By Callum Ludwig
Millwarra Primary School students are gaining worldly skills in school time through the extensive electives program on offer.
Running on Tuesdays, this term students have had the opportunity to learn cooking, gardening, sewing, bike riding and bike-building skills.
Principal Rod Barnard said the program started about 15 years ago to provide an alternative for students to classroom learning.
“We felt kids just couldn’t be inside four walls all day, every day and we wanted to give them some life experiences,” he said.
“Now schools are being encouraged to get kids to do some learning outside. We’ve been doing it for years and now we are motivated to keep doing it.”
The students embrace the opportunity to get hands-on, and spend the morning getting to know their classmates and teachers, talking about home, their families and lives while they toil away in the garden or cook up a storm in the canteen.
School Captain Jacob was having a laugh with Mr Barnard while working in the garden.
“It’s been fun planting all the vegetables which will soon grow, and we got to put the garden beds together. I have learned plants need a lot of water, they can’t survive on just a little bit,” he said.
The electives program is run for two terms throughout the year with Bike Ed and a program through Ben’s Shed (Yarra Junction Men’s Shed) run in the other terms.
Student Kaleb said the electives program gave him an opportunity to do something at school he was better at than classroom activities.
“I’m usually in the kitchen a lot with my mum. I feel much more confident in here rather than in the class,” he said.
It isn’t just teachers who help facilitate electives at the school, with volunteers Jayne Coney and Gordon Smith running sewing and bike-building respectively.
Gordon has taught children how to build bikes at Millwarra Primary School for 13 years and said he and the kids always enjoy the process of building a bike from scratch.
“I just enjoy working with the kids and watching them develop some skills. It gives them a life skill, if their bike breaks down, they can now fix it,” he said.
“They know where everything fits because everything has come off the bike and been put on by them.”
Mr Barnard said the electives program is something the kids will always be able to look back on fondly.
“When the kids graduate and they give their speeches, they always talk about the electives program. It’s these experiences which really stick in their mind,” he said.
“I think they all remember those experiences with their friends and with the teachers and volunteers they’re working with.”
