“Dare to dream, but even more importantly, dare to put action behind your dreams.” – Josh Hinds

This is the second year of SPW’s Year 6 DARE Graduate Diploma with some favourite curriculum components emerging amongst the students. Some of these include City Week, ForkTree and Jumble Sale, as part of the The World Around Me learning area.

City Week
City Week is always a much-anticipated event where students are asked to navigate their way around the CBD for two days, exploring and discovering the ins and outs of 12 venues with a focus on getting to know their city; past, present and future.

In the lead up to City Week students worked in groups to research facts about various locations, including Adelaide Oval, Central Markets, Christie Walk, UCity and Jam Factory. They used Google Maps to plot a route and calculate distance and times, as well as the best mode of transport.

Tour guides taught the students about their workplaces and how they have changed over time. Many students visited places they didn’t know existed, like Christie Walk and Jam Factory (which doesn’t actually sell jam!). Parliament House and Government House were a great refresher from their Term 1 learning on Government and a wonderful lead into the Canberra Tour next Term.

“Adelaide Oval was a highlight because it was so cool to go into all the places I don’t usually get to go into like underground where drinks are delivered, the 122-year-old scoreboard, change rooms and commentator’s box.” – Paris

ForkTree
Tim Jarvis, leader of The ForkTree Project, is an environmental scientist, author, film maker, adventurer and public speaker. He is committed to finding pragmatic solutions to major environmental issues related to climate change and biodiversity loss. One of these solutions is returning a degraded 133 acre former pastoral property in South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula back to nature by re-establishing tens of thousands of native trees and shrubs. SPW’s Year 6 students chipped in to help reach this goal.

Students spent the day planting many trees native to the environment, as well as removing piles of weeds. This will in turn bring back native animals, insects and birds as well as sequester tens of thousands of tonnes of carbon. Considering the average Australian’s carbon footprint each year is roughly 25 tonnes, it’s safe to say, this is essential work and it felt so good to give back. Surrounded by stunning landscape, away from technology, everyone had a fantastic day, getting down and dirty, learning plenty about correct planting technique, as well as the ways we can reduce, reuse and recycle and look after our environment.

Prior to the students trip out to the property, they were fortunate enough to have Elizabeth Blumer visit to discuss biodiversity, symbiosis, climate change and biodiversity loss. These discussions gave students a greater understanding of their contribution and the impact initiatives such as The ForkTree Project can have on the planet.

Jumble Sale
The Year 6 Jumble Sale involves setting up and running a stall of goods available for SPW staff and students to purchase. Prior to the Jumble Sale students set about gaining an understanding of what running a business stall involves, from product, to advertising, to cost and presentation. Through the Business and Economics unit students surveyed classes around the school to gain customer insight, before determining what their business stall would be.

All the profits from the sale are donated to a chosen organisation or charity. In the lead up to the sale, students came together as a year level to brainstorm their chosen organisation. After some discussion they settled on the RSPCA.

As students got to work setting up their stalls, there was an undercurrent of nerves as to whether their stalls would appeal to customers or if they would make a profit. These nerves were quickly calmed when excited peers started commenting on their stalls, “I’ve waited all year for this” – Year 2 student.

It was a great vibe and the students were so empowered by the experience. After doing the sums, the students were absolutely thrilled to have raised $4000 to donate to RSPCA. An absolutely amazing result. Congratulations Year 6s!

“Jumble Sale was the best thing that ever happened to me because I have never had an experience like it before.” – Cruz

Article shared by Lynn Lee, Maddi Honor, Emily Bert and Year 6 students