At Holy Cross, we use the Highway Heroes curriculum to teach our students the essential tools for self-management and building resilience at home, in the playground and in the classroom.
The curriculum grows with children as their social, emotional and learning landscapes change. Based heavily on experiential learning, we know that the social, emotional and learning issues that a child faces in Prep will most certainly not be the same in either Year 1 or Year 2. And that’s the magic of Highway Heroes – it grows with the children’s experiences and expands on their knowledge and skill set whilst core concepts are rehearsed and consolidated.
Our Prep students engage in little Highway Heroes which is aligned with the Early Years Learning Framework. Our Prep students will learn about making and keeping friends, developing empathy, learning the skills to calm down right through to managing the really tough stuff like teasing, silliness and bossiness.
The Year 1-3 and Year 4-6 curriculum consists of 4 modules:
Travel the Social Highway – Modules 1 (Bullying & Teasing) & Module 2 (Friends and Playground Resilience).
Travel the Learning Highway – Module 3 (Growth Mindset, Staying-power & Grit).
Travel the Emotional Highway – Module 4 (Feelings, Moods & Resilience).
The Year 1-3 and Year 4-6 modules consist of similar content, however the conceptual, linguistic and cognitive demand on the child to find their own solutions, to come to their own way of rating and scaling a situation and then independently manage it, increases in the Year 4-6 Modules. Activities are less scaffolded, children create their own scenarios rather than using those given to them and more is asked of each child in terms of choosing an appropriate TOOL to get past the BUMP or HAZARD.
This whole school approach is a significant strength and allows consistency of language and concepts functionally and developmentally within the life of the Holy Cross school community.
For more information please contact us.
© Brisbane Catholic Education, Holy Cross School Wooloowin (2023)