Southern Metropolitan Region
Mentone Primary School
Staff and students at Mentone Primary School were thrilled to host the official opening ceremony for their new learning space, built through the Building the Education Revolution (BER) program. The occasion also marked an exciting milestone for BER, with Mentone Primary being the 500th Victorian school to celebrate the opening of their BER project.
Students at Mentone PS are very proud of their new learning space, which features three classrooms, a project space and an outdoor learning area. Assistant Principal, John Bernau, says “the students enjoy having their own special building”. Year 6 student, Sabrina, says “being able to move into different parts of the building freely is great,” while Tyson from Year 5 says “I love the fact that the building is smart – it controls the temperature, the lights and even the air quality.”
“The new building has added an extra dimension to the learning environment. The open design has encouraged teachers to work together in a way that was not possible before. The children have responded very well to these changes. It has stimulated effective teaching approaches, which will become the showcase for the rest of the school to follow,” said Mr Bernau.
Principal, Chris Chant, said the learning spaces are currently being used by the Year 5 and 6 students. "This project has allowed the school to enter a new way of delivering education and learning for our children. There have been challenges. These challenges have been outweighed by a significant upside, where a team of teachers have worked closely using a professional learning community model of work to produce quality learning and assessment for our children.”
Collaborative teams work together to achieve common goals linked to the purpose of learning for all. The teams drive the effort and serve as a fundamental building block for student learning.
Year 6 teacher, Matthew Cardamone, says “The new open-plan buildings have allowed us to collaborate between grades like never before. They have helped us develop programs for our students that are engaging and promote the principles of teamwork through shared learning.”
“The BER project has allowed for growth in the school and created new learning dynamics for senior students. Our student enrolments have increased from 260 in 2004 to 410 students in 2011” said Mr Chant.
November, 2011
