Gisborne Montessori School is helping students to grow their ideas and spark innovation through its weekly clubs program.
The program called ‘Make it Happen Friday’ kicked off on July 21, with about 90 kids attending the session aimed at encouraging connection and student entrepreneurship.
The school’s executive director Peter Hutton said this first session was a success and the program will help to boost student empowerment, especially following years of virtual learning due to COVID-19.
“The program is very much about supporting the students to follow their passions… one of the areas we are wanting to encourage is student entrepreneurship,” Mr Hutton said.
“Kids have a capacity to make a difference in the community and we want to support them to do that.
“Across the country in a post covid world [schools] are having problems with attendance … so we need to make it more enjoyable and more relevant.
“We do our fair share of literacy and numerous but there has to be more spice than that for students to come to school everyday.”
Mr Hutton said some of the club’s activities are proposed by staff and some by the kids, and the school has $15,000 set aside to help students create their own business or not-for-profit.
“We have $10,000, from the school’s own fund …. for students to start their own business … and $5000 for students to start their own social enterprise like a not-for-profit, that’s not repayable,” he said.
“That’s how much we believe in it … it’s just about supporting young people to follow their passion.
“One student [has started] making his own dog treats and sells them at school, which he has been doing for a few weeks.”
Mr Hutton said some of the other clubs include a Dungeons and Dragons club, a craft club, and a bike repair club, where students repair old bikes and they teach each other to ride the BMX track.
“The only reason kids want to be at school is their friends and sometimes sports … we need to have more than that.”
Zoe Moffatt
