Our Students – Parkhill Primary School

Our Students

We believe in teaching the whole child at Parkhill Primary School: nurturing students to set high expectations for themselves to become the best they can. A strong emphasis and dedicated program on Social Emotional Learning (SEL), along with our embedded school values, helps to achieve this.

WHAT IS student voice?

Student voice is about empowering students and providing them with the opportunity to give feedback – to each other and their teachers. Authentic student voice provides opportunities for students to collaborate and make decisions with adults around what and how they learn.

what is student agency?

Student agency is interconnected to student voice but is more focused on giving students responsibility and ownership of their learning. Student agency refers to the level of autonomy and power that a student experiences in the learning environment. Both student voice and agency provide students with an opportunity to influence and change their school.

what is THE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE COMMITTEE?

The SRC is a group of enthusiastic Parkhill students that are elected to speak on behalf of their peers. Students are more engaged and happier when they feel that they are listened to and have an influence on what matters to them most. SRC provides an excellent platform for this

Each year students from Foundation to Year 6 nominate themselves to be considered for the position of class representative. Students are then voted by their peers to become their ‘voice’. They then take and share their ideas with the SRC and together they help to make Parkhill the best school it can be.

SRC this year has been quite the rollercoaster! Going back to school on and off was challenging. But overall we did some fun projects like Bully No Way Day, Wear Red Day, Clean Up Australia Day and more. During online learning we organised some other activities as well to brighten up the mood, like Odd Sock Day and we even held Footy Colours Day online with our buddies! It’s been really fun for us to plan fundraisers, host meetings, write speeches for assembly and heaps more. We have learned so much and have had an amazing time raising money. Our favourite thing we did was the ANZAC Day ceremony. This year was a blast and we can’t wait to see what Parkhill produces next year!

– Penny and Christos

SRC Presidents 2021

LEADERSHIP AT PARKHILL

There are many opportunities for the Year 6 students to develop and demonstrate their leadership skills at Parkhill.

School Captains

From leading school tours to helping with assemblies, the school captains are chosen as exemplars of our school values. Responsible and reliable, the school captains and vice captains work with school leadership to become excellent role models and representatives for the school.

Other leadership opportunities

Students also show their leadership throughout the year by helping with

whole school events, such as Twilight Sports
setting up Interschool sports
helping with care packages and care groups…just to name a few.

WHAT ARE CARE GROUPS?

Our unique Care Groups approach is an evolution of our long running buddy groups.

When your child enters Parkhill Primary School in Foundation, they will have a Year 6 buddy. Every Foundation class, plus their Year 6 buddy becomes a Care Group. This sort of strong, familiar and safe one-on-one relationship is perfect for a child just starting school and also allows Year 6 buddies to fine-tune key leadership skills before entering high school.

Greater Flexibility

Students experience all sorts of school events with their Care Group

Opportunities

for younger students to be leaders too

Safe People

Teachers build and strengthen relationships with students across the whole school

Whole School Relationships

Teachers build and strengthen relationships witht sttudents across the whole school

Year level Friendships

Students build relationships between year levels

what do care groups look like?

Every week, Care Groups spend time together in structured learning sessions. These sessions centre around special events organised by our SRC and focus on our school values.

We’ve made wreaths for our ANZAC Day service while learning about Courage. Students co-created their own Acknowledgement to
Country while learning about Community. Students have picked up rubbish together on Clean Up Australia Day while learning about Care.

Lessons are discussed and planned by our Year 6 Care Group Leaders and our SRC Leaders which means that students have a strong voice in Care Group activities.

koorie education

At Parkhill Primary School, we acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as the Traditional Custodians of this land. More specifically, we pay our respects to the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation, where our school is located.

Our school understands the importance of providing students with meaningful, well-informed and localised Koorie Education. With this in mind, the school celebrates significant events presented on the Koorie Education Calendar. To help drive this, a Koorie Student Ambassador group work together to share their expertise and assist in shaping the delivery of these lessons..

Learning experiences take on many different shapes and forms. We have found out about this rich culture by listening to creation stories from our local area. New words have been discovered as we learn more about the Woi Wurrung language. First Nations games have been enjoyed by our school community through the remote learning platform. Students continue to explore Australia’s geography through the First Nations Country Map. We learn about the diversity of artwork from all nations around the country. Fundraisers including ‘Wear It Yellow Day’ are held to raise money for First Nations organisations.

In our ongoing efforts to work towards a reconciled Australia, students have recently made their own class Acknowledgment of Country. This is recited during morning routines as we gather and learn as a school community. Student voice has also helped to re-write our assemblies Acknowledgement of Country. Parkhill Primary understands that our learning journey into Koorie education is ever growing and we look forward to our next chapter ahead.