Students learn all about people power

They might be only Year 5/6 students but they have quickly discovered people power and thanks to their relentless efforts, their school is set for improved toilet facilities.

The efforts of this cohort of five Melaleuca Park students has also garnered them a 2024 Governor’s Civics Awards for Schools with Evelyn Heenan, Taylor Brown, Jack Forster, Lacey Lynch and Brax Schultz-Gunn successfully nominated for the award by their teachers Jayde Peacock and Rachel Beavis.

It all started with a class camp to Adelaide in February this year in a classic case of seeing how the other half was living.

“Our class visited Westbourne Park Primary to observe and learn more about ‘learner agency’ and while at the school many of our class used their toilet facilities and were very impressed by the size, cleanliness and hygienic facilities available for students,” Mrs Peacock said.

“They quickly compared these to the toilets at our school which are disgusting, old and unsafe. It prompted the learners to question the differences and the inequity. Through this camp experience students were exposed to many very nice toilet facilities and the standard of toilet facilities quickly became hot topic for the class.”

And their chance to take action quickly presented itself on the school’s South Australian Parliament Tour on the same camp, hosted by Clare Scriven MLC.

“This hands-on learning opportunity provided the learners with real world learning and provided them with the knowledge and processes,” Mrs Peacock said. “During question time with Clare the students asked her what the process involves to improve the toilets to an acceptable standard. Clare’s suggestions gave the learners direction and motivation to make a difference at our school.”

Armed with their newfound knowledge about how to make a difference, right from the halls of power, the students wasted no time putting a plan into action.

Within days, the students discussed the toilet facility issues and collaborated to document some steps forward to make adults aware of the issues and work towards proving better facilities.

The students knew collecting data would be a key pillar of their campaign and so during lunch and recess the nominated group of students set up outside the junior and upper primary toilets to collect data on student’s usage and comments around issues and problems they have with these spaces.

Minister Scriven then became part of the process again during a class visit where students continued to question her about the best steps to take to bring awareness to their toilet issues.

“The class identified important people within the Government system and wrote letters to a raise awareness and share their concerns about our school toilets,” Mrs Peacock said.

They also enlisted more heavy hitter with Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell invited to a site inspection at the school to enlist his support for the campaign.

Accompanied by the students and school principal Erica Hurley, Mr Bell toured the junior and upper primary facilities with the students also providing a written presentation.

Not content to have presented their concerns to local politicians, the students also gave Mount Gambier Education Director Adam Box a firsthand look at the sub-standard facilities in question.

But the job wasn’t done yet, with the students then tasked with working through design and costing details for any redevelopment.

Mr Box suggested to the learners that they should research and redesign the toilet spaces, including compliance, costings and creating 3D models and they hit the ground running.

“The learners embarked on a collaborative project measuring, designing and created a 3D model of replacement toilet options which are safer and are better quality toilets facilities for our students,” Mrs Peacock said.

The project also made its way into a speech from Mr Bell in Parliament – the class watching their local representative helping fight their fight with media attention also helping the campaign build even more momentum.

Mr Bell then met with Deputy Chief Executive of the Department for Education Ben Temperly to share the concerns around the toilets at Melaleuca Park Primary School and investigate what the Department could do in response to upgrade them to a really good standard.

Safe to say, the students, who simply wanted to make their school a better place for all 110 students that attend Melaleuca Park, achieved their goal and the junior primary school toilets are set for a much needed revamp but the job is still not done with efforts now turning to the same issue for the upper primary facilities.

“This group of learners felt it was very unfair and began to dream big in hope of resolving this issue to provide better quality toilet facilities for all students at our school,” Mrs Peacock said..

“Some of the group members are student leaders of our school and used this platform to begin the journey to bring awareness to the substandard facilities.

“This group comprised of learners with vast academic ability and personal qualities. It was exciting as educators to see these learners not only highly motivated and engaged, but also effectively collaborate and support each other in hope of achieving the common purpose of getting new toilets for our school.

“They effectively collaborated, sharing ideas, workloads, responsibilities and importantly for this group of learners, providing opportunities for everyone to be successful or use their personal strengths.”

Needless to say, for the teachers involved, the real world learning journey proved to be invaluable for students and showed the worth of such projects in nurturing and developing students of all ages.

“Not only for these five students but through their work, the entire cohort of learners has benefitted,” Mrs Peacock said. “We have been able to creatively weave in vital Civics and Citizenship learning including real life experiences around the importance of people, institutions and processes to the Australia’s democracy system.

“The high level of engagement, questioning and confidence we have seen in all our learners, it is evident that learners have a strong understanding of their rights and responsibilities as future citizens.”

The students will be presented with their award next year.