As Nathan mentioned in the last post, Wednesday February 19 saw us take 50 students to Tallebudgera Creek on the Gold Coast. Surf Lifesaving Queensland ran a practical skills session for us around surf safety. The idea behind the excursion was to give the kids an experience they will never forget by exposing them to the beauty of our region. Following the excursion, students have written a narrative with a beach theme and will also complete a persuasive text on beach safety. The excursion also gave ideas for the students PBL tasks.
Our school is about an hour away from the beach and we have students who come from low socio-economic backgrounds. Our student body is made up of many different nationalities, including African and Middle Eastern students who have never seen the beach.
Surf Lifesaving Queensland ran a fantastic program that saw the kids in and out of the water all day. Activities included; board paddling, beach flags, beach obstacle course, wadding, dolphin dives, team building games and a beach safety talk to begin. The instructors were awesome and the kids loved them and can still name them a week after the excursion.
If the aim was to give students an experience they would never forget, we definitely achieved our goal. In addition our secondary goals were achieved in providing students with the opportunity to write and immerse themselves in rich narrative tasks about the beach, after now having their own experience with the setting. If we had asked the students to write a narrative about the beach beforehand, then we are certain that we would have disadvantaged some students.
The students are almost finished their narratives and we are looking forward to reading them. From what has been read so far it looks like there is a lot of specific vocabulary and descriptive text being used. The students will then commence their persuasive texts, which I would imagine will echo the learning from the day.
Whilst we can make many links to different subjects of the Australian Curriculum (namely History, Geography and English) as well as ties to the General Capabilities. The most important and priceless outcome we experienced and provided for our students was an opportunity to be advantaged. For our students, to experience something that most students in Australia would have experienced before they reach the age of ours. We now know that if these students are ever asked about the beach they will have a fond memory to draw on.
Nathan & Belinda
Our school is about an hour away from the beach and we have students who come from low socio-economic backgrounds. Our student body is made up of many different nationalities, including African and Middle Eastern students who have never seen the beach.
Surf Lifesaving Queensland ran a fantastic program that saw the kids in and out of the water all day. Activities included; board paddling, beach flags, beach obstacle course, wadding, dolphin dives, team building games and a beach safety talk to begin. The instructors were awesome and the kids loved them and can still name them a week after the excursion.
If the aim was to give students an experience they would never forget, we definitely achieved our goal. In addition our secondary goals were achieved in providing students with the opportunity to write and immerse themselves in rich narrative tasks about the beach, after now having their own experience with the setting. If we had asked the students to write a narrative about the beach beforehand, then we are certain that we would have disadvantaged some students.
The students are almost finished their narratives and we are looking forward to reading them. From what has been read so far it looks like there is a lot of specific vocabulary and descriptive text being used. The students will then commence their persuasive texts, which I would imagine will echo the learning from the day.
Whilst we can make many links to different subjects of the Australian Curriculum (namely History, Geography and English) as well as ties to the General Capabilities. The most important and priceless outcome we experienced and provided for our students was an opportunity to be advantaged. For our students, to experience something that most students in Australia would have experienced before they reach the age of ours. We now know that if these students are ever asked about the beach they will have a fond memory to draw on.
Nathan & Belinda