On Thursday the 21^st of May, Cleveland District State High School hosted a visit from delegates to the 6^th International Middle Years Of Schooling Association Conference. The Conference is held over three days with the first day set aside for local schools to show visitors examples of some of the innovative and challenging activities and programs operating for their students. We were chosen to demonstrate the way that our Year 8 integrated task called, “Living on the Edge” operates.

This Year 8 Unit takes the students out on Moreton Bay to look at the challenges and pressures facing the environment from human impact. It is run with the assistance of the staff at the Moreton Bay Environmental Education Centre and the Port of Brisbane Authority. Back in the classroom, students undertake further study and are assessed in a range of tasks across the four KLAs – English, SOSE, Maths and Science.

Teachers from Queensland, Northern Territory, Victoria, Tasmania and Papua New Guinea came to hear more about what we do and then participate in a modified version of the excursion. It was a wonderful opportunity to share professional knowledge with colleagues from such vastly different educational backgrounds and receive some very positive feedback on the teaching and learning taking place here at Cleveland.

On the following two days, Friday the 22^nd and Saturday the 23^rd Tracey Hopper, Sam Porteous and Karen Abraham attended the conference at the Brisbane Convention Centre listening to a range of local and international speakers discussing the challenges facing educators of students in the 10 – 14 year age group. It certainly provided food for thought and the information gathered will be extremely beneficial as we move towards a review of Middle Schooling.