Curriculum

The Birchwood Curriculum reflects our vision: Together We Learn, Together We Grow. 

Our GROW values are evident in how we expect our children to behave but also woven into how we learn at Birchwood. 

The 'togetherness' of our vision is represented in our school wide inquiries.  Each year an over-arching theme underpins the major learning focuses.  Planning teams across all areas of the school work collaboratively to create a school wide inquiry outline.  This follows Kath Murdoch’s approach around inquiry learning.  Inquiries may be based on school wide events, problems that need to be addressed or any topical issues.  When we engage our learners in a process of inquiry, we begin by spending time tuning in to their prior knowledge and gathering student voice to generate curiosity.  The inquiry process then follows the students’ areas of interest, so contexts may be varied across the school.

Features of our school based inquiries are the Initial Engagers and the Finales.  Initial Engagers are activities or events that will stimulate the students’ interests and initial wonderings.  The Finales are school wide events where we invite the wider community to see the new learning in action.