Cumberland

                             Mrs Leanne Schulz

The Battle for Australia Service at the Shrine of Remembrance

The Battle for Australia service honours “the courage, sacrifice and service of Australians and our allies, especially the United States of America, who endured and repulsed Japanese attacks on Australian soil and in the islands to our north. We remember the courageous battles in Darwin, on the Kokoda Track, at Milne Bay, on the Coral Sea and the Bismarck Sea, and in other fierce actions on land, sea, in the air, and in the POW camps during the Pacific War.” The service honouring the 75th anniversary of 1944 “must always be an integral part of our national heritage and never be forgotten by all Australians.” (Excerpt from The Battle for Australia Commemoration Day, 4 September 2019)

On Wednesday 4 September, the Cumberland Year 6 Captains, plus representatives from Years 3, 4 and 5 and Dunhelen attended the memorial for the Battle for Australia at the Shrine of Remembrance. It was a very moving service. The guest speaker, Tom Trumble, told the story of his grandfather who was a trapped Allied serviceman from Japanese-occupied Timor.

Year 3 Captains, Phoenix P and April S laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame on behalf of Aitken College and Sabrina C from Year 9 presented a reading. Our students’ behaviour was exemplary and they represented the College with pride.

Year 6 Reflections

At the Shrine of Remembrance, World War 1 and 2 artefacts are held for people to see. The Shrine was built to commemorate those who served in the Great War. We experienced the moments some of the veterans have been through. An interesting part of the day was learning how the Shrine was built. On the 11th of November, at 11.00am, the sun shines through the roof to shine on the word love. Its purpose is to show that love is the most powerful emotion of human kind.

Antonio M, Alex M and Darryn G   

The highlight of going to the Shrine was hanging out with my friends at this beautiful landmark.

Chelsey C

The highlight of going to the Shrine was getting to visit the museum at the end of the service.

Krisy I

The best part of going to the Shrine was going inside of it and learning about World war 1 and 2.

Georgia A

My highlight of going to the Shrine was going to the museum and the gift shop.

Kayla A

We learnt mutliple things about the wars when we went to the Shrine of Remembrance. Our highlight of the excursion was standing on the balcony of the Shrine as there was a beautiful view over the City. There was also a heartwarming ceremony remembering the fallen, and honouring the survivors of World War 1 and World War 2.

Lauren P, Jayda C, Sienna G and Grace T

When we were on the balcony of the Shrine of Remembrance, some of our group got lost trying to find everyone else. Little did we know that our group was still on the balcony looking for us!

Manaan B and Spencer C

At the Shrine of Remembrance, we watched fighter planes fly over the Shrine. We heard veterans from World War 2 speak about the ‘Battle for Australia’.

Suveer C

We were honoured to visit the Shrine of Remembrance. We have learnt that Australia is excellent at peace making and the 13th safest country in the world (the 1st safest country is Iceland and the most dangerous country in the world is Syria). We remember when Tom Trumble talked about his grandfather who was a soldier who fought during the war.

Alexandra L, Gabrielle G, Tanisha S

Cumberland Concert

What an exciting time for the Cumberland students, teachers and parents! Students from Year 3 to Year 6 have been rehearsing items for  this year's Cumberland Concert, 'Thank You For The Music' which will take place in the final week of this term on Tuesday 17 September and Thursday 19 September. The concert performances begin at 6.30pm and we look forward to being entertained!

Life Education Van (Healthy Harold)

The Life Education Van visit during the last few weeks provided an essential curriculum-based program empowering children to make safe and healthy lifestyle choices now and into their adult lives. All classes had the opportunity to visit the van and participated in an engaging program.

My experience in the Life Education Van was really good. Everyone wanted to see Harold and to hear him bump his head on the stairs. The message we were learning in the van was Relate, Respect, Connect. This was mainly about how to maintain, make and respect friends. We watched a blog from a girl named Bethany and she told us how to maintain, make and respect friends. We also watched her go to a school and talk to the students about how to be nice to friends, family and people in general.

Harry D 5M

On Wednesday 28 August, class 6K visited Harold the Giraffe in the Life Education van. We learnt about drug usage, legal and illegal drugs. We classified drugs and their uses and whether they were used to help the body or harm the body. We also discussed about reliable and non-reliable sources which provide us with either relevant or false information. During the 2-hour lesson we also spoke about decision making and considering whether the choices that we are making are safe and harm free to others.

Jai P 6K

Uniform Reminders

During Assembly, students have been reminded of school rules regarding uniform. Thank you for helping to reinforce these rules with your children.

• Parkas are only to be worn over jumpers and blazers during Terms 2 and 3
• Parkas are not to be worn inside
• Blazers are to be worn to and from school
• Shirts are to be tucked in when you go inside the classrooms
• No jewellery, except for a watch and one pair of gold or silver studs or sleepers
• No nail polish
• No beanies unless navy blue and the weather is really cold
• Hair accessories, such as scrunchies and ribbons are only to be bottle green or navy
• Mobile phones are not to be seen or used until the finish of the school day if needing to contact parents re pick up arrangements.

Guest Authors

Here are some student reflections following the author visits that took place during Book Week.

Zara S 4A

Last week 4A & 4C met an author and her name was Susannah McFarlane. she started writing books when she was 44 and has already written 82 books. She told us that she gets ideas by basing it on people she knows. For instance, EJ12 was based on her daughter when she was ten and she based another one on her daughter when she was 20. She showed a picture of a cloud and asked us what it looked like…some people said it looked like a dog and some a car. I thought it looked like a bear. She showed us a code and we had to guess what it said and it was hard. We had so much fun meeting her and I think 4A & 4C loved her.

Aksheeta 4A

The Year 4 students met Susannah McFarlane. We learned so much and had a lot of fun! She told us a couple of stories of how she became an author. Here is one of her stories.  “When I went to school there was a very steep hill that I had to go up to get to school. It was very boring walking up hill so I would look up at the clouds. With my imagination, I could see pictures in the clouds. So far she has written 82 books. 4A and 4C loved her!

Caleb D 4A

Susannah told us some stories about how she became an author. One of her stories is about a 10-year-old girl in school who does a math test and gets a perfect score. She gets a note from school saying a car will pick her up outside and take her to school but it takes her to a light shop and the lady at the front tells her to take the lift to floor 20 and it takes her to a secret organisation. The adult asks her to join and she did and that’s one of her books. She has written 82 books and started when she was 44. She writes girls’ and boys’ books and she is a great author.

Roman P 3S

Adam Wallace is one of my favourite authors. We were excited to have him as a guest author at our school. He gave us some tips on how to draw characters using simple shapes. We also learnt how to write a story book.

Writers’ Workshop with Mrs Adams

The Magical Feather by Chloe W 5M

I groaned as my parent’s ice-cream cone fell onto the floor with a splat.

It was 45 degrees and I was boiling in the harsh sunlight. Suddenly, a bird danced down from a huge tree and landed millimetres away from my depressed ice-cream puddle. I stared at it with curiosity. So far, every bird I’d seen in my local park was brown and boring, and occasionally I saw a colourful one. This bird was ten different colours, with a white beak. After a couple of seconds, the bird vanished, only leaving behind one blue and green feather.

I stared at the ground, and it stared back at me, watching my mind trying desperately to find out what just happened. I shook my head and picked up the feather. ‘Is this some kind of joke?’ I thought to myself. As I turned the feather around, golden sparks started to shoot out, surrounding me. I shot a terrified glance down and screamed when I couldn’t see my legs anymore.

I woke up to the sound of a bird singing. I quickly sat up, looked at my hands, and sighed in relief. I wasn’t invisible after all. I looked up and was puzzled to see that the sky was green, dotted with black clouds. I looked down to see if the feather was on the floor, and saw blue. The feather was at my feet, and it was an exact replica of the sky and grass put together. It even had specks of black on the green part. ‘So that means… I’m in the feather?’ I thought, slowly getting more confused and worried by the minute.

As I was asking myself questions, the same bird from earlier swooped down at me and dropped a golden timer and a note. I frantically read the note, hoping to find out what was going on. The note read: ‘You must find the only white feather in this realm, otherwise you will be trapped here with no possible way out.’ I looked at the timer, shaking. It started ticking, and words appeared on its clear face. Two hours to find the white feather!

I attempted to calm myself down and shakily started walking around, checking every crack, crevice, and even climbed up a couple of trees. After one hour and fifty minutes of searching, I started to sob. How would I ever find the only white feather in this gigantic place? I even looked a mess. My hair was tangled, my clothes were ripped, and my shoes where pretty much non-existent. I started to try and get my hair fixed, and as soon as I took my hair tie out, I saw tiny words embroidered onto the white base. It read: ‘Look down.’ As I did so, I was shocked to see a large, snow white feather at my feet. When I picked it up, the ground opened up from underneath me and swallowed me.

All I could see was pitch black until I landed softly on my bed. The feather was on my desk. I hid it in my drawer and dropped back onto my bed, and fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.

Important Dates