Project room links students from Back Plains and Bondi Beach

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		Posted June 2006 Project room links students from Back Plains and Bondi Beach Lyndal Symonds

		Nine students from Back Plains SS traveled to Sydney and visited Bondi Beach SS Reading Ruth Park's novel Playing Beatie Bow to her 12 students at Back Plains State School, near Clifton, Principal Lyndal Symonds found that the children had little understanding of the Sydney setting. The result was an intensive study of Sydney's landforms and history, a link with a Sydney school – and a school camp in Pitt Street. "In a multi-age classroom, with 12 students from Years 1 to 7, I like to use a central theme and to get mileage out of it by planning different activities and outcomes for different age groups," Ms Symonds said. "With Sydney as a focus, Years 1 to 3 looked at different types of land formations. To help them with this, I linked up with a Year 3 teacher at Bondi Beach Public School. It's a large, city, beachside school – totally different from our country environment." Ms Symonds said Back Plains had worked with the Learning Place previously, in online chats. "So I knew the Learning Place would have something I could use!" she said. "In the end, we set up a project room with a Travel Buddy blog and a forum. Back Plains students could ask questions of Bondi kids – like where they lived, what their back yard was like, what they did after school. The answers often surprised them! What Bondi kids did was so different." The Back Plains Travel Buddies, koalas named Patch and Stitch, visited Back Plains' students' homes, and a blog and photos went to Bondi. Then, Patch and Stitch were packed up and travelled to Bondi.

Three weeks later, nine of the Back Plains students followed them. "Five of the children had never flown before," Ms Symonds said. "And to all, it was a big adventure. We rode ferries, buses and trains and visited Bondi Beach School. A highlight was a tour of The Rocks, where a wonderful guide showed the children locations where Beatie Bow was set."

Ms Symonds said she believed her students had developed a new appreciation of their own area. "They were horrified that Bondi didn't have a big, grass oval," she said. "And that, in a big school, so much ICT equipment had to be shared. Small-school students have much more opportunity to be ICT-savvy. And having the Learning Place as a facility we can always call on makes us spoilt!"

In Term 3, the Back Plains students will be editing a video of their trip for the school website, Ms Symonds said. A new project room will document the Sydney cultural exchange, with a blog and photographs.

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