Learning at Macarthur Girls
Macarthur Girls High School has a team of educators and administrators that consistently provide our students with a wide range of whole school and in class learning experiences in a supportive environment, enabling them to achieve their best. The school has been at the forefront of future focused learning for a number of years. It is prepared for changes in teaching methodology and learning spaces required to meet the future skills and capabilities identified for employment. Macarthur Girls High School has been recognised state wide as an exemplar in innovative curriculum design and implementation, collaborative learning spaces, an integrated curriculum and initiatives in literacy, numeracy and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
Macarthur Girls High School was one of seven schools in the state used to gather information on what an effective school does to produce high value adding in their students. The resulting research paper CESE What works best: Evidence-based practices to help improve NSW student performance has been distributed across the state to all schools. Our students achieve outstanding growth because Macarthur Girls High School believes in a strong focus on knowing our students and knowing how to teach them. It is the way we use evidence to tell us what each student can do and then further develop teachers' knowledge and strategies to provide learning opportunities that enable our students to move to the next level of achievement.
Educational research suggests five principles are essential for effective student learning. All of these principles are applied in our daily teaching and learning practice and are reflected in our wellbeing program as well as our school culture. These principles are:
● effective relationships between teachers, students and peers;
● students’ ownership of, and responsibility for, their learning;
● learning tasks that are intellectually challenging;
● developing in each student the attitudes, thought patterns and strategies to be resilient in the face of challenges; and
● learning to take responsibility for their decisions and actions.
This combination will empower students with the understanding, capabilities, skills and values to become productive members of a rapidly changing world. It enables students to take a meaningful and substantial position as future leaders within our society.
MGHS Curriculum Pattern
Macarthur Girls High School is organised on a two week cycle: Week A and Week B. Below is a list of the subjects and associated periods per cycle for each year group. Each period is 72 minutes in duration, with four periods per day plus implementation of daily roll call/wellbeing (PRIDE) lessons.
Preparing students for their future – 21st Century Learning Skills
At Macarthur Girls High School, we provide our students with the skills they need to solve problems which may not exist yet, but may exist when they enter the workforce. The ability to communicate, collaborate, be creative, think critically and solve problems are skills that all students require in a range of post-school destinations. Research shows that by teaching these skills, students will improve their performance in school. These skills are also acknowledged as being essential for success by the world’s leading universities.
21st century learning skills include:
Collaboration – students work in groups to share responsibility and make decisions together about what they will produce, how they will produce it, and why they have chosen these means.
Real world problem-solving – students are given a problem task which requires them to learn new skills to solve it. Students solve problems in an authentic situation and present and implement their solution in the real world.
Critical thinking – students question and evaluate aspects of the world around them to make informed decisions.
Skilled communication – students communicate through writing and other mediums using a central argument or thesis. Students make a claim and support a hypothesis with evidence in an organised and coherent way.
Self-regulation – students plan, assess and reflect on a long-term learning task using their own initiative.
Using ICT – students use technology when it contributes to their building of knowledge and acquiring of skills by providing them with new learning opportunities.
Creativity – students develop their creative skills to be innovative and develop new ideas to contribute to the world community.
These skills are required for 21st century learners to face the challenges in work and life after school. By developing these 21st century skills, students will build knowledge across all subjects by generating new ideas and understandings, requiring students to use and develop higher order thinking skills such as evaluation, synthesis, analysis and interpretation.