Junior Reporters

Meet our Junior Reporters

In this new newsletter feature I would like to introduce the John Wollaston Junior Reporters. For the past month I have been working with four students Charlotte, Dinali, Amelia and Chelsea. They have all expressed an interest in writing and are looking forward to bringing you some interesting interviews and articles about school events, initiatives and programs. Armed with their press passes and their notebooks they have been scouring the School in search of their next big article and interviewing staff and students along the way. We hope you enjoy reading what they have to say. 

Amanda Barrett 

Community Engagement Coordinator

Charlotte, Year 5

My name is Charlotte Dell and I am 10 years old. I am one of four Junior Reporters, and I'm loving every minute of it. I was very excited when I found out I was a Junior Reporter because I had been trying to start a class newspaper, The Kangaroo Herald, and hadn’t managed to get an issue out after four weeks. My favourite part of being a Junior Reporter is interviewing people because I get to meet lots of people. I saw a TV show a few days ago about teenagers who get to be part of a large newspaper for a day, and that inspired me to reach further, after seeing a girl who was about 13 years old interview Malcolm Turnbull, the Prime Minister of Australia. I have thought about making a career out of reporting, but decided due to my lack of organisation, it would be better to try and be a mathematician or a world-renowned vet, as I am very good at Maths and I love animals to Mars and back. Most of my friends think it is very cool that I am a Junior Reporter, and once I told them I can interview people, they all immediately asked to be interviewed. I had to say no because there were about 15 people asking, so it would be rude to choose just one or two. That was a couple of weeks ago, so it doesn’t really apply now, as one of my best friends, Hailey O’Neil, has just done her badge testing and passed. For those of you who don’t know what badge testing is, it’s basically just a test to see whether you passed your gymnastic level or not. Some of my other friends did well in other stuff too, Charlotte Trueman came 3rd in Cross-Country, Cate McAuliffe came 1st in Cross-Country, and so many of my other friends did well that it would take me donkey’s years to list them all. I am so proud to be a Junior Reporter, and I hope you like reading my articles.

Written by: Charlotte Dell, Junior Reporter

Dinali, Year 6

My name is Dinali Illangasinghe and I am 11 years old. I really wanted to be a Junior Reporter because of my love of writing. My excitement was so big that I knew I had to tell my brother who would be really surprised about my achievement. Today, I will tell you the life of a Junior Reporter. 

On the first day, you meet up with Mrs Barrett. You feel very special because you get a pass with your name. It gives you access to Mrs Barrett's office (if she is available). You are called a Junior Reporter for the Wollaston's Wrap. You get to interview people that have done well out of school. This is mainly for physical education and academic reasons. On Monday, we go through our normal rotation through the day. After lunch, Mrs Barrett comes and collects us and we go to the Wellness Room. Our meeting goes for about 20 minutes. 

Written by: Dinali Illangasinghe, Junior Reporter

Amelia, Year 6 

Hi. I’m Amelia Jacobson and I’m a Junior Reporter. I am 11 years old, and I LOVE singing, acting, reading, maths, public speaking and writing. I’m so happy to be doing this with Dinali, Charlotte and Chelsea and I know that the four of us are going to come up with some awesome ideas for articles that we’re really hoping you will like! But first you should probably know how this all happened. So this is the life of a Junior Reporter.

My life as a Junior Reporter started last week on Monday. When we met with Mrs Barrett for the first time I was very nervous but she instantly took all of those nerves away. She was very nice to us and made us feel pretty special because she gave us each a special badge and a note book for our articles. She then took our picture, talked about future articles and sent us back to class. I am so excited to be a Junior Reporter and I can’t wait to write more articles.

Written by: Amelia Jacobson, Junior Reporter

Chelsea, Year 6

Hi, I’m Chelsea, and I’m in Year 6 Dingo.

I can’t wait to write in Wollaston's Wrap! Writing is something I really enjoy, whether it’s creative or factual and newspaper writing. I find factual writing and newspapers are things I think I’d really enjoy writing because It’s a great way for me to show and tell everyone what is happening at school, and I would love to meet some new and interesting people. Creative writing is a really awesome way to express feelings and things that can’t happen in the real world, but in the story, you make your own world, where anything can happen! I hope that having younger reporters in the online newspaper will inspire more young people to have a go at this kind of thing, and younger kids will read it maybe (or at least some of it). I look forward to completing my next assignment! 

Written by: Chelsea Bydder, Junior Reporter

Hale Day 2018

On Wednesday 20 of June, Hale House came together to celebrate Bishop Matthew Hale, Hale House and all it stands for. At recess, there was a bake sale with so much food you would need a moving truck to move it all! Just before lunch, there was a service for Hale to learn more about our House. At the end of the service, Mr Kilmartin got up and sang “The Hale House Rock!” in a very fun and enthusiastic way. After the service was finished everyone filed into the BDISC and as a whole house spelled out “HALE” and got a photo. We all ate our lunch and then the best part of the day began. We headed into the VMAC to film a music video for the song “I’m Blue”. We had a blast on Hale Day 2018 and cannot wait for next year.

Written by: Amelia Jacobson, Junior Reporter

Eye Contact Photographic Exhibition

When you see a homeless person on the street, do you give them money or just walk away? If you just walk away why do you do that? Is it because your scared? Is it because they're probably dirty? Something must have happened that made them homeless. Do any of us really look into their eyes and wonder? Well, that's what the Eye Contact exhibition run by the Rotary Club causes you to do. Look in the eyes of the pictures of the people there, and read their stories. Understand their pain. Wonder what  it might be like to be them. Our lives may not  be perfect, but they are certainly better than theirs.

Written by: Amelia Jacobson, Junior Reporter