By Rob Kelly, multimedia learning specialist at Berwick Lodge Primary School and education correspondent for Star News Group
In 2014, Berwick Lodge Primary School was in trouble. Student enrolments were declining as new schools were being built in the surrounding area. Berwick Lodge had to do something radical to stand-out above the rest.
It was thanks to the school’s current (and founding) principal Henry Grossek that the school made a turn in the right direction. Mr Grossek decided that the school needed to better engage with the local community. He employed a community participation coordinator, Liz Symonds (formally Liz Blanchard) to develop a network of partnerships for the school, as well as liaising with local kindergartens to develop a much needed ‘bridging curriculum’ program.
The ‘bridging curriculum’ program proved to be a great success and Ms Symonds worked tirelessly to gather improvement feedback from foundation teachers and educators. A regular round table discussion was held with local kindergartens and the school to develop the program and from the discussions a comprehensive program grew and enrolment numbers at the school increased.
Over time, a valuable set of online and onsite learning activities for kindergarten teachers developed. These activities promoted self-responsibility, care for others, the unity between nature and families, connections between the mind and heart, and emotional intelligence in the classroom.
From the ‘bridging curriculum’ program, a forest room concept was established in 2016 whereby students were connected to nature via the senses and the program went in a new direction. A space within the school was devoted to the resource where the ‘outdoors was brought indoors’. Students who entered the room were encouraged to rest, recover and refocus (RRR) and they immersed themselves in nature through play-based learning activities including small wooden bamboo drums, basket weaving with ivy, various kinaesthetic activities and mindfulness tasks.
To this day, the forest room remains a success at Berwick Lodge especially with the school’s wellbeing team, as it has become a calming influence for students disengaged with their learning or those needing a safe ‘timeout’ zone at school.
In 2017 Mr Grossek used the forest room concept as a way of launching an innovative new idea at Berwick Lodge called the forest classroom. This time, the project wasn’t about increasing student enrolments, but rather increasing ‘student engagement’. A picture storybook with an environmental focus (titled ‘Hettie and Harry’s Forest Adventure’), was written using augmented reality (AR) as the catalyst for engagement. This brought Berwick Lodge to the forefront of contemporary learning.
“In focusing on digital technologies, we were attracted by the potential of AR to promote student engagement, in this instance, in reading,” Mr Grossek said.
“By ‘bringing to life’ characters in the book our team wrote, we were hopeful. The book has a strong emphasis on the protection of our natural environment. AR has enabled us to develop colourful, ‘real life’ characters, with which the children can readily identify.”
Working in partnership with one of Australia’s leading institutions for higher education, Deakin University, Mr Grossek developed a leadership team at Berwick Lodge to drive the AR project forward. This team primarily comprised the school’s assistant principals Sandra McCrum and Angela Maskery, along with continuing support from Ms Symonds, multimedia learning specialist Rob Kelly and Deakin University researcher Manjeet Singh.
“I feel the potential of AR in education is still being realised,” Mr Singh said.
“We are at the tip of the iceberg, waiting for new tools, both hardware and software, to be developed around AR to bring it to a whole new level of learning. I consider myself fortunate to be able to play a part in this evolving digital landscape.”
In 2019, the AR project – like the forest room before it – continues to build and gather momentum. Mr Grossek and Mr Singh presented a talk about AR in education and Berwick Lodge’s experience using it to dozens of leaders at a prestigious conference in Melbourne called ‘The Educator: Leaders Summit’ on Thursday 25 of July.
“Coming from an academic research background, I am excited to be part of the AR project which not only allowed me to develop educational AR applications, but enabled me to observe students and teachers interacting with AR in the classrooms,” Mr Singh said.
After nearly six years in the making, Berwick Lodge is once again leading the way with digital technology as a tool for learning. Mr Grossek views AR as an important engagement tool in the classroom.
“Early indications are very promising and give us cause for hope. At the end of the day, without genuine engagement, learning is made much more difficult,” he said.
