Automation is happening now… Recently I read an article about a pot plant that moves like a robot around your home catching the sunlight as it changes throughout your home. Our teachers and staff at Living Faith often talk about preparing our children for a future that doesn’t yet exist.

Preparing a child for a world that doesn’t yet exist is not an easy task. Therefore, as teachers, we need to consider……

● What are the critical 21st century skills every student needs to not only survive but thrive in our world once they leave school?

● What abilities and traits will serve them in a time that’s changing and developing so rapidly?

No pupil in the history of education is like today’s modern learner. This is a complex, energetic and tech-savvy individual. They want to be challenged and inspired in their learning. They want to collaborate and work with their peers. They want to incorporate the technology they love into their classroom experiences as much as they can. In short, they have just as high a set of expectations of their educators as their educators have of them.

Even businesses are focusing on the development of skills, not content knowledge. This is great news for Living Faith graduates who attend a school that focuses on the delivery of a conceptual curriculum, focusing more on skills and less on the regurgitation of facts.

Through the way we teach and what we teach, we are focusing on these essential skills or as we know them at Living Faith the Contemporary Competencies.

Contemporary Competencies

The Contemporary Competencies are a set of skills to support students' future success in a changing world. Specific competencies that we value at Living Faith are explicitly taught in each year level.

Prep: Resilience, Service, Social Intelligence
Year 1: Adaptability, Self-Direction, Service
Year 2: Decision-Making, Flexibility, Initiative, Service
Year 3: Collaboration, Information Literacy, Service, Systems Thinking
Year 4: Communication, Creativity, Media Literacy, Service
Year 5: Emotional Intelligence, Innovation, Reasoning, Responsible Leadership, Service
Year 6: Cross-Cultural Communication, Global Awareness, Growth Mindset, Problem Solving, Service, Technology Skills

Growth Mindset is a pillar of our philosophy for learning at Living Faith. Growth Mindset is something that as teachers we focus on with our students. We expect our students to take risks, to embrace challenges, to believe they can achieve even though at times they may fail. We emphasise that MISTAKES are important! Mistakes make our brains grow and importantly, it is what we learn from our mistakes that is most important.

‘Education is not about knowing all the answers; it's about embracing the questions, cultivating curiosity and understanding that learning is a lifelong journey.’

Peace

Andrew Kelly

Principal