How St Michael's is encouraging learning outside the classroom

Recently, excited year 3 students from St Michael’s Grammar School had the rare opportunity to closely watch St Kilda’s popular penguins returning to their nests after a hard day’s fishing.

The students are part of the school’s enthusiastic Penguin Squad and, with the support of conservation experts from Earthcare and Parks Victoria, they spend the year observing the comings and goings of the birds.

St Michael’s has installed cameras in some of the penguin nests and the video footage and data collected by the cameras are shared with the school by local researchers.

This helps the curious students learn more about the penguins and how they feed, live and breed, and how environmental changes affect their lifestyle.

“The program began in July when the year 3 students went to St Kilda,” says Gerard Houlihan, the head of St Michael’s Grammar School.

“They met marine biologists who explained the work they do with the penguins and talked about the kind of data they gather.

“With permission from Parks Victoria, the students were later able to venture into the nonpublic area near St Kilda Pier and watch the penguins make their way back to their nests.

“The children love Penguin Squad and they always have lots of questions to ask their teachers and the researchers.”

Penguin Squad is one of St Michael’s Signature Programs, with different programs and experiences available at different year levels.

Year 4 students take part in the Tomorrow’s Leaders for Sustainability program, which is a partnership with Port Phillip EcoCentre in the St Kilda Botanical Gardens.

“Students learn about indigenous versus native flora and fauna,” Houlihan says.

“Recently at a school sustainability festival, the children won a community award for building nesting boxes and insect hotels to attract native birds.

“One of our other Signature Programs is a partnership with James Cook University in Townsville. Our year 10 students travel there and get diving qualifications and then dive and research the Great Barrier Reef.”

In a recent Arts Immersion program, year 9 and 10 students liaised with the Monash University Museum of Art to curate their own exhibition.

They also spent a day working with senior conservators at one of the best-equipped conservation laboratories in Australia, the University of Melbourne Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, discovering how precious artefacts and artworks are investigated and conserved.

In addition, “our year 8 program simulates a federal election and each house within the school takes on the character of one of the traditional political parties”, Houlihan says.

“Students form a party, form policies, they canvas and campaign and set up the election process supported by the Australian Electoral Commission. They have campaign morning teas to discuss their policies with the rest of the school and students have public debates and the program culminates in the whole school voting for a winner as part of the electoral process.”

The Signature Programs are part of the School’s new strategic direction, Towards 2030, which places students at the heart of a learning ecosystem.

This also continues St Michael’s focus on building genuine reciprocal community partnerships that help students develop vital skills such as problem-solving, independent thinking and collaboration.

“Our Signature Programs and the experiential learning involved are unique to us and provide students with opportunities to learn from, with and for the world,” Houlihan says.

“St Michael’s aims to help create young people who are independent and ethical thinkers, who are collaborative and committed and who are future leaders in their fields of endeavour.”

ST MICHAEL’S GRAMMAR SCHOOL \ 25 Chapel Street, St Kilda  8530 3200 stmichaels.vic.edu.au