By Olivia Condous
Local high school students have been given special recognition for their efforts volunteering around the Melton community.
A group of twelve students in the Hands on Learning program at Kurunjang Secondary College won the Sowinski Community Projects award, for their work helping botanic garden club volunteers, refurbishing the Melton Central Kindergarten yard and assisting Melton council in tree planting.
Hands on Learning is an initiative from the Save the Children charity that caters for students from year 7 to 10 with the program running in schools across the country, designed to help build confidence and improve engagement at school.
Rebecca Morritt, who coordinates Hands on Learning at the school, said the program was a great way for students to build a connection with their local community.
“Some of the kids, they just live in Melton and there’s no connection to anything else besides their family and their friends,” Ms Morritt said.
“So if they go and help out, then they can see the benefits of what they’ve been doing as well.”
Ms Morritt said the group had particularly worked closely with the Friends of Melton Botanic Garden club and wouldn’t have won the award if it wasn’t for their willingness to have the students join them in working in the gardens.
“If it wasn’t for them allowing us to be a part of their little projects, we wouldn’t have been able to get the award.”
The school was presented the award last month at the Hands on Learning conference in Port Melbourne, being chosen out of all the schools participating in Australia.
Ms Morritt said one of the benefits of the program was that it developed a mutual respect between teachers and students.
“[The students] really mature and they become leaders, it’s really lovely to say we’ve become like a little tight knit family.”
