St Albans Heights Primary School partnership
For more than five years, ACMI has shared a rich partnership with St Albans Heights Primary School (SAHPS) to develop and deliver meaningful learning experiences for students, teachers and the school community with a focus on digital, screen and media literacies.
Transforming reluctant readers with home-based learning using popular videogames; and expanding visual communication design skills through identity and speculative futures as a springboard for storytelling, this 5-year partnership continues to evolve and break new ground for a diverse cohort of students.
The partnership includes collaborations on site at ACMI and at the school, including teacher professional development, student workshops and specialised videogame programs.
About St Albans Heights Primary School for F–6 (SAHPS)
Situated in the heart of the Brimbank local area, SAHPS caters for students with differing needs from F–6, many of whom come from diverse cultural backgrounds with 95% of students having a language background other than English. In 2023, SAHPS were one of only five schools in their Network to receive the Gold Award from the Victorian School Wide Positive Behaviour Support.
Read about our creative learning partnership
SAHPS using videogames in the classroom
This session was recorded as part of Museum Next's Museums, Games & Play Summit in October 2023. ACMI Educator Kate Ficai and SAHPS specialist teacher Noly Noble showcased the indie-comedy hit game Untitled Goose Game, and how they used it as a springboard for integrating media and literacy with reluctant readers during home-based learning.
ACMI and teachers embed exhibition content in student learning
In late 2024, teachers from SAHPS visited ACMI to preview our major exhibition The Future & Other Fictions, celebrating many visions of what the future might look, feel and sound like from different artists, filmmakers and other creatives who use the story and the screen as their canvas. The year 5/6 teachers then spring boarded their literacy, DTC and visual art planning to connect with these themes, embedding the ideas of identity and speculative futures to their lessons until term 3.
In term one, students engaged in writing short pieces and creating animations that envisaged what Melbourne might look like 1,000 years from now, including our food, transport and entertainment. They then visited ACMI to build on their classroom work – engaging with the Exhibition and participating in a custom workshop that allowed them to create animated collage posters to illustrate Melbourne in the year 3000. These posters will be projection mapped during their whole school Art Show in Term 3.
This was another great example illustrating the value of long-term relationships between schools and Museums. The students had the chance to deepen their learning about stop motion animation using the industry professional software Dragonframe, and stretched their DigiTech skills using file management on Mac laptops. They developed their visual communication design skills and worked collaboratively to realise their visions in small teams.