Burnie Campus Principal 

This week I returned to school after being away for almost 4 weeks, including some time at the end of Term 3 and the first week of Term 4. During this time and my term break, I was privileged to be able to visit schools of innovation and educational excellence in the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland, as well as attend the International Lego® Serious Play® Conference in Billand, where Lego® originated, with Del and members of the Ulverstone Leadership Team. 

While it will take some time to reflect on all the learning that took place to determine how and what we can adapt and implement at Leighland Christian School, having the time and head space to dive deeply into some world class learning facilities was an incredible opportunity and a highlight of my professional career. 

As educators, it is important that we continue to be life-long learners, and that we understand our school context and community well so that we can innovate and evolve to continually provide quality education in a world that is rapidly changing around us.  

One of the international educational experts we met with, Rob Houben from the Netherlands, spoke about students needing to be happy to be able to learn, that they need to enjoy the environments they learn in, have a say in how these spaces are being used and presented, and that when exploring they  “can access all the learning in the world and know how to interpret it”.  

We work hard as a school to present workspaces that are engaging and that display student learning. What we could work on more is ensuring that children have a say in how their classrooms are set. Our students are learning in very different ways than the generations before them. Information is at the end of their fingertips and can be accessed in nanoseconds. AI now interprets that information and collates it into summaries so that even searching for information has become much more streamlined.  

However, the important part of what Rob shared with us is that we must prepare students to know how to interpret this changing world around them, how to discern what they research, know what they want to learn and how to apply skills to get there, and learn to do this in a safe and supportive environment. Technology is changing at a faster rate than ever before, and it can be confronting and overwhelming for teachers, parents and students to deal with these changes, even though they bring some incredible benefits as well. 

For our students to feel happy at school, they need to feel safe, challenged in their learning, confident in their friendship groups, know that they have a voice that is heard and that they are known and valued here.  

These are things that we intentionally work on every day and in many ways. 

Elizabeth Scheu 

Burnie Campus Principal