The Department Of Education in New South Wales have a budget of more than 8 million dollars, controlling over 2240 schools, and almost 1 million students enrolled in NSW, they have a lot of power, no doubt. There is a lot of debate about the curriculum in schools, what should and shouldn’t be taught. One thing that I think they’re definitely getting right is the encouragement of the study of Shakespeare.
But is this subject really relevant to today’s society? Does his work stand the test of time? Should children really be studying poetry written more than 400 years ago? The answer is a plain yes to all of them.
Shakespeare's works are most definitely relevant today. His portraits of the human soul make you realise that people are the same after 400 years. The way he writes about human emotions such as anger, love, jealousy, betrayal, jubilation talks directly you.
Shakespeare wrote so much and about so many different things, there is something for everybody. He writes about life from so many perspectives: comedic, dramatic or romantic. His stories include war, religious conflict, racial prejudice, class division, love, death, and betrayal.
Listen to these words from Macbeth
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing
Some people say that Shakespeare’s wording is silly. They complain that he writes the pieces in a cryptic way, making it a chore to read it, and his verses a longer than they need to be. In fact, his original audiences had no trouble understanding his plays. They were for common enjoyment of everybody, like going to a movie for us today.
For us now his work takes more time and effort to understand. We read it in a way that slows us down so we have to think slowly, allowing us to appreciate every word, every idea.
TS Eliot once said that “Shakespeare’s primitiveness is what made him truly modern”.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Reading or TV by seth gabrielsson
Reading or TV.
This idiotic, worldwide addiction has been in our world for many years now. This outrageous household object has been rotting children’s minds every day. I’m talking about television.
Television should not be allowed in houses. Because of tv people are getting fatter, the environment is geting worse, children's imaginations are unfortunately becoming miniscule, and viewers money is becoming wasted.
Scarily Australia is the fattest country in the world, no debate. Imagine if all the time you've wasted on TV and think if you spent those hours playing, and doing exercise. No doubt you would be the extremely fit. No doubt you would be healthier and happier. Unfortunately many kids these days come home, finish their homework and then sit for hours infront of the tv. If you are worrying about your weight at the moment then simply dont watch TV. Swap the screen for fun activities which involve movement and exercise.
It is a chilling thought that so much electricity is used just for entertainment. The environment suffers every time you press the ‘on’ button. Species are lost, trees are cut down, forests are being demolished for electricity. You easily help by just not buying a television! Humans are damaging the planet, only to watch television, and the planet is our home. Ask yourself, would you ruin your home for tv?
Books are wonderful things, it lets you use your mind and imagination. there is no moving pictures, no talking people, its all in your head. Books make you smarter, more knowledgeable of the world, and actually books help your spelling, and vocabulary. the best writers in the world dont watch tv, they‘re reading enthusiasts. Writers are smarter, and have a much wider vocabulary to people who watch tv all the time.
My last point is the fact that your money is being wasted. Your money that you’ve earned is buying endless DVD’s, countless tv show series, bigger and more expensive tv’s, dvd player’s, game consoles, and soon your electricity bill will scarily be more than double the person that doesn't own a tv.
So next time you think of watching TV, could you be doing something better? No doubt if you think this every time you will be smarter, fitter, more imaginative, and of course richer.
This idiotic, worldwide addiction has been in our world for many years now. This outrageous household object has been rotting children’s minds every day. I’m talking about television.
Television should not be allowed in houses. Because of tv people are getting fatter, the environment is geting worse, children's imaginations are unfortunately becoming miniscule, and viewers money is becoming wasted.
Scarily Australia is the fattest country in the world, no debate. Imagine if all the time you've wasted on TV and think if you spent those hours playing, and doing exercise. No doubt you would be the extremely fit. No doubt you would be healthier and happier. Unfortunately many kids these days come home, finish their homework and then sit for hours infront of the tv. If you are worrying about your weight at the moment then simply dont watch TV. Swap the screen for fun activities which involve movement and exercise.
It is a chilling thought that so much electricity is used just for entertainment. The environment suffers every time you press the ‘on’ button. Species are lost, trees are cut down, forests are being demolished for electricity. You easily help by just not buying a television! Humans are damaging the planet, only to watch television, and the planet is our home. Ask yourself, would you ruin your home for tv?
Books are wonderful things, it lets you use your mind and imagination. there is no moving pictures, no talking people, its all in your head. Books make you smarter, more knowledgeable of the world, and actually books help your spelling, and vocabulary. the best writers in the world dont watch tv, they‘re reading enthusiasts. Writers are smarter, and have a much wider vocabulary to people who watch tv all the time.
My last point is the fact that your money is being wasted. Your money that you’ve earned is buying endless DVD’s, countless tv show series, bigger and more expensive tv’s, dvd player’s, game consoles, and soon your electricity bill will scarily be more than double the person that doesn't own a tv.
So next time you think of watching TV, could you be doing something better? No doubt if you think this every time you will be smarter, fitter, more imaginative, and of course richer.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Ben Shvarts Task 2
The Invention of Music
March 21st 200 B.C, life was boring. There was no passion or excitement what so ever. Until one day, one sad day, a young true musical soul was born. His name was Joseph Passion. He was a strange child to the elders he kept making a sound which was unique it had a rhythm, a beat and a meaning to celebrate.
Ten years later 210 B.C March 4, 2011 Joseph was older and wiser. The other children thought he was an outsider and a freak, but at least he had support from his family. Well, at least his father who hated the rhythm he played. Every time he saw him playing he would hit the rhythm out of him. Even so, Joseph believed that one day everyone would love the rhythm he played.
One day something just clicked inside of Joseph. He had an idea to get everyone to love the rhythms he would play. So, on Tuesday, the ceremony of the dead, he would perform a piece of rhythm that was sad so someone would feel some passion.
When Tuesday had come, Joseph brought some containers that he could tap on. He knew that a tune could project from these containers throughout the ceremony. One hour later everyone gathered across the floor, this was his time to shine brightly to the other villagers. He got out his containers and brought them out. Every one stared at him and was wondering what he was doing. Then he hit it once then twice and he made history!
The villager’s first reaction was nothing. Joseph was nervous at first but then someone came out and started to tap the floor. Then another and another person stood up. As soon as one, two, and three at least half of the village started to tap, clap and make funny beats with their mouths. It was quite magical. Joseph felt so great. Even the others who had never heard of a tune or sound before started to dance, sing and jump.
Joseph saw his father just sitting there just like all the effort he made was pointless. Joseph started to tear. He was blinded with his cries. He couldn’t believe that his own father, the man he looked up to, had no interest what so ever. So, he ran off like the speed of light. Everyone was clueless as to why he just ran off. He was having so much fun with the others.
Joseph’s mother chased him to where he was going she caught up to him and asked what happened, “What is the problem?”, she asked. “It is father he never has looked up to me, never been proud of me. I am getting annoyed!”
Then his mother said, “You are not right about that Joseph. You are deeply not right. You were just too blind to see that every time you made music he couldn’t move. He was shocked that a little one could be so talented in so many different ways”, she said. Joseph replied, “You’re joking right?” Then mother said, “No he has always loved you, just in a very weird way.”
Then right from that moment Joseph went back to the ceremony. He went back to the containers and called his father to the stage. His father didn’t move at first. Then, stood and walked up step by step until he reached his son. Joseph asked him to play music with him. Then he took one step closer and whispered, “let’s do it Joseph.”
So from that moment he knew that music was his one and only passion.
March 21st 200 B.C, life was boring. There was no passion or excitement what so ever. Until one day, one sad day, a young true musical soul was born. His name was Joseph Passion. He was a strange child to the elders he kept making a sound which was unique it had a rhythm, a beat and a meaning to celebrate.
Ten years later 210 B.C March 4, 2011 Joseph was older and wiser. The other children thought he was an outsider and a freak, but at least he had support from his family. Well, at least his father who hated the rhythm he played. Every time he saw him playing he would hit the rhythm out of him. Even so, Joseph believed that one day everyone would love the rhythm he played.
One day something just clicked inside of Joseph. He had an idea to get everyone to love the rhythms he would play. So, on Tuesday, the ceremony of the dead, he would perform a piece of rhythm that was sad so someone would feel some passion.
When Tuesday had come, Joseph brought some containers that he could tap on. He knew that a tune could project from these containers throughout the ceremony. One hour later everyone gathered across the floor, this was his time to shine brightly to the other villagers. He got out his containers and brought them out. Every one stared at him and was wondering what he was doing. Then he hit it once then twice and he made history!
The villager’s first reaction was nothing. Joseph was nervous at first but then someone came out and started to tap the floor. Then another and another person stood up. As soon as one, two, and three at least half of the village started to tap, clap and make funny beats with their mouths. It was quite magical. Joseph felt so great. Even the others who had never heard of a tune or sound before started to dance, sing and jump.
Joseph saw his father just sitting there just like all the effort he made was pointless. Joseph started to tear. He was blinded with his cries. He couldn’t believe that his own father, the man he looked up to, had no interest what so ever. So, he ran off like the speed of light. Everyone was clueless as to why he just ran off. He was having so much fun with the others.
Joseph’s mother chased him to where he was going she caught up to him and asked what happened, “What is the problem?”, she asked. “It is father he never has looked up to me, never been proud of me. I am getting annoyed!”
Then his mother said, “You are not right about that Joseph. You are deeply not right. You were just too blind to see that every time you made music he couldn’t move. He was shocked that a little one could be so talented in so many different ways”, she said. Joseph replied, “You’re joking right?” Then mother said, “No he has always loved you, just in a very weird way.”
Then right from that moment Joseph went back to the ceremony. He went back to the containers and called his father to the stage. His father didn’t move at first. Then, stood and walked up step by step until he reached his son. Joseph asked him to play music with him. Then he took one step closer and whispered, “let’s do it Joseph.”
So from that moment he knew that music was his one and only passion.
Task 2: Kenny Wong
It was nearly the end of my time at Connells Point Public but there were three more things I would remember forever. They were: the Year 6 Fete, Year Six Day out and our farewell.
The first of those events was the year 6 fete. Year 6 held stores for Kindergarten to year 5 to spend money. That day was a fun fundraising day with the money donated to the school. My friends Jacky, Louie, Daniel and I held a store with the name of ‘Ping Pong Mania ‘. The aim of the game was to move thirteen ping pong balls from one container to the other using only chopsticks in the fastest time. There were three prizes, all of them were large jars of lollies. One was for the primary winner (year 3 to 5), the second was for the infants winner (Kindergarten to year 2) and the last was for the winner of the guessing competition. For the guessing competition rules were to guess how many lollies were in the prize jar.
At the start of the fete, we had little customers, most of them lost to the food and drink stores. Luckily, after they had finished eating, we had a massive influx of customers, barely managing our store. At stages of the fete, my friends from other stores had to help our to keep our customers happy. It was an amazing day which all the 2010 year 6 learnt how to manage their own store.
The second instalment of the three-part series was our day out. That day we had four activities: Laser Tag, Bowling, Video Games and Karaoke. It was very similar to our Reddam seminar day but each activity was twice as long. Laser Tag was the best part of that day, shooting my friends who many I wouldn’t see again. Bowling was also exciting but there was one slight glitch. Everybody had gutter walls so nobody could bowl a gutter. But whenever bowled, the walls went down. Even though that happened, I still managed a reasonable score. The final two activities were combined, karaoke and video games at the same time. I sang a few minutes of karaoke then headed off to the video games.
The last event was our year 6 farewell. It was a whole night of dancing and partying. Every boy danced with each girl once in a rotational dance and then we at a ‘child-friendly’ dinner of chicken schnitzel and chips. Then we continued dancing to the music. My friend Daniel had already earned the title of Mr Chicken Dance Man with his amazing chicken dances. That night he made new dances: the emu, the penguin and many others thus giving him the name of ‘Animal Dance King’. After the dancing, my principal Mrs Hewson, handed out our year 6 graduation awards. She would have been sleeping if it weren’t for the coffee. That night was the best night of my life, staying in my mind longer than the others.
Those three days are binded to my memory and I will never forget any of my school mates.
The first of those events was the year 6 fete. Year 6 held stores for Kindergarten to year 5 to spend money. That day was a fun fundraising day with the money donated to the school. My friends Jacky, Louie, Daniel and I held a store with the name of ‘Ping Pong Mania ‘. The aim of the game was to move thirteen ping pong balls from one container to the other using only chopsticks in the fastest time. There were three prizes, all of them were large jars of lollies. One was for the primary winner (year 3 to 5), the second was for the infants winner (Kindergarten to year 2) and the last was for the winner of the guessing competition. For the guessing competition rules were to guess how many lollies were in the prize jar.
At the start of the fete, we had little customers, most of them lost to the food and drink stores. Luckily, after they had finished eating, we had a massive influx of customers, barely managing our store. At stages of the fete, my friends from other stores had to help our to keep our customers happy. It was an amazing day which all the 2010 year 6 learnt how to manage their own store.
The second instalment of the three-part series was our day out. That day we had four activities: Laser Tag, Bowling, Video Games and Karaoke. It was very similar to our Reddam seminar day but each activity was twice as long. Laser Tag was the best part of that day, shooting my friends who many I wouldn’t see again. Bowling was also exciting but there was one slight glitch. Everybody had gutter walls so nobody could bowl a gutter. But whenever bowled, the walls went down. Even though that happened, I still managed a reasonable score. The final two activities were combined, karaoke and video games at the same time. I sang a few minutes of karaoke then headed off to the video games.
The last event was our year 6 farewell. It was a whole night of dancing and partying. Every boy danced with each girl once in a rotational dance and then we at a ‘child-friendly’ dinner of chicken schnitzel and chips. Then we continued dancing to the music. My friend Daniel had already earned the title of Mr Chicken Dance Man with his amazing chicken dances. That night he made new dances: the emu, the penguin and many others thus giving him the name of ‘Animal Dance King’. After the dancing, my principal Mrs Hewson, handed out our year 6 graduation awards. She would have been sleeping if it weren’t for the coffee. That night was the best night of my life, staying in my mind longer than the others.
Those three days are binded to my memory and I will never forget any of my school mates.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Connor Kents Task 2
Maths is seen by many as the most evil of subjects. Many of us can relate to the teacher’s continuous drone as she spouts math equations like a water fall. Or the poor little kid with glasses who just managed to pass on the info to his friend about the answers being in the back of the book, before being yelled at to be silent. Or the kids starring at the clock wishing time would go faster but in truth, despairing as there is still ages to go. My own maths experience might have been similar if it were not for Mrs Shanfield in year 5.
My vivid memories of maths in Year 5, is it of being inspiring and fun. Just the pleasure of being in her class made me a better maths person. She helped me to achieve the levels of excellence in Maths Olympiads when the year before I was in the bottom maths class. And the once boring formulas came alive and have in fact become very useful from time to time. One such occasion is when my parents took my sister and me to a new Sunday school.
I was short for my age in year 5 and was occasionally picked on because of my size. I remember one certain proudly tall girl at this new church who picked on me in front of everyone exclaiming that, I was too small to be in year 5. So I repeated pie to her. 3.1415926535897932384626433832795022884197. Unfortunately see couldn’t grasp the concept but there was one older high school kid who knew the significance of it, as he had seen the movie, ‘Night in the Museum’ where the curator needed it to bring the evil dead to life. He was further impressed when I repeated the Fibonacci code which was in the Davinci code, 0,1,1,3,5,8,13,21. He decided to be my friend and told me all about the movie. As you can guess, the girl didn’t bother me again.
My current teacher’s class in high school has returned to the standard, ‘open to page 5 and write out all the questions’, which is more than pointless. But what can you do? The teacher knows best! It is only early in the year, however, and it may pick up. Actually I was slightly astounded when I was placed in lower group E for maths this year but I realized that I never had been very good at writing exams straight after 2 months of holiday and hence my results were probably below my usual marks. At the moment I am content to stay where am. My new math’s teacher was slightly amazed when I completed all my homework in one night when it was due the next weekend. I was rewarded with 14 mini merits. It just shows a little work at the right time will bring in the results.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Task 1: Kenny Wong
“Wake up Kenny, Wake up!” was the first thing I heard on the first day of high school. That morning was all a rush. I got dressed faster than I had ever dressed before. Then I ran down the stairs and rushing to eat my breakfast. My breakfast of Cheerios was devoured hungrily in no less than a minute.
I ran as fast as I could and just got on the train on time. I had been stuck in Cairns because Cyclone Yasi had cancelled flights. Therefore I had missed one whole week of school. I was nervous that I would be the only Reddam student who didn’t know what to do.
When I reached the school, I immediately walk up the stairs to reception. My nerves were settled when I was told I would be given a ‘tour’ by a teacher. As I was heading to my first P.E class, I met my preschool friend Kenneth Koon.
When we got back to school, it was recess. While Kenneth and I were eating, he asked “Where’s your diary?” I told him I did not have one so he led me up a flight of stairs to Mr Johnson who handed me my 2011 diary. Recess ended quickly and all the students rushed to their next period. I followed my timetable and found my way to my next period.
At lunch break, I found myself playing with some soon-to-be friends, Maxmo and Sam. We talked about ourselves throughout the break. They are really good friends who I can trust.
Reddam House is very different to Connells Point, my old school. At first, it was hard to understand the timetable, and when I finally found out which room I was in, finding it was a problem. I guess you can’t be a success in life if you do not face some difficulties. After a few days I had solved this problem. It was a good challenge for me and now I will never get lost in Reddam again.
The first few days in Reddam, I came unprepared as a result of not having the stationery sheet. I had to get paper off my generous classmates and share textbooks with them. I asked my friends for what I needed and in one day, I had everything apart from the textbooks which were out of stock. That meant I had to wait for them to order and receive the textbooks.
One of my favourite sports is basketball so I signed up immediately. On my second week of school, I had basketball training on Tuesday. I made some new friends and the training was fun. On Saturday I had my first game. Even though we lost, I still enjoyed it. I learnt how to play a zone defence.
Everyone at Reddam can be a friend. That is why I enjoy it very much and why I look forward to another six years at Reddam. I definitely won’t miss year 8 camp after missing year 7 camp!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
task 1 Josh Broyda
My first two weeks at school (task 1) By Josh Broyda
“Ima Slap you……..” were the first words that my friends said to me as I stepped into school on the first day back. I’m not new to Reddam so the whole experience wasn’t that frightening for me I knew all the same people and all the staff. Basically, I knew everything about the school and how boring it can be...I started to mingle as you would on the first day back but then i heard shouts “CLASS TIME GET TO YOUR CLASSES” and then i began to panic. I did not know what to expect...fortunately for me nothing happened.
As I was getting ready to go to bed that evening, the phone suddenly rung. I soon found out it was Jordan who called me because he wanted me to help him DJ at the Swimming Carnival. The next day was just awesome, it was one of those fun school days because we had the Swimming Carnival. I was very excited because I had been training for this day for a long time. Overall, I was happy because I came 3rd in Freestyle and 2nd in Backstroke for my year group.
The next 3 days were one of the most funnest in my life. The reason for this was that it was the Reddam Year 7 camp. But this was no ordinary camp, it was the best 3 days of my life with many, many fun events. One such activity was the Flying Swing, which I highly recommend to anyone. Basically, i was attached to a harness and the entire group had to pull me up 15.6 m high into the air. As I reached this level, i had a decision to make. I had to either pull the rope causing me to quickly swing down towards the ground or stay at 15.6m for the rest of my life. I decided to tug on the rope and for a few seconds i was flying in the air. It was just an unreal feeling...
On Monday, it was time for school to really begin. We were given a 10 day sheet with all our classes and we had to follow it like it was our leader. One such class was English, a subject i was a little scared of and when the teacher walked into the classroom, my whole class was nervous. However after a few minutes, it became obvious that this man was in fact one of the most epic teachers that i had ever met in my life. He taught our class many cool ways to use things in context, for example “I went to Woolworths yesterday and guess what the near queue was just ridiculous so I had to go to the far queue“. When the class first heard him say this, most of us didn't understand what he was talking about. However a few minutes, after much discussion we all began to laugh.
So far, Reddam in 2011, has been very exciting and enjoyable. I hope the rest of the school year can be as good as the last two weeks have been.
“Ima Slap you……..” were the first words that my friends said to me as I stepped into school on the first day back. I’m not new to Reddam so the whole experience wasn’t that frightening for me I knew all the same people and all the staff. Basically, I knew everything about the school and how boring it can be...I started to mingle as you would on the first day back but then i heard shouts “CLASS TIME GET TO YOUR CLASSES” and then i began to panic. I did not know what to expect...fortunately for me nothing happened.
As I was getting ready to go to bed that evening, the phone suddenly rung. I soon found out it was Jordan who called me because he wanted me to help him DJ at the Swimming Carnival. The next day was just awesome, it was one of those fun school days because we had the Swimming Carnival. I was very excited because I had been training for this day for a long time. Overall, I was happy because I came 3rd in Freestyle and 2nd in Backstroke for my year group.
The next 3 days were one of the most funnest in my life. The reason for this was that it was the Reddam Year 7 camp. But this was no ordinary camp, it was the best 3 days of my life with many, many fun events. One such activity was the Flying Swing, which I highly recommend to anyone. Basically, i was attached to a harness and the entire group had to pull me up 15.6 m high into the air. As I reached this level, i had a decision to make. I had to either pull the rope causing me to quickly swing down towards the ground or stay at 15.6m for the rest of my life. I decided to tug on the rope and for a few seconds i was flying in the air. It was just an unreal feeling...
On Monday, it was time for school to really begin. We were given a 10 day sheet with all our classes and we had to follow it like it was our leader. One such class was English, a subject i was a little scared of and when the teacher walked into the classroom, my whole class was nervous. However after a few minutes, it became obvious that this man was in fact one of the most epic teachers that i had ever met in my life. He taught our class many cool ways to use things in context, for example “I went to Woolworths yesterday and guess what the near queue was just ridiculous so I had to go to the far queue“. When the class first heard him say this, most of us didn't understand what he was talking about. However a few minutes, after much discussion we all began to laugh.
So far, Reddam in 2011, has been very exciting and enjoyable. I hope the rest of the school year can be as good as the last two weeks have been.
My Experience at Camp
Monique Belovukovic
What I’ve realised in the first couple of weeks is that Reddam is a whole new world full of different people, a different environment and intense homework. I know that Reddam was the best school for me right form first second of orientation. The things that really helped me get into the school is new friends I made from camp at Cataract Scouting Park. If there wasn’t camp it would be a whole lot more different. So far camp has been the highlight of year 7 2011.
Camp started with everyone gathering at school to catch a bus leaving at 9:00 in the morning. Everyone was exhausted but so excited. During our camp we enjoyed the outdoors, we noticed there was mud everywhere. My friends and I gathered together pumped up to get muddy and dirty.
One of my Grand activities I did first was Caving. Caving was never what I expected. I thought it was like walking through a rocky underground tunnel full of rats and dirt. So thinking this I was terrified until I saw the entrance door I was extra terrified.
It looked like I could’t crawl inside the entrance door and possibly slide to enter. Alicia our team leader kept telling us that the biggest loser (TV show) had no problem with finishing it but that was pretty hard to believe. Just imagine all the creatures you would be with in the tunnel like spiders, geckos, crickets and other insects maybe even snakes.
I stood right in the middle where I knew I would be safe with one of my good friends Rachel and another boy I met called Noah. It was dark and tight, extremely hot inside the cave all I could feel was my sweat trembling down my burnt, warm face. I was so uncomfortable but so happy when I saw light from a distance. I started to speed up my crawling untiI I could stand. I was nearly outside while hearing a yell “who’s ready for level two”, my lungs felt like they dropped. My eyes couldn’t help notice the scratches and blood mark on my back. I felt like whingeing but than I saw everyone with the same problem.
Level two was the same thing until the very end were we got to a point where we couldn’t climb jump or slide, so we waited until everyone caught up. We were now all hot and scared. Alicia was trying to tell us that the brick wall moves if we push really hard and work as a team. So we all started to push hard until I saw in the corner of my eye steps leading up to a small rabbit hole. Next thing you know we hear Alicia’s voice coming from the rabbits whole “coming or not”. So we followed her in, everyone had trouble fitting through. We waited twenty minutes for everyone to squeeze through. I couldn’t believe I got through level one and level two. It was tough but somehow I finished it. I was very happy and proud.
One of my other favourite activities was The Giant Swing. It was amazing but very scary. I didn’t want to do it at first but then Rachel kept whispering you will regret it. So I put my helmet and harness taking my time. I walked up the ladder as if I was an elephant step by step. They took the ladder away. I was now hanging on the rope, five metres above the ground with a massive wedge. They attached me to the rope and told me to hold on tight. They raised me higher and higher until I screamed “ stop”! I was around fifteen metres above the ground when count down started for the giant swing. My mouth immediately became dry from nervousness. My heart was pounding at full speed. I pulled the blue rope and woof, off I went. It wasn’t scary at all. So our team leader told me I could have another go if I go all the way to the top, which was around thirty metres high. For me that was extremely high. I closed my eyes stop breathing went red and pulled the blue rope. All I could hear was the wind in my ears and me screaming.
Camp was a life changing experience that will stay in my mind forever. I also made lots of friends from my cabin .I now know that I want to be in Reddam all the way through until year twelve.
Task 1: Camp Dylan Chilchik
We were walking down that long, tiring hill. I could feel the sweat running down my face from the extremely hot sun. I never thought that I would ever actually miss the rain and the coolness. I was walking with my two friends Dario and Jared. We all knew what was ahead of us but you could tell we were still very nervous. I knew that there was no danger and that we would be connected to harnesses, but I couldn’t help thinking of falling helplessly until finally hitting the rock solid earth.
“We’re nearly there,” I heard our instructor, Dan, call out. This made me excited because it was our last activity on our school camp and it was also that one that I wanted to do the most. Plus, I was really tired of walking.
We talked quite a lot on the way there. We just talked about how high we thought it would be and if we would go to the very top. We hadn’t seen it yet but we heard it was extremely tall.
Suddenly, there was a huge opening from all the trees and we saw what we came for. The Giant Swing. It was huge! I thought there was no way that we could swing connected to a rope all the way from the top and just keep swinging. I was more nervous then before but my excitement definitely overpowered that. I couldn’t wait to experience the amazing feeling of falling. Sadly, I had to wait my turn like everyone else.
Dave gave us all numbers for the order of who goes first. I was number 15. I was happy that I was able to see people go on it before me but also upset that I had to wait a while for my go. So the first people started putting on their harnesses while Dave told us how the whole thing worked. “ We will pull the person up with the orange rope. Once at the top, there is a little blue rope that the person will pull and it will release them and they will fall and swing. I’m sure you will all enjoy this activity.”
Finally, after the safety brief, we got started and the first person was connected to the huge rope that would pull them up. It took very little time to pull the person up, and soon enough they were at the top ready to go. Dan counted down from ten and as he said the last number, the person pulled the little blue rope and they fell. It was amazing to watch. They first drop looked amazing and you could tell it was fun from the noise the person was making.
From then on it was a slow wait. One person got off, one person got on. It was fun to see each person’s reaction. Eventually I saw my friend Dario was harnessed up and ready to go. I wanted to see him go because he said he wasn’t going to hold onto the rope when he dropped. No one so far had let go of the rope on the first drop. He connected himself to the harness and up he went. Again we started to hear the count down Dan had said for every single person. Dan said the last number and Dario pulled the rope. Nothing happened. He tried again and still nothing happened. He then tried one more time and it worked. He fell and his hands weren’t on the rope!
He was the first person to let go of the rope on the first drop. Dan told me to go put on a harness. I was really nervous because when Dario came to take off his harness his face was pale. He told me it was amazing and that I had to let go of the rope on the first drop. I said I would.
The next person went and got off and then it was my turn. I was shaking a little bit. Dan connected me to the harness and everyone started pulling and I was lifted into the air. From the ground it didn’t look as high as it was when you’re up there. I finally reached the top. Dan asked if I was ready and I said yes so he started counting down from ten. As he reached the last number I pulled the little blue rope. I didn’t expect to fall on the first try but I did. It was the most amazing feeling. I didn’t hold onto the rope. Every single thing in my body told me to grab the rope but I knew I would regret it later.
When you fell it felt like you lose your breath and fall into your own peaceful place and the whole world disappears. But before you know it the whole thing is over and you are taking off your harness.
I had butterflies in my stomach for the rest of the day and whenever I think about I feel the same thing. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever done in my life. I will never forget it.
Ethan Davis Autobiographical Assesment
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ASSESSMENT – ETHAN DAVIS
HIGH SCHOOL:
DAY 1: It was the first day of high school, I had a new uniform, new books, a locker, a timetable and suddenly it seemed I was responsible for way too many things. Although, this day I only really needed a pencil and a rubber, today was assessment day, I couldn’t believe it an assessment on the first day! It seemed that all the nightmares of high-school were becoming reality. Although it wasn’t the most pleasant start to high school, it felt good to get it over and done with.
DAY 2: The Swimming Carnival! Everyone was rushing around all in our different coloured shirts: Red – Darling, Blue – Piper, Yellow – Bennelong and the best house Macquarie which was green. The whole school crammed into about 6 buses and drove to Drummoyne Olympic Swimming pool. The whole senior school was there. I competed in all the races except for breaststroke (I was buying chips) and did pretty well in the end. I think I had two 1st places and a 3rd. In the end Bennelong won (for the first time ever).
DAY 3: Camp on the third day of school, after 1 day of exams and 1 day of swimming, everyone was getting pretty tired, and now camp, what could be worse. The bus ride took about two hours so we got there at about 9:30ish. We had lunch got our cabins then it was straight up activities. My first one was the flying fox, which was cool because you just glide along the tree canopy for about half a minute. It was boiling hot though so we spent a lot of time sitting down. After the flying fox it was Orienteering, we split up into groups of four and had to try to find our way around the campus which was by the way humongous. My group failed, really badly I think in total we found one marker. We had dinner, Spaghetti Bolognaise which was surprisingly good considering that it was camp food. We had a night activity after which was probably the highlight of the day, a waterslide. The water was nice and cool and outside it was dark and humid which made for the perfect mix. All my mates went in a massive bunch and we pushed, talked and fighted all the way down, it was really fun.
DAY 4: We woke up early after a night full of eating lollies and talking about surfing and what not. For breakfast we had hot breakfast: eggs, bacon, toast and then there were many different types of cereal: Nutri Grain, Weet–Bix and Cornflakes etc. After finishing our food we got into our groups (I was in group 2) and then set off on our long walk to rock-climbing it was another boiling hot day and everyone was really tired and just wanted to sit down in the shade and have a cold shower. Finally after the rock-climbing was over we walked back up the hill to have our lunch break which was just outside of where our next activity would be taking place, caving. After filling up on Gatorade we put on our helmets, got out our torches and went into the pitch black, windy, rocky tunnels. At least it was shady because I don’t think that anyone could have stayed in the sun any longer, it was 42·C with no wind.
Caving for me was the best activity at the whole camp because we were just able to wonder of in all of these side passages that were really challenging to get through. Me being a skinny kid, I thought that I won’t have to squeeze too much to fit in the tunnels but in some cases I was crawling along the ground and getting soaked in the wet mud. It was heaps fun. I can’t remember all of the activities after that but I can remember doing the waterslide that night, that waterslide once again put everyone in a good mood before bed, except for the fact the fact that I got bitten over and over by mosquitoes.
DAY 5: The last day! I think everyone was pretty happy to go home, but this last day wasn’t just going to be a bus ride home, we had 2 of what I thought were the best activities planned. Giant Swing and Challenge Valley. First up was Challenge Valley, a massive obstacle course, I thought it would just be a few logs here and there but there but there were massive nets to climb and massive water ditches to swim through, it really was challenging. Then the final activity, Giant swing. I was pretty pumped for it it was 12m above ground as tall as all of the trees that surrounded it when you reached the top. So what happened is you were harnessed on to a rope and then you were pulled right to the top by everyone else in the group, you then oulled another short rope that released you, it was cool cause you free-falled for about 3 seconds which feels a lot longer when your up there and you just kept on swinging until all your momentum was gone. It was finished, we could finally go home. We packed our belongings said goodbye to the instructors and caught the back home. It was a really fun trip in all.
GEMMA EAGLE task 1
Year 7 Camp Task 1
On the 2nd of February Year 7 went on camp. To say I enjoyed every second of it would be a lie, to say I didn’t enjoy any of it would also be a lie. To say there were moments when you felt fear, nervousness and shock, would not be a lie but the truth.
The Giant Swing was an example of fear. Harnessed, you were pulled up in the air and then were to pull a rope dangling in front of you to come down making it the giant swing. Down on the ground, it looked a lot less high up than it did in the air. 1,2,3 pull. Swinging through the air with the wind blowing all around you is an amazing feeling, but coming to a stop with a camp instructor grabbing your feet is not quite as amazing as the first part of the experience.
One of the other coolest activities was most definitely caving. Torch, helmet, and the knowledge that there were going to be itsy bitsy gaps to squish through were all you went in with. The caves in Cataract Scout Park were the tiniest little caves I have ever seen let alone had to crawl through. Crawling along the ground in the light of torches, listening to the sound of people yelling at you to hurry up, not being able to see where you are putting your hands is a very interesting thing to do. At one stage during the caving, I put my hand on what I thought was a slug, later I was told it was in fact a leach! Not exactly what you want to hear on your second day of camp when you still had Challenge Valley to go.
Orienteering. Compass, map and a group full of people whom half of us held the map upside down. The map being upside down, and not knowing which needle in the compass pointed north, its no wonder we got lost and only found two of the ten pointers. Orienteering was hilarious and tiring and most of all HOT. The temperature was unbelievable so we found our way back to the scout hall less than half way through the time limit we had. In the scout hall we suggested playing sleeping lions and that’s what we did. It was relaxing!
The other activity I enjoyed the most was the waterslide! I think I enjoyed it because all the groups were there not just the people in my group. Because everyone was there it was more fun and I met a lot of new people at the waterslide. I came to Reddam knowing ten people and because of camp I know everybody in our year. Also the waterslide was fun because it was a waterslide!!! Of course it was going to be fun, especially when you could go down in chains.
Year seven camp was a great experience. Full of laughs, making new friendships, mud, amazing activities and most of all FUN!!! All I can say is I cant wait for year eight camp next year!
Task 1 Sam Newton
What you are reading is a recount of my first two weeks of school in year seven.
I am writing this paragraph on the first day of the third week of school which, I will point out here, is the school’s Valentine’s Day celebration and I would like to say that the next year nine girl who tries to kiss me is going to get it in the kidneys! Now that I have cleared up the dates I will begin to tell you about my first two weeks at school.
I would like to say that I was looking forward to the first day of school and I was looking forward to a new year, but I think I will be honest. Going back to school after the holidays, especially the Christmas holidays is very stressful. Around the second last week of the holidays my mother will say ominously, “It is time to prepare for school.” This means going to the uniform shop (I won’t express my views about the uniform shop because I would probably get expelled) and then sorting through the new equipment like a man looking for a needle in a haystack. When this is done the remaining days of the holidays have passed and it’s time to go to school.
You can imagine my excitement when I was told that in the high school there is a reward for winning the house competition so when I learned that my team, Bennelong, had won the swimming carnival I was pretty excited. Another reason I liked the swimming carnival was that I made two new friends although, because I’m not the greatest swimmer, I only went in the participation races. This is a race where you swim simultaneously with many other people. The objective, to the casual observer, seems to be to inflict head injuries on the other swimmers, but it is not that. All you have to do is get to the other side of the pool as many times as possible before the time runs out.
I will now turn my attention to my experiences at camp. I loved the activities at camp. There is something I enjoy about being able to fit through opening in caving and climbing under ledges in rock climbing while everyone else falls or gets stuck. It seems like the objective of these activities is to make unfit kids look very disheveled, like they have been left outside in acid rain. I enjoyed the camp until I learned that the cabins were basically asylums. I should not have been surprised; in the past I have not been in a single cabin where everyone did what was sensible – go to sleep. As far as I can tell, no-one at camp sleeps. The crazy people are awake because they think knocking the doors of the sensible people down is more important than sleep, the sensible people are awake because of the crazy people and the teachers are awake because they are trying to make the crazy people go to bed. I got my own back at caving. When I saw the tired faces of these people after we had gone through a particularly small and dusty opening in the cave they looked like mobile sand dunes. The giant swing was fun, but I didn’t like pulling people up to the top. If I had made it I would have added a winch. Challenge Valley was everything you want from an outdoor adventure: fun, exciting and… muddy. The hardest part was crawling through pipes half filled with muddy water. It was just my luck to get the pipe that sloped downwards so you had to swim under water for the last metre while being terribly afraid that you would come up too early and hit your head on a pipe or come up too late and hit your head on the bank. Don’t try to tell me about living life on the edge! I will remember Challenge Valley long after I get this mud out of my ears, and if I take enough showers, people might start sharing elevators with me again.
There’s not much to tell about my second week at school. I was trying to think of something to put here when I realized I was just about running out of space. So I will finish by saying that even though I have poked some fun at the school system in these few paragraphs I am looking forward to the year.
Task 1: Sam Razzaghipour
Task1 Sam R!
My First Two Weeks
At Reddam House
Hi, my name is Sam and I’m going to tell you about my first 2 weeks at Reddam House middle school. I didn’t really like school before I came to Reddam, but now I want to literally live at school and changed my perspective of school forever, it gave me a fresh fun and brand new perspective to the way I saw school. Before I came to Reddam I was afraid I was going to be the school punch-bag and everybody was going to bully me because that’s exactly what I was before when I was in primary school.
The best thing by far what I have done in the past 2 weeks of high school is camp specifically the Giant Swing and the Flying Fox. I will first explain to you the Giant Swing. This is the biggest highlight my first 2 weeks, first you have to put in an harness and helmet and I had to wait though because I was second and there was somebody in front of me and that somebody was Ruby and she is a good friend. Then when it was my turn I had to go up to the 4th step of a ladder which Zack brought for me, then my instructor Dan hooked me up to a huge tangle of rope and wires. After that I leant back held up by the rope I was pulled up by my group and Mr Garrett and when I was in the middle of the 3 biggest swing poles in the state I was told to pull a blue rope towards me and unknowingly I was let go and held by one rope with no hands I glided through the air at 100kmph and now I had part of the wonderful taste of parachuting from a plane.
Now I will tell you about the flying fox, this is practically the everyday version zip line of the ones that you see on TV, I had to wait about half an hour for everyone else to go and I gave all my turns to others, but there was a reward in it 2 full pages of mini-merits and I got to run back the zip-lines, while I was waiting I was talking to Mr Garrett asking if we could race each other but Mr Garrett didn’t get a chance to zip-line and I also talked to our secondary instructor Albert who was apparently an English raised child. When it was my turn to go I went with Don who was afraid of heights when we went up the 3 storey ladder and got hooked up we jumped and we both were hi-fiving each other and felt like supermen and when we got down everyone in the group told Don that he would have liked it and he agreed with them and I was joining in with the crowd.
Thanks for Reading! Bye!
My First Two Weeks
At Reddam House
Hi, my name is Sam and I’m going to tell you about my first 2 weeks at Reddam House middle school. I didn’t really like school before I came to Reddam, but now I want to literally live at school and changed my perspective of school forever, it gave me a fresh fun and brand new perspective to the way I saw school. Before I came to Reddam I was afraid I was going to be the school punch-bag and everybody was going to bully me because that’s exactly what I was before when I was in primary school.
The best thing by far what I have done in the past 2 weeks of high school is camp specifically the Giant Swing and the Flying Fox. I will first explain to you the Giant Swing. This is the biggest highlight my first 2 weeks, first you have to put in an harness and helmet and I had to wait though because I was second and there was somebody in front of me and that somebody was Ruby and she is a good friend. Then when it was my turn I had to go up to the 4th step of a ladder which Zack brought for me, then my instructor Dan hooked me up to a huge tangle of rope and wires. After that I leant back held up by the rope I was pulled up by my group and Mr Garrett and when I was in the middle of the 3 biggest swing poles in the state I was told to pull a blue rope towards me and unknowingly I was let go and held by one rope with no hands I glided through the air at 100kmph and now I had part of the wonderful taste of parachuting from a plane.
Now I will tell you about the flying fox, this is practically the everyday version zip line of the ones that you see on TV, I had to wait about half an hour for everyone else to go and I gave all my turns to others, but there was a reward in it 2 full pages of mini-merits and I got to run back the zip-lines, while I was waiting I was talking to Mr Garrett asking if we could race each other but Mr Garrett didn’t get a chance to zip-line and I also talked to our secondary instructor Albert who was apparently an English raised child. When it was my turn to go I went with Don who was afraid of heights when we went up the 3 storey ladder and got hooked up we jumped and we both were hi-fiving each other and felt like supermen and when we got down everyone in the group told Don that he would have liked it and he agreed with them and I was joining in with the crowd.
Thanks for Reading! Bye!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Noah Abulafia, Assessment task 1 "Finally, the day had arrived!"
Finally, the day had arrived!
For the last three months I had been waiting for this day, my first day at Reddam House. I was driven to school by both my parents, which was extremely unusual. I stepped out of the car and walked through the front gates. I remember thinking to myself, “The journey is about to begin.” The first day wasn’t much, just streaming tests, which were moderately hard, but the day was still very enjoyable.
The second day was our swimming carnival. I screamed and cheered my house on, (Darling), and participated in a few events, but whenever I stepped up to the marshalling area, my heart would beat excruciatingly fast. I know I'm not a superstar swimmer, although I always get myself worked up over sporting events. It was a great day though, and one which I thoroughly enjoyed.
On Wednesday, the third day of school we embarked on our journey to camp, which was held at Cataract Scout Park. I was really looking forward to this because I knew it was a chance for me to make new friends, and that is exactly what I did.
We got there and were told that we could each pick our cabins. I knew some people who came from my old school to Reddam. I was in a group with them, and another person I made friends with. We went to the lodges and there were no empty cabins left. I thought to myself, “Well the floor is going to have to do then isn’t it?” Luckily there was one spare cabin which had 6 beds. There were two people in it already and four of us so it worked out perfectly.
On camp we split up into four activity groups. In these groups we each made great new friends. The one activity which stood out for me was definitely the Giant Swing. I am not a fan of heights, and as Giant Swing consisted of us being heaved up in the air 15 meters, then free failing, I was extremely nervous.
Once I got to the top and was ready to pull the string to initiate the free falling, my heart started beating like never before. I was exceedingly nervous. Reluctantly, I moved my hands from my side and pulled the string. I was left shell shocked due to the fact that I had barely yanked the string and I was free falling! I wasn’t ready for it but gosh, did I enjoy it. I screamed at the top of my lungs, the experience was something I just can’t describe. Besides the bonding, this was definitely my highlight from camp.
The Monday following camp was really the beginning of year 7. Most of us were confused with our timetables and all the classes we had to attend, but the rush of it all was really quite exhilarating.
I have to say, my first two weeks at Reddam have been delightful and I really hope that doesn’t change!
For the last three months I had been waiting for this day, my first day at Reddam House. I was driven to school by both my parents, which was extremely unusual. I stepped out of the car and walked through the front gates. I remember thinking to myself, “The journey is about to begin.” The first day wasn’t much, just streaming tests, which were moderately hard, but the day was still very enjoyable.
The second day was our swimming carnival. I screamed and cheered my house on, (Darling), and participated in a few events, but whenever I stepped up to the marshalling area, my heart would beat excruciatingly fast. I know I'm not a superstar swimmer, although I always get myself worked up over sporting events. It was a great day though, and one which I thoroughly enjoyed.
On Wednesday, the third day of school we embarked on our journey to camp, which was held at Cataract Scout Park. I was really looking forward to this because I knew it was a chance for me to make new friends, and that is exactly what I did.
We got there and were told that we could each pick our cabins. I knew some people who came from my old school to Reddam. I was in a group with them, and another person I made friends with. We went to the lodges and there were no empty cabins left. I thought to myself, “Well the floor is going to have to do then isn’t it?” Luckily there was one spare cabin which had 6 beds. There were two people in it already and four of us so it worked out perfectly.
On camp we split up into four activity groups. In these groups we each made great new friends. The one activity which stood out for me was definitely the Giant Swing. I am not a fan of heights, and as Giant Swing consisted of us being heaved up in the air 15 meters, then free failing, I was extremely nervous.
Once I got to the top and was ready to pull the string to initiate the free falling, my heart started beating like never before. I was exceedingly nervous. Reluctantly, I moved my hands from my side and pulled the string. I was left shell shocked due to the fact that I had barely yanked the string and I was free falling! I wasn’t ready for it but gosh, did I enjoy it. I screamed at the top of my lungs, the experience was something I just can’t describe. Besides the bonding, this was definitely my highlight from camp.
The Monday following camp was really the beginning of year 7. Most of us were confused with our timetables and all the classes we had to attend, but the rush of it all was really quite exhilarating.
I have to say, my first two weeks at Reddam have been delightful and I really hope that doesn’t change!
Issa O'Sullivan
Task 1
There I was, making the biggest decision of my life. I am telling myself to stay determined. But what do I choose? I have come so far but now it was starting to get seriously difficult. In front of me were two large concrete tunnels. They both had grimy, muddy water and they both smelled like sewage. But there was one difference. One might have been disgusting, but the other one was life threatening!!! I didn ’ t know which one two choose. Lauren went first. She was as scared as I was but we both knew that we had to do it. As she was entering the tunnel, her last words were “ I ’ ll see you on the other side. ” And then she was on her way.
As I was waiting, I could hear the sloshing sounds of the water and the sound of her voice saying “ ewwwwww! ” and “ disgusting! ” I knew that it would be the same for me but I couldn ’ t turn back now, we were almost there! I heard Lauren ’ s last cries for help but then it went dead silent……
The signal went off which meant that it was my turn to go. I was so worried about Lauren that it didn ’ t occur to me that I was about to risk my life for some stupid challenge. Was she ok? Was she unconscious? My whole body was shaking as I got down on my hands and knees. I started crawling. The pain was excruciating! My knees were scraping against concrete, my hands were pressing on warm gooey substances. But I didn ’ t know what it was because it was so dark! I had to bend lower and lower. I felt like Alice in wonderland when she takes a bite of a cake and grows bigger and bigger or when you walk down Willy wonka ’ s hall as it gets smaller and smaller.
I couldn ’ t see the other end of the tunnel? The only light that I could see was if I looked back to the entrance of the tunnel which was very hard to do in such a small space. I couldn ’ t figure out what to do so I stopped for a moment and then realised, I was going to have to take a breath and swim under this dirty, filthy water. I didn ’ t want to believe it so I crawled as far as I could until my head was turned sideways and pressed against the roof of the tunnel. The water was almost up to the ceiling now, so I knew that it was that time. I took a breath and swam for my life.
When I came out the other side, I saw some light which obviously meant that it was the end of the tunnel. I heard voices saying “ come on, your almost there! ” and “ God job! You were really quick! ” I crawled my last few centimetres and then some hands reached in and pulled me out of the tunnel.
I went over and sat with Lauren who was sitting over on the side. She had a large, raised bump on her head. It turns out that she swallowed some of that disgusting water and tried to rush out of the tunnel when she bumped her head on the ceiling. I tried to cheer her up by saying “ come on Lauren! Let ’ s go find out what the next course is! ” but she just said “ Well, as long as there is no dirty filthy water involved? ”“ Well of course there wouldn ’ t be! ” I said to her.
But I was wrong………….
There I was, making the biggest decision of my life. I am telling myself to stay determined. But what do I choose? I have come so far but now it was starting to get seriously difficult. In front of me were two large concrete tunnels. They both had grimy, muddy water and they both smelled like sewage. But there was one difference. One might have been disgusting, but the other one was life threatening!!! I didn ’ t know which one two choose. Lauren went first. She was as scared as I was but we both knew that we had to do it. As she was entering the tunnel, her last words were “ I ’ ll see you on the other side. ” And then she was on her way.
As I was waiting, I could hear the sloshing sounds of the water and the sound of her voice saying “ ewwwwww! ” and “ disgusting! ” I knew that it would be the same for me but I couldn ’ t turn back now, we were almost there! I heard Lauren ’ s last cries for help but then it went dead silent……
The signal went off which meant that it was my turn to go. I was so worried about Lauren that it didn ’ t occur to me that I was about to risk my life for some stupid challenge. Was she ok? Was she unconscious? My whole body was shaking as I got down on my hands and knees. I started crawling. The pain was excruciating! My knees were scraping against concrete, my hands were pressing on warm gooey substances. But I didn ’ t know what it was because it was so dark! I had to bend lower and lower. I felt like Alice in wonderland when she takes a bite of a cake and grows bigger and bigger or when you walk down Willy wonka ’ s hall as it gets smaller and smaller.
I couldn ’ t see the other end of the tunnel? The only light that I could see was if I looked back to the entrance of the tunnel which was very hard to do in such a small space. I couldn ’ t figure out what to do so I stopped for a moment and then realised, I was going to have to take a breath and swim under this dirty, filthy water. I didn ’ t want to believe it so I crawled as far as I could until my head was turned sideways and pressed against the roof of the tunnel. The water was almost up to the ceiling now, so I knew that it was that time. I took a breath and swam for my life.
When I came out the other side, I saw some light which obviously meant that it was the end of the tunnel. I heard voices saying “ come on, your almost there! ” and “ God job! You were really quick! ” I crawled my last few centimetres and then some hands reached in and pulled me out of the tunnel.
I went over and sat with Lauren who was sitting over on the side. She had a large, raised bump on her head. It turns out that she swallowed some of that disgusting water and tried to rush out of the tunnel when she bumped her head on the ceiling. I tried to cheer her up by saying “ come on Lauren! Let ’ s go find out what the next course is! ” but she just said “ Well, as long as there is no dirty filthy water involved? ”“ Well of course there wouldn ’ t be! ” I said to her.
But I was wrong………….
Task 1-Julian Michelsen
My First Week in year seven
It was the first day of year seven. I woke up with a mixture of feelings, some of excitement, some of fear, some I could not name. When I reached the school gates, I did not know what to expect. As I went in, I felt anxious about not knowing anybody and not knowing where to go. All those feelings churning up inside me as I walked through the gate. I knew however that everyone was talking about a fantastic new building that had been built. I did not recognise anybody that I saw, as I started walking up some stairs. I saw a gathering of people near the basketball court. I knew where the basketball court was from orienteering day. Orienteering day was kind of fun, we found out a lot of new things and that was one of them. The bag I was carrying was as light as a feather, all it had in it was a pencil and a notepad. How would I ever have known how heavy my bag would become in the next few days! When a teacher finally came, he split us into groups of four, and gave each group a timetable.
The first day was good and I had a lot of fun. After school I had to pack heaps of stuff for the day, the swimming carnival. When I arrived at school, I noticed everyone wearing their house tops. Slowly a feeling of dread came over me, as I realised that we had to wear them. Everyone was sitting down on the Astroturf and the teachers were taking the roll. I quickly sat down just as my name was called, I thought it was lucky that I had come right on time. We started boarding the bus, it was noisy and it was crammed with kids from year seven. When we got there I thought about the many times that I had come to a swimming carnival, how the water was cold, and how loud the bang of the pistol was. We sat down amongst our house groups, and waited for the races to start. The first race was the participation race, I did not want to waste my energy on that, so I didn't go in it. Next was my race in the 50 m freestyle, there were not many students racing. So I thought I could have a good chance of winning. Just before the pistol shot I felt nervous and anxious. Boom! The pistol shot and we took off, the sensation of the cold water on my half sunburnt back was like having ice cubes on my back. In what felt like a moment the race was over! I looked around the other lanes to see if there was anybody but there wasn't, I had won. After I had won the other races I thought it had been a very exciting day.
The night before camp I stayed up quite late because of my dad, he wanted everything to be perfect. He made sure I had extra everything, T-shirts, shorts, socks you name it! When I woke up the next morning I felt a little bit groggy from lack of sleep but not deterred! I went and put on anything I could find in my wardrobe. I flew down the stairs ate my breakfast and decided to test out how heavy my bag was. It weighed a catastrophic amount, I had no idea of how I could carry it around. Finally the time came and we left for school. I went in and sat down amongst my friends and peers. We finally got on the bus, it was a long bus trip it almost took one hour and 45 min. When we arrived we were all excited about how good the camp would be and what the next two days would bring. We all put our bags down near a campfire, and we all got led to a place which looked like a dining hall. After being informed of how our cabins were going to work we set off to choose our cabin mates. In my cabin there was Noah, Fion, Jardin, and Daniel. My favourite activity of that day was the waterslide. The days at camp were very exciting and fun.
By Julian Michelsen
It was the first day of year seven. I woke up with a mixture of feelings, some of excitement, some of fear, some I could not name. When I reached the school gates, I did not know what to expect. As I went in, I felt anxious about not knowing anybody and not knowing where to go. All those feelings churning up inside me as I walked through the gate. I knew however that everyone was talking about a fantastic new building that had been built. I did not recognise anybody that I saw, as I started walking up some stairs. I saw a gathering of people near the basketball court. I knew where the basketball court was from orienteering day. Orienteering day was kind of fun, we found out a lot of new things and that was one of them. The bag I was carrying was as light as a feather, all it had in it was a pencil and a notepad. How would I ever have known how heavy my bag would become in the next few days! When a teacher finally came, he split us into groups of four, and gave each group a timetable.
The first day was good and I had a lot of fun. After school I had to pack heaps of stuff for the day, the swimming carnival. When I arrived at school, I noticed everyone wearing their house tops. Slowly a feeling of dread came over me, as I realised that we had to wear them. Everyone was sitting down on the Astroturf and the teachers were taking the roll. I quickly sat down just as my name was called, I thought it was lucky that I had come right on time. We started boarding the bus, it was noisy and it was crammed with kids from year seven. When we got there I thought about the many times that I had come to a swimming carnival, how the water was cold, and how loud the bang of the pistol was. We sat down amongst our house groups, and waited for the races to start. The first race was the participation race, I did not want to waste my energy on that, so I didn't go in it. Next was my race in the 50 m freestyle, there were not many students racing. So I thought I could have a good chance of winning. Just before the pistol shot I felt nervous and anxious. Boom! The pistol shot and we took off, the sensation of the cold water on my half sunburnt back was like having ice cubes on my back. In what felt like a moment the race was over! I looked around the other lanes to see if there was anybody but there wasn't, I had won. After I had won the other races I thought it had been a very exciting day.
The night before camp I stayed up quite late because of my dad, he wanted everything to be perfect. He made sure I had extra everything, T-shirts, shorts, socks you name it! When I woke up the next morning I felt a little bit groggy from lack of sleep but not deterred! I went and put on anything I could find in my wardrobe. I flew down the stairs ate my breakfast and decided to test out how heavy my bag was. It weighed a catastrophic amount, I had no idea of how I could carry it around. Finally the time came and we left for school. I went in and sat down amongst my friends and peers. We finally got on the bus, it was a long bus trip it almost took one hour and 45 min. When we arrived we were all excited about how good the camp would be and what the next two days would bring. We all put our bags down near a campfire, and we all got led to a place which looked like a dining hall. After being informed of how our cabins were going to work we set off to choose our cabin mates. In my cabin there was Noah, Fion, Jardin, and Daniel. My favourite activity of that day was the waterslide. The days at camp were very exciting and fun.
By Julian Michelsen
MY FIRST 2 WEEKS AT REDDAM BY DARCY BURGESS
MY FIRST 2 WEEKS AT REDDAM
The first week of Reddam House High School was different to any other first week of school I have ever had. The first day we had an assembly and were introduced to our teachers, Year Coordinator and our Year Tutors. Once we had an insight into what every teacher was like we had to do a thing called a streaming test. These streaming tests were to try to identify to our new school how good we were at a certain subject. They didn't make us do a test on every single subject. No, that would be just cruel. What we did was just a test for English and Maths, therefore they can get an idea of our ability in those two subjects. That was basically all we did on our first day.
Our second day was even more of a surprise we had the swimming carnival. I wasn't all that excited because I'm not a great swimmer but it's still a day off school. It was a scorcher as expected but it ended up being a great day and my house Bennelong won! Which apparently is very rare. The best thing about these two days was the excitement of the 3 days afterwards and I think you know by now what it was CAMP!
I woke early, stoked to be going to camp especially so early in the year. With my bags packed the night before it was just a normal morning routine. Mum drove me to school and we said our goodbyes. Off I walked feeling like a big boy. Camp was at Cataract Scout Park and as soon as I got to school they started loading the bus with luggage and with students. I walked onto the bus, a flow of cool air from the air conditioning slammed right into my face. I was instantly captivated by the camp feeling. I went and sat down with my friends although it took us about 20 minutes until the bus actually started running. Unlike most camps I have been to this camp was only 1 hour and 30 minutes away from the school campus, which was good because I’m sure you all know how tedious a long bus ride can be.
We arrived right on the estimated time. They ran us through the procedure of getting food, which applied, for every single meal. After this we were put into our cabins, which is, as we all know, one of the most fun things about camp. I was in a cabin with a lot of my friends so there was no drama there. My activity group (the group of people I spend the day doing activities with) consisted of none of my old primary school friends so it was a great chance to get to know some new people, which is exactly what I did. Throughout the whole camp I made a range of new friends and all the activities were great, including activities like caving and pioneering that I had never done before and I have been to a few different camps. Having camp in the first week was a brilliant idea because it is one of the best ways I think of getting to meet new people. After having the best first week I was even more excited to get into the grand scheme of things. After the good rumours I heard from all the previous Reddam kids I couldn’t wait to see what was in store for me in the next big step of my life. Darcy Burgess
The first week of Reddam House High School was different to any other first week of school I have ever had. The first day we had an assembly and were introduced to our teachers, Year Coordinator and our Year Tutors. Once we had an insight into what every teacher was like we had to do a thing called a streaming test. These streaming tests were to try to identify to our new school how good we were at a certain subject. They didn't make us do a test on every single subject. No, that would be just cruel. What we did was just a test for English and Maths, therefore they can get an idea of our ability in those two subjects. That was basically all we did on our first day.
Our second day was even more of a surprise we had the swimming carnival. I wasn't all that excited because I'm not a great swimmer but it's still a day off school. It was a scorcher as expected but it ended up being a great day and my house Bennelong won! Which apparently is very rare. The best thing about these two days was the excitement of the 3 days afterwards and I think you know by now what it was CAMP!
I woke early, stoked to be going to camp especially so early in the year. With my bags packed the night before it was just a normal morning routine. Mum drove me to school and we said our goodbyes. Off I walked feeling like a big boy. Camp was at Cataract Scout Park and as soon as I got to school they started loading the bus with luggage and with students. I walked onto the bus, a flow of cool air from the air conditioning slammed right into my face. I was instantly captivated by the camp feeling. I went and sat down with my friends although it took us about 20 minutes until the bus actually started running. Unlike most camps I have been to this camp was only 1 hour and 30 minutes away from the school campus, which was good because I’m sure you all know how tedious a long bus ride can be.
We arrived right on the estimated time. They ran us through the procedure of getting food, which applied, for every single meal. After this we were put into our cabins, which is, as we all know, one of the most fun things about camp. I was in a cabin with a lot of my friends so there was no drama there. My activity group (the group of people I spend the day doing activities with) consisted of none of my old primary school friends so it was a great chance to get to know some new people, which is exactly what I did. Throughout the whole camp I made a range of new friends and all the activities were great, including activities like caving and pioneering that I had never done before and I have been to a few different camps. Having camp in the first week was a brilliant idea because it is one of the best ways I think of getting to meet new people. After having the best first week I was even more excited to get into the grand scheme of things. After the good rumours I heard from all the previous Reddam kids I couldn’t wait to see what was in store for me in the next big step of my life. Darcy Burgess
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Task 2 Roman Giuffré
It was a Wednesday afternoon when my exploration team and I were hiking down to the bottom of the hill to venture into a dusty old cave which by the looks of it, hadn’t been entered in about twenty years. It was an old book that was being pulled out of the shelf for the first time. The huge weighty door creaked and shrieked as we were heaving it open. The first step I took felt like I was stepping into a dungeon. I was quite uncomfortable as I had a fear of tight spaces and we had to crawl through parts of the cave which were literally sometimes thirty centimetres around.
We almost stopped breathing as we were trudging through dank, dark passageways that smelt of stale air and sand. To my great relief I discovered that we were approaching a larger standing area that could fit about fifty people, about one quarter of the way through the cave, to rest for a few minutes, but something was blocking my path. Something monstrous. Something hairy.
“Come on keep going” bossed Jono following me.
“Wwwait” I stuttered “what is that th th th thing in fffront of me?! It, its HUGE!” Sure enough it was a spider the size of a dinner plate just dangling there in front of me by its web, which was as wide as rope. I tried not to move as I was too frightened that it might jump out at me, but all of the pushing and shoving behind me caused me to fall forwards face first into the spider. I could feel the long bristly hairs brushing my eyeballs. It was staring at me with thousands of diamond like eyes. I couldn’t shuffle back because so many of my mates were jammed up behind me. I could see the beast’s blade like fangs creeping towards me about a hairs width away from my flesh… Screeeech the fangs pierced my skin in a split second. The pain was immense. It was as if its venom was scratching each and every one of my nerves. I was rolling on the floor foaming at the mouth. It was a piranha tearing my flesh. I was having a fit. The spider landed on the floor and bounced around a little bit before it jumped up to Alex the team leader but he hit it away with a rock and it smacked against the wall like an egg splattering. I can’t remember much after that but I seem to recall Alex approaching me with a syringe (well it was more like a harpoon) and injecting me with some sort of green liquid. I awoke in a musky old den eleven days later with my leg muscles still spasming. I was feeling really confused about what had happened. I think that the spider’s venom must have erased part of my memory.
I find it quite ironic that I overcame one fear but from then on had a fear of spiders.
Roman Giuffré
We almost stopped breathing as we were trudging through dank, dark passageways that smelt of stale air and sand. To my great relief I discovered that we were approaching a larger standing area that could fit about fifty people, about one quarter of the way through the cave, to rest for a few minutes, but something was blocking my path. Something monstrous. Something hairy.
“Come on keep going” bossed Jono following me.
“Wwwait” I stuttered “what is that th th th thing in fffront of me?! It, its HUGE!” Sure enough it was a spider the size of a dinner plate just dangling there in front of me by its web, which was as wide as rope. I tried not to move as I was too frightened that it might jump out at me, but all of the pushing and shoving behind me caused me to fall forwards face first into the spider. I could feel the long bristly hairs brushing my eyeballs. It was staring at me with thousands of diamond like eyes. I couldn’t shuffle back because so many of my mates were jammed up behind me. I could see the beast’s blade like fangs creeping towards me about a hairs width away from my flesh… Screeeech the fangs pierced my skin in a split second. The pain was immense. It was as if its venom was scratching each and every one of my nerves. I was rolling on the floor foaming at the mouth. It was a piranha tearing my flesh. I was having a fit. The spider landed on the floor and bounced around a little bit before it jumped up to Alex the team leader but he hit it away with a rock and it smacked against the wall like an egg splattering. I can’t remember much after that but I seem to recall Alex approaching me with a syringe (well it was more like a harpoon) and injecting me with some sort of green liquid. I awoke in a musky old den eleven days later with my leg muscles still spasming. I was feeling really confused about what had happened. I think that the spider’s venom must have erased part of my memory.
I find it quite ironic that I overcame one fear but from then on had a fear of spiders.
Roman Giuffré
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
A New Beginning By Daniel Rotenstein
After the crazy and energetic time at camp, I couldn’t believe that the second week could be any better; however, I was soon to discover exactly the opposite. When I arrived on the second Monday of school, the new building was practically calling out my name, secretly whispering to me that it wanted me to have fun lessons inside of it. This was a secret the new building and I shared. It gave me a strong sense of security. I knew from this secret, that I wouldn’t be having any boring or lame lessons anytime soon.
Before Roll Call we were all herded into the gym like a pack of confused sheep. Mr Johnson, our Year Coordinator, was there to make us feel at ease as he casually handed out our complicated new timetables. I could tell from Mr Johnson’s confident voice that he was English and that therefore he was going to be kind, because of course, all English people are kind. D&T, Digital Media and Geography – these were all subjects I had never experienced but that I saw I was going to take, as they jumped out at me from my timetable. I wasn’t particularly keen about Geography like I was for D&T, because Geography is just boring classroom work. But I loved the idea of finally getting to do a subject that had real hands-on experience. D&T was going to rock my world! And this made me feel like an independent adult for the first time in my school life.
The best thing, apart from meeting new friends and seeing old friends again, was being told that we had the chance to be young leaders. I suddenly realised for the first time in my life, that me, Daniel Rotenstein, had the chance to become a young leader, a leader who could stand out in the crowd, a leader who could be a role model, a leader who could be a captain of pilots! A select group of Year 7s were going to get a shot of real leadership by representing the whole of Year 7 as the Year 7 Reps! This opportunity could allow me, I thought, to be the person I always dreamed I could be. This was a golden opportunity and I certainly wasn’t going to knock a gift horse in the mouth.
Over the next week I was more and more wanting that leadership role. Not knowing if and when I was going to get it, was bugging me, consuming my mind like locusts to a wheat field. The day that we were going to be told who were going to be the first Reps finally came. As I was on Recess, we were all handed out forms. As mine was handed to me by Mr Johnson, he congratulated me. I asked ‘what for’? He replied, ‘for being the first Rep of Year 7’. At that moment, I felt that this was definitely going to be a great year (except for the homework).
The end.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Jono Karney First Post
MY FIRST TWO WEEKS AT SCHOOL By Jono Karney
Coming into Reddam middle school I felt excited and a bit overwhelmed. I had just come from being the oldest in primary to the youngest in middle school and the thought of older people bossing me around was a little frightening!
On our second day back we had the swimming carnival which was so much fun! It was like being at a pool party, with music and all my friends! The one thing that I loved about the carnival was the participation race, which is when everyone in high school swims together and wins points for their houses.
Camp was a very fun experience for me because I got to hang out with all of my friends from primary but also with all the new kids in year 7 and that was really exciting. At camp we did so many cool activities including my favourite, the GIANT swing! I never thought I would have the guts to do it. But when I got to the top, heart pounding and sweaty palms, I got over my fear and just went. I knew, if I did not I would regret it and I would have missed out on so much fun. I also loved the rock climbing as I got to set myself a challenge of getting to the top. I was really proud of myself that I got to the top because when I first looked at the wall it made me feel sick to my stomach but I overcame the challenge and felt so proud when I was done!
In year 7 we got about 40 new children from all different schools. We went from being a small and very close year, where everybody knew each well to a much larger year with amazing new people. I loved meeting so many new people because it gave me a chance to learn about them and also to make new friends!
I was so excited to meet all my new teachers. All my teachers this year are so nice and my classes that I have are really enjoyable everyday! It was also exciting to be able to do a whole lot of new subjects that I have never done before. D&T classes have been interesting and fun to work with wood and tools. Digital Media is another new subject, which I don’t know much about, but am looking forward to learning about.
The new school environment is very different to the junior school campus and takes a bit of getting used to. It still makes me feel really comfortable and able to enjoy school every day, but I have learnt that I need to be a lot more responsible for myself. I also need to be a lot more organised, which is a little scary for me but an exciting journey as well.
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