This week saw us reflect on our learning and organisation. We are working toward meeting in smaller groups to help us all engage in our learning and discussions. In the coming weeks, you can expect your child to receive more ‘invitations’ to Webex groups, which will appear in their email inbox and calendars. We are excited to be working in smaller focus groups!
Meeting Our Local Change Makers
The last few weeks saw the 5/6s engaging with changemakers. We invited guest speakers to discuss their work as part of our Inquiry focus on change and pivotal moments in history.
“Success isn’t just about what you accomplish in your life, it’s about what you inspire others to do.” Annon
Our first guest, Marcus Veerman is behind Playground Ideas and spoke to us about his personal journey in discovering the value of play; and how he has extended this right to people around the world. Hendrix was keen to learn how Marcus established his business and overcome challenges.
“I think Marcus Veerman is very inspiring. He was brave to create a business because sometimes businesses can go downhill quickly, or just never work in the first place. You may have heard him say that Playground Ideas has helped more children and created more playgrounds than government playground builders. I read on the Playground Ideas website that they have helped create 4,281 playgrounds around the world, helping 2,140,500 children along the way.”– Eleanor
Our second guest, Donna Stolzenberg initiated the Homeless Collective and various projects, such as the Period Project and the Kala Op Shop, etc. Donna spoke to us about homelessness in our community, giving us various perspectives on individual needs and impacts on disadvantaged members of our community. Amory asked a great question about how Covid 19 was affecting the homeless, Harriet B wanted to learn about challenges Donna faced in helping others, Myki was curious about Donna’s future goals, and Frankie was keen to learn how she could get involved.
“One of the things I found interesting was how Donna talked about how important and humanising it is to ask people what they need. I also found it interesting how she talked about how some donations people make are not what people need or want. This made me think about how important it is to talk to people to find out what the best way to help is. Letting people have a say is a good way to make change.” -Ruben Durham
Both guests have given us much to think about…how? why? what next?…A few of us asked to attend both sessions to hear the guest speaker twice and many of us have been inspired to do something! Otto was inspired to go and create a playground/obstacle course from found objects in his back yard, some of us are looking forward to reconnecting with Donna once we back to our regular school routines and all of us are excited about our next guest speaker!
* If you are curious about our guest speakers you can view the recorded sessions on Google Classroom with your child!
Neighbourhood Gathering is Back!
This week we also hosted our first live Neighbourhood Gathering on Friday morning led by our Student Parliament Leaders. It was wonderful to have everyone in the same space to celebrate birthdays, share some ‘Dad jokes’ and show virtual connectedness. Prime Ministers, Harriet Brown and Arlo Fennessy along with the Student Parliament are working in collaboration with Deb in creating a whole Neighbourhood sing-along to bring everyone together and flex our vocal cords.