[Schools in Fire Country Introduction Video]
[Gentle music]
[On screen text]
Harkaway Primary School
[Leigh Johnson - Harkaway Primary School, STEM Teacher/Principal]
We have this little motto here 'Nothing's taught until something is learned nothing is learned until you've done something with it.' So we want our kids to take action with their learning, meaningful action.
[Cooper - Harkaway Primary School, Student] [Caleb]
I do think it is really important that kids learn about bushfires, especially if they live in a place like Harkaway with all the plants, crops and other vegetation that we have here.
[Neil Munro - Project Lead, Bushfire Education, - Country Fire Authority/Safer Together]
So this special education program was developed off the back of over 10 years worth of research. Following over 70 years of recommendations from Bushfire Royal Commissions suggesting that bushfire education is a priority for Victorians.
[Leigh]
All Victorians, which includes children, need to be educated about this.
[Dr. Briony Towers - Disaster Resilience Education Specialist, Leadrrr and Natural Hazards Research Australia]
We evaluated a lot of the programs that the fire agencies had developed
[Neil]
And developed an approach to bushfire education that is place-based and participatory. That involves students in their learning and places them as genuine agents for change in their communities.
The program is designed to be delivered over the course of one school term. This program is broken down into three phases: Discover, Investigate and Take Action.
[Briony]
The Discover phase begins with the teacher tuning in to students existing knowledge, thoughts and feelings about bushfire. The students then embark on a cross-curricular exploration of key topics including: fire ecology, Aboriginal cultural burning, bushfire behaviour in the landscape and bushfire risk. This provides students with a solid foundation of knowledge and skills to build upon throughout the learning process.
[Neil]
In the Investigate phase students draw on what they learned in the Discover phase to identify authentic problems in the local community. Students then choose one problem of particular relevance, interest, or concern to study in more detail. Through focused inquiry and engagement with the wider school community, they develop a deeper understanding of that problem from the perspectives of local people.
[Briony]
In the Take Action phase, the students generate a multitude of ideas for possible solutions to their chosen problem. They assess the merit of each idea and they select the best one to develop into a low fidelity prototype. The students engage in an iterative process of testing their prototypes with subject matter experts and target users and refining them based on the feedback that they receive. The students then move on to creating high fidelity prototypes of their solutions, which they share with their school community at a showcase event.
[Neil]
We've worked with educators, fire agencies and subject matter experts to develop curriculum alliance teaching and learning resources, and professional development for teachers.
[Briony]
This topic of bushfire creates so many opportunities to address the curriculum.
[Leigh]
Every single area of the curriculum is represented from maths to literacy to science
[Neil]
You know often students will go home, they'll have conversations with their parents and their peers about bushfire as a result of this process.
[Leigh]
They're cross-pollinating, they're sharing their ideas, they're learning from each other, they're doing things that take action, they're informing their identity about who they are in this space.
[Briony]
It's never been more important for children to be learning about bushfire so that they can grow up understanding the environment that they live in.
[Leigh]
Every single young person can engage with this and walk away with a meaningful difference they've made, an ability, you know, to make a change.
[Archie - Harkaway Primary School, Student]
This has just been amazing.
[Cooper]
It's been one of the best experiences I think that we've had here, I'm pretty sure.
[Archie]
I definitely feel a lot lighter in terms of worries for bushfire season.
[Jasmine - Harkaway Primary School, Student]
If kids don't learn about bushfires, then and it can really affect them if a bushfire occurs.
[On screen text]
Thank you to the students, staff and teachers at Harkaway Primary School, and to our incredibly talented Working Group, Steering Committee and long list of teachers, specialists and partners who have contributed to this program.
Through our collaborative effort, we have developed a meaningful approach to bushfire education, enabling children to be genuine agents of change in their schools and communities.
[Music fades]
[On screen text]
This program was developed in collaboration with:
Country Fire Authority
Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action
Natural Hazards Research Australia
Victorian Department of Education
Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
Harkaway Primary School
Leadrrr
Parks Victoria
RMIT University
Victorian Curriculum And Assessment Authority