The Bishop Druitt College Way builds upon the traditions of the college using active themes that combine our pastoral care programs, outdoor experiences, leadership and mentoring models, and our service learning opportunities with our unique rites of passage.

The Bishop Druitt College Way themes are:

Pre-Kindy - School readiness

Kindergarten  - New friends

Year 1 - Independence at college

Year 2 - Being part of a group

Year 3 - Growing up

Year 4 - Belonging

Year 5 - Discovery

Year 6 - The gathering

Year 7 - Challenge and change

Year 8 - Empowerment

Year 9 - Body esteem and life skills

Year 10 - Leadership and legacy

Year 11 - Social conscience

Year 12 - I am world prepared

In the primary school at Bishop Druitt College we recognise the importance of providing a range of leadership opportunities for students.

Our junior primary students students are given a number of areas of responsibility, including daily tasks that assist the running of the school and broader roles such as raising environmental awareness and assisting with recycling.

Students also have the opportunity to  informally mentor younger students in multi-age groups and through sport offerings. The elected school captains have significant areas of responsibility, including hosting assemblies and representing the school at internal and external functions such as Foundation Day, Grandparents’ Day, community ANZAC Day services and Harmony Day. Primary captains also represent the views and needs of the BDC Primary School student body in their weekly meeting with the Head of Primary.

The school captains join six other students to form the Student Representative Council. The SRC is an extremely active group that oversees fundraising for various local, national and international charities. The college’s house system also provides leadership opportunities. House captains are elected by their peers and lead their house in sporting and cultural activities. Leadership qualities are recognised formally each year with the awarding of the P&F Junior Primary and Senior Primary Awards for Leadership at the annual Presentation Day.

The Bishop Druitt College vision and values document says of our departing collegians:

‘Bishop Druitt college aims to develop graduates who are dynamic, caring and optimistic. They will be well-rounded individuals who are grounded in the Anglican way of faith, hope and love’.

In the secondary school we actively promote ways in which students can become involved in the community, both here at school and in a broader sense. Student leadership takes the form of both formal positions and informal opportunities, where students can make a difference in the lives of others.

The Bishop Druitt College Student Executive is made up of sixteen Year 12 students who are elected by their peers to represent the student body. There are ten student leaders who represent five core areas: academic, service, sports, leadership and the arts, and six house leaders. These students focus on college fundraising activities, college event organisation (Foundation Day) and student welfare issues. They meet on a weekly basis, chair the secondary assembly and present the ‘Senior Spotlight’ at each assembly.

Year 10 students have the opportunity to become leaders for the college's peer support program for their house group. All Year 10 students are trained in peer support activities and philosophy, and apply to their tutor teacher and head of house to become a peer support leader. As leaders they are responsible for the Year 7 students within each house and run a program of six peer support sessions throughout Terms 1 - 3. These sessions include activities based on topics such as belonging and participation.

Year 8 students elect Student Representative Committee (SRC) members from each house group and meet regularly in relation to middle school issues. They are elected by their house peers and represent the middle school for the duration of one year.

House fundraising provides opportunities for students to volunteer their time for charitable causes. Two houses per year are responsible for nominating charities to receive funds and then organising fundraising opportunities such as mufti days and food stalls.

Other opportunities for student leadership can be found through the college co-curricular program. Students can volunteer for activities such as:

• Assembly presentations (music, drama and speeches)
• Doorknock appeals
• Anzac Day commemorations
• Blood donor promotions
• College tours
• College events (greeting guests, performing music and hospitality service)
• St John’s Anglican Church Op Shop
• Chalkies Café (hospitality service)

Cultures of Thinking, a project of Harvard University, reflects global research around the values, attitudes and skills needed for 21st-century learning. This program extends across all year levels and courses and focuses on critical thinking and problem solving, independent learning and collaboration.

Psychologist Carol Dweck used the term 'growth mindset' to encapsulate the idea that if students believe they can become smarter then they will invest the extra time and effort to produce higher levels of achievement. 

Educational psychologist Andrew Martin concludes that this approach personalises success and makes it achievable for all students.

This approach is based upon decades of research about play-based and personalised learning and social constructivism. It is not a program. It is a total approach to teaching and learning which combines the need for children to be active participants in their own learning through hands-on, creative exploration and investigation, which sits alongside formal or explicit instruction.

Walker Learning views the child holistically and values emotional and social life to be as important as the academic.

MSL is an approach that explicitly teaches handwriting, phonics, decoding, encoding and reading. It uses phonemic awareness and consolidation, and stores understanding in the long term memory. It achieves this through a multisensory (visual-auditory-kinaesthetic) approach. 

Bishop Druitt College has committed to ensuring that all teachers in Stages 1 & 2 are trained in MSL and that at least one teacher in each year level in Stage 3 is trained. 

Talk for Writing is a teaching and learning methodology that is multisensory and engaging for students. Academic research suggests that students learn language through memorable and meaningful repetition. The Talk for Writing approach enables students to internalise the language of story so that they can imitate it, innovate and then create their own effective stories independently.

Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning 'continuous improvement'. Based on our own in-house research and student voice, we understand that our students are looking for autonomy, choice, challenge, mentoring, leadership and collaboration. 

The Kaizen Initiative offers a unique multi-age (Years 5 - 8) experience for the students to develop their critical and creative thinking skills. In recent years, students solve problems related to fields of study such as robotics, film making, marketing, philosophy and solar energy. 

World Options is a BDC curriculum project targeting our Year 9 & 10 students. It provides students with greater voice and choice in their academic programs, with three elective lines being semesterised. This means that over the two years of Stage 5 our World Options students will have access to 12 exciting short courses. 

This bespoke education will adapt over time to continually meet the needs of our learners. The academic staff at BDC are very excited with this innovative curriculum change. 

Traditionally in schools it has been extremely difficult for one teacher to cater to the learning needs of all the individual students. As a result, not every student has experienced success in mathematics, with many students finding it particularly stressful or difficult. 

Our teaching team has worked very hard to change that, by changing the structure of our mathematics curriculum and implementing the Mathematics Pathways approach. Instead of all students learning the same topic at the same time, each student will focus on only what they are ready to learn. This is in line with the 'growth mindset' principles and means that every student can experience success in mathematics.

Classrooms and other learning spaces need to support students and teachers in whatever activity is undertaken, acting as a catalyst for learner engagement. Bishop Druitt College continuously strives to develop spaces for multi-modal learning. 

Current research considers there to be eight major learning modes. These are: collaboration, demonstration, discussion, experiential, explicit learning, feedback and reflection, guided learning, and independent learning. Flexible learning spaces support learning regardless of the mode undertaken.

Support for high performing students takes different forms throughout the college. Enrichment, extension, acceleration and streaming programs exist in different learning areas throughout the college. These are designed to cater to specific needs. 

Multiage learning opportunities exist through the Kaizen Initiative in Years 5 - 8. 

Our High Performance Program also supports the academic programs of our students through individual case management with flexibility in assessment and attendance due to sporting or performing arts representation.

Students also have the opportunity to participate in a range of co-curricular activities that promote opportunities for enrichment and extension such as debating, Mock Trial, the Science and Engineering Challenge, the da Vinci Decathlon, the Philosothon, and various formal academic competitions.  

The Learning Resource Centre (LRC) acknowledges the neurodiversity of all learners. It is responsible for the support of any students, but particularly students with diverse learner profiles that may include strengths, learning challenges and the gifted and talented. This support may include:

• Assisting the identification of students' learning profiles
• Developing, implementing and reviewing individual education plans (IEPs)
• Small group intervention including explicit teaching
• In-class support
• Supporting students and teachers in the identification and implementation of appropriate adjustments and accommodations for access to curriculum and assessment 

Our library and information services staff promote and support independent and resource-based learning from K - 12 through our well-resourced primary and secondary libraries and our senior study area. Our comprehensive text and ebook fiction collections underpin literacy education across the college.

The library provides individual assistance and extensive online services that aim to support students with every aspect of their reading, research and assignment preparation. Extended library hours each school day and in the holiday periods assist in catering for the needs of senior students.