Learning approach
High quality teaching and learning doesn't happen by accident. At Riverside our teaching practices are informed by current educational research. Our caring, Christian teachers and support staff are committed to being more than simply educators in a world that needs more than just ability.
We maintain a close association with Independent Schools Queensland and other institutions in order to keep our school in step with best practice teaching methods and educational advancements. We regularly update our technology to meet the increasing opportunities provided by educational apps and a more connected world.
Riverside Adventist School provides students with a core of essential learning that promotes a depth of understanding across a variety of subjects with a solid foundation in English, Maths and Science, each embedded with Seventh-Day Adventist Christian values.
The fully approved Riverside primary school curriculum is dynamic, well balanced and academically challenging. Timetabled blocks of learning are dedicated to the Key learning areas including Music, Sport, Library and Technology.
Learning includes whole class, group and individual activities that focus on holistic understanding of ideas and concepts, rather than isolated facts and skills. Riverside teachers focus on the total growth of the developing child, educating both hearts and minds in a balanced approach. There is a deliberate focus on teaching students how to safely access learning opportunities for themselves in this ever-advancing climate of technological evolution.
More than books
Outdoor learning
Outdoor learning is a significant element of the Riverside curriculum and the team is always looking for new opportunities to move classes into the fresh air, underneath the magnificent raintrees and to the surrounding parklands.
Agricultural training, or ‘gardening’ to our students, is a key feature of the learning program at Riverside. Students are responsible not only for the planning, purchasing, preparing, planting, weeding, watering and harvesting of their crop. They also use the gardens’ produce to both perpetuate their growing cycle and provide some kind of benefit or service to the wider community. The gardens not only supplement creative learning embedded in the Australian curriculum but stimulate a spirit of giving. With an identified purpose behind every crop of fruit, vegetables or flowers, students learn to ‘reap what they sow’ and then ‘share with others’.
Service projects
As a Seventh-day Adventist school, service to others remains a high priority. Each year, under the guidance of their teachers, every Riverside class makes a Service Plan for improving the community or helping those in need. Projects range from visitations to gifts, to fundraising, to musical performances, to artwork and anything else the students may dream up. In the past, some of these ideas have been linked to the gardening program. So far, the impact on the students themselves has far outweighed the obvious benefits to others.
Better Buddies program
One of the benefits of a small school population is the strength of the bonds that can exist between the students of varying ages. Riverside is a registered “Better Buddies” school. Students of different classes are able to read, play, plan and learn together.
Being a part of this program has highlighted the growth that is possible in building leadership skills in older students. Relationships blossom and grow.
There is a strong sense of family between classes and since older students feel responsible for the safety and security of their younger friends, bullying becomes almost non-existent.