What is Village Learning
In 2020 Redeemer proudly launched our contemporary philosophy for learning, which is affectionately known as ‘Village Learning.” This innovative concept aligns directly with our multi-million-dollar facilities masterplan. Our next generation facilities for learning have undergone a complete refurbishment and have been designed to enhance Village Learning at Redeemer and to ensure that every Redeemer student has a successful and personalised learning journey.
Redeemer’s Village Philosophy for Learning
The shift to a village philosophy has seen the establishment of learning environments and an approach that has a greater emphasis on personalising the learning progress of each individual child. This personalised approach to learning is based on the foundational belief that every child is unique and has an individual pattern and timing for growth.
Our villages (with the exception of Foundation) comprise of children of various ages across a two-year span. The Villages have been given names that reflect important attributes of what it means to be an inquirer.
Each class will continue to have a core class teacher that remains the same, and each class will continue to have students of mixed abilities.
Unlike classrooms in a traditional setting that are set up as Silos, our new Village spaces are designed to foster much greater connections across all classes. This structure also enables strong collaboration for teachers within the teaching teams. Research tells us that greater teacher collaboration and student connections, leads to improved student academic outcomes and wellbeing.
Redeemer’s pedagogical philosophy has an intentional focus on personalised learning and identifying individualized pathways based on each students’ point of need. In the past twelve months this has seen the completed construction of four innovative and purposefully designed Village Learning environments that align strongly with the Village Learning philosophy.
While each village is uniquely designed to meet the developmentally appropriate needs of learners, there are a number of consistent design elements across each village. These include; Imaginariums for ideation, creation and collaboration; Village Squares for whole village community gatherings; Break-out Spaces enabling intervention and extension experiences; Watering Holes for small group collaboration experiences, Guru spaces for independent learning, teacher collaboration spaces; pop up libraries areas, and purposefully designed and flexible whole class learning spaces. In the Village Learning environments all students have access to the most advanced technology with 1:1 devices, 3D printers, laser cutters, drones, VR goggles and Robotics. Our students are richly resourced with personalised digital technologies with students in Foundation, Year 1 and 2 having access to iPad learning. Students in Years 3 to 6 are given their own personal laptop computer (which is not an additional charge) to elevate and mobilise their learning across the curriculum.
One of most appealing features of the School’s new Masterplan is the new Learning Plaza that powerfully and purposefully amplifies learning by being a multiple purpose environment which can be used as a café space, break out spaces for multiple classes simultaneously, gallery space, exhibition space, guest speaker and/or presentation space.
Emulating the agile environment of our Australian Education Award winning Innovators Village (constructed in 2018), each village has a number of breakout spaces which are used for 1 to 1 activities, intervention and extension programs, small group work and collaborative learning. Having purpose-built environments allows for innovative teaching and learning to occur, which greatly enhances each individual child’s development.
It takes a village to raise a child
What Research Supports our Village Learning Philosophy?
Redeemer Lutheran School has been an accredited International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Program (PYP) school since 2009. The IB is founded upon rigorous international research in best practice of teaching and learning. Village Learning at Redeemer aligns with the IBO’s mission statement which is:
“The IB develops inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through education that builds intercultural understanding and respect “
Gonski 2.0
In 2018, David Gonski led a team of Australia’s leading educational experts and released the Gonski 2.0 report titled “Through Growth to Achievement: Report of the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools”. This was commissioned by the Turnbull Government to build the evidence base needed to ensure the additional funding provided by the Australian Government is spent on proven initiatives that make a difference to student outcomes.
In the report there were three main priorities presented;
- Deliver at least one year’s growth in learning for every student every year
- Equip every student to be a creative, connected and engaged learner in a rapidly changing world
- Cultivate an adaptive, innovative, and continuously improving education system
Within this report there were many recommendations suggested to achieve these priorities which we believe connect nicely with what we have already highlighted as needs within a changing educational landscape. Some of these include;
- Focus on individual student achievement
- Equip students for a changing world
- Engage students as partners in learning
- Maximise individual learning growth and attainment
- Prioritise learning progressions for literacy and numeracy
- Strengthen the development of general capabilities
- Strengthen school-community engagement
- Accelerate the development of contemporary pedagogy through collaboration, mentoring, observation and reflective feedback
OECD – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation that works to build better policies for better lives. OECD’s goal is to shape policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity and well-being for all.
The OECD’s 2018 Innovative Pedagogies for Powerful Learning Project (IPPL) was a significant influence in Redeemer’s development of our 7 Pillars of Teaching and Learning (differentiation, agency, wellbeing, agility, inquiry, collaboration and growth mindset). These 7 Pillars continue to drive the Village Learning philosophy, representing best practice as a future focused school.
The OECD’s Learning Compass for 2030 is an educational framework that aims to help students across the globe to navigate towards their future wellbeing. Redeemer continues to strive to offer next generation learning opportunities for our students and our Village Learning philosophy has been influenced by the exceptional work completed by teachers and leaders in the production of OECD’s Learning Compass framework.