School Projects

Preston North East Primary has ongoing school projects that are ongoing and have special importance to the community, these include:

Water Quality Project
Breaking New Ground
Boys Education
Sustainability
2009-10 eSmart Project

Water Quality Project

Students from Northland S.C., Preston North East P.S., Reservoir East P.S. and Bell P.S. explored the impact of human habitation on Darebin Creek. This involved: researching the history of the area making visual, photographic and video observations of the plant and animal life of the area researching the water colour and litter along the creek use scientific probes to measure the temperature, pH and flow rate of different sites along the creek.

The creek moves from an area of very low population through farmland and industrialised areas to a very densely populated area. Students are working in collaboration with the forementioned schools on a variety of integrated SOSE, English, Science, Mathematics, Art and Technology units of work.

Students in Grade 5 & 6 from Preston North East visited the local creek numerous times to monitor their own research, and to explore the condition of the area. They also visited Northland Shopping Centre to display posters designed to make the community more aware of the issues Darebin Creek is facing.

Breaking New Ground

Breaking New Ground is a group of local agencies that aim to improve services to vulnerable children and families within the City of Darebin.

The agencies pooled their resources to fund a project that researched the extent of local issues for families and children and current family service provision and best practice models in this area. The project will also sought to implement changes as a result of the research findings.

Breaking New Ground worked together with the family support sector to achieve better outcomes. Since the completion of the project Preston North East has worked closely with the Childrens' Protection Society (CPS) and has a CPS family worker at the school for half a day each week.

Boys Education

Boys Education has been a major focus at PNE since early 2004. Later that year in response to similar concerns across a number of network schools the Darebin Schools Network conducted a major study on attitudes to school. This study revealed some major issues in terms of boys' attitudes towards school and their feeling of connectedness towards both peers and their teachers. PNE committed to change these attitudes and since then has been part of many major cluster Boys Ed. initiatives and projects as well instigating programs within the school to make improvements in this area. This involved hands on projects and trials, teacher professional development and inclusion of elements of Boys Ed. in the school's Strategic Plan and Annual Implementation Plan. After some initial work in the area the school was successful in 2006 in obtaining Success for Boys funding which enabled all school staff to participate in further quality professional development in Boys Education. Some examples of PNE Boys Ed. initiatives that have taken place over the past few years are:

*participation in the yearly Boys Writing Expo at Lakeside SC with authors such as John Marsden, Chris Milne, George Ivanoff, Dr John Long and Paul Collins

*school based mentoring programs in social skills and literacy

*participation in the Hands on Learning project where boys constructed new play and recreation spaces at local schools

*school based Boys groups at lunchtimes (eg. ICT, cooking, Bike Ed.) and during the day (such as for literacy or maths activities)

*participation in a cluster wide Writer in Residence project where boys produced a published book of their own writing

*use of specialist consultants such as Ian Lillico, Dr. Michael Carr-Gregg and Joseph Driessen

*classroom and specialist teachers adopting a range of "boy friendly" strategies and approaches in all classrooms from Prep through to Grade 6

*a concerted use of student opinion data in planning and classroom organisation

*integration of Boys Ed. improvement strategies and goals into yearly teacher professional development plans

Sustainability

Since the start of the project in 2008 PNE have been focusing on rubbish and its disposal. We have introduced the Shelter Shed, which has lots of bins available, as a place to eat outside to assist keeping our yards clean. Further to this, classrooms have discussed ways to reduce the amount of rubbish created and participated in a Rubbish Free Lunch Challenge. This was an incredible success and will therefore be held again soon.

We currently have a major focus on improving our energy and water use. We have had water tanks installed that are used to harvest rainwater to flush toilets and water the gardens.

eSmart Project

An eSmart school is a school where the smart, safe and responsible use of information and communications technology is a cultural norm. Students, teachers and the wider school community are equipped to embrace the best these technologies can offer, while being savvy about the pitfalls. Being eSmart means knowing how to guard against the security and privacy risks, being able to research and reference information and download content in ways that are ethical and legal, as well as being able to manage reputation and relationship-based issues associated with being in cyberspace. Students are regularly involved in developing and delivering information on the smart, safe and responsible use of technologies to a variety of audiences and are taught a suite of social and emotional skills. The eSmart Schools model provides a rigorous, evidence-based framework for schools to implement whole-school culture and behaviour change relevant to the smart, safe and responsible use of communications technology.

Preston North East Primary School Cnr Laurel and Tyler streets