Middle School
The Middle School has approximately 380 students in Years 7 to 9, or roughly 126 students in each year. The students are taught in St Andrew's House although they may occasionally attend specialised classes in the Senior College. Unlike the Senior College students the students remain within the School during the normal day's activities.
Student entering Year 7 commence a challenging educational period leading up to the Higher School Certificate. Certain operating structures assist learning processes and facilitate progress during these transition years. Academic and Music Scholarships are offered to Year 7 students following testing and auditions.
Year 7 students learn in various parallel or streamed classes in different subjects:
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Home Classes
Students are divided into home classes for the following subjects; English, History, Geography, Science and Languages. Two of these classes comprise the top academic group of graded students. -
Streamed Classes
Students studying Mathematics are streamed into classes of equal numbers according to academic ability. -
Alphabetical Classes
Students are allocated alphabetically for the following subjects; Christian Development, Design and Technology, Visual Art, Music and Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE). This means these classes comprise students with mixed academic abilities.
This structuring means there is both an intermixing of students in Year 7 as well as more individualised attention to academic abilities throughout the whole year cohort.
Every student at St Andrew's is important, regardless of their academic ability. Learning programmes exist for students who require academic support while students who are gifted academically or musically undertake advanced learning challenges.
Middle School Curriculum
St Andrew's caters for the specific needs of boys and girls in Years 7 to 9 through ‘twinned’ or separate boys and girls classes, in core subjects such as English, Mathematics and Science and coeducational classes in all other subjects. Although boys and girls study the same curriculum, the teaching styles and resources used in class are modified to suit the needs of each class and gender.
Years 7 and 8 (Stage 4)
Students are required to study a core of English, Mathematics and Science, complemented by 100 mandatory hours of study in a Language Other Than English (LOTE).
Current languages offered are French, German and Japanese. In addition, students will study a semester length course of History and Geography and a full year general experience course in Design and Technology, Music, Visual Arts and PDHPE. All classes study Christian Development as an integral part of their academic programme.
Year 9 (Stage 5)
Elective subjects commence in Year 9. Elective subject choices may vary according to curriculum changes made by the Board of Studies. While continuing with English, Mathematics (at various levels), Science, Christian Development and PDHPE, students also study History and Geography and then have the choice of studying two electives from the following:
- Commerce
- Computing Studies
- Design and Technology
- French
- German
- Japanese
- Music
- Drama
- Visual Arts
