30 August 2019

Year 5 and 6 students from Holy Family School, Mount Waverley, have created Melbourne 3000, a coffee-table book celebrating Melbourne.

As part of an inquiry unit, the students visited the city over five weeks to explore, interview people, take photos and gather information about Melbourne past and present. The students investigated the city’s history as well as its Aboriginal culture, landscape and the contribution other cultures have made to the vibrancy of the city. The resulting book includes over 100 photos and writing pieces by each student.

The students have taken great pride in bringing their learning together into a book. ‘I felt good inside because I had a writing piece that I wrote myself in the book and a photo that I took when we were in Melbourne’, said Sam. ‘I liked the Melbourne 3000 inquiry unit because it was different from normal school days and fun exploring the city I live in’, said Xavier. ‘It was good to go back on our trip and write about it in interesting ways and I was proud that we had the opportunity to make a book about everything we did’, said Ava.

As a response to the homelessness seen during their visits to the city, the students elected that proceeds from the sale of the book benefit HoMie, an organisation supporting young people experiencing hardship and homelessness. ‘HoMie helps people that are less fortunate than us, so we collected the money from selling the book to help eliminate homelessness in Melbourne’, said student Sasha, ‘and we thought this was an important thing to do in Melbourne’.

The students also sent a copy of the book to their local MP Matt Fregon, who shared it in Parliament and gave a copy to the Minister for Housing, Richard Wynne.