Preshil Weekly – Term 1 Week 5

To our wonderful Preshil community, welcome to another edition of the Preshil Weekly!

Thank you for your patience as we took a short pause over the past fortnight. We’re now back and ready to roll as usual for the rest of the year!

Over the past two weeks, the first of our cohort camps for 2025 occurred. The Peppercorns recently explored Sovereign Hill, immersing themselves in its experiential history, while our Middle School students spent time on the Mornington Peninsula, connecting with nature and each other.

At Preshil, we are intentional about providing rich experiences beyond the classroom. As you may know, our cohort camps run from Years 2 and 3 all the way through to the much-anticipated Year 9 Central Australia trip. In the Senior School, we also offer a variety of optional study tours each year. In 2025, these include a New Zealand Ski Camp and a potential Tasmania Arts and Humanities Study Tour, running from June 23–27. The latter presents a unique opportunity for students to immerse themselves in Tasmania’s rich cultural, artistic, and historical landscapes.

These experiences are invaluable in fostering the deep sense of connection we aspire to as a radically human and connected place of learning. Being in a new environment exposed to different ideas and ways of thinking, strengthens these connections. Time away from home, surrounded by peers, also provides an opportunity to develop the trust and inclusivity that define our school culture.

Put simply, these trips are a lot of fun, and they will remain in the highlight reel of our young people’s memories for many years to come!

I hope you enjoy reading more about these and the other wonderful experiences we’ve shared together as a community of learners over the past fortnight.

Warm regards,

Aaron Mackinnon
Principal

P.S. If you get the chance to pick up The Age this weekend, you’ll find a feature on Preshil’s unique approach to nurturing creativity within learning. Take a look!

Kindergarten and Feelings
The kindergarten children have been exploring feelings and emotions and the kind alternatives we can choose to express how we feel and calm down. We are linking this theme with the primary colours theme as children recognise the emotions that they feel, verbalise them and normalise their feelings.

Alongside this, the children in the kindergarten and OSHC program are participating in sensory explorations where they can connect with their peers and engage all their senses to explore and pay attention to the world and their feelings.

Year 7-10 Global Politics Elective
A few weeks ago the Year 7-10 Global Politics elective students participated in an exciting crisis simulation, managing an international response to imaginary major earthquakes in Greece and Turkey. Students took on roles ranging from affected governments to international organisations like the UN and NATO, learning firsthand about the challenges of coordinating humanitarian aid and the importance of international cooperation.