Mel Maria has been awarded the Engineers Australia WA Medal, the highest accolade in WA, awarded in recognition of service to the engineering profession. It is the first time that it has been awarded to a group outside the engineering profession in the last 100 years.

It reflects the belief that the future of engineering does not begin at university. It begins exactly where sparks are ignited in the minds of our youth – in classrooms and learning spaces where creativity is encouraged, curiosity is nurtured, and problem‑solving is celebrated.

President of Engineers Australia Allison Selman stated that “Mel Maria has built an outstanding reputation for early‑years STEM education. Engineering is brought to life in classrooms through hands‑on learning – where robotics, coding, design thinking and digital technologies is weaved into the curriculum — giving children the opportunity to experiment, problem‑solve, and create – as part of everyday learning. This approach reflects the very qualities that shape the engineers of tomorrow”.

EXCELLENCE IN CATHOLIC PRIMARY EDUCATION

Mel Maria has been highly engaged and has an embedded culture of STEM learning.

At Mel Maria we have an inherent belief that every child can succeed. It is apt to say that STEM is one of the vehicles that is used to drive students learning, it invites a place for students to engage in critical and creative thinking, for them to experiment, test and evaluate prototypes. For them to communicate and collaborate on their findings developing vital skills such as time management, innovation, and teamwork by engaging students in solving complex problems within a collaborative environment.

Our STEM program is multifaceted and begins on our early childhood campus in Kindy where students are invited to explore, experiment, build and discover. This becomes the building blocks for how they view their world, one of possibilities where they can be part of its design. These foundations continue to be embellished upon and extend into all year levels through a whole school IT integrated scope and sequence culminating with multi-faceted projects and STEM programs for our most senior students. Students are involved in the STEM TOM competition at ECU university, have the opportunity to showcase open-ended self-directed MAD STEM projects as part of their mastermind classes. These projects see them empathising with a community group and working to define a problem, coming up with a solution prototype,

Our students take their solid knowledge base from their primary education and go on to teach and lead other students in their secondary schools.  We have students returning to share the pathways they discovered at Mel Maria, a passion for STEM that was realised at primary school in our programs that have served as a springboard for their careers as biomedical engineers (started in robotics onstage), mega Tronics, sustainable engineering, political/ engineering degrees because of what they learnt about themselves in these STEM classes, what they uncovered about who they are and how they think. This accolade for our school inspires, it plants seeds of belief that they can truly become the people who are driving creativity of thought, inspiring teams of people they work alongside. It’s about transforming challenges into opportunities and turning imagination into impact. In this space, innovation is celebrated, and inspiration is contagious.