The Middle School years are a significant and transformative stage in a girl’s development.
At Fairholme, our Middle School provides a supportive and engaging environment for students in Years 7 to 9, where academic, social and personal growth are carefully nurtured.
Our Middle School program provides a smooth and supported transition from Junior to Senior School, encouraging girls to develop independence, responsibility and confidence. The curriculum is delivered in a supportive and caring environment where students are challenged to think deeply, explore new interests and build the skills and mindset needed for academic excellence and lifelong learning.
Pastoral Care
and Support
The Middle School years can be both exciting and challenging as young girls navigate the important transition into adolescence.
At Fairholme, we recognise that strong, compassionate support during this time is invaluable in helping each student grow with confidence and purpose, while preparing them for the opportunities and expectations of Senior School.
Our Middle School pastoral care program provides a network of support designed to help every girl flourish. Through intentional care and guidance, students are encouraged to build self-esteem, develop confidence, strengthen resilience, and cultivate determination.
Each girl’s emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing is supported in harmony with her academic journey, ensuring she feels known, valued and empowered to achieve her best.
Middle School Curriculum
Fairholme Middle School offers a stimulating and challenging curriculum for girls in Years 7, 8 and 9, delivered in a supportive and caring environment designed for achieving excellence, whilst smoothly transitioning from Junior to Senior School.
The curriculum is based on the National Curriculum, but is delivered in an interesting and engaging way to ensure that every girl enjoys their learning whilst in the Middle School.
A strong focus on academia, where the National Curriculum has been implemented in Years 7, 8 and 9 in English, Maths, Science, History and Geography, is well supported by our Pastoral Care and Thrive program. As the girls embark on a curriculum that is focused on literacy and numeracy, intellectually engaging, relevant to their lives and deliberately fun, our pastoral care and life skills programs work to enhance the emotional, social and spiritual development of each girl alongside her studies.
Further opportunities available to Middle School students include:
- debating
- maths team challenges
- drama and musical productions
- a vast range of sporting competitions
- visual art groups
- dance troupes
- an annual camp
- Army cadets
- volunteer service to our community.
Such experiences offer moments of anticipation and exhilaration, and kick-start motivation to pursue individual and unique interests - crucially important in engaging girls of this age.
Curriculum Overview
YEAR 7
English
Mathematics
Science
Humanities
Visual Art
Dance
Drama
Music
Japanese
French
Design Technology
Digital Technologies
Health and PE
Christian Education
Thrive
YEAR 8
English
Mathematics
Science
Humanities
Financial Literacy
Visual Art
Dance
Drama
Music
Performance Music
Japanese
French
Design Technology
Digital Technologies
Health and PE
Christian Education
Thrive
YEAR 9
English
Mathematics
Ag Science
Science
Humanities
Business
Visual Art
Dance
Drama
Music
Japanese
French
Design Technology
Digital Technologies
Engineering
Health and PE
Christian Education
Thrive
Learning Enhancement provides ongoing benefits for students, staff and parents, including:
Formal assessment of individual student needs. Individual education plans are developed for students assessed as requiring additional learning support or extension/accelerative options.
In-class, small group and withdrawal assistance for students.
Homework and assessment help sessions conducted before, during and after school.
Specialist advice for teachers and parents for shared approaches in class and at home.
Co-curricular interest groups, including robotics club, STEAM, debating, various drama and arts groups.
Facilitation of student participation in a variety of competitions, such as the University of Southern Queensland Science and Engineering Challenge, Darling Downs Maths Team Challenge, Mathematics Olympiad.
Learning Enhancement
We aim for inclusion of all girls. Innovative and multi-faceted, our Learning Enhancement Centre (LEC) supports the learning of all Fairholme College students, recognising that each student can be at different stages along the learning spectrum.
Learning Enhancement at Fairholme is offered through supportive, inclusive programs across the College. This may involve in-class support, small group assistance and classes and withdrawal support. This enables us to ensure that each girl requiring support has a program tailored to their needs.
Students who may benefit from learning support are identified and referred to the LEC team for further assessment. They meet with a member of the learning enrichment team who will help with assessments, study skills, examination preparation and organisation. The team has established intervention programs for girls who need more intensive support.
LEC staff also work with closely with teachers, families and specialists to ensure a collaborative approach to learning management.
Greta Centre
The Greta Centre Libraries at Fairholme are dynamic environments which empower students and support 21st century learning.
They are not just places for reading in, but they are places for thinking, exploring, creating, collaborating… which means they are rarely silent!
The College operates two centres for learning - The GRETA Centre and GRETA Junior.
The GRETA Centre
The GRETA Centre services Middle and Senior School staff and students
Open Monday to Friday, 8.00am to 4.30pm.
GRETA Junior
GRETA Junior services Fairholme Junior staff and students
Open Monday to Friday, 8.00am to 3.25pm.
Service
At Fairholme Middle School, we aim to give as many opportunities as possible for our girls to understand the value in serving others.
Through meaningful service experiences, students learn the importance of contributing to their community and making a positive difference in the lives of those around them.
They might contribute through serving at College or community events, taking part in free dress days and donating money, making items to be sold at bake sales, volunteering to cook meals for Rosies Outreach and Tony’s Kitchen, organising fundraising events, or mentoring younger students.
Leadership
We begin our work with Leadership during Year 8, where girls are asked to think about how they want to contribute to the Middle School and what skills they may be able to offer to serve the students of the Middle School.
As they move into Year 9, each girl nominates to be a member of a Middle School Leadership Committee. Each committee meets regularly and girls share the various Leadership responsibilities to ensure that their committee is offering activities and learning opportunities for the Middle School in areas and topics related to their committee.
These committees include:
- Arts
- Cultural
- Environment
- Pastoral Care
- Service
- Sports
- STEM
- Teaching & Learning
- Wellness
Fairholme Co-Curricular
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