About Us

Middle Years Humanities studies at Alkira College offers students a broad, integrated approach to learning and ensures that, through personalised learning strategies, each child has the opportunity to develop to their highest capabilities.

Following the broad frame of the Victorial Essential Learning Standards Curriculum, our Humanities course integrates content and skills across a wide range of curriculum domains, ensuring students are provided with as many opportunities for academic success as possible.

With a strong focus on literacy and numeracy at Alkira, all students undertake a focussed literacy programme that extends beyond the English curriculum and into all other areas of study. Along with the rest of the college, the Humanities domain employs the Highly Reliable Literacy Strategies identified by Professor John Munro to assist students with reading comprehension, a vital skill for ongoing academic success.

To ensure all students are fully catered for as they learn to work with complex written texts, the Humanities course offers a wide range of hands-on learning activities, built into the standard curriculum. Research has shown that students in the  middle years age range respond well to a broad mix of learning methods. To facilitate kinaesthetic  and visual learning, the Humanities units provide experiential learning events. Year 7 students participate in the annual interactive Agora Day, where students dress as characters from ancient civilisations, tour the Silk Road and travel back in time to experience elements of ancient cultures.

Classroom activities include hands-on learning activities: building a Parthenon out of paper; using ping-pong balls to understand latitude and longitude; and running classroom elections and debate, for example. There is plenty of opportunity for students to engage with technology with webquests, online research and the use of class wikis as collaborative study spaces.