Year 8

Service as Action Day

Making a positive difference

On Monday 6 September, Year 8 students participated in a Service as Action (incursion) Day which provided them with an opportunity to work with a mentor/teacher to pursue a self-initiated goal that aimed to serve the wider community. 

Service learning is a key part of all three IB programmes and is also articulated in the Preshil Vision Statement: ‘As global citizens we encourage an awareness of world issues and encourage effort to make a positive difference.’  

The day was aimed at supporting students to develop their skills in designing experiences to meet the development of the seven MYP Service Learning Outcomes. In addition to this, the day aimed to develop student agency and support student wellbeing and connection during remote learning. 

COVID lockdowns have made some of the activities and actions we had planned for this year not possible so we decided instead to focus our efforts on the idea of advocacy. Students were invited to consider an issue they felt strongly about and to utilise their unique strengths and talents to advocate for people, animals or the environment by taking personal action. 

At the end of the day we gathered on zoom to share projects and to reflect. We were all amazed at the diversity and creativity of the approaches undertaken. Students pursued a wide range of issues, including ocean pollution, fast fashion, food waste, upcycling mental health, anxiety, animal cruelty, homelessness and vaccination. They created campaigns, raps, posters, fact sheets, guides, advertisements, websites, comics, songs, animations, vegetable gardens... 

Here are some extracts from the projects undertaken: 

‘My goal is to plant my own herbs in my own vegetable garden in order to save money, reduce the amount of plastic being thrown into the garbage and to help not fund large corporations.' - Angus 

‘Our goal is to create a comic that raises awareness about pollution in oceans.’ - Ellie & Elodie

‘My goal is to create an informative instagram post that tells the community about the problems that fast fashion causes.’  - Martha

When asked for feedback at the end of the day, student responses included: 

• I enjoyed knowing that I'm making a difference. 
• I really liked having a break from normal school, and having a passion project of my own, something I can choose to do. 
• The task I chose to do took a bit longer than expected so next time I will think about the time required a bit more when choosing what to do.
• I enjoyed working collaboratively and managing my own time.

If you are a member of the school community who would like to be involved in Service as Action at Preshil (or know of any great contacts/speakers), please do get in touch! 

Natalie Kunst 

MYP Coordinator

natalie.kunst@preshil.vic.edu.au