WONDERFUL EXPO
STUDENTS, EMAIL YOUR LETTERS TO Junior students from The Cathedral School have put on a display of hard work and innovation at their annual Wonder Walk.
A massive 445 projects were on display created by 500 students, using more than 100 noticeboards along a 260m walk – equivalent to 780 steps.
Head of Junior School Luke Baills said the Wonder Walk was based around an expo or a trade show, with students all displaying their work to a range of community visitors.
“The Wonder Walk is a celebration of student learning, and the reason we celebrate student learning is that it is our core business here,” he said.
“Each student has access to the resources they require. Some like to spread out on a table, others like to have a display on a noticeboard. One of our Year 6 students had a rocket-launching pad out near the flagpole.
“The whole purpose of the venue is to create an expo feel.
“The secondary purpose of the Wonder Walk is being able to speak and share with others, not just your mum and dad but community members and other mums and dads, what it is you’ve learnt and do that confidently.”
Mr Baills said the Wonder Walk allowed students to experience, investigate and explain all the phases of a successful project – even the parts that didn’t quite go to plan.
“It’s an opportunity for students to showcase not necessarily just completed or successful projects, but also the errors, the stumbles, the things they found difficult or challenging throughout the process,” he said.
“We firmly believe that children learn more from failures or things that go wrong than always being successful.
“It’s not just a nice tidy little project that Mum and Dad get to come and have a look at – a large proportion of the 445 projects on display were unfinished.
“It’s about the students demonstrating and showcasing what they’ve learnt, not necessarily a nice little neat product that’s wrapped up with a pretty bow.”
The theme of this year’s Wonder Walk was “I Wonder – Math is Everywhere”, a concept the students investigated for much of the year.
“One of the important things in our school is STEAM, and the M in that represents mathematics, so this year we wanted to look at maths,” Mr Baills said.
“The purpose of that theme was giving students the opportunity to make connections and link mathematics to their learning.
“Our students here are inspired to wonder.”