A feature of the school culture is the collaborative nature of the planning and programming process. At the beginning of each term, class teachers work together in stage groups with the Teacher-Librarian, Computer Teacher and Support Teacher (Learning Difficulties), to develop the term's program. Additional release from face-to-face teaching is provided for these planning sessions.

The school became interested in the linkages project as a means of authentically integrating key learning areas to achieve syllabus outcomes. The staff also felt they would be better able to plan for the diverse learning needs of students, in particular the gifted and talented.

During Term 4 1999, the staff at Beaumont Road Public School undertook a process to map their current practice with a view to identifying appropriate links for integration of the curriculum across several key learning areas. The following process and the outcomes to date are provided as a case study.

 

Introduction to the process

The staff were introduced to the Linkages project and in particular, the Board of Studies' Guiding Statement on Curriculum Integration.
This document identifies three key ways of integrating the primary curriculum:

• using key concepts or processes for planning
  

• skills or values common to learning areas are used as linkages
  

• overlapping concepts are used as key elements in planning.

 

Whole School Activity

1. Make a list or chart of the topics each grade/stage has taught in the past or what you consider to be your whole school scope and sequence.
2. Annotate the list/chart to show which topics:
   - could be developed (or linked) into integrated units (ie those that help students understand more about their world)
   - could/should be separate English or literature units
   - are not worth doing
   
3. Consider which 'rich concept' or 'big idea' might be addressed through the integrated unit topic.
4. Use the K-6 outcomes document and identify additional KLAs that can be addressed through an integrated topic.
5. Use a tracking sheet for each KLA to identify possible 'gaps'.

Possible Overlapping Concepts

These can provide 'umbrellas' under which specific topics may be placed

Adaptation	Behaviour	Beliefs and values
Cause and effect	Change	Changing lifestyles
Citizenship	Communication	Conflict and cooperation
Conservation	Consumption	Creativity
Culture	Customs and rituals	Cycles
Development	Distribution	Diversity
Ecological sustainability	Energy	Environment
Feelings and emotions	Gender equity	Human rights
Imagining and constructing the future	Indigenous peoples	Individual potential
Individuals and groups	Institutions	Interaction
Interdependence	Invention and design	Justice, rights and responsibilities
Life and living	Living and non-living	Location
Mobility	Needs and wants	Organisation
Patterns	Perception	Personal safety
Place and space	Power and control	Production
Relationships	Resources	Revolution
Rites of passage	Ritual	Roles, rules and laws
Similarities and differences	Social justice	Society and socialisation
Spirituality	Supply and demand	Survival
Systems	The global society	The physical world
Thinking Critically	Time	Tradition
Transitions	Wellbeing	Work and leisure