School showcases great work in STEM space to scoop up award

A MAJOR State Government award is showing the work that Melville Senior High School is doing in the STEM space.

The school received a Leadership Excellence Award in the Governor’s School STEM Awards, which were held last week.

Among the initiatives the school runs is its aviation studies program, Murdoch University being involved in its graphic design media program and delivering robotics, coding and RoboCup to Year 7, 8 and 9 gifted and talented students.

Proud principal Phil White told the Gazette the award validated what the school was doing around science, technology, engineering and maths.

“The STEM subjects at Melville are embedded across our entire school but one of the things I was most proud of, we were up in the final against Hale School, PLC and a smaller government school,” he said.

“Their schools invest millions and millions of dollars into bright shiny centres whereas in Melville we have great pride that STEM is embedded across the school and all of our subjects have a component of STEM.

“The judges said to me afterwards at Government House the thing that set Melville apart from the others is the immersive, whole-school approach.”

Deputy principal Alanna Sherwood said the Department of Education had a target of 85 per cent of Year 11 and 12 students enrolling in STEM subjects by 2023.

“We’ve already met that target at Melville so the school has had that focus for a long time,” Ms Sherwood said.

Melville Senior High School was also a finalist for the Secondary School of the Year and Mr White a finalist for the Principal of the Year in the 2019 WA Education Awards, which were announced last month.