Situated near the Lake Cooloongup Flora and Fauna Reserve at the eastern end of Rockingham, Hillman Primary School is servicing a community that has a history of generations of families that have attended the school and are keen to be part of a team striving to provide quality education opportunities for the children of Hillman.

Our school has a strong eco commitment and our school strives towards encouraging a sustainable future for our students through the many sustainable programs we operate.  This in itself encourages our students to be part of many weekly outdoor learning activities through the management of our worm farm and square metre gardens.

We are also lucky enough to have an amazing outdoor learning area in our kindy/pre-primary area with an outdoor kitchen, pots and pans music area and loose parts for creative play.

Literacy, numeracy and social skill development occurs outside.  Last year we put sight words around the playground and the kids went around with clipboards to write any words they could read.  We worked together to build the highest possible tower from Duplo.  We made collage pictures out of natural found elements.  We orally retold the story of The Three Bears.  We had a basket of books and a blanket for quiet reading.  We sorted leaves by size.  We made magic potions/perfumes.  We made sculptures out of clay.

Hillman recently installed shade cloths to our outdoor learning space in the junior/senior area and this space has been utilised to conduct experiments in science as well as to enjoy outdoor literacy and maths sessions.

Utilising our outdoor space encourages students to be creative and they can enjoy the freedom of the outdoors in the process, whilst learning about the environment. We encourage our students to learn about sustainability and the importance of looking after our planet.

During our 2018 Outdoor Classroom Day all our students enjoyed cubby building, using a mixture of natural and man-made materials. It promoted collaboration and problem solving skills in a real setting using real materials. It allowed for all of our students to participate and enjoy success as they were not confined by the classroom norms.

Our outdoor learning day generated a buzz around the school as students worked together in our school grounds. We witnessed a decrease in behaviour issues as students perhaps had more freedom and less constraints.

In the junior and senior ends of the school, core subjects such as mathematics are easily transferred to the outdoor environment, using our grounds to work out measurement problems as well as using the space to work on times tables through relays.

We are all very much looking forward to participating in this year’s Outdoor Classroom Day and continuing with our normal outdoor learning schedule.

The Outdoor Classroom Day Team would like to thank Hillman Primary School for sharing their story with us.

WANT TO SHARE YOUR OUTDOOR CLASSROOM DAY STORY WITH THE WORLD?

If you’ve previously taken part in Outdoor Classroom Day, you’ve probably got some great stories to share – and we’d love to hear them!
To be featured in our Outdoor Classroom Story section on our website, please tell us a bit more about your school, and your participation in previous Outdoor Classroom Day campaigns.

SHARE YOUR STORY

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