Redbank Plains State High School has embedded Future Anything’s in-curriculum program, Activate, into their Year 9 Business Unit for seven years, and they’re still going.
Vicki Cull, the Business Teacher leading the charge, has seen how the program has reverberated beyond the Business classroom to improve confidence in students, enhance engagement, foster problem-solving skills, and boost agency.
“A lot of the disengaged students come because they enjoy the individual learning. Students that are struggling academically achieve better outcomes in that form. We had one disengaged student who would only attend school for Activate. Gradually, over time, the student began attending other classes.”
Every school is unique with distinct challenges and Redbank Plains State High School is no different. They’ve worked hard to make the Activate program work for their students, including:
- Running their Activate Showcase during school hours, which has seen higher engagement than an evening Showcase.
- Including other students in the school as the audience and judges, strengthening the school community.
- Adjusting the program for different classes in Term 2 and 3 based on the progress of students.
For Vicki, confidence building is a key focus for her students as they enter into an arena where they need to have conviction behind their big ideas.
“95% of the class, by the time they present, feel confident to do so. They put their hands up to present in front of senior students they don’t know.”
The students report that they feel more confident when asked to engage in public speaking in other classes, and even feel more sure of themselves when they go to job interviews.
“Activate helps build confidence – that’s the biggest thing. It makes such a big difference.”
Future Anything’s Activate in-curriculum program and student workshops build confident communicators of all ages, by empowering young people to develop, and then persuasively pitch, innovative social enterprise solutions to the problems they care about.
Find out more about our programs here.
