By Danielle Kutchel
An innovative education program is helping students who may otherwise fall through the cracks connect better with their schooling and peers – and its success has been recognised in a State Government awards scheme.
The Hands On Learning Program – HOP for short – at Pakenham Consolidated School is seeing students from disadvantaged backgrounds engage better in their schooling and learn important life skills along the way.
Students in the class generally have low attendance in standard school classes, and many come from difficult backgrounds, like families with drug and alcohol dependencies. Some have behavioural and social issues.
But through HOP, students are given breakfast every day and supported by a team of teachers determined to see them re-engage with the school system.
The three-year-old program is based around hands-on classes and project tasks that help students develop independence and necessary skills for life. In a specialised classroom, students learn how to make their own food, from toast to schnitzels; how to do their washing; and how to take out the rubbish and clean up after themselves, among other things.
Literacy and numeracy are embedded into the classes, and students are also currently working on their emotional expression and vocabulary.
HOP has two main aspects: building tasks, and community tasks.
So far, students have completed some valuable projects for their classmates including outdoor seating and a pizza oven.
For the community aspect of the program, students might head to the beach to do a beach clean up, or visit residents in a retirement village.
Despite the messiness of 2020, the program has continued albeit using resources easily found at home; one week, students made snow-globes and for another task, bird feeders. The community aspect also continued with a little help from technology, such as through virtual tours of places like Melbourne Zoo.
It seems the program has hit on a winning formula: recently, HOP was named a finalist for the Outstanding Inclusive Education Award in the 2020 Victorian Education Excellence Awards.
Joint coordinator of HOP, Shane Chatwood, said the nomination felt like a validation of the school’s work.
“We’re still setting it up and getting it to where we want but over the three years it has evolved.
“We’ve put a lot of hard work into it, there’s a lot of planning that goes on behind the scenes.”
Jade Foot, another joint coordinator, agreed that the program had seen good results as students re-engaged with their learning.
“If we can teach them the basic skills, even in primary school, to help them get through life, then we’ve done a great job I think,” Mr Chatwood said.
