By Victoria Stone-Meadows
AS part of Yarra Hills Secondary College’s endeavour to build better relationships with feeder schools and the wider community, the school had their first ever ‘Grade 5 Explorations Day’.
Grade 5 students from across the region visited the school to get acquainted with what high school was like and join in some fun learning activities.
Running over two days, 6 September and 8 September, Yarra Hills invited close to 300 schools to come and participate in a variety of activities.
Assistant Principal at Yarra Hills Mooroolbark Campus Rachel Lynch said both staff and students from the primary school had a great time.
“It was fantastic and everyone is really happy,” she said.
“Building the connection with the primary schools is extremely important and something we’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
The exploration days coincided with EnviroWeek 2016 so the school planned a range of activities around the environment and protecting it.
The activities students were involved in were based around recycling, renewable energy and plant science.
Students learned about ways they could become better waste watchers and questioned how humans and environment influence each other.
Students also had the opportunity to build a mini terrarium to gain and understanding of how different environments work.
Ms Lynch also said the theme of environment week was a great basis for the exploration days.
“It was good to do something meaningful and purposeful in terms of the environment and students said they had a fun and engaging day students and staff said it was a great initiative.”
Thanks to the success of the this exploration day, Yarra Hills Secondary College is confident of continuing the program into future years.
“We are definitely locking in to continue,” Ms Lynch said.
“We are looking at running in term one 2017 and moving forward making regular part of our school program.”
