CLASSROOMS TAKING LESSONS FROM GOOGLE
FORGET the blackboard, rows of desks and hard backed seats, these Gold Coast schools are catering to modern learning in a new way.
As part of a major policy shift by Brisbane Catholic Education, Gold Coast’s catholic schools are doing away with the traditional classrooms and opting for more flexible, subject specific spaces in order to enhance learning.
In what may seem to be a ‘new aged’ twist on the classroom Aquinas College Ashmore is one of the many schools to have transformed its business class into boardrooms, maths rooms into beanbag filled learning centres and IT departments into genius bars (just like Apple).
Teacher and STEM curriculum leader Craig Heufel said it was important classrooms adapted to the way children learnt.
“No classroom is best for one child, a flexible classroom allows for us to accommodate to the lesson and the facilitation of learning,” he said. “In a room like the STEM lab we can use breakout sessions for design, create a darker space for other work, or use beanbags if we are collaborating. It is very Google.”
A BCE spokesperson said the initative also helps to reduce anxiety and boredom.