Steps to advance this strategy can be seen in TREK, the innovative Year 9 subject that commenced in 2019. With projects as diverse as building billy carts to developing social enterprises, the TREK teachers have been able to push the boundaries of student engagement and harness their boundless energy, explorative thinking and natural exuberance.

In 2020, TREK will be expanded into a number of challenging, interesting and engaging Electives. Building on the strong foundations of our traditional core subjects, and based on the TREK cornerstones of Know, Think, Create and Connect, these subjects are designed to integrate skills from across curriculum areas, build a sense of challenge and achievement, develop confidence and unleash the creative potential of our students.

To extend the concept of personalising, challenging and engaging our students, we have created a number of new flexible learning spaces for students to learn in different ways and we have been delighted to see how the students have engaged with each of them:

• The new Judy Clark Room on Level 5 of The Cooerwull Centre incorporates state-of-the-art video conferencing facilities. It was wonderful to see Year 8 students using this impressive technology during a Skype-session with a biomedical researcher from the University of Melbourne.
• Two adjacent classrooms in the Pizzey Wing have been extensively renovated. Traditional rows of desks were replaced with varying height tables, different learning zones, a flexible and mobile teacher station, and a soundproof retractable wall to facilitate team teaching between the two classrooms.
• The rear of 127 Marshall Street has been renovated and refitted with an impressive dome structure to create an innovative group and team-teaching space predominantly for experiential learning. This flexible learning space contains an array of construction tools for students to use to develop new practical as well as creative skills.

Planning for new facilities and new buildings takes on greater momentum and focus in 2020. We will be collating feedback from Junior and Senior School students and teachers to ensure that our future planning is progressive and relevant to their needs.