22 Feb 2023
An experiential and academic program that provides challenge while fostering excitement in learning.
Loreto Academy offers a suite of rich learning experiences to extend curiosity and add depth to learning programs covered at Loreto Toorak.
Scholars will:
- deepen their excitement for learning and intellectual endeavour;
- cultivate enhanced knowledge of a subject area or field of inquiry;
- develop soft skills such as verbal communication, interpersonal and collaborative skills, problem solving and analytical skills;
- foster character strengths and growth mindset.
What kind of learning experience will scholars enjoy?
Learning and knowing go hand-in-hand: Scholars develop a disposition to learn and make smart choices about what, how, where and why they learn. This disposition will be evident in their relentless curiosity, their command of a range of knowledge and ways of thinking, and their desire to grapple with unclear and thorny problems.
Low threat, high challenge learning experiences.
Scholars are made to feel supported. Tasks are designed to allow students to ask better questions, not just give concrete answers – support is high, but so are expectations and challenges. Scholars are liberated by their learning; their experience opens their minds to new worlds. Learning is not fixed to a specific time or place. Scholars take what they learn and apply it to all contexts.
Learning is personally significant.
Facilitators focus on how the learning is personally significant for the student. They make thoughtful decisions about learning and prioritise deep, prolonged engagement. Facilitators enable learning that allows students to build their capacity to self-manage their learning. Inquiry guides the learning and scholar engagement – there is no assessment.
Discomfort and the unfamiliar are embraced.
Scholars are comfortable with “the grey area” and are okay with “not yet” being able to do something, they tolerate discomfort and welcome complications of error-making, rather than playing it safe through memorisation.
Students write their comments regarding past Prime Ministerial statements about the rights of the First Nations peoples
during the 2022 Winter Academy class “Australian Alchemy – The potential for the Uluru Statement to transform Australia”.