By Callum Ludwig
The Yarra Junction Primary School (YJPS) and Upper Yarra Secondary College (UYSC) have come together to get creative and deliver a new lunchtime activity.
An array of shop front cubbies have been and are being installed at YJPS, brainstormed by their student council before being built, painted and installed by UYSC VCAL students.
Grade 5 and 6 teacher and student council president Courtney Irwin said ideas for the cubbies were gathered from a competition open to all students to submit designs.
“Our student council looked at them all and decided which ones they thought would be really great to put on display in our school and would be most interactive that kids would play with and we have now got a fire truck, post office, supermarket, bakery and an ATM,” she said.
“It was great to have Upper Yarra involved, it helps both sets of students to feel connected and our kids can see that with persistence and hard work, you can achieve a goal and they will aspire to be like that when they are older and do those things as well.”
The project was supported and sponsored by Gladysdale Bakery, the Yarra Junction and Warburton Bendigo Bank and a family from YJPS who own a hardware store.
Ms Irwin said the project showed their student council that are important and their voices have been heard.
“They have got to see their ideas come to life. We’d like to do some more of those cubbies and look at more ideas for what we’d like in the yard as well. But without Upper Yarra’s students positivity and engagement towards the project and engagement, these couldn’t have been successful,” she said.
“The students have gotten a real buzz out of it, all interacting with the different interactive parts of them and weaving in and out of doors.”
UYSC students are returning on Friday 11 November to install more shop front cubbies and add more interactive pieces to those that are there.
Personal Development Skills teacher for Year 11 and 12 at UYSC Megan Sloan said the more hands-on and community-engaged projects are like this, the better the skills are that her students get out of them.
“It started last year with Covid and lockdowns getting in the way a bit, but I just set them up and then support them in the background. I did a little bit of running around with Courtney Irwin beforehand, but the kids then emailed Courtney, and they organised a time through WebEx and brainstormed everything they had to ask,” she said.
“They did some design planning and had a few more meetings with Courtney after that and they went through the process themselves. It’s really good for them to be able to use the talents and the skills that they’re picking up in their TAFE.”
The Year 11s and 12s of 2021 worked on the project last year before a handover process took place and the mantle was passed on more to the Class of 2022.
Ms Sloan said building community pathways through the project has been a really good thing.
“Seeing the different opportunities we have, and having that positive pathway link and seeing the skills that they can gain, I think is really important for my students and their confidence has been growing as a result,” she said.
“I’m really proud of all the kids that have been involved, to see how much they’ve gotten involved in it, their attention to detail, the pride in their work, the maturity and the enthusiasm that I’m seeing from them all, that’s what we try to foster in Personal Development Skills.”
