On Thursday August 7, the Year 8 cohort had the privilege of participating in a practice Growth Project Expo. At first, the experience felt a little overwhelming. The room was busy and full of hardly any empty tables, which made it hard to find a space to set up. Many of us weren’t sure what to say or how to present our projects confidently. However, once things got going, it became a valuable learning experience.

It was helpful to receive feedback from students, teachers and visitors about what we had done well and what we could improve for the final expo. We had Year 12 Vocational Major students come through, many Year 7 classes and a Year 9 Math’s class, plus many teachers, Learning Support Officers and support staff.

Seeing everyone else’s Growth Day projects was also inspiring. It was amazing to see how much progress others had made and the creative ways they were finding to help and support the community. – Jorja and Piper

Reflections on the experience and the journey from Year 8 students:

“I was proud of my courage and building of alliances when going back to Highton Primary School and talking to teachers and year 5 students, as well as the detail that I put into the succession plan for the art club. I hope the Year 5 students will be able to understand it and be able to use to make the art club successful but also use it for any other clubs they want to create.” – Milly

“We received a lot of feedback on how persistent and passionate we were with our project for example, establishing our GoFundMe, trying to volunteer at GAWS and trying many ways to get more clients for dog walking.” – Courtney

“I am proud of how I engaged with people I didn’t know and how I talked my way through the time” – Eve

Elements of agency I will focus on next:

“I want to be open to the new and being reflective because I don’t reflect much on the work I’ve done in the day. I want to be open to the new and overcome obstacles that could happen in my project”. – Peggy

“Being open to then new- I have been open to the new by going to the library and going out and doing stuff by myself and with Val; the elderly neighbour I am spending time with. I have also been open to the new because I have done a project that I haven’t done before and I’m putting myself out there.” – Amelia

“DEVELOPING SKILL OR CRAFT: I want to develop and focus on this agency in learning because in order to complete my growth project to full standard, I need to develop my skill of crochet and digital literacy in developing a storefront and further efforts to donate the money.

STRIVING FOR MASTERY: I am developing this agency in learning by trying to master crochet and the field of online marketing for my growth project to be as successful as possible.

DEMONSTRATING DRIVE: I chose this agency in learning because in this growth project, I am pursuing my community and personal ambitions, like working with donations for animal welfare and also my personal ambitions were to flourish within the community and expose myself to the world of being a business owner (selling accessories).” – Ruby

“We will focus on generating feedback because in our next expo we will use the feedback we have today and use it to make our presentation better and more interesting. We will also be working on making sure our grammar and our sentence make sense because when someone was reading it didn’t make sense.” – Eliza