Hands on Learning Launch

We saw the launch of the Hands On Learning program at Woodmans Hill on Wednesday 23rd March. ‘Hands on Learning is a practical school program that builds wellbeing, engagement, and attendance by creating opportunities for students to discover their talents and experience success through significant and authentic hands-on projects.’

At Woodmans Hill SC, Hand On Learning has currently been offered to Year 8 and 9 students. Students in these year levels were offered the opportunity to apply for the program and those who wanted to apply were required to submit an expression of interest and then undertake an interview. After the application process, six students were selected for the first intake, with a further four students to be added throughout the year. 

The first session ran for the morning only and students undertook an induction process before learning some basic tool skills and planning their first project – designing and building tool storage boxes out of pallets. Over the coming weeks, students will continue with the tool storage before starting the design and build of the Hands On Learning Hut, which is a shipping container that we are going to be fitting out. 

Year 8 and 9 students who are interested in the Hands On Learning program can speak with their Year Level Coordinator about their suitability for the program. 

We had our first full day of HoL yesterday and it went really well, with students engaged and working to achieve our group focus plan, which was: to work respectfully and cooperatively as a team.

The morning was spent checking in and planning our day, before we spent about an hour opening and assembling all of our new tools and equipment – it was like Christmas morning. We made some temporary work benches and spent the rest of the morning doing some tool training for the following tools – Stanley knives, squares, hammers, handsaws, clamps and orbital sanders. 

Students were required to use a square to draw lines around their timber before trying to nail straight through their board – you will see a couple of photos with successful outcomes. After this, they had a go at sawing through their boards along the lines that they drew prior. This presented some issues for students as they found it a little tricky to get the sawing motion sorted.  Once they had become competent with the handsaw, they used the orbital sanders to smooth their board. 

With their new-found skills, we made a start on our first project – building tool storage out of old pallets. Three working groups worked on the following tasks: pallet busting, board de-nailing and sanding. We started preparing our timber to be ready to start building the tool storage boxes next week. 

It’s fair to say that, by the end of the day, all staff and students were exhausted and ready for a rest.  All students have so far engaged really well and have some great ideas for projects moving forward. 

Thanks to those staff who took some time out of their day to come and see what we were up to. The students got a great thrill out of showing people around and explaining what they were working on.  We’ll look to invite some staff for lunch throughout Term 2. 

Mr. Brearley and Kara

Hands On Learning Artisan Teachers