By Natalie Ho 8/08/2016 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DR. DAN WHITE GIVES DOSE OF EDUCATION ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Last week, on Wednesday the 3rd of August Dr Dan White, the Executive Director of Sydney Catholic Schools (SCS), paid a visit to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH), which is one of the 150 schools he has responsibility for. He came to answer some questions and interact with students from Year 6. ____________________________________
Dr. Dan White came and watched their school assembly. The choir sang many songs and Dr. Dan was very impressed. Q&A There were many questions asked by students in Year 6 to Dr. Dan. He said that he wanted the people to stand up and say their name like it was a press conference. Some of the questions were: 1. How did you feel when you received your PHD? 2. What do you think Catholic schools will be like in 10 years? Dr. Dan White Executive Director of Sydney Catholic Schools (SCS) ____________________________________ He also gave us some advice Dr. Dan’s visit was definitely and tips for Year 6 students going into high school. He a positive as lots of the stated the following : students asked many ● Believe in yourself questions about his job, ● Don't get peer decisions and even tips for pressured Year 6 students going into ● Know that we are not high school next year. alone because God and Jesus are with us
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Year 6 students with Dr. Dan White (SCS)
___________________________________ We had lots of questions to ask but we ran out of time! Dr. Dan announced to everyone that he would like everyone to write a newspaper report about his visit to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. He told us when we finished our report to send it to him to see if we were listening to him and this is my newspaper article. After his visit we knew that we gained lots of information, tips and advice from Dr.Dan White.
Students Go on the Excursion ‘Of a Lifetime’ Last Thursday, on the 4th of August, a group of Year 6 students travelled to Auburn to gain a thorough understanding about the background experiences of many refugees. The ‘Refugee in my Backyard’ programme was held at Auburn Park and ran by past refugees and the Auburn Community Council. The meaning of it was to present the fascinating statistics about refugees, what they go through and to show us what we could do to make a difference. We learnt through questions, roleplays, audio plays and physical interaction.
Being a refugee would most definitely be the hardest job in the world if it was one. Over 63.1 million people each year (on average) are recognized as refugees each year and around 51% of them are sadly children. The majority of them commonly come from MiddleEastern countries. This is because people are being persecuted and tortured because of their race, religion or ethnic groups. Wars are also rapidly erupting everywhere and
terrorists are wrecking families and causing havoc. Refugees often risk their life seeking safety and protection. Some people are stripped of possessions to secure a place on a boat. The sad and devastating thing is that when they are intercepted by border patrols and navies they are often thrown in camps and can sometimes spend half their life there. The meaning of this community event was to promote the Sydney communities understanding and knowledge about refugees and asylum seekers. Before we ventured around we were put into groups and then the adventure began. We were taken around by a former refugee who told us about their stories and what they went through. We progressed through a track where we were able to interact in role plays which simulated the procedures refugees had to do. We learnt about education, medical needs, housing, border control and lifestyle. We were able to ask relevant questions that troubled us, but the tourists/refugees were allowed to remain silent if they wished. Ruby asked, “ How much food did you get? ”. Response “ We were given food according to the size of our family. If you had a family of 10 you were given 125 kg of food for one month. I had to eat the same meal every day for 17 years, can you imagine that?”
By Franco Farinella
I asked, “Were you given rations of water?”. Response “ We had a time period from 7:30 to 11:30 where you were able to get water. But if you missed out it was just bad luck. Sometimes there would be riots about who got the water. The best part was when it rained because everyone would get all their containers out and let the water fill them.” I then asked, “ Was it hard learning another language with a teacher who didn’t speak your language?” Response “To tell the truth it was really hard as you had to remember everything as you didn’t have a textbook. Also it was hard to communicate with the teachers.” Some things were very emotional and nearly brought tears to many eyes. The advice they had for us was very touching and strong to the heart. There are also letters from children asking for support from the government. At the end of this adventure we were able to write messages of support and thoughtfulness. We wrote what we had learned and what we would take out of the experience. I believe the main message for everyone is to go make the world a better place. If laws and rules can’t help these people only we can. I feel that a life is a life and it shouldn’t be taken away from people. “The time is always right to do what is right” Martin Luther King
RIDICULOUS RETIREMENT
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Last Friday, Six Year Six (6) students from Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Randwick (O.L.S.H) interviewed their principal, Natius McAdam about her retirement. ____________________________________
Natius McAdam at the opening of the new school administration block.
____________________________________ Year 6 also asked what would you be if you weren’t a teacher. Natius answered that she would have been an accountant since she loves finance. She also stated that her hobbies would be knitting and sewing. She also was a piano teacher and loved playing it. Eliza Cantarella
They asked Mrs McAdam how many schools she had worked for and she replied, “I have worked at eight schools which started with St Mary’s in South Coogee where I worked as a Kindergarten teacher. This school is now joined with St Joseph's and is now called St Mary’s St Joseph. After that, I went to St Charles and worked as a Year 1 teacher. And now I am principal at O.L.S.H Randwick. “ ____________________________________ The students also asked how long had she been teaching for. Natius exclaimed that she had been teaching for fifty years and was a teacher for twentytwo years. She also stated that she liked being a teacher more than a principal.
Another question was how did she feel about her retirement. Mrs McAdam replied that she was sad but at the same time happy that the school would be in safe hands once she has left. ____________________________________
____________________________________ Year 6 hopes for the best for Mrs McAdam and for the school after her retirement.
Why Is She ‘Parking Her Car’ and Stopping Her Journey August 8, 2016
By Elyssa Chaaya
On the 5th of August, 6 students of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH), interviewed Natius McAdam about her retirement at the end of this year. Many say her retirement is going to be a relaxing journey, but is letting go of her career as easy as it sounds? Natius McAdam has spent 50 years in teaching and being a principal. Teaching has been her whole life, but an interesting fact was that she had a moment in life when she enjoyed playing the piano, and spent some of her years teaching others. In the interview, she talked about her life experience in schools, from serving the youngest of students, right to the oldest. Many may think that as principal of OLSH since 2000, she must have spent most of her life at that particular school, but an interesting fact is that she taught at eight primary schools and was a principal before she came to OLSH. The start of her journey began at St Mary’s in South Coogee where she worked as a kindergarten teacher. This school may be unfamiliar to many, as later on, it joined up with St Joseph’s. It is now known as St Mary’s St Joseph’s. Her journey didn’t end at her first school, but later she became a Year 1 teacher at St Charles. At those two schools, she served the youngest of all students before becoming a high school teacher at St Clare's and Brigidine. There she became more familiar, with how older students learnt.
Mrs McAdam at the opening of our new school building in 2005 Talking to her, made us realise that there is a major difference in being a teacher to being a principal. The greatest difference was the level of responsibility on her. For example, she was in charge of making sure that the playgrounds were safe, and there were no broken or dead trees. Also, Naplan results were very critical for her understanding of the classes knowledge on different areas. Her responsibility would be to strengthen all the weak points in the students and the school.
Over the years, she developed many understandings of all classes. Her favourite class to teach was Year 6 as she had the opportunity to be a Year 6 teacher for 12 years. Her teaching career has basically been her whole life and she is now experiencing mixed emotions about her retirement. Her response was, “I feel very sad but also feel very happy now that I
know I am leaving this school in good hands.” After our discussion regarding her career as a teacher, we raised a common question, “What would you have done instead of teaching.” She told us how back in the old days, females were very limited on jobs, but if she had the same opportunities as she did now, she would have chosen a job under the title of finance. This is because her job as principal has also made her very interested in finance and dealing with money.
When asked what she intends to do now, she replied by saying, “I might go back to knitting and sewing like in the old days. I might even try to play the piano again and see if I still have my skill.”
“Raucous Refugees” Take Tour Around Simulated Camp
“Raucous Refugees” Take Tour Around Simulated Camp
August , 8, 2016
Auburn-Refugee Camp
Auburn-Refugee Camp
By: Olivia Lily Alvarez 6G
By: Olivia Lily Alvarez 6G
On the 4/8/16 28 lucky students in Year 6 of Our Lady of The Sacred Heart (OLSH) attended a simulated refugee camp to learn and experience how refugees live. They experienced how they live, learn, eat and how they arrived to the camp. Group Pink- “making a decision for their future”
Graffiti Wall-Write a Message for a refugee Students in Year 6 arrived at the refugee camp and were given a brief of what was to happen and a brief on how refugees live. Merryn (a staff member from the camp) greeted the students and gave some short info about refugees and asylum seekers (definitions from refugee camp-Auburn); an asylum seeker is someone who is seeking international protection but whose claim for refugee status has not yet been determined, a refugee is someone who; owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable to, or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of protection of that country. After the students listened to a voice of a refugee himself
explaining his story, the Year 6 students received a paper to list five belongings they’d take with them if they were a refugee. Students were then asked to “travel” to the border guard to pass the security. When they arrived they were greeted by a women speaking a different language (a former refugee). They had to show their five selected possessions and see if they could keep or give them up.. Students then had to guess how long a refugee would stay in a camp. A student named Olivia thought refugees would stay in camp for 30 years but another student named Ruby disagreed and thought 17yrs. Year 6 next had to get into groups; yellow, blue, green, orange and pink. Each group received a card which had all the supplies they’d need to “survive” the camp and started collecting them. In the end no one collected all of them. Students then “arrived” at an Urban Refugee Camp ( a refugee camp in a form of a city with actual structures not just tents) and were shown what it's like in the camp. The tour guide then told them what they were to do next. Students had to play a game. In this game students were asked to start at a poster then choose their “future” e.g. you’re leaving your home country,choose to be sponsored by UNICEF or travel to Australia. Group pink ended up being
sponsored by a family member in Canada and “moved” their. Excitedly students were then”told” that they were refugees being smuggled by smugglers and had to give up every one of those five things they had left. Students went into a simulated boat and heard the story of our third tour guide Abraham. Amazingly it was very adventurous but after that we journeyed through to another room where we saw letters to the Prime Minister(PM) from children and how they felt. The students stated that it was amazing how badly they were being treated. Year 6 then walked cautiously up one way stairs and arrived in a room where they waited till they could have their turn in a mini lesson of how four different refugees arrived in Australia. Students lastly walked across the hallway into a recreation room where we answered questions and wrote down our messages to refugees.
Students Seek Refuge in Auburn August 8, 2016
Zara Greenwood
However, the Year 6 students were not ‘refugees’ alone. Each station had a On the 4 of August, Our Lady of very special and unique tour guide. the Sacred Heart (O.L.S.H) students These tour guides were not just were keen to travel to Auburn for a repeating what others had said. They unique refugee experience. had experienced the horrors The Refugee Camp in My themselves, having been former Neighbourhood (RCMN) was a refugees and asylum seekers. The project by the Auburn community, Simulated Refugee Camp guide, and it aims to raise awareness about Abraham Ajok, had a truly shocking the refugee crisis. story to tell. “I was forced out of my country when I was about eight or nine years old, and I had to walk all day and night. There was no water, no animals, no food.” Abraham lived in two refugee camps for 19 years. He was finally resettled in Australia in 2004. He told us that he was one of the lucky ones. However, a lot of Year Sixes found Despite having already known that there was something even worse about this crisis, Year 6 students than that. After the ‘Journey to were astounded by the atrocities of Australia’ Year 6 went into a truly the things a refugee had to endure. heartbreaking room. This room “The health conditions were awful, depicted the letters of children to The as there was no clean water, there President of the Commission, who was was not enough food for the launching an inquiry into children in refugees and people had to sleep on immigration detention. the ground.” Asha Van Pelt. The RCMN tour consisted of a Customs Check (simulated), a Refugee Camp Experience, an Urban Refugee Experience, Journeying by boat to Australia (simulated) and a reflection time.
A letter from an 11yearold went something like this: ‘We are now in Nauru and living in the camp is very, very hard for us children. I am now 11 years old and I think that I am in a prison… we have to take showers in two minutes… every day we have no electricity for 3 hours… there is mould on the marquees… scorpions were found. “It’s amazing. It’s so amazing that people would let this happen.” Olivia Alvarez. “I was surprised they actually kept children in refugee camps. I think it’s sad.” Luca Stodart. The whole of Year 6 thought it was sad, and they all feel the need to help.
“I want to do something about it. I want to help.” Nicola Seaman. “I want to give them a better chance in Australia.” Max Tanner. Year 6 students will continue to learn and try to help refugees. Who knows, there might even be a future worldwide humanitarian worker right here in Year 6.
STUDENTS EXPERIENCE LIFE AS A REFUGEE 8th August 2016
By Luca Stodart
On the 4th of August, 2016
28 Students from Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic School, Randwick (OLSH) had the opportunity to visit a refugee camp simulation in Auburn, showing what life would be like when you move countries and go into a refugee camp. The OLSH Students had tour guides that have experienced life as a refugee themselves. They told the students their stories about how they got to Australia as a refugee. This is the area where you have to fill in a form
The students experienced the struggles of being a refugee. Firstly they went to the borderguard. Then they went into the camp which had barely any food, no clean water and even no They listened to an audio clip clean toilets. about a man who was a refugee and the students pretended that After that the pupils went to they were on a boat so they put see a tour guide from on life jackets. After that they Afghanistan who told the went into a room where kids have students his story and how it written letters about how bad the took him 7 days to get from refugee camps were. Afghanistan to Australia. On his 5th day on the boat they had no more food so they starved. This is one of the areas in the simulation The representatives finally went into a room where they wrote messages to the refugees on a glass wall and also they wrote on a wall what they had learnt etc. The Year 6 students from This is all the messages on the OLSH gained a lot of glass wall information about how the refugees had to live and what they had to experience.
A DOSE OF DR. DAN August 8, 2016
Inside Dr Dan’s Exclusive Visit
On Wednesday the third of August, Dr Dan White, the Executive Director of Sydney Catholic Schools (SCS) paid a special visit to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Primary School (O.L.S.H.) in Randwick, to give an exclusive interview to the Year 6 students. Dr Dan White took a break from his busy schedule to visit the students of OLSH Randwick, which is one of the 150 schools he is in charge of. It was the first time in 7 years that he has visited the school. Dr. Dan was greeted by the OLSH Captains and Vice Captains. Then he took part in the assembly where the OLSH Choir showcased their talent. Dr. Dan had an important meeting with the teachers then was shown around the school where he visited many classes.
Dr Dan’s exclusive Q & A with Year 6
The Year 6 students asked Dr Dan for some advice about going into High School. He replied, “the way you start High School is the way you end it.” After that a student asked, “how did you feel when you received your position as Executive Director?” , he stated that, “he was very proud and excited to help and improve all the Catholic schools around Sydney.”
One of the most memorable parts Dr Dan was also asked about his PHD and of Dr Dan’s visit was when he had a how he felt when he earned it. He replied that “ I was very proud of myself, after I Q & A (Question and answer) with studied for 20 years. My mum always the Year 6 students. It was a very wanted me to become a medical doctor, informative session where he was but I didn’t think that that was the right fit asked about the challenges he because I faint at the sight of blood. So faces today as Executive Director when I received my doctorate (PHD), I of Sydney Catholic Schools . knew she would be very proud of me.”
Dr Dan White Dr Dan was very impressed with the Year Six students questions. He said that they were some of the best questions any class has ever asked him. It was a very memorable visit for both Dr Dan and the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart students.
By Charlie Bruce 6G
