Year 5 in a High School Setting

Stepping into a middle school is stepping into a new world. Students in Year 5 are young adolescents. In that adolescent exploration, we welcome them to a middle school environment where they are cared for and nurtured by qualified high school professionals looking after their overall wellbeing.

Developing Students from a Younger Age

The educational rationale is about engaging young minds earlier.

Young people are looking for purpose more than ever before. In being able to develop students from a younger age, we teach them to problem solve, and by conceptually developing them at a younger age, that sense of purpose is nurtured and inculcated.

The advantage of locating students in a secondary context, allows them to engage with older students, to have the stimulus of older students as role models, as mentors, as buddies, to say ‘You can do it!’.

Pastoral Care

We know in adolescence there are often many challenges. It's a challenging time for parents too. We want to make that time very special for students, and we do this by nurturing them, by engaging them in middle school philosophy.

Programs are led by teachers, House Deans, and support staff.  We have expert counsellors, an art therapist, and a school youth health nurse.  All those people work closely with families to nurture students through the adolescent stage.

Leadership Development

We are a school that cultivates leadership in all our students so they can see themselves in their future, in that person that they look up to in Year 12 - suddenly their aspirations rise, and they start to achieve in areas that they didn't think were possible.

Curriculum

When we look at the curriculum for students, we bring more sophisticated concepts in terms of the way they think. We look at their thinking in terms of their cognitive development. We encourage debating, we encourage STEM problem solving, we encourage creative arts and cultural expression.

Access to High School Resources and Facilities

Students will access a program of specialist teachers in maths, science, humanities, and the arts.  The college has a health hub, a trade training centre, a commercial hospitality kitchen and technology laboratories.  There are top physical education resources and outdoor education resources at the college.  

Developing Skills for the Future Earlier

As a college community, we are very focused in our strategic planning and how we think about the future and how we create pathways and skills for students, so that they learn transferable skills.

We look at where the opportunities are for the future and make our school emulate the future world of our students, because the future is their world of work, and is their world of living. 

The skills we are teaching now will not be the same skills in the same jobs in the future, however, if they are learning transferable skills, they will be able to take these skills and apply them to a new context.

That's why teaching the right skills and being able to learn and develop skills across a range of areas earlier, students can find their passion from engaging in a diverse learning environment in a diverse range of subjects.

Cultural Competence

At St James College, 65% of students have English as an additional language and come from over 70 different countries.

If students go to a school where they are mixing with 70 different nationalities, they are educated by living the reality of the world, and they are learning about different cultures and different languages every day.

Our motto of Global Learning, Achieving Aspirations is for every student.

Many students enrol because they want to experience cultural expression. They want to experience diversity. They want to learn about other cultures.  The college’s co-curricular program offers opportunities that other schools cannot simply because they do not have the diversity of student backgrounds.

Excellence in Sport and the Arts

The college offers a remarkably broad cocurricular program relative to the size of the school.

We have sporting excellence programs, particularly in basketball, and our teams excel in futsal, soccer, netball, rugby league and rugby union. As a college, we excel in all those sports. Our sporting programs are about developing the individual and their teamwork and collaboration skills.

The college offers a wonderful music, arts, performing arts and visual arts program. A highlight of each year is Cultural Night where 15 different groups perform, representing 15 different countries, nationalities and cultural expression groups.

Our cultural expression dance groups are often hired out to conventions and conferences to do a welcome and other cultural and voice performances.

Tuition Fees and Bursaries

Tuition and technology fees are surprisingly comparable to other primary schools and generous sibling discounts apply. The college offers concessions for families who qualify.

College Bursary Scholarship Program

The college has a bursary scholarship scheme available for students who would otherwise not be able to attend. St James College are encouraged to apply, especially students from an indigenous background. Applications can be made by clicking here.