Mid Term News

Well here we are, half way through Term 1! Team challenges, slightly different ways of learning and working, and mostly a lot of satisfaction and even, dare we say - fun.

The first few weeks have been heavily slanted towards teamwork and building a sense of community. We've had the Marshmallow Challenge (photo right), the Puff Mobile, Getting Ourselves in Knots and The Alien Has Landed. All of these challenges have been followed by a written reflection, where we've directed children towards thinking about groups and the metacognitive aspects involved in choosing the right sort of group. Is it best to choose your own working team, to be chosen at random, or to have the teachers choose? These questions can lead to deep discussion and address one of the core learning areas in life - how do we interact with other people?

These challenges were followed by the Billy Cart incursion - students designed, built and drove wooden billy carts. Lots of fun, squeals, laughter, physical exercise, manual dexterity and very limited accidents. And it was good to see so many girls working with spanners and driving like Formula 1 celebrities.

Another recent and regular project - now completed - has been working with Prep children to help them establish goals and begin the process of project-based learning. This has included cooking, model making, sports and games, story writing and ICT work. As well as helping the Prep children with transition into school, this weekly project time has directed our 456 students towards planning, teamwork, and the requirements of knowing something so well you can teach it to others.

Overall the kids are great, things are happening and the team is really enjoying being together with this Learning Community.

PS - click on the photos for larger view.