Assistant 

Principal Report 

Welcome back to Term 2, a shorter term, but it is certainly action packed.

Experiential Learning

This Friday will be our first day of our new Experiential Learning Program with the Year 7 & 8 cohorts. The program will operate over full-days, mostly off-site, and is a fusion of Respectful Relations/Careers/Home Group. As the name suggests, experiential learning is the process of learning through experience or doing. Through the process of doing, we aim to work with the students on developing their leadership as well as explicitly teaching the skills of how we want to be together in our community.

The origins of Experiential Learning lie with Psychologist David Kolb who emphasised how experiences influence the learning process. Kolb believes that effective learning is a cyclic process that involves experiencing, reflecting, thinking and acting. Kolb also noted that ‘people who are considered "watchers" prefer reflective observation, while those who are "doers" are more likely to engage in active experimentation.’

Some benefits we hope for the program are:

· Creating real-world experiences to help students grasp concepts

· Open opportunities for creativity

· Promotion and improvement of communication skills

· Providing opportunities to reflect

· For students’ mistakes become valuable experiences

· Improved attitudes toward learning

Balmoral Community College has been running an Experiential Learning Program for some time, with their feedback being extremely positive. We hope to align our program with theirs in Term 3 so that we can have the opportunity to do some work with them and to broaden opportunities for our students.

Our program will be led by Ben Kilby, Victoria Heffernan and myself. Our focus this week will be around how we will be together through circle time, co-constructing an acknowledgement of country, group planning, physical activity and collaboration. It will be a busy day, but it is important that we set the tone from the start.

School Wide Positive Behaviours (SWPBS)

Edenhope College has adopted the SWPBS model for several years, with the focus on assisting schools to improve social, emotional, behavioural and academic outcomes for children and young people. Each week we teach and learn and model specific values attributed to SWPBS. As of Monday, we will be posting these values on Xuno for all parents, students and teachers to see and talk to. This is just a brief explanation of what those messages will be and are.

Chad Frost

Assistant Principal