8 Nov 2024
Students share service learning experience
Year 6 Churchie students have demonstrated their creativity, leadership and the impact of service learning by producing a video for the 2024 Anglican Schools Australia (ASA) Student Celebration.
The boys chose to tell their story of a service learning experience about homelessness. While many contributions were received from schools, including high schools, Churchie’s Prep School video was selected to be premiered to delegates at the ASA annual conference.
In late Term 2, a challenge was put to students in Anglican schools: produce a two-minute video on a school service initiative that must be student-produced and created over a short timespan that included the school winter holidays. Fortunately, a group of motivated Year 6 students stepped up to the challenge. Despite having just one meeting before the end of the term to plan, the boys organised a concept and successfully shot a video that would be selected as the first submission to be shared with a record number of conference delegates.
The topic chosen by the boys was the service learning projects they undertook in Year 5 with Rev’d Dr Ann Solari from St John’s Anglican Cathedral. Service learning in the Prep School is a learning journey. The Year 5 students, their families, Rev’d Dr Ann Solari and the staff engaged in a process of inquiry, curiosity, empathy, understanding and action while learning about homelessness in the local area.
The students actively participated throughout the process, taking responsibility for asking questions, suggesting ways to support Rev’d Dr Ann’s work, and raising awareness among their families, teachers and even their houses.
Each class learnt about the causes of homelessness and developed their own initiatives to support the work being done with the people sleeping rough at St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane City. From collecting recyclables to baking weekly treats, each class made meaningful contributions to address this local issue.
Feedback and a relationship with St John’s Cathedral were important aspects of the process, with students regularly checking in with Rev’d Dr Ann to ensure their efforts were both helpful and an effective use of resources.
For their video submission, the budding filmmakers completed a ‘walk and talk’ style interview with Rev’d Dr Solari, reflecting on these impactful service projects as they walked through the Prep School. The production was entirely student-driven, with eight Year 6 boys leading the planning, assigning roles and editing the final video, with help from Year 8 student Arjun Pabari.
The team met with Dr Solari on the first student-free Monday of term and, despite a tight deadline, successfully submitted the video on time.
Chaplain Steph returned from the ASA event with high praise for the students. Their hard work paid off as their video was selected as the opening feature at the event in Melbourne. It was also one of the few videos both created and produced by school students.
This experience provided the boys with valuable skills in teamwork, video production and leadership, preparing them for future projects both inside and outside the classroom.
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