Carey Park Primary School welcomes new electives

As of next term, Carey Park Primary School will be offering students from Years 4 to 6 a range of electives as a way of encouraging them to learn practical life skills.

The idea came about when a student went to the school’s physical education teacher, Glen Jolliffe, with a flat bike tyre.

“He went to Glen who pumped it up and it immediately went flat,” school principal Phil Greenmount said.

“The next day he came to school with a repair kit rather than a new tube, so Glen worked with him to repair the tube and it has evolved from that.”

After discussing the fact that students tend to spend less time outdoors getting their hands dirty, Mr Greenmount and Mr Jolliffe decided to take a practical approach to their teachings.

“Screen time seemed to be taking over recreational time and students were missing out on learning how to do those practical things many of the teachers here learnt to do during our schooling,” Mr Greenmount said.

“Initially we worked with a small group of students that we thought required mentoring and opportunities to work hands on with projects.

“The popularity with the enterprise room so far has allowed us to expand this new program and from next term we will run six new electives for students to chose from.

“We are so thankful for the community in Bunbury for lending us a helping hand, we put a call out for donations and were overwhelmed with the response we received from Repco, Jaycar and Bunnings.”