At Faith Lutheran College Redlands (FLCR), the winds of change have been blowing for some time now.
Nestled in South-East Queensland, this P-12 co-educational school was facing a challenge many others know all too well – how to stand out in a world where education often looks the same from one school to the next. Surrounded by state and independent schools offering the same traditional curriculum, FLCR knew it had to do something different to make a real impact.
It wasn’t enough for FLCR to continue with a one-size-fits-all model, where students moved lockstep through the same content. The world outside was changing rapidly, and education needed to follow suit. So, the leadership team at FLCR embarked on a bold journey to create something that could meet the needs of modern learners and recognise that every student has unique strengths, talents, and ways of learning.
This work culminated in the MyPath@Faith 2.0 curriculum program, which focuses on students’ abilities and interests instead of the one size fits all policy that schools traditionally use. At the heart of the program is the belief that students should have a greater voice in their learning.
Accordingly, the program develops each student as an individual who understands that everyone is unique and has different gifts and talents, allowing them to explore each of these without being forced to follow the same traditional educational path like every other student in other schools.
In August this year, the success of that program was recognised and celebrated on the national stage when it received an Excellence Award for Innovation in Curriculum Design at the Australian Education Awards, held in Sydney.
Below, The Educator speaks to David Moore, Deputy Head of Learning at FLCR, about the genesis of the program, the impact it’s been having, and how the College plans on adapting the program to meet emerging educational challenges and the evolving needs of staff and students.
TE: What key factors and insights led to the conception of the MyPath@Faith 2.0 program, and how did these reshape the College’s curriculum's design?
Faith Lutheran College Redlands (FLCR) fundamentally believe that the current structures that school use for teaching the Australian curriculum is antiquated and doesn’t meet the needs of the students or community expectations. Schools have not change for the past 150years but the world has moved on significantly especially in the past 20 years. FLCR understand that the key to being successful is being able to learn and making a positive contribution to community. The MyPath@Faith 2.0 was designed to deliver that expectation by allowing students to always be challenged and understand that what they learn can contribute to the community.
TE: Can you describe the process of implementing the program across various year levels, and what challenges or successes were encountered during its rollout?
Faith Lutheran College Redlands initially started this program 3 years prior to implementing this program in the classroom. Staff were involved 100% from the initial planning as they are the drivers of the curriculum and therefore needed to be an integral part of the planning. Staff visited schools across Australia and overseas to see innovative curriculum programs allowing staff to see how we could make our curriculum better and more relevant. This lead to the rewriting of our curriculum over the stage of a year and then it was implements in year 8 and 9 with the remainder of the program implemented in the next year.
TE: Over the past 12 months, what have been the most significant outcomes or successes you’ve observed as a result of the program’s implementation?
Currently we have students who in Year 11 are completing their year 12 external exams and then enrolling in University for 2 units of work on 2025, which completing the remainder of their school subjects. Our data is showing us that attendance at school has increased significantly to the stage that on the last day of school in 2024 the school had 96% attendance. However the most significant outcome has been the recognition in the local community of how the school is reaching out beyond the school fence to make learning relevant by making direct links with outside bodies though guest speaker, excursions, student lead projects and just a general presence as students are regularly outside of the school doing things for learning.
TE: Looking ahead, how do you plan to adapt the MyPath@Faith 2.0 program to address emerging educational challenges and the evolving needs of your school community?
Current educational challenges are that the MyPath@Faith 2.0 program is a round peg that has to fit into a square hole to meet educational guidelines and accreditation. Even though this can be done, it is challenging to change institutional views on traditional education when presented with a curriculum model that FLCR runs. The challenge is to make institutions understand that education is about the person and not about the institution. Institutionalised education wants a one size fits all approach as for us we what a tailored made approach to suit the student. Our challenge is to change those views as it benefits the student and the wider community.