Curriculum
As teachers we are influenced by best practices in education, and each teacher brings their own individual personality and ‘best practice’ philosophies to the school. We allow room for our teachers to create the most exciting, engaging curriculum based on the children’s needs and interests.
While a diversity of curriculum practices influence our styles (from child-centred movements such as Reggio Emilia, to democratic education, to play-based learning, to current brain research), we return frequently to the “project approach”. This allows the students to explore topics of interest to them (and mainly chosen by them) in depth, connecting literacy, numeracy, science, history, geography, arts and physical learnings to the current project or play investigation. Group projects as well as individual projects, explorations and investigations occurring over the course of the year, allow children to explore interests in an integrated, in-depth way.
Pine Community School purposefully provides multi-age learning groups. We believe learning is socially constructed, enhanced by access to peers with differing skills, strengths and ability levels. Therefore, our curriculum is currently sequenced according to developmental needs of the student. Learning groups are fluid and dynamic. The group’s membership changes, as the students’ needs change. All students are encouraged to work with students in other groups to provide peer support and opportunities for developing positive relationships within the school.