Term 4 Week 4: From the Principal
One of the key strategic intents of our Vision for Learning Shine Through Discovery – Let you light shine Matt 5:16 is to foster creativity. To love learning and be engaged in the process is fundamental to animating our students’ talents, thus enabling creativity to flourish. A recent article in the online magazine Entrepreneur identified a series of guiding principles for future education. These included, but not limited to storytelling, passion, curiosity and experimentation, persistence, technology exposure, empathy, reading, writing and arithmetic and creativity. Every single one of us is creative. It is human nature to be creative – the thing is that we each might have different ways of expressing our creativity. We must encourage kids to discover and to develop their creative outlets early.
To this end it is incumbent on the College to afford these opportunities. An example of this has been the development of the IDEAS lab on Marian campus. This is a space that brings students together enabling them to design, prototype and create. It is a place where we allow students to further explore and enhance what they are learning in the classroom. In 2019 we are entering into a partnership with Republic Polytechnic School in Singapore. The aim here is to provide select students in Years 9 and 10 an opportunity to test their problem-solving skills in an industry-based environment. Supporting this learning immersion will be a new elective course in design thinking and problem-based learning.
These two initiatives are indicative of the intent of our whole Vision. Underpinning its success will be the capacity of teachers to respond to the future. It is important that we seek to create challenging tasks that are matched to student ability and interest, that connect learning to students’ strengths, gifts and talents. These opportunities must imbue students with opportunities for critical thinking, problem solving and personal reflection. Commensurate to this intent will be the refurbishment of our learning spaces that will allow greater flexibility and agility for learning. We look forward to the future as a College committed to improvement; moreover, a place that allows creativity to flourish.
Solid Gold
Last week’s Solid Gold Dance Showcase was a great exemplar of the spirit, energy, creativity and commitment of our students and teachers. The Marist Auditorium was alive with our Dance Troupe that is two years young. The feedback from parents and students was so pleasing to hear and witness. The passion of our students is reflected in the leadership of Ms Stephanie Crothers who is to be commended for her work. Click here to see more photos from the night.
As we move to the final five weeks of Term 4, I would like to emphasise to all students that it is imperative to remain committed and focused on their learning. We at this point pray for Year 12 students as they complete their WACE exams.
A New Way To Learn: Five Guiding Principles For Future Education: A change in how we educate is necessary to realize the radical future we see for the world.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/322158
