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News from the Middle School Bike Repair Club
Since 2012, literacy in the Middle School has been linked to bicycle repair. How can repairing a bicycle improve literacy skills?
The program requires students to read instruction manuals and write reports about the bicycles they repair. They are also encouraged to work together as a team and use appropriate language to analyse, make predictions and solve problems.
The success of the Middle School Bike Repair Club is from the good will of the school community and its volunteers.
The staff at Mount Lawley Senior High School is very supportive of the program and have been donating their unwanted, but structurally sound bikes for our keen club members to repair and service. This has eliminated the onerous task of collecting discarded bicycles from bulk rubbish collections and as a result, the quality of the bicycles has improved greatly.
Team leaders, Mr Sharret and Ms Burke, and their Year 8 and Year 9 teachers continue to accommodate our presence and recently two sizeable book rooms were converted into bicycle storerooms and workrooms! This confirms the value of the club and its on-going role in the Middle School.
Furthermore, the Design and Technology Department's decision to allow our Year 9 members to use the Metalwork Room as a workshop and a shed to store their bicycles has enabled more students to participate in the program. In total, we now have three secure facilities to store our bicycles.
Gerry Ternahan and Bruce Hunt are our two volunteers who visit every week and without them, we would not be able to accommodate the students who participate in the program.
Over sixty Year 8 and 9 students registered an interest at the start of this year.
Students were required to write a letter of application and resume to become members of the literacy program. The panel of judges consisted of the club's Secretary, Ms Frzop and the Chairman, Mr Camilleri.
Lyn McMullin, a Teacher Aide, who is now working in Senior School, has kindly stayed on as the club's Treasurer and Year 9 English teacher, Ms Rowe, has arranged a member of Rotary to have our repaired bicycles be a part of a larger shipment of donations to communities overseas.
Our next update will include the progress of this significant project.
Keep cycling,
Mr Camilleri and Ms Frzop.
