EAL & ELC 

The TIPs Gardening Project – Year 10 Bridging

The TIPs Gardening project is in the final stage of planting. This week, the students will be planting the various plants, indigenous and non-indigenous, that they have investigated, taking into consideration sustainability and biodiversity considerations, and evaluating the design process of the garden. This has been a collaborative project, demonstrating critical and creative thinking skills in all aspect of the project. The students have been developing their capability in this area to produce a product (the garden) that is reflective of their research and strategies in finding solutions to a series of encountered challenges.

The image we have attached is one of how the students have used Google Suite Apps such as Forms and Slides to plan and design their garden.

Once the garden is complete, each group has to produce a short gardening film that encompasses not only their improving command of the English language but also the aims of Critical and Creative Learning (from the Victorian Curriculum):

Critical and creative thinking capability aims to ensure that students develop:

·         understanding of thinking processes and an ability to manage and apply these intentionally

·         skills and learning dispositions that support logical, strategic, flexible and adventurous thinking

·         confidence in evaluating thinking and thinking processes across a range of familiar and unfamiliar contexts.

Some recent comments from the Bridging students:

‘We are nearly finished.’

‘The colours look great!’

‘This is more fun that being in class.’ 

‘We hope that everyone will learn to respect gardens more.’

‘I know more about Australia and its plants.’

More news

• On Wednesday 31 October, the Year 12 English/EAL exam will take place. Best wishes to ISP students. All the best on the day and on their subsequent exams!
• On Monday 5 November, the ELC students will be off to Sovereign Hill so please make sure you are at school at 7.30am.
• On Wednesday 14 November, we will be celebrating Diwali during lunchtime. This includes dancing to two songs so please try to find some time to practise the Bollywood style dance steps and bring a colourful scarf along on the day. We hope that more than 100 students participate; last time we did the Zorba Dance Off, we estimate that between 80 - 90 staff and students participated.