Sprint Week

YEAR 10 SPRINT WEEK

IN JUST FIVE DAYS, OUR YEAR 10 TEAMS PITCHED SOLUTIONS TO REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS POSED BY EXTERNAL ORGANISATIONS.

Each year, our Year 10 students participate in the SPRINT Week program. The program is based on the Design Sprint methodology for solving problems originated by Google Ventures. It allows key members of a company or group to come together for five days with the aim of solving and testing a pressing problem. In our case, the Year 10 cohort was divided into 26 teams of six students, plus a media team tasked with documenting the story of SPRINT Week. This year, SPRINT Week had a social enterprise and community connection focus. The week was launched in the gym by Ms Ugonotti, who spoke to the girls about overcoming fear in favour of risk and experimentation. Our keynote speaker was journalist and activist Sarah Wilson. Her courage in discerning the right path and her commitment to businesses that remain true to her founding principles made her the perfect person to address Year 10, as they wrapped up both an extremely challenging year and four years of Integrated Learning at Loreto Normanhurst.

Students were then presented with real-world problems by our organisational partners – Taboo, Studio A, the Environmental Defenders Office - and one by our very own community. Some problems tackled included period poverty, ecocide, encouraging green travel and positioning Loreto as an intergenerational hub. We equipped the students’ ‘war rooms’ with research packs to help them understand their topic area and thus effectively develop potential solutions. Potential solutions were sent back to the organisations who provided feedback to the groups. On the last day of the program, students presented a final pitch judged by representatives of our partner organisations. The top three groups were selected. Taboo, one of the partner organisations, has since contacted the School to tell us that they were so impressed with the proposed solutions that they would like to work with the students to implement them moving forward! We also see this program as a strong professional development opportunity for staff. Staff can see in action practices that facilitate team decision-making and collaboration. They were an incredible support to the students, both through their guidance and their ability to allow students the freedom to critically and creatively come up with solutions on their own.

It was a privilege and a delight to watch these young Loreto women engage with the challenges laid down by our organisational partners. We are proud of every single Year 10 student who approached the week with passion and engagement. We thank our partners for generously providing their time to make this experience an enriching and motivating one for our Year 10 students.

MS MICHELLE ALBERT

DEAN OF LEARNING