Science of Learning Update

Assistant Principal: Donna Geritz

Learning Specialist Science of Learning: Vanessa Dennis

LEAP Update

During term 3, our content-rich LEAP (Literacy Enhancement and Achievement Program) curriculum focused largely on supporting and strengthening our students’ novel studies in their English classes.

Both our Year 7 and Year 8 novels required the teaching of a great deal of context; as our Year 7 text Kensuke’s Kingdom features a character deeply affected by World War II and the atomic bombings, and our Year 8 text The Silver Donkey is set during World War I and features a protagonist who has deserted the front. Our LEAP students benefitted from five weeks of deep-diving into these challenging topics, and broadened their knowledge and understanding of these pivotal twentieth century events.

As part of this learning, our LEAP students were able to engage in a cross curricular hands-on activity to recognise August 6th which is Hiroshima Day (or in some places called Peace Day). This is the anniversary of the Allied bombings of Hiroshima in World War II and we linked this learning to our English classes. Our Years 7&8 LEAP students read the famous story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr and then tried to make their own paper cranes with origami paper.

Even with the help of paper instruction guides, YouTube clips, and our tutors and teachers, making paper cranes were a huge challenge for many of our students. There were lots of examples of resourcefulness, working together, persistence, applying feedback and resilience demonstrated in this activity - our LEAP students certainly rose to the occasion.