Yarralumla Primary is a small, community English-Italian bilingual school located on the southern shores of Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin. Our focus is on developing the whole child through personalised learning in a language rich and inclusive environment.  Our school is a neighbourhood school catering for children from the ages of 3 to 12 as well as out-of-area children from families committed to the bilingual program. There is a sizeable proportion of children from overseas embassies located in Yarralumla and other families on postings.

Yarralumla Primary has built an enviable reputation for delivering a wide variety of specialist educational programs that include not only its Italian bilingual stream and English stream but also special education programs in the Learning Support Unit- Autism, a Cycle 1 Montessori curriculum, and a curriculum focus on The Arts and sustainability. All parents are encouraged to participate in our diverse, vibrant and energetic community as partners in our students’ learning.

We are in a glorious setting with massive oak trees and plenty of outdoor spaces to take our students to. We have an outdoor classroom area that is attached to our veggie garden and it is regularly used by all our classes.  We love being outside. The outdoor environment at our school stimulates the minds and bodies of our students and helps them to think differently. We find that so many students and their families have such busy lives that often being outside is a real treat. Every day we take the students outside to do something – even today when the temperature was a mere 8 degrees I watched a class estimating outside as part of their maths program.

Last Outdoor Classroom Day we had poetry in the garden; boot camp on the oval; every class did PE or sport outside; and we did art outside.  We’ve found that learning outdoors increases engagement, opportunity for discussion is enhanced, and children are allowed to take up as much space as they need.  The spotlight that Outdoor Classroom Day places on outdoor learning makes us relook at the options and try something different.

The Outdoor Classroom Day Team would like to thank Yarralumla 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

IS YOUR SCHOOL OR EARLY LEARNING CENTRE SIGNED UP?  REGISTER TODAY TO SHOW YOUR COMMITMENT TO OUTDOOR PLAY AND LEARNING!