Education is forever changing

By Youssef Saudie

May 9, 2022

Blast from the past: Mooroopna North Primary School students will be going from whiteboards to chalkboards on the first day of Education Week. Photo by Megan Fisher

Education Week is packed with activities at Mooroopna North Primary School, with students getting an insight into the past, present and future on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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The week will begin with cutting out all technology and the old blackboards coming out, as students get a taste of learning in the past.

Principal Michelle Duke said the children would experience school “like our grandparents did”.

“Students will come dressed in old-style clothing rather than uniforms and even think about getting those little cartons of milk that their grandparents had,” she said.

Teachers will also dress up, to reflect how society has changed over the years.

“Women needed to have their dresses at certain lengths, which highlight that we’ve been able to achieve equality and fairness since then,” Ms Duke said.

“It’s so they [students] can understand what their parents and grandparents went through and that leads into the rest of the week.”

Wednesday will be an open day where the school celebrates the present, showcasing “best practice education”.

In the present: An open day will celebrate today’s best practice education. Photo by Megan Fisher

“We use an explicit phonics approach to teaching and decodable readers and a writing revolution approach to teaching writing,” Ms Duke said.

“In numeracy, we have a game space open-ended and narrative-first approach.”

Then Friday is all about imagining the future of education in Victoria.

It will be a day when students can envisage their future self and dress-up as the career they might one day have.

“It’s focusing on the possibilities and the options that are open to our students because of the education they can access,” teacher Rebecca Brown said.

“Education is forever changing — we need to make sure we're updating our practices to match the research that comes out.

“The fact that we're lifelong learners — we learn to talk and walk, then we learn to deal with emotional experiences.”