Around the School...

Artwork: 'Isometric City' 

Lea Longo, Year 8, Ridgeway Campus

Anita Bose, Year 12, Ridgeway Campus

As part of our CAS project, my friends, Sara, Jessie, Annie, and I organised an Eid-al Fitr celebration at school to raise awareness about this important Islamic festival. Eid-al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting and is a time for Muslims to come together and celebrate with family and friends. This celebration generally includes special prayers, family gatherings, festive meals, gift-giving and visiting loved ones.  

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar- the month in which the Holy Qur’an was sent down from heaven. During this time, Muslims fast from dawn until sunset, which is a private act of worship bringing one closer to God. Additionally, it’s a form of spiritual discipline and a way of empathizing with less fortunate individuals.  

Although I am not Muslim myself, I lived in Dubai for sixteen years, where I had the opportunity to witness and be included in Ramadan and Eid celebrations. I was lucky to have Muslim friends who welcomed me into their traditions and through this event, I was beyond fortunate to share the joy and cultural richness I experienced in Dubai with our school community here. 

With the generous support of Ms. Bruhn and The Ridge, we arranged a variety of foods associated with Ramadan and the surrounding cultures such as samosas, biryani and Biscoff cheesecake. We also hosted cultural activities in the International Centre, including lantern decorating, henna art and learning how to write your name in Arabic. 

The event was a success as many students and teachers joined us to immerse in this culture through food, art and conversations. We were able to highlight the beauty and significance of Eid-al-Fitr. I’m grateful we had the chance to create a space that not only celebrated a meaningful tradition but also brought people together through cultural understanding and interactive activities.  

Archie Harrison, Year 10, Ridgeway Campus

On Friday the 2nd of May, the Ivanhoe Ridgeway e-sports team headed off to Genazzano FCJ College to participate in a day long esports event for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The event was held by The Fuse Cup and brought together 44 kids from 11 schools across Melbourne to compete for the day, including 8 kids from the University campus. We also spent a decent amount of time in between rounds of gameplay to learn about digital wellbeing and online safety, which was actually quite informative, especially for the largest gathering of introverts you’ve ever seen.  

But of course, the real draw of the event was the competition. We competed in rounds of games that each eliminated successive amounts of players, and after about 4 rounds, the top four were decided, including yours truly and two Year 9 University campus students. The final round was quite a comical sight; four kids seated around a TV, with 40 others watching behind is not something you see every day. The feeling of community and buzzing energy, due in part to adrenaline from previous rounds and too much sugar, no doubt, was really wholesome and encouraging, at least for me and the other Ivanhoe students as we had about 3 times the supporters compared to the other person.  

It was a tight final round, with a climactic tiebreaker for second place, but in the end the only student not from Ivanhoe Grammar School took the crown, with me coming in second. Despite still being very much in its early stages, the E-sports Programme this year has been great fun and full of unique opportunities I doubt I would get to experience otherwise at school, and I hope to see it continue to grow in the future.