Urban Bound

I am very pleased to advise parents of a new initiative that the College has been exploring for about 12 months.  Designed particularly for our Year 9 students, it derives from the need to provide some real-life and practical skills for our students.  We’ve spent a considerable amount of time investigating a variety of options that suit the unique needs of a regional schools, particularly exploring how our students achieve a balanced exposure to outdoor, overseas and city experiences.   One of the key desires from this program is giving students the opportunities to gain in confidence through independence and interdependence.

Broaden experiences
The Urban Bound Program has been designed to broaden the educational and academic experience of Year 9 students. The program has been devised taking into consideration the following principles: Academic, Service/Community, City Adventure, Independence, Environment and Enjoyment. The experience is to be held off campus in an urban environment that is unfamiliar to the students. Research shows that Year 9 can be a time of adolescent growth where individuals have specific social and learning needs. It is often a period of time where students can become somewhat disengaged with a formalised curriculum and the structure required at school. This program attempts to address these needs by promoting self–directed and collaborative learning, communication, independence and responsibility. This also allows students to investigate how they fit into the world and helps them identify future interests that they may pursue.

Rich ICT investgations
Students will visit Melbourne for around 8 days and complete rich ICT investigation projects examining city systems, visit cultural and historical locations in the city, research urban environment and community issues, and interact with a diverse range of people in a multicultural city environment.  They will spend time working with a soup kitchen for the homeless, as well as paddle the Yarra River to explore how it has been used and ‘abused’ over the past 150 years.  We are also keen to share facets of our sporting and cultural backgrounds, so students will see an AFL game and attend a live show.

Inquiry Project
Much of the work culminates in the The Inquiry Project.  In collaborative groups students will devise an interest based investigation examining the systems created by a city environment. Research will be conducted around the following systems; Business/Financial Services, Transport, Tourism, Sport/Entertainment, Shopping, Law/Courts and Residential. Developing research questions, each group will connect at least two systems around an inquiry based project. Students will be able to observe these systems in place during their visit.

As part of their data collecting, each group will interview members of the city community, both in street interviews and more formal one on one interviews. The groups will then formulate answers to their projects and using ICT put together a presentation of their findings to be displayed at a presentation evening on their return.

Mr Gazzola who is leading the program has developed and used a similar project when he worked at Ivanhoe Grammar in Melbourne, before moving to St Andrew’s.  We have also been fortunate to have the support of Mr Peter Wade who has been able to provide us with some wonderful contacts to assist in making this quite a unique experience, particularly Ormond College, a residential College in the University of Melbourne where the students will base themselves for their meals and group times.  The College Council and Leadership Team are very excited by this new project and the experiences that it will provide for our students.

In 2012 the program will be integrated into the curriculum.  All students will take part in two groups over two weeks, the first in Term 2 and the second in Term 3.  
With half the cohort studying in Melbourne, the other half will take part in a research project based around Brisbane.  Students will investigate the claim that Brisbane is Australia's new world city, and research to discover what makes a world city and does Brisbane qualify?  The will then present their findings in an inquiry project as part of our Urban Bound Showcase Evening later in the year.  Students will work off campus in locations on the Sunshine Coast and will travel to Brisbane on two days to gather information.

Urban Bound is an intitiative that we are very excited to introduce.  Having seen the benefits from a trial group in 2011, the benefits of this program for our students are wonderful.