Around and Beyond the school
ANZAC DAY
Part of our strong community ties stem from our relationship with the RSL and our involvement with the ANZAC ceremonies around the district, the march and service in Hamilton and selling poppies. We also hold an ANZAC assembly each year. This year Mr Hill posted on the Compass Newsfeed about how we could participate and many families lit candles and observed the minute silence at the end of their driveways at 6AM. At school we paid our respects with the poppies we made for the cenotaph last year adorning our fence. Pictured above is Isabella Dahl and Alissa McComb with the poppies, below is one of our families' candles observing the minute silence in the dawn service.
Remote learning
There have been many many innovative lessons being taught in every classroom across all platforms, we especially got kick out of the online music classes:
Dear Covid-19 - a letter.
Dear Covid-19,
Hi I’m Ella Thomson. I’m just an average teenage girl trying to make her way through life. I go to school at Baimbridge College, year 10. I like netball, netflix, the beach and hanging with my friends. Like I said, I’m just your average teenager. Life was pretty simple, that’s until you came along…
You scare me. Life isn’t simple with you around. You change nearly everything.
Now I can’t see my friends, I can’t go to the beach and the netball season is cancelled. That’s not what scares me, no, what scares me is death. ‘doesn’t that scare everyone?’ You may ask, or ‘Everyone dies anyway.’ But you don’t get it. I want my grandparents to come to my wedding. You don’t have a wedding. I want my parents to be grandparents of my kids. You don’t have kids. I want to be able to hug, the simple gesture can flood the heart with warmth. You don’t know that feeling. You don’t get to be the reason someone smiles; believe me it’s the best feeling. So I feel bad for you. It must be a lonely world you live in?
However, the reason I write to you is because I think it’s time you leave. You see it’s not supposed to be like this; like a dystopian movie. That stuff should stay on a fictional screen, because now the screen I see it on is the news. And It’s scary, being 15 and every thing you look at tells you how many people are dying, forever checking if my loved ones fit the criteria to be taken from me by YOU.
I was always hoping for something to change in my life, make it exciting; after your arrival I have realised that boring is fine with me. A-OK. I have also learnt to cherish what I could lose, because life is unpredictable. I’ve learnt life lessons, maybe that’s why you’re here? To teach us? But all you’re teaching us at this point is to HATE you. So I must say again: It’s time for you to leave.
So I hope you rethink your heartless actions,
Love Ella Thomson -The average teenager.
Covid-19 poems
I hate times like these,
the feeling of the unknown,
like an impossible puzzle.
I hate times like these,
the feeling of being trapped,
controlled and prisoner to COVID-19.
It continues to divide us
as many turn to survival of the fittest.
But within all this darkness,
there appears to be a light of hope.
Some use this time to bond with family
and learn new things.
But still,
I am sure we all mourn for life to return to how it was.
The feeling of human connection,
to be freed of COVID-19’s chains. ANON 9/10
Dear Covid-19,
You don’t scare me,
You make me infuriated!
I want to be a chaotic teenager,
Living a life- I once loved…
I want to go to school,
See my friends,
My family.
I want to go for late night drives
And I want to travel…
But you have changed all of that.
You make me angrier than a loading screen,
With that circle going round
And round and round.
I want to party again,
Please covid-19,
Bring back my happy days… ANON
Human interaction,
A necessity in life.
Always constant, always surrounding us.
However, we never know how much we love it, cherish, value it,
until its gone…
The warmth that comes from the hug of a loved one
like the warmth of a blazing fire,
first caressing your hands then swarming, warming, transforming your body.
Laughter that spills out in times of joy,
flooding through our ears from all directions.
Physical touch that comforts us in times of sorrow
when we can’t see a way through.
These simple gestures, now forbidden.
Snatched from our grasp,
yet only metres away.
Cold, miserable, inconsolable loneliness sets in.
The new constant.
As a new day dawns the sun rises,
golden, orange, beautiful beams of light emerge,
casting a delightful haze for the first summer’s day.
Windows down hair frolicking in the wind,
I drive amongst the lively, energetic, buzzing town.
Appreciating this simple but yet enjoyable moment
forgetting the once lonely past.
ANON
Covid 19.
Looking out my bedroom window,
So sad, so cruel.
The pain we are going through.
18th of April,
The big 90, no visitors
or even chocolate cake.
The look of despair on Nan’s face
as we FaceTime her.
The big party no longer here.
No family time or even friends,
Such a sad time so dark and black,
Just like a stormy cloud
This virus will be over
back to Nan I will return.
The fun times we always have
will soon be here.
Emily Hunter
Balancing On The Ragged Rope
I miss things.
A lot of things.
The thing I miss the most is safety.
Like a baby on a tightrope,
Lose balance
You’ll fall.
No one’s there to catch you,
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