Launchpad in Yarrambat, Victoria | School

Launchpad

Locality: Yarrambat, Victoria

Phone: +61 409 959 674

Address: Defredericks Rd 3091 Yarrambat, VIC, Australia

Website: https://www.launchpadhouse.org

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25.01.2022 The art of journaling anywhere, anytime!!!!

23.01.2022 Imaginary play was high on the agenda this week from creating cat clans to chopping wood to building shelters and fires. But this is not learning...I hear you say, actually this is the best type of learning. Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Imagination is the door to possibilities. It is where creativity, ingenuity, and thinking outside the box begin. Imaginative and creative play is how young people learn about the world. During imaginative pla...y, young people manipulate materials, express themselves verbally and non-verbally, plan (intentionally or unintentionally), act, interact, react, and try different roles. Great opportunities for learning are possible when young people participate in creative play and its even more fun in the great outdoors. Because nature is ever changing, it provides countless opportunities for discovery, creativity, and problem solving. The natural world inspires young people to think, question, make suppositions, and develop creative minds. Imagining, trying new ways of doing things, and experimenting help develop critical thinking and foster creative problem solving. These will be key skills for the future for our young people. See more

20.01.2022 Camping anyone??? What more could you ask for the opportunity to commune with nature, explore, create bonds with new friends and of course concur the challenges of putting up your own tent!!! Much fun was had by all from the initial campsite set up to just being in the great outdoors. Trekking through the bush and just contemplating nature, doing our part by picking up rubbish on our way. Visiting locals to have a go on their pianola, who knew that a piano could play itsel...f with a scroll. Making our own wood fired pizza and of course making sticky, gooey s'mores!!! Then as it started to get dark armed with torches, adventuring we shall go, looking to see what animals are out and about and unencumbered by street lights the stars shine brightly but hang on why is it not so dark?.....a beautiful full moon smiling down on us. Why do I love camping for our young people so much? Because it gives them an opportunity to get up close and personal with my favourite thing...NATURE. This process helps instil a sense of adventure, builds resilience, boosts their creativity and gives them the freedom to explore. See more

19.01.2022 I can’t believe its that time of the year already....it has absolutely flown by. This year has been filled with unpredictability but it hasn’t stopped our intrepid heroes from embarking on their journeys and having an awesome time in the process. Even if did include some zoom sessions and some distance education, the students have taken it all in their stride. It’s been great to see everyone come back together to finish the year off with our first ever trip away to the beach. I’m looking forward to many more to come!! Wishing you all a great Christmas and New Year.

16.01.2022 Welcome to our music studio!! The students enjoyed their time in the new space. After spending time practicing their instruments they then put together a live performance of their own creation. Using drums, guitar and keyboards and our lead singer, Layla, taking centre stage.

16.01.2022 We’re back!!! I’m reminded this week about how our democratic process at Launchpad operates so organically. I watch the students engage with each other to bring about change to help foster safety for the younger members of the group and for themselves. A respect from the students by their desire to understand the needs of those around them even the animals and wanting to help find equality for all. A very simple matter for them all part and parcel of how things operate he...re at Launchpad. It all started as they returned on campus to find that some birds had moved in and laid some eggs on the roof of the building. This meant that they were being swooped as the birds saw them as predators. After a bit of running and screaming, one of the older students conducted a brief safety audit and came to the conclusion that there was indeed a safety risk. Whoops!!! With this in mind the student called an emergency round table meeting to discuss the situation with her fellow peers and come up with a solution that would enable them to coexist and still feel safe. After much discussion, several points were raised and it was decided that as they did not know 100% whether their efforts would work that they would trial some ideas and report back. So off they went, some making helmets similar to what bikers use to deter the birds, some with weapons and one decision that was unanimous was that the younger students would need to have an older student with them when traversing the dangerous path to the trampoline. This helped the younger students feel safe. All agreed!! One student had a completely different idea and set about showing the others that if you just ignored the birds that after they swooped a few times they just left you alone. So for this student the solution was to go about your usual business without engaging with the birds and exhibiting any treating behaviour waving things around etc. By the end of the day it had worked and they had come to a nice grounding where bird and human could coexist without threatening the other happily coexisting. The students were free to jump on the trampoline without being swooped and one section of the path was deemed a no go zone until the babies had hatched. I love when learning is not in a classroom but is being lived!! These students didn’t do a session on democratic values, respect, equality, problem solving or critical thinking even though these were all being used here. These principles are inherent in the students if you just give them the space to be and to interact without any preconceived ideas or need to influence their learning processes.

16.01.2022 Collaboration was high on the agenda this week. Students worked together on various things from story writing, treasure hunts deciphering clues that other students had made and building a tunnel for our resident cat, Pickles. Everyone was so busy and deeply engaged that we found ourselves forgetting afternoon tea!!!! The beauty of being in flow. What is flow ? A flow state, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by the complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting transformation in one's sense of time.(Wikipedia) With no one telling you it’s time to stop and move on to something else!!!

16.01.2022 Creativity, critical thinking and problem solving in the real world is what our young people will need for the future. Here at Launchpad these are key fundamentals in everything we do. Come join us in 2021 and see the difference or consider offering your kids part time school with a couple of days at Launchpad and expect to see a difference in your child’s creativity, curiosity, engagement and thinking not to mention the benefits to their overall wellbeing from the added confidence that comes with being empowered to be the creators of their own learning journey.

16.01.2022 While some students chose to use the equipment at the park others used the natural surroundings to get on with some imaginary play building cubbies and camp fires!!!

16.01.2022 Endless ideas with our Mystery Challenges. The students were encouraged to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions with limited materials. Amazing results!!!

15.01.2022 This week I am in awe as I watch the students work individually but with a feeling of connectedness. The ability to ask each other opinions and ideas on their projects without feeling inferior or superior, The ability to encourage each other and to openly discuss ideas without prejudice, This is humility in the making!!! Humility is an underrated quality that isn’t touched upon often. It is something mentioned heavily in religious texts, and it may seem a little old-fashione...d, but it’s a quality that is wholly necessary in this day and age. Humility is in fact, one of the most powerful and important attributes of growth. Being humble helps to build trust and facilitates learning, which are key aspects of leadership and personal development. Kids today are growing up on social media, whichas much as it connects us to others in new waysseems to offer an endless frenzy of opportunities for self-promotion and self-absorption. Learning a habit of humility can be a peaceful counterbalance to help our kids remain kind and grounded. On a personal level, humble people have a secure identity that is neither arrogant nor self-deprecating, and they are open-minded about new information. On a social level, a humble person will focus on others and see others as having the same inherent worth as themselves. Humble people don't lack pride in their accomplishments. Rather, it is knowing the time, place, and tone with which to share their strengths with the world. These are our superheroes in the making!!! I take my cap off to all the parents in our community for their ability to recognise the importance of this trait and to be modelling it in their homes and around their children as I am seeing it in the way they interact with each other everyday.

14.01.2022 Reading, writing, drawing, creating, cooking and exploring it was all happening this week. The highlight though was our new music studio. So why music? Music can be instrumental(pardon the pun) in any child’s development. Here are three important reasons why. 1. Improves confidence, self-expression and fosters creativity.... Music is a powerful tool in enhancing health and wellbeing. Creating and performing music can improve a young person’s sense of self-worth and promote positive self-confidence. Creating, learning and performing music is rewarding for children in many ways. It helps them to express themselves and allows an opportunity for them to feel valued. Music facilitates and nurtures emotional growth by teaching students about responsibility, expression and assessment. 2. Promotes teamwork and collaboration. Making music with other people helps to establish a culture of tolerance and acceptance. Creating and experiencing music as a group leads young people to understand and value diversity. It promotes sharing, listening and encourages social growth by asking students to work together. Children learn to respect the opinions and ideas of others through making music collaboratively and have the chance to celebrate the things that make people different. 3. Develops neural pathways and enhances brain function. Music stimulates incomparable development of a child’s brain and leads to improved concentration and memory abilities. Physical changes to the brain and cognitive improvements through music are measurable in many ways. Most notably, MRI shows that musical tasks can activate all 4 lobes of the brain, as well as parts of the cerebellum. Music, quite literally, gets the whole brain working. Interested to know more on this I have included a link to a 5 minute TEDEd below. https://youtu.be/R0JKCYZ8hng

14.01.2022 Wishing you all a Great Xmas and an Awesome New Year!! Looking forward to catching up in 2021!!!

13.01.2022 This week the students tried to predict the future by asking the magic 8 ball some tricky questions about whether they were getting a horse, a caravan or a million dollars. Writing was high on the agenda this week with students making books and maps of new communities that would reside on the property. The students shared some quirky things at round table from a four wheel trolley, sugar packet collection from around the world to a student written book titled ‘Guide to hav...ing an awesome bedroom’, if you’re interested in more details copies are being sold for $1. Training also started for the new communities with a dart challenge and several nature quests. There was also the interesting use of golf balls on the trampoline, great massage they tell me!!! Our online sessions this week centred around architecture and some of the tallest buildings and monuments in the world and when and why they were built. Discussing at length the Eiffel tower and then building a model with flashing coloured lights. See more

11.01.2022 A hunting we will go!!! Another epic nature walk. This time in keeping in line with our objective to clean up our local environment we took a bag to collect rubbish in. We came back with a full bag plus some!!!

10.01.2022 Happy Birthday to our resident cat, Pickles who turned 3!! So much excitement from birthday parades, scavenger hunts to gift making. Pickles remained very calm and composed throughout all the commotion.

10.01.2022 Wow amazing week filled with so much learning!!! This thing we call learning or education which is never ending and not governed by us instructing or directing. It’s magical and it happens organically if we just get out the way and trust in our students journey. It’s beautiful to see them just doing and being moving from individual exploration to collaboration with the fuel being their innate curiosity!! They have a passion and a desire to know and learn more, this is what the deep dive is all about. Our role as parents and educators at Launchpad is to nurture and support this process an activity we absolutely love doing!!! Inherently we go through some massive learning and growth too.

09.01.2022 Exploration and experimentation this week helped to engage the students to investigate possibilities. The opportunity to find out for themselves through trial and error encouraged the students to come up with their own creative theories and solutions. Through Science they discovered acid and bases by making volcanoes to Horticulture where they planted their own wheatgrass crop so they could have homemade wheatgrass shots. Our excursion saw us visit the new Diamond Creek play area where loads of fun was had including ice cream!!!

08.01.2022 Project lead, student initiated learning.... what does this actually mean? Well it makes for very busy and engaged students who are keen to explore, experiment and take their project topic to deeper levels without being asked, bribed or having to repeat things over and over. The students just get on with it. Working individually, collaborating when needed and asking for assistance from their peers whether they be fellow students or mentors/coaches(educators). More importan...tly not being afraid to make mistakes and try again and again until they have succeeded with their individual project. These projects take on many shapes and sizes from building a stool, writing a book, designing a website to making a backpack out of recycled material. While they are making, building, designing and writing they are learning an endless list of skills that prepare them to be resourceful lifelong learners able to tackle and concur anything that comes their way. See more

07.01.2022 Managed to get one last camp out before being thrown back into lockdown. It was so cold that the students decided to move their tents indoors. So it was actually a camp in!!! Still got to build the fire (marshmallows...yummy) and make pizzas in our pizza oven. The students went from tent to tent visiting each other before picking a tent that could house them all for their club meetings. Some awesome bonding going on which only happens when the students have the opportunity to just be and show up as their own authentic selves. Magical moments!!!

05.01.2022 Having fun on our beach trip!!!!

04.01.2022 The joy of empowerment!!! It enables our young heroes the opportunity to choose their own authentic journey each day. The students moved from connecting,creating,exploring,baking,experimenting,composing,husbandry,drawing and building the list was endless!!