Warrnambool 18C agus báisteach.
Guess where we ended up today? More anon.
Only one school today, in a town about an hour from Melbourne called Geelong. Corio P.S. 600 pupils, 35 of which are Koorie (Aboriginal).
First thing we noticed about the Principal was that he was having the meteorological dilemma: "Will we let the kids out at breaktime?" The only difference was that it was not because of the rain (more anon) but because the temperature was in excess of 30C! The kids were not able to go out, due to the heat.
Met a girl who was getting Chemo and her friend who had her head shaved in sympathy. Both girls wore pink hats. Great buzz in the staffroom, reminded us of home.
Some observations:
- 250 computers. 2 technicians. School was one of a select few "Apple Schools" in Australia.
- Teachers had a wireless laptop each provided by the Government. ?11 was deducted from their pay-packet each fortnight. They got a new one every three years.Community access and after school computer classes given by teacher.
- Pupils in the Senior grades were whizzes at making three-d movies using Kahootz. Check it out at www.kahootz.com
- Used i-pod to download and play programmes. Each classroom had an i-pod that linked directly to a television.
- All pupils had water bottles.
- There were 35 Koorie pupils, but unlike RTT at home, they only had access to a teacher for two days a week. They were withdrawn from class and also got in-class support. They studied their history and culture also. They had a homework club. The attendance figures were very good and compared favourably with mainstream pupils. Children qualified for extra teaching if at least their grandparents were Koorie.
- Outside agency, like Destination Education were in the hall doing science experiments. This was referred to as an "Incursion" as distinct from an "Excursion".
Business out of the way, so it was off to the beach. Our main contact who had organised the Government schools was Howard Looney. He was a part-time field officer for the VPA. Howard met us and brought us to his hometown: Warrnambool, which was about two hours drive from Geelong. As we approached remember now that this area had had three months of drought, apart from some very light rain in the previous two weeks.
Well it poured Koalas and Kangaroos! He brought us on a tour of his lovely picturesque city and all we could see was rain. No beach. No sunny snaps to put on the blog and make everyone jealous. Temperature dropped, so we went out for a meal in the local footy club. It compared favourably to the better GAA Clubs at home (they are amateur also) except that a major fundraiser for them was a gambling Casino. Anyway we resisted the urge and went to bed early. (Blogging was forbidden).
Nath na Seachtaine:
"You twit! The one person not employed by the school and you had to ask for a hug." (more anon)
I made the mistake of spinning the yarn about the blog and sharing the luv to a "Cuiditheoir" no less, and she was having none of it. I was so embarrassed that it put me off hugs for the whole day.
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