Student Development
The Secret Garden: Where Play Meets Purpose
Tucked away in a corner of Edgefield Primary that used to be an empty classroom, there's a room our students named, designed and now have to earn their way into. We call it the Secret Garden.
A Space Our Students and Edgefield Community Helped Build
The Secret Garden started with a question to our students: what do you
want this space to become? They voted on its name, colour scheme and activities,
and chose board games, an art corner, a relaxation nook, an air hockey
table and a photobooth.
Parents and teachers donated games. Our Principal, Vice Principals and
staff helped set up the room. And our Peer Support Leaders (PSLs) did much
of the hands-on work, from unpacking parcels to laminating passes, turning
it into a space students genuinely call their own.
|
|
|---|---|
|
|
Peer Support Leaders organising games and furniture, unpacking parcels, packing and setting up the Secret Garden room over the course of a few months.
|
|
|---|
Learning Responsibility, One Level at a Time
Access to the Secret Garden works on three levels, each asking a little
more responsibility from our students.
Level 1- games sit along the canteen corridor, free to
play during recess with no supervision needed.
|
|
|---|---|
|
|
|
|
Level 2 - Premium games are loaned out by our PSLs and parent volunteers using Secret Garden passes, a small lesson in borrowing and returning responsibly.
|
|
|---|---|
|
|
|
Level 3 – Entry to the Secret Garden itself, is earned. Students collect Star Edgefin stickers for good behaviour, with ten stickers earning three visits, learning that good things are worth waiting for.
|
|
|---|---|
|
Students get to bring home toys caught in claw machine and polaroid photos taken at the Photobooth. |
|
|
|
|---|---|
|
Students playing and relaxing at the Secret Garden |
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
Alumni and Edgefielders playing the popular Air Hockey game. |
||
What We're Seeing in Our Students
Since the Secret Garden launched in 2025, we've given out over 3,000 more
Star Edgefin stickers for good behaviour. But the real story is in the
small moments: students settling disagreements on their own, Edgefielders
packing away games at the end of recess even when they weren't the ones
who left the mess, and PSLs flagging issues and suggesting improvements
without being asked.
This is Character and Citizenship Education in its most natural form,
not a lesson, but a lived experience.
|
|
|
|---|
Built on Voice and Choice
The Secret Garden shows what happens when students are given real ownership:
real responsibility follows.