Service Learning

As a School we are committed to shaping a culture of social and environmental awareness to contribute to a safe, equitable and sustainable world. In 2022 we launched a bespoke Service Leadership Programme for Year 9 students within the curriculum. This programme aims to extend students beyond service-learning and into a model of service leadership.

‘Service Leadership at its core is contributing to the wellbeing and development of others through collaboration with the people involved.’

Year 9 students worked in teams in one of ten service portfolios guided by a project charter. Each service portfolio works alongside a For-Purpose agency and/or internal PLC stakeholders. The goals of the programme include students engaging in meaningful service action, instigating sustainable changes for the betterment of the community, and establishing on-going partnerships.

The ten service portfolios are underpinned by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and work in partnership with community organisations to meet their objectives. Each portfolio area had the support of a staff mentor, year 12 leaders, community partners, programme staff and the psychology team. The intention of the programme is that these are real world opportunities, and the portfolio teams are accountable for their outcomes and meeting the objectives of the partnership.

To support the students to be successful in this programme we partnered with two tertiary educational institutions. The Leadership checklist developed by Harvard’s Making Caring Common is the base of the Service Leadership programme combined with Swinburne University’s Aristotle Four Branch Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Integrated EI Leadership models. The evidence-based curriculum and strategies are the building blocks to learning and developing teamwork, personal attributes, creative and critical thinking skills that will be essential to positively contribute to their allocated service portfolio.

This is an ambitious programme that supports our young people to take small steps that facilitate real change in our community.

Community Service

PLC continued its ethos of being a school with a social conscience engaged with a range of service organisations by volunteering, providing financial support through fundraising activities and donating goods.

Even though at the beginning of the year we had COVID restrictions students had the opportunity to volunteer their time with a variety of causes that they connect with such as beach clean ups, The Smith Family student2student reading programme, cooking for St Pats through the Cooking for A Cause programme, ‘Tech Tips’ supporting seniors with technology at the local library, community Christmas carols and with Boab network to name a few. The whole Senior School and several Junior School classes committed to making 7500 outback packs for the Keep Australia Beautiful Council, which are shared around the state to help keep our country litter free.

Over sixty thousand dollars was raised during the year to support our charities.

As a school we continue to sponsor two young girls through World Vision, enjoying the regular updates on their development. A combined effort between some Year 11 IB students, the year 7 cohort making felt hearts and a junior school apple fundraiser, raised money for the Heart Foundation, which was further supported via the junior school ‘Jump Rope For Heart’ raising almost $8,000. In its eight-year, PLC and Scotch continue to support the Leukaemia Foundation through World’s Greatest Shave. PLC students raised in excess of $39, 000 this year which was an outstanding effort as the event was tempered by COVID restrictions.

The Year 12 graduating class contributed 2,451 hours in service, recorded via their service logs. Seventeen students were able to complete at least one credit through the WACE community service endorsed programme, which includes a minimum of fifty hours service, plus inductions, portfolio questions and reflections.

The IB students through their CAS projects can choose to engage in service and in 2022 several projects continued to evolve supporting vulnerable communities, such as making birthing kits which are distributed to developing countries, sleeping out for homelessness for Uniting WA, Operation Santa, supporting refugees in partnership with UWA and recycling stationery for Give Write.

Two successful service tours were held this year in partnership with Teach Learn Grow (TLG) and primary schools in Esperance and Mandurah. As one participant Zoe wrote in her reflections ‘The most surprising part of the service experience was the impact I still feel and hold close to me. I have created many valuable memories on the TLG trip while simultaneously learning about myself.