Larrakeyah Primary a Top 10 school in the World’s Best School Prizes award
The T4 World’s Best School Prizes aims to celebrate and showcase how schools around the globe contribute and impact the development of society with their approach, programs, and initiatives. Through sharing the expertise of trailblazing schools, the Prizes hope to inspire the education community worldwide.
The Prizes shortlists 50 schools across 5 categories, with the winner in each category being awarded $50,000 to continue and develop their approach further. The categories are:
- Community Collaboration
- Environmental Action
- Innovation
- Overcoming Adversity
- Supporting Healthy Lives
This year, from thousands of nominations, Larrakeyah Primary School has made it to the Top 10 in the ‘Supporting Healthy Lives’ category. Significantly, our school is only the second Australian school to ever be shortlisted and recognised at this level, and is one of the only primary schools to make the cut (the other shortlisted schools primarily being middle and secondary schools).
The Supporting Healthy Lives category recognises schools that are providing the opportunity for students and the wider community to live healthy. From physical fitness to nutrition, personal development and developing healthy relationships – the award celebrates the impact of schools taking an integrated and sustainable approach.
At Larrakeyah Primary, an integrated approach to student health and development is clear across our student wellbeing programs, Cooking & Gardening Program, Physical Education Program, YouHue, Friends at Break, and QUEST Program.
QUEST and Supporting Healthy Lives
QUEST is an innovative approach to teaching. The program enables students to explore different areas of interest through projects in real-world contexts. The projects are designed around an inquiry-based learning framework that promotes the development of 21st Century Skills while incorporating disciplines across the STEAM subjects.
QUEST recognises that the careers of tomorrow might not exist today. The ability to apply skills, problem solving, critical thinking and take responsibility for the success of their team as well as their individual role will be key drivers that help our students thrive and shape society.
QUEST gives students the opportunity to sample different industries and develop passions. The program fosters personal development and healthy relationships within project teams. Combined with wellbeing initiatives, such as the YouHue feedback system, teachers and school leadership are able to constantly validate and improve the program.
Bee-autiful Birds and Bees
In QUEST, students are provided with a number of projects to choose from. A recent QUEST project was the Shorebirds Competition in 2021.
As shorebirds seasonally arrive at Lee Point to mate, they come under threat from the impact of people in the area. Bee populations are also affected. With industry input and context from experts, such as park rangers, students were tasked with creating a practical solution to help protect fledgling birds whilst also educating the public to encourage sustainable behaviour.
Students created bird shelters with artwork that alerts people to the presence of young birds. They also designed posters with messages that grab attention and promote positive choices – such as responsible rubbish removal.
Celebrating inspirational stories
Everyone in our school community should be very proud of making it to the Top 10 in the World’s Best School Prizes award. Later in the year, we will be presenting our story and expertise during a community building event featuring the Top 10 schools from each category.
We are happy to share our story of always striving to provide exceptional education to our students. We hope it inspires others, just as we have been inspired by the initiatives and innovations across the global school community.
Next time, we will dive into some of the student wellbeing programs that supported our nomination in the Supporting Healthy Lives category.
