Our academic program (and syllabus) is an agreed framework through which knowledge is gained, skills are developed, and experience is widened. It is continuous across grades and phases and is aimed at allowing learners to write their final Grade 12 exit examination with internationally recognised qualifications.
Our academic program is supported by the Pearson International Curriculum, which not only meets all the curriculum expectations of the South African National Curriculum, (CAPS) but is significantly enriched in specifically Mathematics, the Sciences, and English.
The sheer magnitude of human knowledge, globalisation, and the accelerating rate of change due to technology necessitates a shift in our approach to education – we need to move from plateaus of knowing to creating continuous cycles of learning.
Children and young people today use tablets, laptops, smartphones, android applications, social media, and instant messaging to connect to friends, family, experts, and others in their community and around the globe. They have knowledge and information available to them instantly, 24-hours a day. Their way of researching and validating credibility is global and digital. Our learners now have at their fingertips a virtual world – with all its promises and pitfalls. Yesterday’s education is not sufficient for today’s learner.
Academic excellence must be acquired within the context of today’s technological environment to fully prepare children to thrive in the Digital Age. At Jacaranda College, our academic program is structured to ensure the incorporation of 21st-century skills as a targeted approach to the attainment of demonstrated proficiencies as illustrated in the diagram here showing the characteristics of the 21st century learner.
The development of children and teens is often studied as separate topics, e.g. their different skills are viewed and measured in different ways. However, each area of development influences others and is interconnected.
Each different development skill is seen differently in every child or your person. Socio-emotional, physical, creative, and cognitive capacities are deeply intertwined and equally important in ensuring a the wellbeing, learning, and growth of a learner.
For us at Jacaranda International, holistic or whole child development involves the physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, moral, and social development of every learner.
Every day at Jacaranda International is organised into a structured, learner-focused framework or day program. We delineate the day into three distinct frames, creating a meaningful whole of the daily learning experience.
During the Integral Frame, themes support learners' ever-widening interest and stages of awareness. It is set up to generate enjoyment of schooling and a life-long enthusiasm for learning. New core academic content is firstly introduced to learners during these sessions.