Year 5 Entry - Canterbury College

Year 5 Entry @ Canterbury College
Year 5 is a major student intake year here at Canterbury, so an extra class is available to cater for additional enrolment demand.
And here is why Year 5 could be the perfect entry year level for your child with us…

A Flying Start Into Secondary / Senior School

The academic and social crossover from Primary or Junior School into Secondary or Senior School can be daunting.

So Canterbury’s Year 5 entry allows two years for your child to really settle in and be part of our smooth transitional program leading into Year 7.

For example, instead of most major college events being restricted to the ‘older’ Years 7-12 students, Canterbury’s default main events student attendance setting is Years 5-12.

This gives our Year 5s two years associating with, and participating in, many of the same big calendar events, right alongside our Secondary or Senior School cohort.

Each Year 5 student also has a Year 10 buddy assigned from their same House for advice and support.

Another example is our Years 5-6 Spark Program, where students get to experience a form of ‘elective subjects’, just like their Secondary or Senior School counterparts enjoy.

All delivered by dedicated, high-quality classroom teachers who specialise in upper primary teaching and learning.

Years 5-6 Spark Program

Spark is an elective-based ‘hands-on’ STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics program for Years 5 and 6 students, unique to Canterbury and Queensland.

Each semester, our students choose one genuinely engaging subject to study, from a wide range of 12-14 topics.

Then students from both year levels who select the same option are combined into the one classroom and taught by relevant staff.

Spark is about building curiosity, encouraging students to try something different, and providing an exceptional opportunity for them to embark on their own ‘World Ready’ learning journey.

Spark happens once per week for two hours, with students encouraged to continue their learning beyond the classroom.

Spark focuses on the Australian Curriculum’s general capabilities of critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability, ethical understanding and intercultural understanding.

At the end of each semester, our Junior School hosts a Spark Learning Expo, where the students exhibit their special topic projects to parents, carers, staff, other student years, and the wider Canterbury community.

Giving students a choice in their learning early on can boost engagement, encourage them to capitalise on their strengths, and build student autonomy.

Spark also exposes students to subjects from Senior School, further strengthening their transition and familiarity with staff.

Canterbury Kitchen Garden

The aim of our Canterbury College Kitchen Garden Program is to promote pleasurable food education, which emphasises the true flavours and health benefits of fresh seasonal produce, while investigating important issues around food systems, native foods and culture, food security and ‘real world’ sustainability.

This initiative focuses on the cycle of planting, growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing – allowing students to develop an appreciation of sustainable food production from farm to table.

Students regularly participate in hands-on outdoor lessons devoted to developing and maintaining a working campus garden.

These extremely popular lessons increase from monthly to fortnightly to weekly, as our young ‘gardeners’ graduate through their Junior School years, plus there is a Senior School Garden Activity Club.

Students’ cooking experiences using school-grown produce is another standout feature of the program.

Canterbury students have prepared and enjoyed: mandarin marmalade, potato paella, carrot cake, beetroot and chocolate cake, lilly pilly cordial, orange-ade, bok choy stir fries, savoury pancakes, bruschetta, pesto, healthy salads and pizzas.

On special Pizza Days, the students make their own passata (tomato paste), pizza bases, and their own individual pizzas using the school’s wood-fired oven, featuring our campus garden’s herbs and produce.

Teachers harness opportunities in our Kitchen Garden to enhance practical learning across other curriculum areas too – including Science, Mathematics, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Creating these ‘real world’ links allows for higher levels of student enthusiasm and deeper understanding, while providing context to the students’ academic learning.

Food ecology educational highlights include germinating plants from seeds, reducing food waste by turning school scraps into fertile compost, and harvesting the garden’s ripe produce for cooking and eating with classmates.

Students learn different ways to propagate plants, how to identify and remove weeds, native bee-keeping, and so much more.

The College has plans to further improve our Kitchen Garden, as well as increase our garden size, to include plants which provide the basics of cuisines from all over the world – mirroring our school’s own community.

MyCC: My Canterbury College Portal & Academic Reporting

MyCC is Canterbury’s complete communications, events, teaching, learning and co-curricular web portal installed on your College-supplied device.

It gives you full access to all our academic and co-curricular offerings, including a full events calendar, news updates, important notices, student services, school policies, free learning resources, class timetables, staff directories and much more.

Most importantly, it allows you to directly track all academic progress, assignment submissions and exam assessment results – even weekly homework tasks!

Every student and parent/carer is given a MyCC login, and there is a ‘How To Use MyCC’ Information Video searchable on our website News section and YouTube channel.

To ensure academic growth, each student will have their progress continually reviewed by their teachers, along with curriculum and support staff.

This general information and your child’s exam, assignment, homework and in-class results are conveyed via term and semester Report Cards, Parent-Teacher Interviews and our MyCC continuous Student Reporting Portal which is available to parents and carers 24/7.

Lumina Program Access

Lumina provides opportunities for high performing students to challenge their thinking and develop academic skills beyond their classroom environment.

The program fosters higher order thinking skills, meta-cognition and problem-solving via participation in school team challenges, external academic competitions and various enrichment activities.

Coaching sessions are offered leading up to events after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

All Lumina students are expected to fulfil their commitments around attending these coaching sessions, in-school competitions and off-campus events.

Year 5 Lumina Activities:

Interschool DaVinci Decathlon where students compete in teams of eight across 10 disciplines: Engineering, Mathematics and Chess, Code Breaking, Art and Poetry, Science, English, Ideation, Creative Producers, Cartography and Legacy; Interschool Public Speaking Competitions; Interschool Debating Competitions; Australasian Mathematical Problem-Solving Olympiad; Canterbury Spelling Bee and Interschool Spelling Bee Competitions; ICAS: International Competitions and Assessment for Schools Academic Competitions – Skills-Based Online English, Mathematics and Science Tests; BRAINways Education Off-Campus Workshop Program Days; It’s All About The Backstory Writers Program; Geometry In Nature; Premier’s Book Reading Challenge.

Enormous Co-Curricular Range

Canterbury’s Year 5 students have access to:

Junior TAS Sport: The Associated Schools’ private school Saturday morning sporting competition and Term carnivals – AFL, Athletics, Basketball, Cricket, Cross Country, Football (Soccer), Hockey, Netball, Rugby, Swimming, Tennis and Touch Football. We also have a Years 1-6 Running Club.

Our Canterbury Taipans Sporting Clubs: Swimming, Tennis and Athletics.

Our Performing Arts Ensembles: Chamber Music, Choirs, Band Music, Strings, Rock School, Dance Groups – Flame Dance Class, Ignite Dance Company, Blaze Crew and BoyZone; plus the Canterbury Junior Players Drama Group.

Our ‘Thought Sports’ Clubs & Activities: Sumo Robot League, Creative Gadgetry, First Lego League, Debating, Public Speaking, Chess, eSports – Rocket League, Just Dance, League Of Legends and Mario Kart; Canterbury Kitchen Garden and the Homework Club.

Our huge co-curricular program is wide enough to offer something for every student, as we firmly believe: ‘busy engaged students are happy students’.

Year 5 Immersion Band Program

As part of our Music curriculum, students begin their Immersion Band Program during Year 5, and continue through into Year 6.

Each week in-term, they have a group lesson with specialist instrumental teachers, as well as a full band rehearsal with our Coordinator of Bands.

Students can learn the flute, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, French horn, trombone, euphonium or percussion instruments.

They may also opt to further their learning by taking music lessons in our Studio Tuition Program and/or playing in the Performance Program’s Beginner Band.

The Year 5 Band performs at Term 3’s Canterbury Spring Music Festival’s Panorama Concert while the Beginner Band performs at Term 2’s Canterbury Winter Music Festival’s Panorama Concert.

Motivated & Disciplined Classmates

This is an opportunity for your child to make lifelong friends from a young age, with other students holding good values, who are motivated, well-behaved and love coming to school.

This can only serve to boost or reinforce your own child’s emotional wellbeing, school life participation, maturity and academic motivation.

Specialist Classrooms With Beautiful Facilities

Our Junior School campus features specialist Science, Performing Arts, Sports and Library facilities, while the Year 5 classrooms are large, modern, fully air-conditioned and designed especially for 9-11 year-olds to thrive.

These buildings are set amongst 33 hectares of beautiful native bushland and colourful gardens, that surround sporting ovals, adventure playgrounds, shaded recreational spaces and our high-performance Aquatic, Tennis & Athletics Centre.

Wellbeing, Leadership, Service & Character

Canterbury offers its Year 5s a pastoral care curriculum backed up by a Wellbeing Blueprint, leadership courses, the industry-leading The Resilience Project, our RaVE: Religious and Values Education Program, House Spirit events, and the Year 5 Outdoor Education Camp – 3-4 days of outdoor adventures in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

In conjunction with professionally facilitated workshops like the Years 5-6 Sacred Sister Project for girls, and Years 5-6 Rock And Water Program for boys, they all set the tone for self-awareness, personal growth and the development of young people with integrity, respect, gratitude and effort.

The Resilience Project

This leading nationwide organisation delivers emotionally engaging programs and provides evidence-based, practical wellbeing strategies to build resilience.

Their mission is to teach positive mental health strategies to help people become happier and more resilient.

This is based on research which clearly shows the more positive emotions you experience, the more resilient you will be.

For that reason they focus on three key pillars proven to cultivate positive emotion: Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness (GEM).

The Resilience Project also has a strong focus on Connection, Purpose, Kindness, Emotional Literacy and Physical Health.

Not only do our Year 5s experience this wonderful program, but their parents and carers can attend an adult-level virtual or in-person evening workshop during the year.

Year 5 School Calendar Events

College Life

Educational

Sport

Junior School Interhouse Swimming, Cross Country and Athletics Carnivals | Junior TAS Interschool Swimming, Cross Country and Athletics Championships | Canterbury Taipans Swimming, Tennis and Athletics Club Meets | eSports Interschool FUSE Cup – Rocket League, Just Dance, League Of Legends and Mario Kart | Canterbury Sports Awards Presentation Evening.

Performing Arts

Canterbury Dance Spectacular | Interhouse Choir Competition | Biennial School Musical | Loud Lunch Term Music Concerts | Canterbury Spring and Winter Music Festivals | Canterbury Junior Players Drama Performance | Various Interschool Eisteddfods and Music Festivals – BPAC: Brisbane Performing Arts Challenge, Gold Coast, Beenleigh and Redlands.