Hello, it’s the PBL committee! Today, I’ll be going over collaboration.

My name is Olivia, and I’m the Year Six PBL representative. In Year Five/Six,  we do a lot of big projects, so we often have to work together. Like our Japanese project - we only had 10 hours, one a week, to get our information down, so we teamed up with 1-3 other children from our class, and as a result, we have a display of thousands of wonderful projects!

Collaboration doesn’t just mean doing your schoolwork in groups. It’s teamwork and sharing. It’s letting someone else have the last basketball, or letting someone join your game. All across Campbell Primary School, children are making everything work. No matter how few balls and hoops are left in the sports shed, everyone can find a way to enjoy play at lunch.

A good example is our new basketball court. First of all, we had a mess of children, all trying to have their game played. Then, our school came up with an idea: We give the older children a chance to play at recess, then the younger children can enjoy the place without enormous kids charging around shouting.

Then, we had a new problem: during recess, there just wasn’t room. But instead of fighting over the space, we’ve found a way to have as many as seven games going on the court at once! A new playspace is only the start: we don’t know whether it will be good or bad, it’s all about how we work out how to use it.

If you look around Campbell Primary, you’ll see thousands of examples of Collaboration: the worm farm took so much effort to get established, but thanks to great work from last year’s sustainability committee, we have a thriving farm, proving at the same time that we should continue the committees in 2023.

That’s not all the school has accomplished for itself last year: we have a well-working podcast team, with their channel Schoolyard Banter. You can enjoy an episode or two here, and there will be more coming out all the time, hopefully continuing into next year. All this is thanks to our big word: Collaboration!

After these successes, you won’t be surprised to see that we’ve continued this year. The committees are a big part of year six, and we meet every Friday to discuss the next step. You’ll probably know about Benny The Banana, and possibly the numerous other fruits: Penelope The Pineapple, Spice The Pumpkin, Alice the Apple, Alice the Apple 2… 

Our fundraising committee has organised a cancer fundraiser, one of the school’s most successful, and a brilliant food drive that we plan to do again this year. As you can guess, it takes all hands on deck to accomplish this, and I think that it’s Year Six’s best example of collaboration yet!

Collaboration is that perfect spot in the middle between teamwork and doing whatever you like. Campbell Primary School is full of it, not just Year Six. It lets us create amazing work, get the most out of our amazing school, and make everything better for next year’s students. Thanks for reading this week’s PBL committee message.