Learning Differentiation & Support

Mercedes College has a strong commitment to giving students equal access to learning opportunities.

The College aims to:

Develop the whole person within a supportive Catholic environment.
Promote the achievement of excellence.
Develop life skills to enable all students to contribute and take their place as worthwhile members of our society.
Prepare students to make informed and realistic decisions regarding their future vocations.

It is recognised that some students have special learning needs and may benefit from opportunities for differentiated support in addition to that provided by their classroom teachers.

Academic Challenge and Extension

In all areas of teaching and learning, we aim for excellence and the highest educational outcomes within a collaborative, nurturing learning environment. Taking responsible risks is encouraged, success is rewarded, and disappointment acknowledged. The College encourages students to be self-directed, collaborative, critical thinkers who will take ownership of their educational journey and persevere to achieve their personal best. The focus is on continuous learning that will provide the spiritual, social, physical and emotional development needed to achieve personal fulfilment.

The Academic Challenge and Extension (ACE) program has been designed to further develop highly capable students from Years 7 to 10 in the learning areas of English, Mathematics, Science and Social Sciences. ACE classes are typically smaller than most other mainstream classes and comprise approximately 25 students.

Student selection is initially based on Year 7 results and achievement. Furthermore, a student may be selected for one or a number of these extension classes. It is important to note that from year to year the composition of ACE classes may change in accordance with student performance.

Curriculum in all ACE classes follows the mainstream curriculum with deeper and broader focus. Through both enrichment and extension, these students are provided with opportunities to engage in a range of academic competitions and extension activities, as well as participating in incursion, excursions and guest-presentations.

FlexiPath Program

The Mercedes FlexiPath Program is designed to empower senior school students with diverse learning needs as they prepare for life beyond high school. Through a supportive and personalised approach, students engage in a range of pathways that promote independence, skill development, and meaningful post-school transitions.

Key components of the program include:

VET/TAFE Partial Completion Courses offering nationally recognised skillsets in areas such as Animal Care, Supply Chain Operations, Community Services, and Hospitality.
SCSA Preliminary Courses focused on functional literacy, numeracy, and religious education, equipping students with essential skills for employment and daily life.
ASDAN Short Courses tailored to students’ interests, promoting engagement and personal growth.
Certificate I in Access to Vocational Pathways, delivered in-school by qualified trainers and assessors through a registered training organisation (RTO).
Individualised Transition Plans developed in collaboration with families to explore post-school options, including further education and work experience.

The goal of the Flexi Path Program is to foster independence, self-advocacy, and active participation in both the college and the wider community, guided by each student’s unique aspirations and abilities.

Targeted Programs

FLIP (Functional Literacy Intervention Program)

FLIP is an intervention program for Year 7 to Year 9 students, designed to improve the functional literacy of students who are struggling with basic literacy skills. Often, these literacy deficits adversely impact on all learning areas and individuals find it difficult to keep abreast with secondary school content and the increasing demands on their written skills and abilities. FLIP complements the current Learning Support Program and Enrichment Class structure and is offered to a select number of Year 7, 8 and 9 students who have been identified by the College as having significant literacy deficits.

FLIP is an intensive, remedial, intervention program designed to assist these students with the acquisition of basic and essential phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, reading, comprehension and written expression. It is a systematic, cognitive and multi-sensory approach that is evidence-based on Australian, British and New Zealand research and follows models of current and effective practice.

Phase I of the program addresses difficulties in the areas of phonemic and phonological awareness, phonics and spelling.
Phase II concentrates on improving reading fluency, rate and accuracy as well as more advanced spelling skills.
Phase III aims to improve comprehension of the various text types that students encounter across their subjects, in addition to explicit grammar instruction and written expression skills.

Regular feedback and reporting takes place and each student’s progress is closely monitored and reported. For all students FLIP will be timetabled in place of a second language, and therefore occurs twice a week.