Postcards inspire a love for world-learning

Students at St Cecilia’s Catholic Primary School have received more than 350 postcards from across the globe in a unique take on the Australian curriculum.

Elise Batchelor’s Year 6 students have been running an international postcard project, where they have created a website and virtual airline, Six Star Skies, requesting people from across the globe to send them postcards.

Student Jamie Payne said as each new postcard arrived, the class virtually travelled to each continent and learnt about each country there.

“Sometimes people will write their return address and we will write back to them,” she said.

“Our goal has been to get a postcard from every continent and we even got one from Antarctica.”

Highlights for the students have included a Vogue model and international actress Bella Heathcote, a plumber in Antarctica and a kindergarten class from Holland.

At the start of term the class ran a photography competition and the winning images feature on the custom-made postcards used for replies. Ms Batchelor said she had been running the project for the past six years in different classes.

“Students suddenly become excited about a world they had no idea about,” she said.

“They can’t wait to get the mail, they’re excited to reply and it generates a real interest as they write about these countries in their passports and just own it.”

The project has seen students learn geography, history, English, maths and art.