The Electives Program at Preshil is designed to broaden students’ learning within and beyond the curriculum. Providing opportunity for interdisciplinary experiences, with weekly classes offering the possibility of challenging, extending or deepening knowledge in a specific area of study, or of igniting a passion for what was previously a general interest. Staff, parents, past students and supporters outside of the immediate school community can offer a subject about which they are passionate and have specialist knowledge.

Each term, students from Prep to Year 6, and Years 7 to 10 choose a subject from a variety of topic areas including Health and Wellbeing, Sport and Physical Development, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) and Community or School Partnerships. The areas of study offer an ever-growing selection of activities for different age groups and foster Preshil’s enduring commitment to making, choosing, building, playmaking and performing, as described below and in our Courage book.

“From the earliest years, children at Preshil are encouraged to choose… In later years, children are encouraged to choose and pursue one or more special interests… This tradition of  choosing special projects and electives continues throughout the school.

Preshil believes that providing children with the choice to follow their own interests leads to a more compelling and rewarding learning experience for both child and teacher. By taking ownership of their education children invest more of themselves and are more motivated to learn.

By learning to make their own choices in ever more significant ways, children begin to learn the importance of making good choices and taking responsibility for them. When children can understand that their every action is the product of a choice they themselves make, whether consciously or unconsciously, they become more empowered to direct their own lives.

By choosing to pursue their own interests children solidify their unique strengths and the growing expertise that will aid them in their later studies, as well as in their vocations as adults…”

– Courage

This subject area provides students the time and environment to experience balance by developing habits for their future health through mindfullness and yoga, cooking with nutritional foods to undertaking authentic physical work through gardening and growing their own produce. Our kitchen garden program is also the springboard for our students to be part of the school’s annual Spring Dinner fundraiser, gaining real-life opportunities and experience, where students must collaborate, create and support each other if the dinner is to come together on the night.

Preshil is very supportive of all activity that leads to physical well-being, and does not use the motivation of winning, or the fear of losing, in either academic or sporting pursuits. The Electives program has offered classes in Fencing, Tennis, Tae Kwondo, Swimming, Lawn Bowls, Boot Camp, Rowing, Cross Country Running, Soccer, Skateboarding and Rockclimbing to name a few. A wide range of sport and physical activities should be available to everyone rather than through a compulsory model.

We believe STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), with the addition of A, Art, becomes fused with so many more possibilities. STEAM suddenly captures the potential of education in the post-internet age. It represents a genuinely transformative approach to learning and speaks the language our kids have already learned as digital natives. A STEAM approach is intrinsically multi-disciplinary; it requires collaboration, invention and lateral thinking.

STEAM represents a very effective style of learning by drawing on a similar, and often ignored, capacity of the human brain to cement learning through Mnemonics, encoding information in the memory using visual imagery. By integrating Art with Mathematics, or any of the STEM subjects with Design, for example, the possibilities become endless – and accessible for all learners.

Recently we invited the Food Security Group to work with our students to integrate their program that teaches life skills of planting, maintaining and harvesting a crop. Food Security’s mission is to create practical and meaningful ways to engage in solving Food Insecurity in Australia. Students can experience the personal rewards that come with contributing to the welfare of our community and gaining an insight to a problem that is not only local but affects people all over the world on a global scale; thus creating global citizens with an awareness of
their common humanity.

 

 

 

Primary Electives

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secondary Electives