CREDENTIALING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

The experiences of our Year 5, 6 and 7 students during their Outdoor Education camps highlighted the need for us to acknowledge the growth and success of student ability in transferable skills and capabilities. As part of these programs students worked in positive, productive teams and collaborated on team tasks. They also communicated and demonstrated skills of compassion towards others, particularly when challenges were presented in the great outdoors.

Ruyton’s goal is to foster the development of student capability throughout all learning programs. How might we further celebrate and define the successes of student agency and empowerment; compassion and connection; communication and collaboration; engagement and purpose in opportunities beyond the classroom, in more formal ways?

To this end, Ruyton is in the early piloting stages of introducing a bespoke Middle Years Credentialing Program that will see students gain access to a series of digital badges in general capabilities and transferable skills.

These digital badges will acknowledge levels of accreditation where students initially ‘engage and empathise’, then ‘reflect and represent’ and finally ‘act and apply’ transferable skills and capabilities, at a mastery level.

An opt-in program, students have the opportunity to complete these credentials at stages through the year, and will be supported by a team of teachers, who will guide and support them to complete required research tasks, projects and reflections. We are excited to see our students our students embrace opportunities as the credentialing framework takes shape.

If middle years students grow and demonstrate capabilities in co-curricular experiences, through civic agency, through leadership experiences and in their personal learning journey, then it’s only fitting that we acknowledge those skills through a formal credential.

Jane d’Oliveyra Middle Years Co-ordinator