Year 8 ‘Sense of Place’ Immersive Learning Unit comes to an end

The Immersive Learning Units (ILU) at MLC School are designed to provide students with the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills that are developed in the classroom to real world contexts. At MLC School we create unrivalled learning experiences beyond the classroom for students that we hope will spark curiosity, foster growth, and provide a platform to contribute back to the community.

The Year 8 Immersive Learning Unit has been running all term. It allows students to be immersed in the Aboriginal culture as well as explore the issue that have affected and still affect the peoples of the Eora, Wiradjuri, and Ngunnawal nations.

Throughout the ILU students have heard from a range of Aboriginal voices on various topics as well as participated in on country opportunity working with Aboriginal elders in the Blue Mountains, Bathurst and Orange and student and leaders from Kinross Wolaroi.

The unit was based on a sense of place.

Why a sense of place?

“Connection to country is inherent, we are born to it, it is how we identify ourselves, it is our family, our laws, our responsibility, our inheritance and our legacy” (Liddle, 2020).

Establishing ‘a sense of place’ is an important first step in developing students’ understanding of the Aboriginal experience in modern Australia. We believe it is important for students to understand the story of the land in which they gather each day as well as the greater communities in which they live. We aim for students to transfer this newfound understanding in conjunction with meaningful consultation with Aboriginal people in the hope that students will be an agent of change within the community to improve the way in which we recognise the Aboriginal heritage of Australia.

After hearing from many speakers, participating in excursion here in Sydney and then experiencing a week long trip in the Central West of NSW, students worked on projects in Geography producing an infographic, producing an acknowledgement of country for religion, keeping an immersion journal for the whole experience and producing a project pitch on how they as a small group of Year 8 students could improve recognition of Indigenous people within one of the communities we visited.

Follow the instructions below to see the final products.

STEP 1: click this link: https://www.thinglink.com/mediacard/1727185306198737382

STEP 2: Click on the icon over a project to view the work

STEP 3: Zoom in and out, or view full screen, by using the icons shown below.

The outcome has been fantastic! A big thank you to all the staff involved, all the guest speakers, staff and students from Kinross Wolaroi and the students of Year 8 who have embraced the unit with enthusiasm, curiosity and interest.

– Sarah Jauncey
Acting Director of Experiential Pedagogy