Ryan Stone on Unsplash

Service and Compassion

We are crew, not passengers. Students and teachers are strengthened by acts of consequential service to others, and one of our primary functions is to prepare students with the attitudes and skills to learn from and be of service.

Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash

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