Environmental Learning Centre
Lara Primary School recognises the need to educate future generations to understand that the choices they make impact the world in which they live.
We are fortunate to have a classroom at Serendip Sanctuary, a Parks Victoria sanctuary located within close proximity of our school.
This program, the ‘Serendip program’ is unique to our school and offers all students a very special experience by allowing them to extend their experience of learning to beyond that of the normal classroom and school grounds.
The Serendip program is designed to bring about student connectedness to the environment and therefore responsibility for its future.
All students from Foundation – Year 6 attend Serendip for a minimum of one week per year.
At Serendip, students interact with Parks Victoria rangers and local community environmentalists in a hands-on learning environment. Throughout their experience at Serendip, students will engage in using science skills, such as making predictions, collecting data, recording results and analysing and evaluating.
At Serendip students study a variety of topics including environmental science, native habitat exploration, feeding programs, plant propagation, as well as topics that use the wetlands at Serendip as a key learning tool for studies into species identification, erosion and salination.
Key components of the Serendip program include: caring for others, trying your best, taking responsibility for the environment, being responsible for your own actions and behaving proactively. In essence, the Serendip program strives for this generation to grow into environmentally informed individuals.