By cultivating connected and high-quality learning experiences, we develop in our girls the capabilities and dispositions of masterful, agile and resilient learners who are ready to meet present and future challenges.
At Wilderness, our girls are welcomed into a warm, inviting and nurturing environment where each girl’s needs, interests and abilities are acknowledged and catered for. Here she will be encouraged to wonder, to be curious, to pose questions and to express and share her thinking.
Grounded in sound and evidence-based approaches to learning, the delivery of our high-quality, educational programs is mindfully and intentionally differentiated to support each girl’s learning journey and progress. A carefully balanced combination of explicit, disciplinary teaching is combined with inquiry-based, authentic problem-solving and critical and creative thinking. Our teachers provide learning opportunities that ensure each girl’s foundational skills and knowledge are well consolidated as well as eliciting deep thinking and dialogue.
The wellbeing of each girl is embedded within our teaching and learning program, with a developmental focus throughout the Junior School on building our girls’ confidence, resilience, optimism and sense of personal identity.
Teaching and Learning
Our Junior School curriculum provides girls with the knowledge, problem solving skills, cognitive processes, intellectual dispositions and capacities necessary to engage in learning that matters.
We believe that a combination of explicit teaching and rich interdisciplinary study provides opportunities for our girls to gain and consolidate a solid foundation for their learning whilst allowing them to make connections and build the skills necessary to be successful learners throughout their lives.
All girls study English, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography and Design Technologies with their class teacher. This is enriched by lessons with specialist teachers in Art, Drama, French, Chinese, Music, Physical Education and Outdoor Education.
Focusing on the development of the whole girl, our Wellbeing program for students in Reception to Year 2 is sequential and mindfully designed to ensure each girl is equipped to leverage the complexities and opportunities in her life and make positive choices for herself and her relationships.
'Artemis', a program specially designed for Wilderness girls, provides students from Years 3 to 11 with the opportunity to think deeply about their interpersonal relationships, their relationship with their community and with the world.
Students with identified learning needs are supported by relevant learning support and extended curriculum specialist staff who develop Individual Learning Plans and programs for them. This occurs in close partnership and after communication with parents and class teachers.
Each girl also has many and varied opportunities to participate in and belong to a range of clubs and special interest groups including choirs, bands, instrumental lessons, sporting teams, chess, debating, Coding Club and Musical Theatre Club. This is in addition to the many leadership positions offered to every girl.
Through participation in both their class and co-curricular learning, our Junior School girls truly are able to discover and develop their passions and reach their potential academically, emotionally, socially, physically and spiritually, preparing them to step successfully into Middle School and beyond.
