Meet the People
 |
 The kids at Condell Park school live here, in Sydney |
 |
Scotch College Adelaide
Our school is called Scotch College Adelaide. We have almost 900 students and about 60 of those are boarders who live in different parts of Australia. There is 1 teacher for every 14 students, and we have both boys and girls as students.
We live in South Australia. It is the driest state in the driest continent in the world. The biggest city is Adelaide (where we live). It has just over one million people — almost half the population of the entire state. Our school is named "Scotch" because it was started by Scottish immigrants in 1919 who wanted a memorial to those who were killed in World War I.
All of our students have their own notebook computers. We are connected by a radio network. Each of the students in the school can contact the teacher and each other all the time. It is pretty neat.
The range of subjects is pretty much like that in the rest of Australia. We have English, mathematics, studies of society & environment, sports, physical education, religious education, home economics, technology, art, and science. We can select from a range of other subjects as well, including music, agriculture, drama, and languages like Indonesian, French, or Japanese.
Each year the students go camping. For our camp this year, we took a bus trip from the Scotch campus to Roonka, which is on the River Murray. South Australia is a very dry place and there is only one major river. We had to drive for three hours to get to the river. Once at Roonka we sailed across to Goat Island. We set up camp and went for a swim in the beautiful waters of the River Murray! One activity was to get into groups and build rafts.
Invergorden
Our school has 60 students from prep (kindergarten) to grade 6. We have 22 children in our grade 4/5 class. We have 8 computers in our classroom and 23 computers in the school — 12 are connected to the Internet. There are nine rooms in our school. There are four classrooms: an art room; a library; a multipurpose room where we do music, dancing, and some math; a staff room; and an office. We are lucky because our present school building was built in 1969 for 200 students and that's why we have so many rooms. We have four full-time teachers and three teachers who come for a day or half a day per week. They teach art, music, and library. Our classroom teachers teach us all the other subjects. Our teacher is Mrs. Cairns. The original school was called Dunbulbalane but was changed to Invergordon in honor of our first schoolteacher, who came from Invergordon, Scotland.
Invergordon is a small rural community in Victoria, which is the most southern state on the east coast of mainland Australia. Our town isn't on most maps. It is about 30 kilometers north-northeast of Shepparton, which is our nearest city. Invergordon has a small township of 14 houses (population 38), and the rest of the community lives on dairy farms or orchards. There are approximately 500 people living in the area overall. In addition to the school, there is a church, a guide hall, community rooms, a cricket oval, two general stores, two fertilizer distributors, a BMX (bike racing) track, netball courts, and tennis courts. There are also lots of channels to swim in during the summer.
Our school is over 1.5 hectares (a hectare is 2.47 acres) in area. We have a netball/ basketball court, an oval for football and cricket, a rebound wall, a fort, play gym equipment, and gardens. We pump water from the channel for the gardens and lawns, and collect rainwater from the roof for drinking. The water is collected in large concrete or tin tanks. We think our gardens look great. Each class is responsible for looking after its own garden. We also have a pine tree that is planted in the front of the school. It was grown from a seed that was brought back from a famous World War I battlefield called Lone Pine Ridge. We hold our Anzac Day ceremony around this tree. Anzac Day is when we remember all the Australians who have died in wars, so our tree is very special to us.
At school the boys love to play cricket in the summer and football in the winter. In the summer both girls and boys like to play tennis as well. At other times we all enjoy bat tennis. At present the girls are having a skipping fad.
Condell Park
Greetings from "Down Under." Our school is called Condell Park Primary School. Our school has around 440 students (18 classes, K-6, ages 5-12) and about 30 teachers. Just like the population of Australia, Condell Park Primary has students from many cultures including Lebanese, Vietnamese, European, Greek, and Aboriginal.
Condell Park is located in the Sydney metropolitan area in Bankstown City, not far from the two Olympic Games site. Lessons start at 9:00 a.m. and finish at 3:00 p.m. We have recess from 11:00 until 11:20. During recess we drink our morning tea and play. During lunch break we play soccer, handball, cricket, and other games. Did you know that because of the time difference between us, you would probably be in bed while we are at school?
During the week each class has a regular lesson in the library. During library we read books and research information. Each class will be doing an activity that will help us answer the questions that you ask. This introduction was compiled by Year (Grade) 3/4.
Every Friday we have sport. Some children compete in PSSA. This is when we play sport against other schools. If you want to play a sport you have to try out. If you make it you're on the team. We have teams for basketball, soccer, netball, rugby league, t-ball, softball, hockey, and cricket. In Australia, the most popular sports are cricket, rugby league, Aussie rules football (a type of rugby), soccer, golf, tennis, swimming, rugby union, netball, and fishing.
This year our school is celebrating its 50th birthday. The classes are busy preparing for a concert that represents the events of the past 50 years. Another forthcoming event that we are preparing for is our "jump off day." On this day we participate in lots of skipping activities — it's like a skipathon. We are also entertained by our famous Pumper Jumpers, our skipping team.
Did you know that Sydney is the oldest and largest city in Australia?
|
