Curriculum

Our curriculum aims to provide a learning environment that offers all students opportunities to stimulate their intellectual curiosity, whilst developing their confidence in making decisions. This is achieved by emphasising that learning is the key to a successful journey through life, equipping our students with the essential skills, attitudes and values appropriate for a lifetime of learning. A major focus of our program is to lead and encourage our students to think of themselves as global citizens and to acknowledge the essential oneness of humanity.

Our curriculum has recently been rewritten to accommodate the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) which describes what is essential for students to achieve from Year 7 to 10 in Victorian Schools. They describe what students should know and be able to do at different stages of learning and provide a clear basis for reporting to parents and for planning programs.

Thomas Carr offers a broad-based core curriculum at Years 7 and 8 covering all domains and the three strands of learning, being physical, social and personal learning, discipline-based learning and the interdisciplinary strand. These areas include Religious Education, English, Mathematics, the Arts, Science, Humanities, Languages Other Than English (Japanese and Indonesian), Physical Education and Information Technology. In addition the school provides for the teaching of thinking skills, communication skills and interpersonal development and civics and citizenship.

In Year 9, along with the core studies, students are encouraged to pursue areas of particular interest through a varied electives program.

In Year 10 a number of VCE Units 1 & 2 subjects are offered to students. Students at this year level are also involved in work experience, community service and careers advice programs. 

The College supports students with special needs through the provision of a Special Needs Department and offers a range of services which supports all students through this phase of their life.

The College has close links with The Victoria University of Technology, with a number of students participating in pre-apprenticeship courses.

The VCE program the College offers, provides a comprehensive range of subjects that allow the students to gain entry to all major tertiary institutions and courses. In addition the College offers a Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning program (VCAL) and a range of Vocational Education and Training programs through a number of TAFE Institutes.

Thomas Carr College is committed to providing a range of programs which will support the students in their future endeavours and offers a range of activities, both academic and co-curricular which achieve these outcomes.