Nyundar

Enrol the students in a relevant real-world blanket role connected to their local environmentand establish the key skills, knowledge and values needed to take on this role. Begin getting toknow your local place through research, attentiveness, linking in with existing projects or issuesand speaking with local experts. Record and reflect on the students’ discoveries & progressthroughout Chapter One.

Introduce the PEEC storybook The Story of Matthew and Kara in connection with the students’role. This story is set in 1842 and is about two children, an Aboriginal girl and the son of awhite settler, and their enduring friendship despite cultural and language barriers. Read andthink deeply about the characters in the story, their actions and their values through literacy,philosophy and drama. Extend the students’ understandings by learning about catchmentsand considering environmental visions of the land, and then accept the invitation to attend theexcursion at PEEC and continue the story.

At PEEC, the students freeze time, step into the story and embark on an exploration of fourhistorical story settings. While investigating and gathering clues, they discover a plan that couldthreaten the pristine lagoon and grassland environment at the heart of the story, as well as therelationship between the Aboriginal and European communities.

Back at school, the children recap the excursion day and then reflect on and continue the story.By also reflecting on their experiences so far, the students consider and articulate what theyhave learnt about themselves and their connection to place, and identify the skills that theyhave developed. What now?

The children work together to develop and implement an achievable, student-led project that will link them with the community and make life better in their place.