Students graduating from our Upper Primary 9-12 Program share their experiences from their time at FMS. Read on to hear from Jade Mantica about her experiences.
It all started 11 years ago when Jade Mantica started FMS in the NIDO Program.
“I can still remember planting peas . I planted so many pea plants that my mum had to throw some away. It was my favourite thing to do. I loved getting dirty!”
Jade has spent her whole education so far at FMS and in her own words, “Here I can be really creative and explore big ideas like animal testing. Actually it was a project in 2019 about animal cruelty that led me to decide to become vegan.”
She was relaxed, happy to chat about her experiences and what she values about her education. She’s ready to spread her wings at high school and thinks that the way she has learnt at FMS has really contributed to the confidence she feels:
“We learn faster, we go further, the teacher guides you into more advanced stuff so that’s going to really help me in high school.”
There was praise for her teachers because they allow students to run with their ideas and find alternative ways to demonstrate their knowledge. She’d love to see that level of trust go even further in things like ‘Going Out’ where she thinks the Graduates could be given even more freedom. That praise extended to the respect the staff show to students like when the students are cooking they provide vegan options.
During the COVID-19 self-isolation time Jade read the book ‘Mrs Frisby and The Rats of Nimh’ by Rober C. O.Brien, commenting that whilst it’s not one of her favourites, “I have a preference for mythology and action books. But I’ve enjoyed the activities like creating characters and designing a new community where we had to imagine that the climate is mild, wet winters with warm, dry summers. We could make up our own rules like how long school would be open or what laws we would invent?”
Asked if she had any recommendations for future improvements at FMS, Jade suggested we upgrade some of our buildings.
Outside of school, Jade likes nothing better than cooking. At the moment she’s experimenting with her own recipes using puff pastry.