Free to be me
Our school teaches the Australian Curriculum, the same as many other schools.
How we teach the curriculum is our point of difference. Our pedagogy is democratic and place-based. This means students have a voice in decisions that affect them, and we use our community and surrounding natural environment as our classroom.
Our school’s place-based education program means we take our teaching and learning out of the classroom. Lessons can be indoor activities moved outside or they can be about the setting itself: our local community and the natural environment. When you start to think this way, the opportunities for learning outside of the classroom are endless.
David Attenborough once said, “No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced.” As well as experiencing public facilities within our local town, students travel once a week to National Parks, forests, creeks and beaches.
As a democratic school we believe that children have a right to a voice in decisions that affect them. At Darlingia, children can decide how they approach a topic of study, where and with whom they learn, when to take a break and how to demonstrate what they know.
Our school suits active and creative learners. Children do not have to sit still to learn and our place-based program means we are out of school learning in our community and natural environment twice a week. Our high staff to student ratio and adjusted daily schedule also means more time for play and following creative endeavours.
