In March 2004 the following eight schools in the local area formed a cluster to participate in the DE&T Innovations and Excellence program.  The eight schools formed the Inner South Cluster and decided to develop a community based learning framework for the Middle Years of Schooling called ‘The Community School Yard Framework’.  Kevin Daly is employed as our cluster coordinator.  Kevin liaises with a middle years coordinator from each school to support each schools I & E project and to share the innovation and learning between cluster schools.

Middle Park Primary School, Montague Continuing Education Centre, Port Phillip Specialist School, Port Melbourne Primary School, St. Kilda Primary School, Victorian College of the Deaf and Albert Park College (which is no longer involved.)

The Real Life Learning Program is a feature of Curriculum in Year 5 and 6 at SKPS and it has been developed from the I & E initiative.  Students participate in negotiated autonomous learning projects that relate to real life and have connections to local community resources and global networks.  An example of some units are: Forensic Science, Robotics, Cooking from the Productive Garden, multi-media/imovies.

The Real Life Learning Program:

• Engages students in analytical, critical and creative thinking tasks
• Creates on-going opportunities for students to develop, practise, refine and share their thinking skills
• Provides students with the tools to manage, organise and record their learning
• Promotes productive thinking, moving beyond memorization and simple recall to synthesis and evaluation
• Encourages students to apply thinking tools and strategies in everyday situations and in solving problems they encounter in the real world
• Assists in the transfer of skills as tools for life-long learners.