Every child has been personally and individually created by Jesus Christ, to know Him and follow Him. Therefore,

• each child is to be taught and valued as an individual, made in the image of God

• each child receives all their talents and abilities from Jesus

• each child is to develop, use and enjoy their talents and abilities for Jesus

• the talents and abilities of each child are to be valued equally in the classroom and in the school community.

Jesus is therefore central to the way Carinya understands the child as a learner in the educational process.

The curriculum of the school examines the world that Jesus has made and our place in it.

As children experience the curriculum they also learn what Jesus thinks about His world and how He wants us to respond to it.

That is why we can say that the curriculum is “centred” on Christ. He created what we learn about and He helps us understand how to live obediently in that world.

Carinya is therefore a school where, in the nature of the case, the curriculum is centred on Jesus Christ.

Teachers at Carinya are obliged to:

• To treat a child as an individual because they are made by Jesus in His image, a teacher must believe that to be true about the child and about himself.

• To teach a child that everything they learn about in the curriculum has come from the mind and hand of Jesus, a teacher must believe that to be true.

• To respond to a child’s learning in a way that points them to Jesus as the source of all their opportunities and abilities, a teacher must believe that to be true.

Teaching children honestly and effectively is not just about giving them information or “values”, or leading them to conclusions. These all matter, but context and personal conviction matter much more. A teacher cannot point children to Jesus Christ in their learning, if they are not personally committed to Jesus Christ in their teaching.

i. Teaching Methods

At Carinya our teaching methods are based on an understanding of the learner, the curriculum and the teaching process, informed by what we know about Jesus Christ.

Therefore students are encouraged:

• to appreciate themselves as an individual, created on purpose and for a purpose

• to think of themselves as learners, studying and enjoying the world created by Jesus

• to see all of their abilities as gifts from Jesus to them

• to seek delight in the abilities they have been given and enjoy what they can achieve with those abilities (to “seek the reward in the task”)

• to always do their best in whatever they do (to “be faithful”)

ii. Community Not Competition and Rivalry

At Carinya, students are encouraged to thankfully enjoy and use their skills and abilities to bring glory to the Lord Jesus, and not seek that glory for themselves.

Students are taught in an atmosphere of community and co-operation not rivalry and competition.

Students are taught that “coming first” and “beating” classmates is not the goal of their learning. Rather, the joy and reward of learning itself and the privilege of sharing their gifts as they help others is encouraged.

We believe that rivalry in the classroom, established by artificial methods of "rewards", is counterproductive both to the child's learning and to the broader aims of the school.

iii. Seeking the Reward in the Task : Faithfulness

Because we reject rivalry and competition in the classroom students are encouraged to "seek the reward in the task". That means students are to look for any "reward" in faithfully completing all tasks to the best of their abilities. In other words the “reward” for learning mathematics is that they now know more mathematics. The “reward” for learning to read is that they can read. In educational terms students are taught to seek “intrinsic” rather than “extrinsic” rewards.